NY 23 -- the Party and the Platform

When I ran for the State Central Committee I promised to support our Republican candidates. As a party leader, I felt it my duty to support every Republican who had passed the essential litmus test -- a Republican primary. Further I promised my district that I would stay out of contested primaries. When my friend Christian Fong threw his hat in the ring for the governor's race, I resigned from the SCC in order to endorse him, contribute to his campaign and volunteer for him during the primary.

Now that I am just a grassroots guy again, my position has changed. I think that it is the right and duty of every Republican to work to see that we are not just a group of people with R by our names but that the R means something.

We have seen several examples both nationally and locally where the Republican establishment has stepped in to override the party's grassroots. It happened in Pennsylvania (Specter v Toomey) in 2004. After the national party stepped in, Specter won re-election. He went on to be a thorn in GW Bush's side and ultijmately switched parties. Even the normally conservative Rick Santorum, Pennsylvania's other Senator came out and endorsed the liberal Specter. No matter how strong he is on the issues -- I will always find it difficult to support the man who singlehandedly returned the traitor Specter to the Senate.

Likewise in Iowa, I was a supporter of Bill Salier in his 2002 Senate campaign. He certainly took on the party establishment and shook things up.

In New York's HD 23, it was the 11 county chairs that chose liberal Republican Dede Scozzafava to be their nominee. This caused an uproar among the grassroots and caused conservative Republican, Doug Hoffman to run on a third-party ticket. Hoffman has been gaining in the polls at the expense of Scozzafava. Yesterday Scozzafava announced she was dropping out of the race, very likely giving the seat to Hoffman. Scozzafavawas supported by the RNC and the Republican Senatorial Committee. Sarah Palin was one of the Republican voices that came out for Hoffman in the race.

I have to say that I was thrilled when I heard the news. As a conservative first, I believe that we must seek and nominate candidates who support our party's core principles. In my years of involvement in GOP politics I have chaired county, district and state platform committees multiple times. In 2008 I had the honor of representing Iowa on the national platform committee. The clearest, most representative statement of our core principles is our platform.

And while I may not be pure enough for Steave Deace (I decided reluctantly the day before the caucus to support Romney and I led the move to censure Kim Lehman) over the last decade and a half, few people have had more direct influence in shaping our state platform than I. In my new found role as a grassroots activist and not an SCC member I will be working hard to see that we nominate candidates who support core Republican principles, who support our platform.

Comments

[desmoinesdem]

Short-term victory in NY-23, long-term recruiting nightmare in districts where you need moderate Republicans to win.

There are very few Republicans left in the northeast, and the trashing of Scozzafava is another sign that moderates are not welcome. In the context of New York politics, she is a mainstream Republican.

[NickyB]

David-

Thank you! This is exactly the problem with the party(ies). Instead of letting the grassroots voters decide the party leadership makes the decisions for them and shoves candidates down our throats.

We need a party that will help people run for office and provide the support system to get them a campaign committee.... let the primaries and caucuses decide WHICH candidate we should support.

When our county, state, and national parties can do that, then we will win elections with qualified and committed candidates. I would rather see us lose an election than to win just for the sake of winning. We have to be able to win AND govern.

Thank you for your continued leadership and I hope to see you on the SCC again in the future!

[Brent Oleson]

so was this a victory?

should we do this in Florida? Will that be a victory?