The Leadership of the California Republican Party has sent a strong message to House Republicans — stop facilitating the growth of the federal government! The Board of Directors of the California Republican Party, which met yesterday in San Diego, passed the resolution below after a lengthy debate. Authored by yours truly (as the Vice Chairman, South, of the State GOP), this resolution expressed the California Republican Party’s concern with House Republicans re-electing the same leader, John Boehner of Ohio, who has presided over our losses and shown little ability to lead House Republicans into a cohesive group that sticks together on the issues, big and small. The resolution also questions the pending re-election of Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell as the leader of Senate Republicans — McConnell having famously won a narrow re-election this month on a campaign promoting earmarking.
The ability of the fifty state political parties (and their subdivisions) to do our job — registering voters and getting out the vote — has been severely damaged because the American people no longer see the Republican Party as standing for lower taxes, less spending, and promoting individual liberty and responsibility among Americans.
The Board of Directors clearly felt that our situation in Washington, D.C., is extraordinary. It is very rare for the Board to pass any resolutions, let alone one that is potentially controversial because it is critical of the actions (or inactions) of fellow Republicans…
**There is more – click the link**
November 22nd, 2008 at 12:00 am
So the Republican circular firing squad is alive and well. Once again Jon you have gone off the rails to the far right. Perhaps you and your board members prefer to see a complete meltdown of the financial markets and the resulting depression and unemployment of 20 – 25 percent. Think about it Jon.
PS: do we also need a resolution of the same as yours to apply to the board of the CRP? Maybe we need to have a complete new board of the CRP. After all, the CRP did a terrible job of registering Republicans and electing our candidates right here at home – never mind what the national party or the Republican leaders of Congress did (or did not do).
November 22nd, 2008 at 12:00 am
I think the CRP Board got it right. The GOP registration is at 31.37–a historic low. This has nothing to do with getting out and registering new people. It has to do with the Republican Brand. As soon as we started spending and borrowing, no one knew what the GOP stood for. Spend/borrow is the approach in Washington and Sacramento. Until we reject that approach and start being Republicans again, we are a permanent minority.
November 22nd, 2008 at 12:00 am
Bob, are you suggesting that Republicans in Congress did the right thing by voting to expand federal spending and create new entitlements? Is it “far right” to oppose wasteful spending and call out our party’s elected leaders for supporting it?
November 22nd, 2008 at 12:00 am
Also, I’ll point out that the Democrats did not pick up any seats in California’s congressional delegation and it looks like they won’t gain seats in the State Senate either. I’d say our performance here in California was considerably better than what a lot of other states saw, and quite good considering how tarnished the Republican brand is.
With this in mind, it seems a bit much to blame all our problems on the CRP Board. In fact, I’d say that Assemblyman Villines, Senator Ackerman, and Senator Cogdill in particular deserve to be commended for keeping their caucuses united against Democrat tax-and-spend proposals. They’ve done a much better job promoting the Republican brand than the party’s leaders in Congress.
November 23rd, 2008 at 12:00 am
You are spot on Jon.
Last weekend I was at a conservative meeting in Washington DC. We had Republican Congressmen and Senators telling us how bad Obama and the Democrats will be because they will expand government and raise taxes…. and of course Republicans are our defense who will push for smaller, limited government and less spending. During the question and answer period I asked why we should believe them… when they had their chance, when they were in control, all they did was expand government and increase spending. My comment was personally swear off earmarks and work to eliminate earmarks and then they might be believable.
The bottom line is, Republicans in Washington screwed things up when they found Republican principles inconvenient and their motto became “spend, spend, spend, elect, elect, elect.” New leadership is needed and the old leadership needs to be shown the door.
November 23rd, 2008 at 12:00 am
I’ll keep this short. Just a reminder about spending, it’s not yours to give.
Col. David Crockett, US Representative from Tennessee says it best: http://www.conservativeusa.org/notyours.htm
November 24th, 2008 at 12:00 am
Why is the CRP board doing this? Isn’t the job of the CRP board to raise money in order to support a state wide registration effort (and try to recoup some of the massive loss in Republican registration) and to support the Republican candidates who win their primaries? I hope the CRP board gets over it’s desire to pass meaningless resolutions and gets back to their core responsibilities ASAP.