Sticking Together
Posted by Andy on May 14th, 2007
The GOP skeleton minorities are all that is standing between the DFL and bankrupting this state.
Call it the Little Minority That Could.
On the surface, it’s Gov. Tim Pawlenty who appears to be in the driver’s seat as the 2007 legislative session turns toward the finish line, rejecting every tax hike and most budget bills passed by defiant DFL majorities in the House and Senate.But the secret to Pawlenty’s success so far lies in a less-than-obvious source: the tiny Republican caucuses in the House and Senate that seemed so powerless and irrelevant when the session started but have become decisive simply by sticking together.
If you read the whole story, you’ll notice that pat Lopez may in fact be one of the most biased reporters at the Strib….
The income-tax increase that was to have funded property-tax relief is dead on arrival, despite two polls that find a majority of Minnesotans support the deal. An enriched K-12 education bill has no way to pay for its increases. The same goes for a health care bill that was to have reversed earlier GOP budget cuts.
…. but I have a strong feeling their is one who is far more biased.
But I digress. The GOP Caucuses deserve some credit, as does Pawlenty. They have stuck together pretty well (minus the smoking ban and gas taxes), so Seifert and Senjem deserve kudos….. wait, Senjem voted for the smoking, ban, cancel his.
Some good news that came out of the 2006 elections is that the GOP had to do some serious soul searching. They have found their voice, and a place in the minority, rather than becoming obsolete. They’ve given Pawlenty the back-up he needs to hold the DFL accountable.
But, I am afraid there is potential bad news, not for Pawlenty or the legislative caucuses of the GOP. I don’t think “Vetos!!!” is a good message for 2008. Yes, it helps with the GOP’s conservative base as far as fixing the volunteer turnout, but our moderates (Read: RINOs) are actually upset that some of us are not willing to just tax and spend to “get stuff done” and think that we are what is ruining the party. (I know it sounds funny, but some of them are serious)
I also feel that the praising the vetoes as a public relations move is going to be used against the GOP. Don’t get me wrong, these vetoes are fabulous, and I hope Pawlenty does the right thing and vetoes the smoking ban so he can look limited government conservatives in the face still, but the public may see “Vetos!!!” as a whole, much differently.
If the DFL can continue down this road of party line votes on absolute liberalism vs. conservatism, and Pawlenty keeps vetoing bills, they will have ammo for 08.
Here’s the point: Will Republicans be seen as obstructionists, instead of responsible?
It is my fear. I may be wrong. But I just think the GOP should consider repackaging their message on the vetoes, from celebrating the vetoes, to ‘being responsible’. … I think that bragging about how many bills Pawlenty vetoed for the next 18 months may be a bit hard for voters to see as a positive and a reason to vote for Republicans.
In other words, ‘Vote for me, I’ll sustain a veto on something that the DFL has crafted to sound good for you’ is not a great 2008 message for GOP candidates to use to knock off these DFLers in 2008.
As soon as Seifert and the others in the Legislature get some rest if when the session ends, I hope they can throw together a little ‘if Republicans had the gavel’ alternative/comparison recap of the 2006 sessions so voters can see what would have happened.
So again, I think it is great they keep doing what they are doing in the Legislature for now, but I hope that they work on the messaging a bit. They need a message they can sell. They have it, but they need some help from the sales department, that’s all. This would be a fantastic mission for the Republican Party of Minnesota to undertake should they choose to accept it. But instead, we’re bogged down with ….. ‘other thingS’.
Closed Circuit to MNGOP leadership candidates: Make moving the leadership elections to January part of your agenda. We have to fix this stupid schedule we have. We should be electing party leaders immediately after the real elections, not halfway through the next year.
May 14th, 2007 at 7:37 am
But, by moving the leadership elections to January, you more or less insure that it will be based on the strong emotions left over from the elections, rather than on a serious, rational evaluation of the various candidates. Perhaps that’s what you want.
May 14th, 2007 at 8:43 am
Andy, I gree with what you are saying about vetoes not being the best message to Minnesotan. I think that it would have helped if conservatives would have voted to keep more Republicans in office last November rather then deciding to “clean house.” I mean, there were some pretty decent legislators that lost who would have continued to do a fine job had conservatives just gotten out and voted for them.
You’ve probably explained your rationale before but I still don’t know what electing the state leadership in January instead of June would accomplish. In addition, that would mean that the BPOU conventions would be in October. That would be Oct 2008, right in the middle of a huge Presidential election. Who is going to want to take the resources from the campaigns to do party conventions at that time? Then you’ve got the holidays to deal with? What a mess!
May 14th, 2007 at 12:59 pm
Jewing:
No, I just don’t want someone to have months to CYA.
But more importantly it would give the party and more importantly, the candidates a guarantee on consistent leadership through the elections. Plus it would be incentive to do better for the leadership, as in a successful election would surely lead to their own reelection. Plus don’t forget, we do have term limits.
We could very likely see a change this year, and will. I mean the Deputy Chair is leaving. If Carey does pull it off, and wins, I’m not sure what difference any of those candidates for DC would make. You know, what was Hoplin doing last year, or rather, what did Carey let them do? (not a shot at Hoplin, but rather a question simply of where the heck was he? Why wasn’t he out there in front of the camera. etc etc. )
I suppose you can call us people who do not think everything is “rosey”, and there were things Carey could have done better as “irrational”, but i consider us a bit more credible than you do. Heck i am one of them.
No in the end, I think Carey’s desire to save his job is going to possibly harm the GOP. If we can have the most dismal election results in recent history, and the guy who led that campaign can get reelected and have people actually believe he had nothing to do with it, and couldn’t have done any better, then people will realize it doesn’t even matter who is chair.
Just like how people skip the NRSC and instead support the individual Senate candidates across the country, people in MN will start to work directly with candidates and realize that the party is rather useless, save for voter ID and lists. but for message delivery or actual issues, well, it doesn’t martter.
Like Brent here.
He blames conservatives for the dismal election. he thinks people stayed home to purge the party. Some maybe have, but I bet more people ended up giving up on the Republican party because they believe it stands for issues, and well. they realized it doesn’t anymore.
Just saying you are a Republican doesn’t mean what it used to, especially when some in the party are much closer to DFLers than GOPers. So people (read voters and more importantly conservatives in the GOP grassroots volunteer ranks) didn’t show up to help. I bet a lot of them voted. Blaming them, is well, a cop out.
You don’t keep going to try to buy a car at a dealership if they keep sending you home with a horse and buggy. And that horse does nothing but leave you with steaming piles that you are left to deal with.
Regarding the accelerated elections:
I have not ironed out all the details, but there is no reason (except the current incumbant protection goal ) that we couldn’t hold BPOU conventions in Late Nov & early Dec. ; CD’s conventions in late Dec.; and then the State Central in January.
I am sorry it is just plain stupid to have a chair pass a budget in Dec. only to hand it over to a different one in June. Keep in mind we have term limits. Eventually, no matter how broadly supported, that a chair will have to be replaced.
And on top of that, and this is the most important point, the candidates and caucuses know for sure who they will be dealing with.
I mean Carey and the DC candidates have all been focusing all their energy on the elections during the crucial time during the Legislative session. The party should be focused like a laser beam on pointing out the differences between the DFL agenda and our own. But instead….. well, what is Carey and the party doing?
They are distracted.
May 14th, 2007 at 1:58 pm
Just like how people skip the NRSC and instead support the individual Senate candidates across the country, people in MN will start to work directly with candidates and realize that the party is rather useless, save for voter ID and lists. but for message delivery or actual issues, well, it doesn’t martter.
That would literally be a breath of fresh air. I am tired particularly of people in my district who whine that the state party isn’t doing enough for them when they don’t bother to do anything at all. If they’d start working directly with the candidates instead of defering to the state chair to do all the work, that would be half the battle.
Just saying you are a Republican doesn’t mean what it used to, especially when some in the party are much closer to DFLers than GOPers. So people (read voters and more importantly conservatives in the GOP grassroots volunteer ranks) didn’t show up to help. I bet a lot of them voted. Blaming them, is well, a cop out.
The party reflects those who care enough to participate. If conservatives decide that the party is too moderate and don’t bother to show up to be delegates and BPOU officers, does that make the party more conservative or less conservative? If there aren’t conservatives at the BPOU level, will there be more conservatives or less conservatives at the congressional level?
Ok, so conservatives decide they won’t get involved in the political process because it is “too full of moderates,” but they’ll vote. Will the choices on the ballot be more moderate, or more conservative?
Voting is nice, but it doesn’t change the choices. If you want real conservatives on the ballot to actually vote for you need to get involved and make a difference. Anyone who thinks that merely voting makes a party more conservative deserves to be blamed.
Do you think that the moderates are upset, crying in their milk that conservatives aren’t there participating in the party and making things hard for them, but willing to vote for them anyways? Haha, no way, the jokes on the conservatives.
You may think that parties stand for issues, but you are wrong. People stand for issues. And if those people who want to stand for a particular issue decide they’d had enough and go home, the party will stand less for that issue.
I have not ironed out all the details, but there is no reason (except the current incumbant protection goal ) that we couldn’t hold BPOU conventions in Late Nov & early Dec. ; CD’s conventions in late Dec.; and then the State Central in January.
Except for certain holidays during that time period which take a whole lot of people’s time.
I am sorry it is just plain stupid to have a chair pass a budget in Dec. only to hand it over to a different one in June.
It’s just as stupid IMO to have a chair pass a budget in Dec, only to hand it over to another chair in Jan, just a few weeks later. Why not change it so that the new budget is passed in September? That would give new chairs enough time to put together a budget after being elected and present it to the committee.
I mean Carey and the DC candidates have all been focusing all their energy on the elections during the crucial time during the Legislative session. The party should be focused like a laser beam on pointing out the differences between the DFL agenda and our own. But instead….. well, what is Carey and the party doing?
I don’t think that the party should get involved in legislative business. Leave that to the caucuses. The party is doing party business now like they should be.
May 31st, 2007 at 7:25 pm
I received this interesting letter in my email today. Looks like someone sniffed out Joe “Reagan’s 11th Commandment” Repya for who he really is:
May 31, 2007
Dear Fellow Republican,
As the race for state party chairman begins to heat up, I feel compelled to urge a note of caution to the campaign of Joe Repya. Perhaps he and members of his campaign should remember our party’s history.
The year was 1966, and then candidate Ronald Reagan in a heated campaign for governor of California was coming under fire from his liberal Republican opponent. The California Republican Chairman Gaylord Parkinson realized it was crucial to prevent a repeat of the liberal Republican attacks on conservative Barry Goldwater. A mere two years before liberal Rockefeller Republicans branded the conservative Goldwater as an “extremist” who was unfit to hold office, harsh attacks that laid the foundation for Goldwater’s eventual defeat in the 1964 presidential election.
Chairman Parkinson therefore coined the term that is now known as Reagan’s Eleventh Commandment: “Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.” Advice as pertinent in 2007 as it was 41 years ago.
I was reminded of this recently when I read a comment by Mr. Repya where he made the following statement:
“I turned down the offer because of the despicable condition the Minnesota Party is in following a greatly mismanaged and poorly executed election in 2006.” (emphasis mine) - Joe Repya, May 23, 2007
Whipping out my handy dictionary/thesaurus I looked up the word “despicable” and found the definition of the word:
“despicable [dispikəbl] adjective contemptible, worthless and deserving to be despised”
Worthless, despised, contemptible? This is not the language ANY Republican should be using to describe a fellow Republican, and most certainly not the type of thing you would say about the entire Party.
Friends, you and I are the Republican Party, and our Party is not in a “despicable condition.”
The leaders of the Republican Party are not “despicable” The activists of the Republican Party are not “despicable”. And frankly I don’t believe anyone who wants to lead the Republican Party should call our party “despicable.”
Negativity, pessimism and these blatant violations of Ronald Reagan’s 11th Commandment do not represent the kind of vision and leadership our party needs. In fact, when Joe Repya announced his campaign for party chairman on April 11th I was pleased when he promised to abide by Reagan’s 11th Commandment:
“…you know my style, I don’t come out complaining about people. I believe strongly in Ronald Reagan’s 11th Commandment ‘Thou shall not speak evil of a fellow Republican’”.
Sadly it seems Mr. Repya has chosen to break his promise to by abide by Reagan’s 11th Commandment when he called the Republican Party of Minnesota “despicable”.
We had a tough year in 2006, but our party, you and me, are in good shape and are ready to take on the challenges of getting our majority back. We are optimistic, we are engaged and enthusiastic, and we are ready to fight together in 2008 and beyond.
I am afraid we can expect more negativity, pessimism and mud from the Repya campaign. Mr. Repya’s most recent letter to delegates talked a lot about morals and ethics and I’m afraid he is foreshadowing his next attack on our party. I hope I am wrong, and that in the final few week of this campaign we can stay out of the mud.
I’d ask that you keep in mind what has already come out from this campaign, and please take with a grain of salt and a skeptical eye whatever is sent out or worse yet, whatever half-truths or falsehoods are pushed to our “friends” in the media. This would be an 11th hour desperate attempt to change the direction of the chairman’s race in the last week leading up to State Central.
Those who know me well know I’m an optimist and so I will try to remain confident Mr. Repya will do the right thing and retract these attacks on the party that we hold dear. President Ronald Reagan and Chairman Gaylord Parkinson would be proud.
I look forward to moving forward together with hope and optimism towards more great victories in the upcoming elections.
Your Republican friend,
Rory Koch
4th District Republican Chairman