Which Way for Thee, My GOP?
The Minnesota Republican Party is at an all-time low (all-time for the sixteen years I’ve been involved).
I got active in 1992, two years before the Republican Revolution of 1994, beginning at my caucus as is the way in our state party. Those were exciting times. A newbie with enthusiasm was propelled forward; there was no limit to the volunteerism that was gratefully accepted. New people were flocking to a party which now stood for something, something spelled out in that ambitious pledge, the Contract with America.
But eventually the Republican Party got comfortable with its power and began outspending drunken Democrats. The GOP President barely made it through twice, and power was lost in both legislative branches at both the Federal and State levels.
So you’d think we’d be encouraging new people into the party again. Seems smart to me.
Instead, MN GOP leadership from the top down to the BPOU levels are on the record for wanting to keep out any new Republicans.
A friend was told by his BPOU Secretary, who didn’t realize he was a Ron Paul supporter, that they were using tactics to keep the Ron Paul people from getting elected as delegates. Other BPOUs have resorted to “thuggery and bullying,” vocal slurs of Ron Paul supporters, and, most often, disallowing anyone to witness the vote counting as occurred at my convention last night. (Although the counting was complete, they would also not report until the delegate election results had been massaged, at least overnight. I’m not kidding. Any guess as to whether I’ll make their cut, regardless of how many votes I received?)
Ron Carey, especially, has performed in a spectacularly negative fashion. It is a well-known and strict tradition that all statewide candidates are to receive the official delegate lists from the party. The Ron Paul campaign was denied this list. McCain’s campaign obviously received it as I and others are now receiving unsolicited email from that camp.
What we have here is a sad group of people who are losing an entire political party, so they are locking the gates, hoping the horses will somehow get back in the barn, desperately clinging to a last shred of power, all the while kicking out newcomers who could expand their diminishing empire.
Which will it be, Mr. Carey? Will you change your tune and lower yourself to accepting enthusiastic newcomers into the party, or will the MN GOP’s demise come on your watch as you force this energy into a more conservative third party?
I got active in 1992, two years before the Republican Revolution of 1994, beginning at my caucus as is the way in our state party. Those were exciting times. A newbie with enthusiasm was propelled forward; there was no limit to the volunteerism that was gratefully accepted. New people were flocking to a party which now stood for something, something spelled out in that ambitious pledge, the Contract with America.
But eventually the Republican Party got comfortable with its power and began outspending drunken Democrats. The GOP President barely made it through twice, and power was lost in both legislative branches at both the Federal and State levels.
So you’d think we’d be encouraging new people into the party again. Seems smart to me.
Instead, MN GOP leadership from the top down to the BPOU levels are on the record for wanting to keep out any new Republicans.
A friend was told by his BPOU Secretary, who didn’t realize he was a Ron Paul supporter, that they were using tactics to keep the Ron Paul people from getting elected as delegates. Other BPOUs have resorted to “thuggery and bullying,” vocal slurs of Ron Paul supporters, and, most often, disallowing anyone to witness the vote counting as occurred at my convention last night. (Although the counting was complete, they would also not report until the delegate election results had been massaged, at least overnight. I’m not kidding. Any guess as to whether I’ll make their cut, regardless of how many votes I received?)
Ron Carey, especially, has performed in a spectacularly negative fashion. It is a well-known and strict tradition that all statewide candidates are to receive the official delegate lists from the party. The Ron Paul campaign was denied this list. McCain’s campaign obviously received it as I and others are now receiving unsolicited email from that camp.
What we have here is a sad group of people who are losing an entire political party, so they are locking the gates, hoping the horses will somehow get back in the barn, desperately clinging to a last shred of power, all the while kicking out newcomers who could expand their diminishing empire.
Which will it be, Mr. Carey? Will you change your tune and lower yourself to accepting enthusiastic newcomers into the party, or will the MN GOP’s demise come on your watch as you force this energy into a more conservative third party?
posted by Scribbler de Stebbing | 3/12/2008 10:36:00 AM
A full report from Saint Paul's 64b BPOU:
Republican Hold Polite, Fair, and Open Convention (and begin an attack on the Saint Paul DFL Property Tax Hike)
At last Saturday's Highland Park GOP BPOU convention (64b) a record 36 Republicans ran for 12 delegate positions to the Congressional and State GOP conventions. All three tellers were elected by unanimous consent and any delegate who wanted to be a teller would have been welcome because there was a lot of counting work.
The election process for delegates at the 64b BPOU convention necessarily has a longer ballot than most elections. Ballots had to have the written names of exactly 12 candidates for delegate. The counting took a long time because of the 12 positions available. I can imagine that in a more Republican BPOU it is harder still to elect 50 or 60 delegates. After the delegate results were reported, 12 1st alternates and 10 2nd alternates were elected. No thuggery or bullying was observed or suspected.
Perhaps the most significant political development was the circulation of a petition to put the massive DFL Saint Paul property tax hike up for referendum in the November 2008 ballot. I would encourage all overtaxed Saint Paul voters to sign the petition. I will post website information for the petition drive when I learn about the website.
I heard no complaints about 64B. You comported yourselves in an exemplary fashion, as far as I know. Furthermore, any attacker of a property tax hike is a friend of mine.
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