About a hundred dyed-in-the-wool Republicans are gathered here at the picturesque and historic Mission Inn in downtown Riverside. The meeting room is quite impressive, and intimidating – with statues of Angels, prophets and more. The ceilings are quite impressive – solid dark wood with arches and intricate carvings. Anyways, I digress.
The Chairman of the committee, Kevin Jeffries, is resigning as he is seeking the Assembly seat of termed-out conservative Ray Haynes. This has set the stage for political drama, with a contested race to succeed him. The two candidates — long time GOP activist from the Coachella Valley (read: greater Palm Springs) Bette Myers, and Jeff Miller, a member of the Corona City Council. In this short, wide county, it is West versus East.
(Let me add that I’ve managed to sit next to the lively Don Genhart, from the desert, who is a great guy – blessed with a strong work ethic AND a good sense of humor!)
We heard a lot of great reports from over a dozen different GOP groups – lots of stuff going on. Also talks from legislative representatives. This latter group of speaker pretty much all talked about various pieces of legislation. The only really notable remarks came from Tom Barrett, Ray Haynes’ rep. who talked about how the Assemblyman is most unhappy with the Governor’s Budget, comparing it to budgets introduced by Gray Davis.
(Another aside – there has been some discussion here tonight surrounding the bylaws on succession of office, but Chairman Jeffries handled it all as a statesmen, showing what 7 years of experience will bring you. Also, kudos to Bette Myers who came up to bat as presiding official for a very tough half-hour – doing a valient job).
Candidate speeches: Betty was brief, professional, heartfelt. Jeff was not brief, but also professional and heartfelt. Okay, Jeff REALLY went on and on…
While the ballots were tallied, the guest speakers (besides my 2 minute stump for this website) were CRP Southern Vice Chairman Keith Carlson, who finished his remarks by talking about his bid for Party Treasurer next month, and former Assemblyman Tony Strickland, who is running for State Controller.
Tony gave his stump speech – good stuff. If you’ve heard it – you know. If you haven’t, you will. He is going everywhere in this state!
I’m sure Tony won’t take it personally that the committee endorsed Keith, but not him! :-)
Well, I guess that pretty much sums up the meeting (at least the part I attended)….well, except…CONGRATULATIONS to newly minted Chairman JEFF MILLER!