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MNGOP Leadership Rumblings
Here’s a list of who I am hearing about – who may be running for a leadership spot.Â
Chair
Ron Carey (I’ve heard it both ways, but I can’t believe he has a prayer. Some say he needs the job, but also say he can’t run after 2 straight beatings at the ballot box)
Tony Sutton (Current Secretary/Treasurer. His performance Saturday and how his budget is received will play big in how he is received as an agent of change who has been on the inside for decades. )
Rod Grams (Former US Senator and rock ribbed conservative. He’s captured some momentum from a “draft” movement. )
Joe Repya (A true American hero lost a bid last time to unseat Carey. There is some baggage involved with him from some party business meetings. So far though he is the only one who is openly running and laying out a roadmap for reforming and reuniting the party.)
There are also some other names and people being tossed out there. So far I haven’t confirmed anything serious. I am sure this Saturday (at our State Central Meeting) we will see who’s for real and who else may show up.
Deputy ChairÂ
Dorothy Fleming (Current Deputy Chair who has been, in my opinion, treated like crap by her fellow Republicans who suckle at the teats of GOP power. Her genuine connection to the grassroots is something no amount of backstabbing can take away. In my opinion she is perfect for the job, and if there is a Chair who will utilize her skills and abilities  (not shove her in a closet)  unlike the current one, she will help rebuild and reform this party. She is my pick and who I will be supporting.)
Michael Brodkorb (Yes, that Michael Brodkorb. I talked to him and he is serious about running. I’m not sure how to describe it. He’s been turned into a rockstar from his blogging, but many people like me fear the gotcha tactics are the sort of thing that doesn’t (edited for clarity) belongs in the Party’s #2 spot.)
Secretary/Treasurer
With Sutton running for Chair, this is an open seat. Unless Carey shocks the world and seeks reelection on the basis of not being as bad as other states. (Hey, I’ve heard a number of people actually say we did well be not losing more state Legislative seats compared to other states. )
Ed Matthews (Ran for Congress in CD4. A CPA. Something the party could use given our financial troubles in the past. An outsider and reform candidate.)
There will also likely be the leadership (establishment/powerbroker) plant for this spot. It is early and there will be someone with ties to the current crop of string pullers.Â
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All in all, this leadership election is going to come down to how badly Pawlenty wants to run for reelection. If he can have a blindly loyal leadership, he will be able to run for a 3rd term. If there is a principles first, statewide candidate second team of conservatives at the helm, they won’t lay down cover fire for Pawlenty and knee cap a challenge from the right with in the party. He’ll need that again this time as the base is growing weary. (I’ve been over that before)
This party has a lot of work to do to get back on the path to victory. I see some things finally being admitted as stumblings, but I also see some of the same old people who have been calling the shots all along (from outside the top 3 spots) scrambling to maintain their roles as clingers on and the whispering decision makers.
I for one think this process needs to be open and inclusive beyond just the State Central Delegates and Alternates. Yes, those are the people who actually vote for the 3 leadership positions, but tens of thousands of others have to live with the decision and are fed up with who was picked in the past.
The grassroots knows this party is in trouble and they have seen what is happening with this new moderation mentality from the current crop of leaders. Nationally you have to be living under a rock to not see that the RNC had abandoned what sets us apart from the liberals. That would be conservative stands on the issues.Â
Many of us in the trenches here in Minnesota see a similar tact from our party. The ridiculous decision not to engage in legislative issues meant we were virtually silent as a party for 18 months+ while the DFL was out there misinforming the public and spending like mad at the Capital.
Will we spend the next 6 months trying to bury the skeletons in our closets, exposing the ones in others, and watching a small group of people (and with them, critical operatives an workers) battle for the control of this party, when we should be trying to educate Minnesotans on the issues at the Capital? Of course, our system is broken, but hey, its our system.Â
If the powerbrokers and top down types from the Pawlentites and Establishment group do what I fear they will, fight tooth and nail to maintain control and absolute power) it will destroy this party. Some are already showing their cards and getting out the daggers and behaving in shameful ways.Â
There is a new groundswell of energy from the grassroots. Some of us who have been around and involved for a while are still sick of the status quo, but there’s also the Ron Paul factor. There is a highly motivated group of people out there who finally gives us the ability to get numbers. And that is why some are so scared and want this thing decided by as few people as possible.Â
If the establishment of the Republican Party of Minnesota plays for keeps and tries the scorched earth tactics again, the party will unravel. You could see a 3rd party spring up. A real conservative 3rd party. And folks, that will spell the end for the Republican party. There are a lot of people who will gladly cast their vote for a real conservative in state wide races.
So far all those running, bear in mind that you can’t destroy your enemies. If we hate each other again after this election, we’ll not only be 6 months behind the Dems in the election, but we’ll be starting from square one building our grassroots team.Â
We need some serious change in this party, but let’s not sink the ship in the process.
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You could see a 3rd party spring up. A real conservative 3rd party. And folks, that will spell the end for the Republican party.
You mean like having an “Independent Republican” party again? Oh whoopie!
Seriously, I think that if someone would “start” another party that actually won elections, the people who were uncomfortable with the DFL party would just go join it and we’d be back to where we are now. How are you going to stop that? What can you do differently with a party of a different name that you can’t do now?
I keep trying to figure out who these “powerbrokers” are in the MNGOP, why AAA thinks they are intent on destroying the Party, and whether or not I am one of them.
Look, I don’t care who wants to sit in the big chair, and I don’t think it makes that much difference. The person that I want in the job, and will vote for, is the person who wants the job, HAS THE BEST IDEAS, and has the people skills to get the rest of us, including those perpetual grousers like AAA, in line.
If you don’t agree with Andy, you are a powerbroker and a danger to Andy’s ambitions. If you do agree with Andy, then the red carpet is laid out for you.
But clearly, the next election can be won by simply electing the candidate for chair that Andy endorses. I look forward to electing Andy’s choice for chair and then taking it easy for the next election cycle!
No more phone banks, lit drops, volunteering, or fund raising for me. If I knew that it was all about having the right (haha “right”) State Chair, I would have listened to Andy long ago.
“But clearly, the next election can be won by simply electing the candidate for chair that Andy endorses.”
Unfortunately, Andy isn’t the only one with this particular fantasy. Now if new leadership gets us a 3x to 10x (or more) improvement in fundraising, a dedicated 24/7 messaging operation, a way through the liberal media filter, and a huge increase in grassroots enthusiasm and performance, I’m all for them, whoever they are. But if all we have for candidates are the real human beings Andy has speculated about here, they’re going to need a HUGE amount of help from a huge number of people, or it isn’t going to happen at all.
There are so many Republicans who think they know what is ailing the party that maybe it’s time we look at the facts! The fact is that voters we lost, and are continuing to loose are from the CENTER, not the right. People toward the center-right are looking at the Republican party and seeing a party that is too far to the right and too exclusionary, and a Democratic party extending a welcoming hand. This is fact! Look at the data! If that weren’t enough, consider this; the most successful statewide Republicans are not from the extreme right of the party.
We have successfully purged many of the centrists from the party with all the “RINO” name-calling and such. We keep it up and we will continue to loose them. Now we have some people on the far-right who are threatening to leave and form a far-right extremist party. I have 2 bits of news for you; 1) It’s been tried before (see Constitution Party, Marianne Stebbens) 2) They get tired of irrelevancy and come back.
My vote is going to go to whoever will bring this family back together, who can convince this party that it’s ok to have a family quarrel, but who can remind us that, in the end, those of us play by the rules and who generally believe in traditional values and limited government are truly members of the Republican family. We need people in leadership that communicate with clarity that, as long as you can put personal aspirations aside, you will always have a seat at the supper table, even if you don’t agree with 110% platform. This is the only way to make the party relevant again, and oh how I want to be relevant again!
“The fact is that voters we lost, and are continuing to loose are from the CENTER, not the right.”
I think your facts are in error, or somehow you are drawing a conclusion contrary to where your own facts would lead. John McCain was the most centrist Republican we have run in many years. He was celebrated as a moderate. Barack Obama was more liberal than 99% of sitting US Senators, yet you know what happened.
Republicans don’t win by moving left, they win by drawing moderates to the right, where people naturally live, and by getting the right out to vote rather than sitting at home. We are a center-right nation; we just get fooled into voting against ourselves too often.
On the other hand, conservatives keep telling us that the whole Party has to be “more conservative” to win elections, and that doesn’t make any sense either. It’s just not that simple.
….and we draw moderates to the right by welcoming them into the right, center-right Republican fold where they belong, not by calling them names (”RINOS”) and throwing them out of the party. Look, personally I’m as conservative as they come. I just know that we won’t win elections with the votes of people who think exactly like me.
In regards to the Presidential election, the reason we lost isn’t because we didn’t get a candidate that was conservative enough. We lost because, rightly or wrongly, people were looking for the quickest way out of an unpopular war, and, mostly, because the economy is in the crapper and “change” sounded good to most people who were in the center. Give a certain amount of credit to Obama too. He is a great politician. Too bad his policies are so far off.
We draw ‘moderates to the right’ (a silly phrase in my mind) by actually giving them a message and a reason to vote for us. There is a reason why ‘me-too Republicanism/Conservatism’ doesnt work. Why for a Dem-light when you can vote for the true thing?
The issue currently in the ’shaking up’ of the party seems to becoming a battle with the moderates who think we need to be more ‘inclusive’ (again a silly term since that is based on identity politics) and push aside the ‘Social Conservatives’ (whom I call Moral Conservatives since that is a more fitting term)on one side and the aforementioned Social/Moral Conservatives. Problem is, in my mind, they are both wrong.
The idea that this country is ‘center-right’ is not without merit. When given a clear message and choice Conservatism wins a majority of the time. We just need to relearn that Conservatism is Principles Not issues. Positions on Issues stem from Principles held not the other way around. It is possible to have varying stances on same issue all stemming from Conservative Principles. And once we actually remember that then to do something about it. Would that require hard work? Absolutely, things we feel are important to us usually are.
In regards to the election, a lot of it had to do with the candidate. Again it falls back to the ‘Me-too Republicanism’. It says something when the most energy the campaign got was with the selection of Sarah Palin. Someone much more Conservative than the nominee. Some credit goes to Obama of course, but think about it. What was one of his biggest selling points? Cutting taxes for 95% of the population. Forget the fact that was he was stating was nothing more than smoke and mirrors what did people hear? “Tax cut”. Last I looked tax cuts were a trademark of the Republicans? Apparently not anymore.
3rd party. Great in theory, unlikely in practice. Why pick up our ball and go play in another playground when there is one right here that we like. We just need to take the playground back from those who would want it to like the playground on the left side of the street.
We stay in tune with small gov’t and fiscal sanity we keep most conservative voters. We continue to support national leaders who blow the budgets and bring us to our economic knees we get thrown out, and deservedly so, regardless of whether our candidate is far right or middle of the road. The faith and trust Americans in general placed in the Bush administration was abused like the proverbial unwanted stepchild, and we reap what we sow.
As far as the GOP leadership position- we do need leadership that isn’t intent on railroading the grassroots into their big box choices in candidates, but instead is respectful to all voices. I attended numerous BPOU conventions, CD6 & CD3, and state. In no way, shape, or form can the outgoing leadership be described as respectful and open to all voices. Slanders and insults were common, nominations tightly screened and forbidden outright. We need leadership that sees to it that no such tactics ever prevail again, as opposed to leadership that quickly acts to squelch the grassroots.
Sheesh, at the Nat. Convention a number of MN delegates weren’t even allowed to have their votes officially recorded, and were treated by convention security as some sort of threat to be watched and stripped of their property. As though any of that was necessary to the overwhelming outcome there. How completely absurd the whole thing was. Our candidate for Congress in CD5 either had to relinquish her chair to an alternate or be similarly counted as a no-vote.
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