Confusion surrounds Eagle Forum as Alabama’s Eunie Smith joins effort to oust group’s leadership

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Eagle Forum's Phyllis Schlafly

A dispute over the future direction of Phyllis Schlafly‘s socially conservative Eagle Forum group surfaced this week.

Schlafly, 91, who remains the face of the organization she created 44 years ago, took to Facebook Sunday to first raise the red flag of a suspected organizational coup:

Dear Friends of Eagle Forum,

In recent days, you may have heard about some issues we are having at Eagle Forum. I am grateful for your concern for me and our work.

For reasons that are not entirely clear to me, some people have been working to attack me and Eagle Forum. My disappointment is compounded by the fact that these are people with whom I have worked closely in the past. I have asked them to resign from the Board immediately so that we may continue our important work.

We have many important fights to win — from opposing abortion to defeating Common Core, stopping misguided efforts to convene a Constitutional Convention, and making sure that the platform of the Republican Party is a sound statement of conservative principles. The Chinese Communists are on the move as Europe falters under its misguided policies of trade and immigration. And we have a vacancy on the Supreme Court that we must not allow Obama to fill.

With your help, I’m confident that we can prevail in these critical battles so that our great nation will prosper.

Thank you again for your assistance in stopping the hostile takeover of Eagle Forum.

Faithfully,
Phyllis Schlafly

The post was accompanied with a letter asking Eunie Smith of Alabama, Anne Cori of Missouri, Cathie Adams of Texas, Rosina Kovar of Colorado, Shirley Curry of Tennessee, and Carolyn McLarty of Oklahoma to resign immediately from the Eagle Forum board.

Although Schlafly feared the board was planning to oust her from the organization for endorsing controversial GOP front-runner Donald Trump in March, according to Cathie Adams, former Texas Eagle Forum president the actual target was the organization’s president, Ed Martin. Adams said it was a question of Martin’s leadership and poor management skills.
On Monday, the same six board members Schlafly asked to resign released a statement corroborating Adams statement explaining, “the Board of Eagle Forum voted to remove Mr. Ed Martin as President of the corporation, effective immediately.”

Schlafly was none too pleased with the decision.

“At 2 pm today, 6 directors of Eagle Forum met in an improper, unprecedented telephone meeting. I objected to the meeting and at 2:11 pm, I was muted from the call,” Schlafy detailed. “The meeting was invalid under the Bylaws but the attendees purported to pass several motions to wrest control of the organization from me. They are attempting to seize access to our bank accounts, to terminate employees, and to install members of their own Gang of 6 to control the bank accounts and all of Eagle Forum.”

Schlafly hired Martin in January 2015 to be president of both the Eagle Forum Education and Legal Defense Fund and the political arm that operates as a 501(c)(4) group.

“The board meeting today was called to discuss the future of Eagle Forum,” Adams told WND. “But it is unconscionable to think we’ve called the meeting to replace Phyllis. It was very different when Phyllis was doing everything, including finances, and we all trusted her without question. But now there’s other people involved and it’s only wisdom on the part of the board to hold a meeting and check.”

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