Posts Tagged ‘precinct delegates’
September 13th, 2011
Surely the character of political opponents and political comrades must be considered as part of the overall debate, but the discussion of ideas must continue. Let’s not (as T.E.A. Party members) allow our attention to be diverted for too long, before we return to the “argument of ideas.”
The beauty of the T.E.A. Party movement is the collective grass roots activities of likeminded conservative Americans, without the benefit of a single figurehead or leader. This lack of a single leadership figure, from which the T.E.A. Party movement flows, frustrates liberals to no end. Almost weekly this truth is proven by the ranting’s of progressive liberals, most of which will become so “unhinged on camera” as to provide conservatives with enough entertainment video to fill a SNL skit.
T.E.A. Party Members, contrary to progressive liberals, have a way of focusing their attention on the problems at hand, policing their own when necessary, and then moving on to formulate solutions that can actually be enacted for the betterment of society. At the Macro level, the most apparent example of liberal frustration would be this week’s speech by our President asking Seventeen times of the “House of Representatives” to pass a bill that does not exist. Such statements are delusional to say the least.
Closer to home, Members of the Romeo Area Tea Party (RATP) have acted appropriately, while watching quietly, as a biased reporter seeks to divert attention from a discussion of problems to be solved, by trying to smear local GOP committees and T.E.A. Parties in general. Meanwhile, the important discussion of ideas continues by conservatives.
In 2010, as the Romeo Area Tea Party (RATP) grew from an infant child, a local conservative, Stan Grot participated as a member of the RATP leadership team. During his tenure as a part of that team, Stan successfully assisted the residents of the Romeo Area in electing many precinct delegates to the County GOP, last November. Today, many of these delegates represent conservative ideas common to T.E.A. Party members. Stan’s other work with the Romeo Area Tea Party was impressive and insightful, during his membership as a part of that leadership team. However, upon Stan’s decision to become a “paid” GOP activist, the by-laws of the RATP automatically barred him from continuing to serve the RATP’s “non-partisan” organization. Ironically, it was the by-laws of the RATP, of which Stan helped greatly to draft, that barred his continued participation.
To be clear, the Romeo Area Tea Party is a non-partisan organization, as is publically stated in Our Philosophy statement, posted on our web site. Furthermore, the actions of the other members of the Romeo Area Tea Party prove an adherence to non-partisan activities, with the continued invitations and public forums actually presented, for elected officials (and candidates) of both major political parties. A review of our past events calendar proves this point, clearly.
For intimate followers of the various GOP Committees in Macomb County, Stan Grot (a former member of the RATP leadership) left a trail of actions that some GOP insiders would ask (and have asked) to be formally sanctioned, by the State GOP Committee. Whether the claims are true or false, any actions of Stan Grot as a GOP activist cannot be construed as non-partisan activities, thus they could not be sanctioned by the Romeo Area Tea Party. Simply put, the RATP is and will remain to be, a non-partisan organization.
Moreover, it goes without saying that no DNC or GOP paid activist officially represent the RATP or any other individual T.E.A. Party we know of. However, it also goes without saying that often GOP activist have basic conservative ideals, which are similar in nature to many members who attend RATP meetings.
Chad Selweski, a Columnist for the Macomb Daily, has written extensively of GOP activities since the past election. Most recently Chad’s plethora of articles purport a “dizzying dysfunction” of the Macomb GOP, an “intraparty war” within the Macomb GOP, as well as a “Tea Party vs. establishment” split of the GOP. Time and again Chad’s articles attempt to exploit the dialog of debate among conservatives as some form of holy war, that progressive liberals might seize on. Ironically, if conservatives weren’t in a discussion of ideas amongst themselves, then there would be no discussion. Liberals have no ideas.
Macomb County is filled with conservative minded voters, some of whom were once affectionately called “Reagan Democrats”. Conservatives of that era allowed themselves to be called Reagan Democrats by the media, even though they had actually voted Republican, because liberals prefer to live in a society where everyone “feels good.” By allowing this “Reagan Democrat” title to be perpetuated, the losers in the Reagan vs. Carter election got a warm and fuzzy feeling, after the lashing they had just received at the polls.
Macomb County is also filled willed many active T.E.A. Parties who are only loosely tied to each other by conservative ideas. In no way does the leadership (or membership) of any one T.E.A. Party represent that of another. Likewise, Macomb County has many GOP Committees and PACs operating. Though these committees are often tied more snugly together by candidates of the day, progressive liberals can only be frustrated by their own inability to tie one organization to another. Simply put, conservatives generally don’t follow the doctrine of an all empowering monarch, who rules over them blindly.
As Glenn Beck would often proclaim, “Conservatives Should Question Everything” and often they do.
Right or wrong, the articles written in the Macomb Daily by commentator Chad Selweski have opened up strong discussions among local GOP activist. It is difficult to say whether or not such an internal review of the local GOP workings would have perpetuated without the influence of T.E.A. Parties at large. It would also appear that any past events occurring in the State/Macomb GOP Committees are being addressed within the committees themself. Meanwhile, conservative support for PACs and T.E.A. Parties continues to grow at all levels, in preparation for another political season. Conservative individuals now have plenty of opportunities to openly discuss the “arguments of ideas” in Macomb County, perhaps only coming together on Election Day, at the ballot box.
If progressive liberals with no ideas, had their way, we’d all be back in southern Florida relying on the hopes and dreams one might find in the articles of Hang’n Chads.
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September 8th, 2010
Even I knew that something was wrong.
I was eager to attend my first state convention as a delegate. I was told that there would be a caucus of the 9th congressional district at 8:30am before the convention was due to begin at 10am. I arrived at 8:15 expecting to have no trouble finding a parking spot for my motorcycle in the large parking lot adjacent to the Breslin Center. For those who have never been there, it is very similar in size and shape to the Palace Arena in Auburn Hills, that is, it is a larger round building where MSU basketball games are played. At the time I arrived, the parking lot was full and there was a line of delegates nearly all the way around the building waiting to get in. At first there was a lot of good humored talk about how slow the line was moving. Two hours later, it wasn’t funny anymore. If one was fortunate, you either became friendly with some folks in line or you were with someone you enjoyed being with. This was my case. I had the chance to get to know someone I had wanted to get acquainted with as I saw him walking past me looking for the end of the line after I had been in line for about an hour. At the risk of incurring the wrath of the folks behind me, I invited him to stay with me. It was a pleasant way to spend the rest of the time. Just as we were about to complete our ordeal and shuffle up to the ticket window to have our credentials issued to us, the organizers made an announcement that the remainder of those in line could enter the arena without credentials and have them issued later by our district chairmen. Wow, what took them so long to come up with that solution? It was a real blessing that it was a beautiful day to stand in line for over two hours. I can’t imagine the mess if it had been raining or cold.
Upon entering the concourse which surrounded the arena, there was no signage as to where the various district seating was located. After entering the arena and searching for my group, I found that it was way on the other side from the entrance. After working my way over and trying to find a seat, I found that all of the seats had been filled by observers who were let in without waiting in line since they did not need credentials. I decided to work my way to the bottom stair (steep stairs), and take a seat on the last stair in front of the railing. On the other side of the railing was a tremendous mess of campaign material spread all over what turned out to be empty bleacher seating. The bleacher seating was not obvious due to the tremendous amount of printed material left for the delegates who were supposed to be seated there. Once I figured this out, I hopped over the railing and carefully stepped over the slick campaign literature to take a seat. It was very slippery. I was soon joined by many others.
Much has already been written about the controversy over the nomination and voting for lieutenant governor so I won’t go into that. What I did find irritating was the very tedious and traditional nominating and seconding speeches for each of the candidates who we were there to vote for. As was observed by my wife and others, if you didn’t know who you were going to vote for by the time you got to the convention, then you had no business being there. I suppose the candidates have a need to put a period on their campaigns, but it was a bit much and very time consuming. Someone once described their convention experience as “20 minutes of work completed in 8 hours”; very descriptive.
When we finally did get to vote, the process required us to line up by congressional district and verify once again who we were and mark a computer ballot for our candidate choices. Following that, we had to again assemble and vote by show of hands our decision about the question of whether or not we supported a call for a constitutional convention for the State of Michigan. Why couldn’t the constitutional convention issue be on the ballot?? There then had to be a second ballot to clarify who the winner was for Secretary of State.
I have to wonder whether the lost opportunity to have our caucus meetings resulted in a different outcome than the leadership hoped for. Since there was not preparatory meeting, I believe it turned out to be a more democratic result since there was no coaxing or consensus building before the votes.
Even with all of the delays, disorganization and confusion, I have to say that I still felt honored to have been chosen to attend the convention and have a voice in the building of our Republican ticket. It is a strong ticket with great potential for victory in November.
Jayson Corey
Oakland Township
Precinct 2
September 8th, 2010
Prologue: Being a Delegate
I have had quite a learning experience this summer. When I agreed to run for Precinct Delegate, I really didn’t know what it entailed. I didn’t know that it meant going door to door in my neighborhood to ask my neighbors for their vote in the August 3rd primary. I didn’t know that I would receive 250 votes and be elected Republican Precinct Delegate. I didn’t know that I would be attending the GOP County Convention. I didn’t know that I would attend the GOP Lincoln Dinner Fundraiser event. I didn’t know that I would be chosen to go to Lansing for the State GOP Convention. I didn’t know that I would get to meet and talk to many candidates running for political office. I didn’t know that I would receive so many phone calls from candidate campaigns asking me for my endorsement. I didn’t know that I would get hundreds of robo-calls wanting me to take a survey or giving info about the candidates. But most of all, I didn’t know that I would enjoy it so much! Perhaps If I had known in advance that all of that would have happened, I would have thought it sounded a bit painful, and I may not have done it at all. But to my own surprise, I have enjoyed it tremendously. The one thing I have really appreciated through all of this, was meeting so many great people in the Romeo community. Talking with people who share my passion for our country and the freedoms we have, has been encouraging and inspiring.
The State GOP Convention:
As I have mentioned already, I was selected to attend the GOP State Convention in Lansing at the Breslin Center on September 28th. I was looking forward to the event not really knowing what to expect. I knew our primary goal was to elect the GOP candidates for Secretary of State, Attorney General, Supreme Court, and the officers of the state college boards. Of course, there was a lot more to it than that. The event was also designed as a rally to motivate and inspire everyone to get involved and achieve success for the party and the country. I have to say it was quite an experience. Although there were many parties and events scheduled the night before the convention, I elected to skip them and drive in early Saturday morning. The gates opened at 7 a.m., and I wanted to get in early before the crowds. I arrived around 7:30 a.m. and waited in line for about twenty minutes to get in. No big deal. I noticed that there were only six people who were providing credentials, and, at the time, I thought that seemed a little light on volunteers, but I figured they knew what they were doing. Because I was there early and the event kicked off at 10 a.m., I began looking for some fellow Tea Party friends who are also delegates. It wasn’t long before I found several. Then we all just hung out and drank coffee for a few hours. We talked about politics, faith, family, and our country: exactly what you would expect from Tea Party folks. During that time, many of the candidates were walking around making their last requests for votes face to face. All in all, it was quite a spectacle. Around 9:30 a.m., we made our way down into the voting area and found a seat in our caucus. (Each district sits together). At 10 a.m., we were ready to go, but an official, using the microphone, said that there were still many people outside, and the convention could not begin until all delegates had their credentials and were seated. So we sat there for another forty-five minutes waiting for people to come in. As I was still inside, I did not actually see the crowd, but the few folks who did make it in, indicated to us that there were still thousands of people waiting outside trying to get in. It was getting somewhat problematic with all those folks out there in the heat. At that point, another official spoke at the podium and said it was taking too long, and they were just going to let everyone in, at which time each caucus would do the credentialing of its own delegates. It was then that a mass of people came pouring in. The resulting mayhem made it very loud and disorderly in the arena. And it was during this confusion that the 2010 GOP State Convention got underway. It was an hour later than the event was scheduled to start, and, fortunately, the GOP leadership was trying to expedite things. They began to forgo many of the parliamentary proceedings that normally control these meetings.
(Sidebar- Hey GOP, what is up with all the archaic parliamentary rules? I understand they are rooted in hundreds of years of history and tradition, but in effect they don’t provide much value or efficiency. In fact, it appears they are just bypassed at every opportunity. Why not adopt something more efficient?)
Well, it wasn’t long before the big controversy occurred. You may have read about it in the paper, but this is how it happened from my vantage point. I did not realize this before I arrived, but it is the delegates who elect the Lieutenant Governor candidate. Historically, the delegates endorse whomever the gubernatorial candidate would choose for a running mate. In this case, Rick Snyder had chosen Brian Calley. Well, when they were bringing it up for a vote, we found out that another person was nominated for this position. It immediately became obvious that it was a Tea Party nomination. (I could tell that the West Michigan Tea Party group was very loud in support of the additional nominee.) I don’t think the GOP leadership was ready for this anomaly because they announced that we would determine a winner by voting in the caucuses with a show of hands. Well, due to the fact that everyone was seated in a rush, the delegates and alternates (who were not eligible to vote) were not separated, and many still did not have their credentials. It was much too confusing to do a count. Then, the moderator tried to conduct a vote by voice for the whole stadium. He instructed only the delegates to vote. This is when it really went off the rails because when he did the voice vote, the Yes votes sounded about equal for each candidate, but he said that Calley had clearly won. When he did that, I personally felt like he was trying to force the vote through. Up to that point, I did not support the alternate candidate, but when this happened, many of us began to protest the process and outcome. It was getting fairly loud with boos, and many in the crowd were not happy. During the melee, the GOP leaders were conferring and trying to come up with a solution. Finally, after about 5-10 minutes of this ruckus, someone came forward and said that there was a new motion on the floor. It was then that Bill Cooper removed his name from the nomination list. He graciously made this gesture to maintain the unity of the party. After that, everything settled down for the most part, and things moved along. First, we voted on the uncontested positions. Then, for the contested races, the candidates were individually introduced and officially nominated, after which, they went out on stage with their families, and their supporters rushed the stage. It was really quite a pep rally!
There was another snafu later concerning the MSU Trustee race. It became apparent that there were only two open slots but three candidates running for the positions. Seems easy to fix, right? Well, not so much. The moderator explained to all of us that there would be two votes: one for the incumbents and one for the non-incumbents. In addition, we learned that the incumbents could choose to run either as an incumbent or not. One of the incumbents chose to run as a non-incumbent, so this meant that the other incumbent was now running unopposed. (I am guessing he did this because he did not think he could win against him.) Needless to say, many of us were confused as to the reasoning behind this, and people were getting a little restless. It was at this time that a man approached the microphone which was placed on the floor for motions. He then requested a motion to change the rules so that all three candidates could run simultaneously against each other, and the top two vote-getters would win. But when the moderator tried to restate it, he said that the motion on the floor was to have two votes and that the incumbent running as a non-incumbent would have to face each opponent separately. Now, when he said that, the crowd grew understandably upset because that was not the motion the man had requested. The man charged back to the microphone, and he began talking to the leadership. He was very animated. But, they turned off the mic, so we didn’t hear any of his words. It appeared that the intent was to ignore him because the moderator put the inaccurate motion to a vote. Of course, we all voted no as that was even worse than the original situation. In the end, they continued with the original two votes: one for the incumbent who was unopposed and one for the non-incumbent who had an incumbent running against him. (The non-incumbent ended up winning the spot). As I ponder what happened there, I am not really sure what that was all about. I am not sure if it was an unchangeable rule, or if it was a misunderstanding, or if something else was going on. I am going to give the leadership the benefit of the doubt on this and just let it go… It was really just a procedural problem, but it was a weird one. Despite the fact choosing government officials might be a messy business, I hope the leadership will learn from this episode and have the foresight not to repeat it.
Finally, after a long day of confusion, controversy, and fanfare, it came down to the actual voting for the major offices! For this part of the convention, there was no confusion. It was actually rather simple and straightforward as they had voting ballots prepared. We voted by secret ballot in a voting booth, just as we do in a regular election. Other than the lines being a bit long to cast the votes, the entire procedure moved forward fairly well. Due to number of candidates and the slim margin of votes, we had to vote twice for the Secretary of State candidates. The first vote eliminated three of the five candidates. Then there was another vote between Cameron Brown and Ruth Johnson, and, ultimately, Ruth won, but it was close.
Whew! We were finally done!
Conclusion:
Yes, there was some controversy. Yes, the organization of the event was lacking. Yes, some of the traditions and procedures were a bit archaic. Yes, it was messy, and it took a lot longer than it should have. Yes, I was exhausted after spending nine hours in the Breslin Center. However, the net result is that the system works! For November, we have put forth an excellent group of conservative candidates on the GOP ticket. I am proud to have been part of the process. I am proud of being in a great country where we have freedom, and we can elect our government representatives. This is a precious gift from God! I am grateful for the opportunity to have been a part of it all.
God Bless America!
Phil Dyer
July 13th, 2010
Romeo Area Tea Party has invited Phyllis Schlafly to speak
at our Friday, July 23 Meeting.
Counting down 14 days until her visit, we will feature something new each day.
DAY 11
I Like …
…Phyllis’ efforts to de-mystify the political process.
Phyllis reveals to us (here) what “the most powerful office” is in the world,
and she informs us of the Duties and the Powers of this office.
( Hint: Here in Michigan, Precinct Committeeman = Precinct Delegate)
Phyllis has actually been one of these powerful office holders.
In fact, according to her bio on her website,
Mrs. Schlafly’s lifetime hobby has been politics, starting with working as campaign manager for a successful Republican candidate for Congress in St. Louis in 1946. She served as an elected Delegate to eight Republican National Conventions: 1956, 1964, 1968, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, and 2004; and as an elected Alternate Delegate to three other Republican National Conventions: 1960, 1980, 2000, and 2008. She has attended and played an active role in every Republican National Convention since 1952. Her 1964 book A Choice Not an Echo is a history of Republican National Conventions.
Phyllis' Delegate Badges from Republican National Conventions 1952-2008
We at RATP are proud of the citizens attending our meetings,
who have signed up by the dozens to run for the office of Precinct Delegate.