“The difficult thing — and it’s a hard lesson to learn — is that we can’t fight all the battles at one time,” Hammons said Tuesday. “If we divide our resources, it kind of guarantees we’re not going to win any of them.”

Hammons said individual committee members are free to speak out on any issue they wish.

Johnson, a former state senator from Oklahoma City, said Hammons’ memo “disallows us from talking to the issues that matter to the Democratic base,” and also point to a deeper divide.

Johnson said she and Hammons have not spoken in months, and traces some of the disharmony to the Democratic presidential campaign.

Hammons, while officially uncommitted, campaigned for the state party chairmanship as a Hillary Clinton supporter.

Johnson backs Bernie Sanders, and says Hammons could have done more to assure independents were able to vote in the March 1 Democratic primary.

This is the first year independents have been able to vote in the Democratic primary, and the Sanders campaign actively targeted those voters in a surprise victory.

But, Johnson said, “If there was no Bernie, if there was no Hillary, we would still have a situation.”