If you have not read Manitowoc GOP Constitution Changes Could Expel Patriots, please read that before continuing.
Throughout this article, any reference to the “current constitution” refers to the RPMC’s they adopted in 2021.
Membership Meeting #1
On June 11, 2025, the Manitowoc GOP met for their monthly meeting, open to the public. A topic of discussion that night was the upcoming Special Caucus to vote on amending their constitution.
A topic brought up from multiple members was how these changes seem like a new constitution rather than amendments. RPMC Chair Collin Braunel admitted that he was not prepared for discussion on adopting a new constitution rather than amending one. He stated that under our current constitution there is no way to adopt a new constitution and, “If we were to rewrite and just bring in a whole new constitution, it’s going to take a whole lot more than what is going to be taking place, so that’s why it’s in our best interest to amend that constitution and make some big changes, there’s a lot of big changes, and not just rewrite it all.” When a member pointed out Collin wants to adopt a new constitution, Collin responded by telling him: “So, you’re saying we should sit on our thumbs and do nothing?”
One board member present stated that with these changes, “Collin can make these committees, if he wants to, but we don’t want to wait until next year to operate in this fashion which is why we wanted to bring this to you as quick as we possibly can.” On top of that, that same board member made a statement about not wanting to wait six months to get our party going because these changes don’t pass. Along with that, Collin stated: “I’m believing this body wants to just move forward and get things done, that we are not wanting to sit and wait for some of these things to take place. Some of these changes need to happen.” From this meeting, the message from the Executive Committee was clear: pass this now, and if we don’t, it’s your fault that our party doesn’t get anything done.
Special Caucus
On June 25, 2025, the Manitowoc GOP met for its Special Caucus to vote on adopting the proposed constitution amendments, open to the public. Let’s look at some of the discussion of controversy surrounding these constitution changes.
Membership Termination
A motion was made to remove this section for the reasons brought up in MCP’s previous article. Along with that, it was mentioned that the Racine GOP has been removing any member they disagree with. When the point was brought up about if you do make your case to the membership and your membership is reinstated, there is nothing stating the EC can't remove your membership again, Chairman Collin Braunel made a concerned face and was silent. That was the one point brought up where he did not have anything in return to state.
Collin Braunel stated he is in favor of this section. He stated two reasons for this: (1) He doesn’t want someone who is a pedophile to join the party. Under the current constitution, there is no way to remove someone. (2) He asked what is stopping a large amount of people from the Democratic Party from becoming members and doing bad things. They could just relinquish their Democrat membership and join ours.
For his first point, a member stated that if you are worried about pedophiles joining, specify that. That member agreed that this gives the RPMC EC too much power to remove you if you are "too patriotic or doesn't agree with your views. I think this is too wide open for that. I think this needs a lot of work."
For his second point, the amendments specified if you are a member of another political party, you cannot become a member of the RPMC. For his point on someone relinquishing their membership from the Democrats, a point to consider against his argument is for all the decades that there was absolutely “no way” to remove members, a Democratic takeover never happened.
This motion did not pass.
Nominating Committee
A motion was made to remove the Nominating Committee for the reasons listed in MCP’s previous article. Along with that, another member stated that candidates for EC positions at the Caucus should be able to go up to the podium, give their speech, tell everyone about themselves, their experience, and anything else relevant. Members should vote on who would best fit the position. The nominating committee takes away from that. For the members who are coming, this committee tells them this is who you should vote for. The members should be the one who they should vote for.
Another member stated this is basically saying the Republican Party of Manitowoc County recommends you vote Person A for Chair, Person B for Vice Chair and so on. Not having that would have the members seeing people on an equal playing field instead of one candidate being backed by the party and another left to fend on their own.
Collin stated he supports this because he stated he has gotten numerous calls and texts asking who they should vote for. He said in the last election (Spring 2025) he was asked why he was and was not supporting candidates. He said there were two candidates he didn't support, and they knew he didn't support them, but the county party did support them (what he didn't mention for the reason he didn't support them is the candidates are patriots and aren't afraid to question him). A county party gets behind candidates and supports them and if we're not then "what are we doing?" Are we just handing out signs and cheerleading? Endorsements are important, so he will not support removing the committee. Other members would disagree that endorsements are not the sole purpose of a political party.
The RPMC’s Treasurer stated the reason we have this committee is because "people aren't knocking on our doors to do things.” Going back to this year’s caucus, there were two candidates for Chair, three for Vice Chair, and four for Secretary, which sounds like they do for the EC.
Another member stated that he was on the last nominating committee. In some ways, he felt it was pointless. While they interviewed candidates and made a recommendation, some he saw speak who were nominated on the floor he voted for instead of the recommendation the committee made. The interview process happened at the caucus again. The membership is going to do what they want regardless of what the nominating committee says. "In terms of the actual nominating, I don't know if it was the most valuable." He ended up voting to remove the nominating committee.
The motion did not pass.
Objectives A & B
A point of clarification was made on Article III, Section 1, Objectives A & B. After reading the objectives, Collin said are you asking what are grassroots Republicans? When the member said that is one point, Collin was stumped for ten seconds. After that, he stated: “This is losing track of what we're here for. We're not going to put definitions of what each thing is in there. Principles is another thing. That's a gray area. What constitutes someone as a grassroots Republican? I think that it should be a vague area. Having vagueness in our constitution, there is reason and why behind doing that and it is done in our current constitution. We do vagueness in our current constitution for a purpose and reason. Spelling out every single word and item in our constitution is silly, in my opinion, and a waste of time. I won't do that."
After his response, a member stated that we have people who don't come to the meetings all the time. I don't think any question is a dumb question. I think it should be explained so people can understand exactly what they're voting on.
To expand on that point, among the members who attended, half had either never attended a previous meeting or had only attended one other meeting when there was a big vote, such as this year’s RPMC caucus for the election of officers. If members don’t attend the monthly meetings, they are not aware of what is occurring in the party, as their emails do not explain what happens at the monthly meetings.
Usually, in politics, when someone makes someone else’s question as a “dumb” one, it is usually because they cannot answer it or do not want to answer. In this case, it was an inability to answer.
The Changes Pass
The meeting ended with the passing of these amendments. These amendments have been forwarded to the Wisconsin GOP to be approved, but they will not be able to approve them so fast.
Membership Meeting #2
On July 7th, only two days before its regularly scheduled monthly meeting, the Manitowoc GOP emailed its members announcing its monthly meeting will be happening on the 9th.
At this meeting, a member brought up what the RPMC Executive Committee overlooked: Article XIII (Amendments) of the current constitution. This article states:
Amendments to this constitution may be considered for approval only at an annual caucus. Approval is only attained by a two-thirds vote of county party members in attendance.
Nowhere in this article does it talk about allowing amendments at a Special Caucus. After being pointed out the party cannot act on these amendments because they are void, Collin stated: “It’s not void. That doesn’t void it because it is not put into play. It means it’s just not put into play. It doesn’t void anything. That would be the wrong term to be using.” Seeing that right now these amendments have no legal force or validity, void is the correct term to use. After restating these amendments cannot be acted upon due to Article XIII of the Constitution in play the night of the Special Caucus, Collin responded by saying: “I’ll run it by RPW. Maybe we just wasted a ton of time.” After that, there was two minutes of silence waiting for Collin to continue with the next agenda item.
As one member pointed out during the meeting: “For some reason, you feel like this constitution is going to set the world on fire and I think we can survive the next six months without amending.” The Vos-directed RPW leadership has been put on pause in terms of amending the RPMC's constitution and patriot memberships will be protected until next January's annual caucus.
What Has Been Learned From This
When the Special Caucus began, Collin stated: “We're all supposed to be on the same side, not against each other. There's enough division in our party, we don't need to add to it." Since Collin Braunel became the Chair of the Republican Party of Manitowoc County in January, he has made it clear that if you are a patriot, you are not welcome in this party. He can state in as many meetings as he wants that he wants to attract members, but actions speak louder than words. Patriots have been demeaned at meetings when they have spoken not in line with what he wants. On top of that, patriot candidates will not be receiving help from the party under his leadership. In fact, the opposite has occurred during his first election season as Chair. Perhaps this article will be used as reasoning to remove any patriots associated with MCP if these changes pass at the next annual caucus, although no reasoning at all is required to remove patriots under the proposed amendments (of which the proposed amendments are a nearly identical copy of the Outagamie County GOP Constitution).
If it was not before, it is clear now: the establishment has overtaken the Republican Party of Manitowoc County.
RPMC Vice Chair Goes MIA
During the past few meetings of the Manitowoc GOP, multiple members of both sides of the GOP have asked the same question: where is our Vice Chair?
Since being elected Vice Chair, after being recommended by the Nominating Committee at this year's annual caucus, Brett Norell has only attended the annual caucus, the March, and the April meetings (that's 3/7, or 42%, of RPMC's meetings this year). After that, he has seemingly decided he does not need to attend meetings anymore or participate in events. In fact, when he was asked to help out at an event for the RPMC, he responded: "You got to be kidding me!"
Because of this, discussion was brought up during the Special Caucus as to whether the party should add to the constitution that if an officer misses three membership meetings in a row unexcused, that is grounds for removal from the executive committee. As a member of the Executive Committee, especially as the 2nd in command, a Vice Chair needs to be at meetings to show where he stands and that he is committed to helping the RPMC. This topic was not added into the constitution as it was stated this would be something to amend the bylaws. During the July membership meeting, it was stated the Executive Committee will be looking into amending the bylaws (let's see how else they will try to diminish the power of patriots).
Also during the July meeting, a member pointed out that this is yet another consecutive meeting the Vice Chair is not in attendance and asked if any action will be taken on him. The conversation went like this:
Collin: “We do talk all the time. I do know when he is able to and not able to do things. As far as that goes, we got to be careful are appearing. We don’t want to chase away members. Keep that in mind to.”
Member: “He has an obligation, he has a priority. If he has personal priorities, let those be his priorities.”
Collin: “I know where he’s at. I know you don’t, so, I don’t think it’s appropriate to have this discussion in public and him not here to defend himself. What you can do is have a discussion with him and find out what’s going on so that way then you don’t have to bring it out into the public. I think that’s more appropriate.”
Member: “This isn’t public, this is his party that he committed to.”
Collin: “You know what I mean.”
Instead of addressing this, Collin has resorted to defending the continued absence of an officer obligated to do his duties. As the Chair, it is his responsibility to address this, not the members. Even if a member wanted to contact him, that is unlikely to occur. As a member of the Manitowoc City Council and Library Board, he does not respond to emails.
Will the RPMC ever see its Vice Chair again?
County Board Appoints Egotistic Leftist Treasurer
In the typical rushed fashion of a public governing body in Manitowoc, the County Board convened on July 15 to appoint a new Treasurer following a vacancy which occurred after last month's meeting. Instead of waiting for or looking into quality candidates, the conservative-controlled board appointed career politician Jim Brey in a 20-2 vote without discussion.
Jim Brey, a leftist who has been serving in offices like the Manitowoc Common Council and Manitowoc County Board since the 90s, has shown his true self both during and outside of meetings. He has a history of being cocky in-person with members of the public who have done nothing more than express their concerns and offer their thoughts on the current issues of the day. He also showed this side when he was last running against an opponent who was a write-in, which he stated in a candidate forum "that means nothing."
The following is how the County Board voted.
YES - James Lillibridge, Timothy Jadowski, Rita Metzger, Paul Hansen, Scott Schiesl, Paul Hacker, Ken Sitkiewitz, Kevin Behnke, Jonathan Neils, Larry Bonde, Dylan Hammel, Leo Naidl, Susie Maresh, Nicholas Muench, James Falkowski, Lee Engelbrecht, Mike Grambow, Douglas Klein, Don Weiss, Bonnie Shimulunas
NO - Ryan Phipps, Matthew Phipps
ABSTAIN - Tyler Martell
ABSENT - Don Zimmer, Jim Brey
Although Chairman Tyler Martell abstained from voting, he is the supervisor who recommended appointing Jim Brey. Jim Brey is recorded as absent as he resigned the day Tyler announced his recommendation of him on July 9. While Jim Brey is no longer a County Board supervisor, he still serves on the Manitowoc Common Council.
With only two "no" votes, one thing has been proven time and time again: the Phipps brothers will always vote the right way.
The Treasurer of Manitowoc County is a partisan elected position. The next election will occur in November 2028. With Manitowoc County having a majority Republican voting block of 60% in fall elections, Jim Brey will lose if a Republican runs.
Liberty Summit
During the first meeting of Manitowoc County Patriots, a generous donation was made by Dawn and Steve Erdmann to allow MCP to proudly become a Gold Sponsor for this year's Liberty Summit. Thank you to both!
On top of that, Moms for Liberty - Manitowoc County, WI is a proud Gold Sponsor!
You Got That Right!
One Year Ago
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Manitowoc County Patriots
@MantyPatriots
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8:53 AM • Jul 13, 2025
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Manitowoc County Patriots
