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

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