Jim Lyons, right, newly elected chairman of the Massachusetts Republican Party, stands with Tom Mountain, chairman of the Newton City Republican Committee, after Lyons’s victory on Thursday, January 17, 2019. The two have been at odds in recent times. Mountain did not support Lyons’s re-election as chairman of the party in January 2021, and he supported a so-far-unsuccessful effort to get Lyons to resign recently over his handing of two email messages sent by another state committee member objecting to adoption of children by same-sex couples. Photo courtesy of Tom Mountain.
Tom Mountain is no longer the vice chairman of the Massachusetts Republican Party.
Mountain resigned from the post Sunday, July 18 after a pair ofarticles from Turtleboy Sports reporting numerous salacious online posts, including an extensive back-and-forth with someone operating a Facebook account that he thought was a 20-year-old model from Israel.
The second article from Turtleboy Sports came out on Friday, July 14. Mountain resigned in an email message to the other members of the Massachusetts Republican State Committee on Sunday night. The state committee has 80 members.
“Recently, many of you likely saw a blog post about me. It is scurrilous and demeaning and I will refrain from elaborating on it here,” Mountain wrote.
“For the good of our Party, I will be stepping down as MassGOP Vice Chair immediately to focus on an effort to clear my name,” he added. “During the past few months of turmoil at the MassGOP, I’ve consistently said that incapable officers should step aside. Regardless of the truth about what happened, this blog post, and the conspiracy behind it, has rendered me incapable of serving as an effective officer of the MassGOP.”
Mountain did not resign from his post on the Republican state committee.
Before Mountain resigned as vice chairman, there was a protest scheduled for Monday outside of his home in Newton that would have called on him to resign. It would have been attended by some Massachusetts Republicans, including lieutenant governor candidate Rayla Campbell, who posted about it on Sunday.
It’s unclear who will replace Tom Mountain as the vice chairman. State GOP committee members elect the vice chairman.
On Monday morning, MassGOP chairman Jim Lyons emailed the committee asking that members of the party give “due consideration” to voting for state committeeman Steve Aylward (Watertown) for the post at their next state committee meeting.
Mountain could not be reached for comment on Monday.
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Jim Lyons, right, newly elected chairman of the Massachusetts Republican Party, stands with Tom Mountain, chairman of the Newton City Republican Committee, after Lyons’s victory on Thursday, January 17, 2019. The two have been at odds in recent times. Mountain did not support Lyons’s re-election as chairman of the party in January 2021, and he supported a so-far-unsuccessful effort to get Lyons to resign recently over his handing of two email messages sent by another state committee member objecting to adoption of children by same-sex couples. Photo courtesy of Tom Mountain. 
