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Posted: 2:13 PM- A schism in the state Republican Party has become a public spat after chairwoman Enid Greene fired Executive Director Jeff Hartley earlier today.
Greene claims that Hartley inappropriately saddled the party with hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt.
"Jeff went substantially further into debt than I would feel comfortable with," Greene said. "That is the source of my disagreement."
Hartley doesn't buy it.
"This isn't about the debt," he said. "This is just personal, petty and vindictive."
Hartley has worked as the party's executive director for the past year. He said he had little interaction with Greene when she served as vice chairwoman. Greene took over the party when former chairman Joe Cannon became the editor of the Deseret Morning News.
Greene said she wanted to fire Hartley a few months ago. She held off because the governor's office asked her to. The governor and the state's two U.S. senators routinely take turns backing a candidate for party chairman. This year is Huntsman's turn. He wanted Fred Lampropoulos to lead the state party and Lampropoulos wanted Hartley to stay on as executive director.
But in the past week, Lampropoulos has backed out of the race, removing Hartley's protection.
"I was not going to have on my conscience passing someone along whom I don't think is right for the job," Greene said.
She will handle the responsibilities of chairwoman and executive director until the party picks a new chair during the June convention.