Another Busy Day – Choose Wisely
Yeah I know, my posting is pretty lame lately. Well, welcome to the Obama economy. Work is taking my undivided daytime attention right now, minus the occasional lunchtime hunt for ammo. My weekend and evening last night were spent with a great kid who I won’t get to see the rest of the Summer and his mom who is going to miss him. Time well spent, minus the broken patio table when things got carried away with an airsoft gun and rock. 
Anyways, yes, the State Central is this Saturday. The arm twisting and high profile kingmaking is in full effect. Pawlenty sent out a letter endorsing Sutton. The shock I tell you when I read that one. 
And another Governor aspirant, Minority Leader Seifert, endorsed Dave Sturrock for Secretary/Treasurer, another establishment shocker.
There is also a lot of moving and shaking from the local level for candidates. Anoka County Commission Robyn West endorsed Dorothy Fleming for Chair. I’m also hearing a fair number of complaints about how some local leaders are ignoring the daily operations in the BPOUs and Districts in order to save the establishment’s butt. Yep, some people have devoted their everything into supporting the anti-grassroots candidates for State party leadership and the local ship is drifting leaderless.
Look folks, I know every single piece of lit out there has said grassroots, principles, platform, blah blah blah, but they are just lit pieces. They are carefully crafted and run past a bunch of eyeballs to make sure it says everything it needs to. It is letter writing by checklist, basically.
I have dealt with Michael Brodkorb many times over the last few years, and I can tell you, I was playing the role of the grassroots, he as the iron boot of the powerbrokers and insiders. Tony Sutton is making a great case for why he should be a full time Executive Director, not a volunteer Chair. Seriously, how can you micromanage the party (as an Exec Dir does) and be CEO of a blossoming national restaurant chain?
Brodkorb too is stating that he will be a volunteer, but his boss in the State Senate is another potential Governor aspirant, and let’s not forget that the Senate Republicans have a very long running history of kingmaking who BPOU’s should have as candidates. The BPOU endorsement process is seen as a formality, or annoyance, for ‘their handpicked candidates’. Conflict of interest much?
If seated, I am going to proudly vote for Dave Thompson and Dorothy Fleming. They are the 2 people who have the best set of skills to repair the party. Thompson has the vision and communications mastery, Dorothy has the passion and connection to the pulse of the party. Obviously there is much more each of them have to offer, but the most important thing for a guy like me, who has been begging for real grassroots reforms (and battling against the Sutton/Brodkorb wing of the party for years) the biggest thing is that when I sit down and talk with Thompson and Fleming, is that I trust them.
Trust goes a long way in this party. We’ve had a State Party Chair who said all the right things, twice in fact, but he didn’t deliver.
So to my fellow State Central members, make sure you can trust the people you are voting for. Remember that everyone can say all the right things. You have to be able to trust those people to make good on their promises. You have to know that the person you are sending to the leadership table won’t buckle to DC, high profile candidates, Caucus intimidation, the media, or wobbly kneed Republicans.
Trust is the most important factor in this election. I know I can trust Thompson and Fleming.
OK, back to work for me. This turned into a rather lengthy ‘I’m too busy to post anything’ rant, but I guess when things are important, and I sit down and think about them, I just can’t help but make sure people do the right thing.
The future of the Republican party lies in our hands on Saturday.
Choose wisely my friends.
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How odd. I trust everybody in every one of the three races. I’ve looked at what they have to say, and assessed their ability to do what they say they will do, and I think they can do it. Therefore, the question becomes not what their “vision,” is in glittering generalities, but what their PLAN is in concrete, practical terms: what needs to be done and HOW. After all, common drunks have “visions”; successful executives have plans. There are dozens of important tasks that need to be quickly addressed, and it behooves us to have someone who already knows what they are and how to do them.
Jerry, what exactly needs to be addressed on Day 1? I just want to make sure we’re all on the same page here. This isn’t rocket science, I know, but this is important stuff. I want someone who is dedicated 100% of the time, with the party being the #1 priority outside God and Family….business is secondary, which is why I hesitate to even give a look at someone like Sutton. He has a growing franchise and a new baby in his growing family. I’m not saying he isn’t capable, but I would like to know specifically what you think Tony Sutton CAN do that Dave Thompson CANNOT do, with or without a solid team behind each of them (and I do know that one thing Thompson continues to stress is his willingness to listen, to seek advice and to put words into ACTION. That is a sign of a GREAT leader.)