From The INBOX: Priorities
Posted by Andy on May 24th, 2007
I received this email the other day from a House candidate from 2006 and long time GOP grassroots activist.
Letters and emails received from the GOP Chairman about his upcoming election: 4
Calls to action from the GOP Chairman regarding the smoking ban, spending bills and other key legislation: 0
Priorities?
I gave Mr. Carey an opportunity to win me over. All the MN GOP had to do was pound the grassroots with a couple of calls to action regarding pending legislation (reps to call, etc.) and let us know they were in there fighting for us and what we could do to help. They squandered that opportunity. I’m now solidly in the GOP Joe camp, not just leaning GOP Joe.
To be fair, Tim Gould, the Political Director, did send out an email message from Carey to have activists call legislators, but I think it was only one.
Plus, I think Carey has been much more active in his reelection campaign than just 4 messages sent out. Well, That is what I am hearing.
I heard about a professionally conducted poll a couple weeks back (but not the results); as well as lots of calls from Carey supporters attacking Joe for the McCain thing; plus there have been a number of emails (I have had 3 or 4 forwarded from RF readers, but not all of them). Party staffers seem to be much more active in the Legislative fight than our full time Chairman.
So what is Mr. Carey’s priority?
Wouldn’t my idea of an earlier leadership election make so much more sense, so the party leadership isn’t distracted and can focus on pushing the Republican agenda and assist the Legislative Republicans? rather than spending all their time running for reelection at a crucial time for state politics. The DFL had their election back in January of February and have been undistracted in pushing liberalism since.
Seriously, the schedule we are on is just plain stupid, and simply an incumbent protection plan. There’s too much time for people to forget about what went wrong or right.
We should be having this leadership debate right after or near the REAL election so the new/next leaders will be in place for the entire election cycle and not changed mid Legislative session and Party budget.
But yes, all in all the Legislative session was not too terribly bad. We got away lucky with only a 10% increase in state spending, a state-wide invasion of property rights, and increases in government bureaucracies. It could have been worse, I suppose.
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May 24th, 2007 at 1:12 pm
Was that the poll where the caller stated that he was calling for the MNGOP and asked who you were going to vote for and some other questions?
So that was paid for by Mr. Carey, and not the MNGOP.
May 24th, 2007 at 2:22 pm
Mattma — I received a polling call about 3 weeks ago. Immediately after the polling was complete, I asked who payed for the called and was informed it was the Carey for Chair campaign, NOT MN GOP. I can’t recall if my particular poller stated at the beginning of the call that they were calling on behalf of the MN GOP, but I don’t think I would have asked if they had said that. I think it was more like I’m calling regarding the MNGOP party chair race or something like that.
That particular call was simple poll question, with no mention of McCain that I recall. There may have been more than one round of calls and I didn’t get called or wasn’t home for it.
Yes, there was one good action alert. I give the party and Mr. Gould credit for that. It’s a start. I also agree, we need a lot more of that and definitely more from the leader’s office. I’d love to see something like that weekly while the legislature is in session.
May 24th, 2007 at 3:35 pm
Mattma - I got called on the phone poll to and it was said upfront that it was paid for by the Carey for Chairman campaign. You may have assumed that it was MNGOP, but I can assure you that it was not.
Now on to AAA’s main point….I have to agree. I have gotten more mailings (no emails though - I wonder why that is) from Chairman Carey on his campaign than I have on call to action items. Shoot - I think I have sent out more “call to action” emails to just my friends and co-workers than the MNGOP has all session. After all, they are supposed to be the “professionals” in this gig, not me…
LL
May 24th, 2007 at 10:08 pm
Thank you for sharing your recollections of your polling calls. I may have misunderstood what I had heard.
May 31st, 2007 at 7:22 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