An
estimated 7,000 showed up at the steps of the Capitol April 14
for a Tax Cut Rally. Hosted by Clear Channel with legislators and organizer radio host Jason Lewis, the event was a great
success. Over 18,000 Minnesotans signed the Tax Cut……

LLLawson - you don’t know what the heck you are talking about. AAA did more in this last election than you did in the last 10! As a fellow BPOU chair I saw AAA doing the work. WHERE WERE YOU?????

Brent - you have a couple of points vis a vis which came first - the lackluster candidates or the lack of inspired voters. I can only speak for the voters in my county - here goes. I know a lot of dedicated Republican donors and volunteers who WALKED AWAY FROM THE MNGOP because of certain candidates and their leftward turns (no names mentioned but they WERE the top of the ticket this year). I had many a hard worker turn away from me saying that the party no longer represented them so why should they do anything for the party. Some of these people were fellow BPOU OFFICERS!!!!! Like AAA there were nights when I was the ONLY ONE making the GOTV calls. When I called the MNGOP to plead for direction, they responded by pulling the field staffer assigned to our county!

Dan is correct - we need IDEAS not “well we’re not the DFL…”. IDEAS win elections - the DFL had ‘em this year - the MNGOP DID NOT! Those who disparage the activists for clinging to an idea when it is thrown to them are what is WRONG with the MNGOP. Right now, Mrtruth, the Conservative organizations are the only ones with ideas.

Oh and Mrtruth…..I feel your pain. We could probably trade stories!

LL

There is http://www.edwatch.org/ but they are a small group I think. No representation in my BPOU politically that I know of.

Also Andy on the chair of the BPOU just a warning. Big personalities win BPOU chair easily but they also can drive a lot of people away. I steped into a BPOU that was lead by that kind of person and I had to wonder into the woods to find the people who were turned off.

Sorry, but that’s the game. If you show up and endorse someone you have a chance of changing something. If you don’t bother showing up, those who do show up get to call the shots. Same with electing delegates and BPOU officers bottom up. You must be present to participate. Results may vary. Historical performance is not indicate of future trends.

They expect legislative results to match the campaign rhetoric used to get the endorsement in the first place.

That’s nice, and I expect certain legislative results also. There have been times where I have been the only delegate seated at a Republican state or congressional convention or committee meeting from my BPOU. I’d expect that, say in Ramstad’s case, the results that I ask him to consider are weighted more heavily then some whiner who doesn’t bother showing up, but still expects “results.” As a reminder, I’m perfectly happy with Ramstad’s results thus far. If anyone from my BPOU is unhappy, they should challenge me for my delegate seat. Oh, but that only happens once every other year and they want results now. I pity them.

The line why vote RINO when there is a perfectly good DFLer on the ballot too, really does ring true with a lot of people.

If conservatives are happy with the DFL, that’s fine. Don’t try to change anything.

As much as the ‘ideologues’ are cursed by some elected R’s and MNGOP leaders, they are the ones who draw crowds…..

Who cares about crowds? Really? I mean it’s sweet and all that, but that’s like being excited about a 20th ranked football team playing against a 1st rate team just because they have the bigger crowd of fans in existence. They may have more enthusiasm, but they are still going to lose. It would just make a little more of a difference if they cared about who was actually on the team they were cheering for. Oddly enough, the same thing happens in politics as happens in sports. Eventually the losing team falls so far behind the fans give up and start leaving. The difference is that in politics, the fans are supposed to be picking the team mates. And the idealistic conservatives may be doing a better job rallying, but a poor job picking the team. Not that I mind, of course, it just makes it easier to keep my delegate seat and keep supporting Ramstad, Pawlenty and Coleman.

Quick point here.

Conservatives expect more than just getting the chance to endorse someone once every 2, 4, or 6 years. They expect legislative results to match the campaign rhetoric used to get the endorsement in the first place.

i know it irks people but that’s why a lot of people didn’t show up to help last year. Why would they bust their butts to help people that are little better than the DFL in most cases?

The line why vote RINO when there is a perfectly good DFLer on the ballot too, really does ring true with a lot of people. And I know the moderate to liberal R’s would love to purge the party of idealistic conservatives, but we’re a pretty large block. What is it, like 33% on Minnesotans identify as Conservative compared to 20% liberal? That isn’t exactly a demographic you can evict from the party Brent. There are not enough moderate R’s and RINOs to make a difference or even make up a majority. As much as the ‘ideologues’ are cursed by some elected R’s and MNGOP leaders, they are the ones who draw crowds…..

Can any point to an example of when a squishy moderate anyone drew 5000 plus people to the Capital on a gorgeous Spring day? If the party wants to draw crowds, rather than deal with the people who simply show up, they better take note of what happened Sat.

And this gets me off to thinking about so much more, but I gotta get some work done. More later.

I’m perfectly happy with Pawlenty, Coleman, and Ramstad representing me. As long as they choose to seek the Republican endorsement, I’ll be seated as a delegate to endorse them. No one tries to challenge me for the opportunity to endorse candidates. I like it that way. Apparently conservatives do too. They’d rather be unmotivated whining about the party rather then spending a Saturday actually making a difference.

It could easily be your party if you wanted it. But for now it’s my party, and I barely have to do anything to hold it.

Andy didn’t just hit the nail on the head when he wrote, “Yesterday you saw ideas draw thousands of people to show up…” he drove it through a cedar 4×6 in one blow, with his bare hand.

IDEAS! It was ideology that motivated these activists (myself included) to give up their day and show their support. For a cause! When we have something to believe in, we show up. With the lackluster candidates we’ve been presented, and a muddy, or non-existant message, there’s nothing to get fired up over. Ron Carey and Tim Pawlenty saying things like, “we’re not perfect, but at least we’re better than the Democrats” is not going to motivate anyone to give up a sunny Saturday to make phone calls, or drop literature, or even show up for a convention or caucus.

Don’t disparage activists for rallying around an idea! Learn from that! This is how you motivate conservatives. This is how you get out the vote. This is how you raise money.

Failure to do that, and the politics of staying in power taking precendence over principles is why Republicans have suffered staggering losses the last two cycles.

Had the Senate race been close, I heard from a Dem. friend that they were going to do a massive statewide mailing with Andy’s photo of Rove whispering in Kennedy’s ear.