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September, 2013
An independent monthly chronicle of 11th Congressional District Republican Party news and events
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An independent monthly chronicle of 11th Congressional District Republican Party news and events
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Welcome to the first issue of 'The Elephant In The Room'. We plan this as a monthly communication, with news of interest to active Republicans in the 11th District - primarily present and future Precinct Delegates, but also other interested Republican party participants. Occasional bulletins may also be sent if an important item comes up that can't be delayed. If you know others who would have in interest in reading this, but do not currently receive it, they can be added to our mailing list. Just send an e-mail from the address at which they wish to receive the newsletter to EITR@Juno.com, with the word 'Subscribe' in the header. If you do not want to receive any further issues, simply reply to this address with the word 'Cancel'.
11th Congressional District Repblican Committee (CDRC) August 27 meeting - items of interest:
Fifteen Committee members were seen present at the beginning of the meeting; another arrived later.
Early on, one of the Diversity Outreach Committee members (Rickie Ibe) delivered his committee report. His accent made him a bit hard to understand, but he complained that there is "one group well known about in the Republican party" which is not letting it "move toward the center". The "group" was not specified. He mentioned opposition to amnesty for illegal immigrants, and other issues, as reasons why minorities didn't like the Republican party.
There was one lengthy event which was a run-of-the-mill item, but illuminating nonetheless. Two people had recently resigned from the Committee, leaving vacancies to be filled. The committee had to vote on replacements. Three candidates had been found, by some process which was not specified. Two were male, one female, and all appeared to be in their early twenties. Their resumes were read out by the committee chairman, and all had spent time working at Victory centers in the last election, or on other campaign work. Two were recent college graduates, one was a graduate student. At least two were recommended in personal endorsements by committee members. The committee spent considerable time questioning the candidates on their motives and goals.
Dave Staudt raised an objection to approving any of the three candidates as committee members. He thought they were too young, and should have to spend some unspecified amount of time as precinct delegates, or otherwise working their way up in rank. Barbara Harrel agreed with Mr. Staudt, stating that she didn't think any of them should be on the committee, and that they didn't have enough experience to be "in a decision making capacity". (This is not the first time Mrs. Harrel has been heard expressing "This is MY party, git offa my cloud" sentiments in public.)
This kicked off a fairly long discussion of whether Republican party members had to put in their time being obedient worker bees before they could be allowed to be "decision makers", or whether there was a pressing need to get more younger people active in the party. Mr. Staudt went on to say that he thought it was necessary that the applicants should "Give up some of your personal ideas for the betterment of the group". One objection which came out was that there had been no public notice of the committee vacancies, and it was moved that consideration of candidates should be tabled. The motion was defeated, with 7 voting yes and 9 no. Secret ballots were then conducted, and the two male candidates were elected as replacements on the Committee.
Other recent 11th CDRC meetings - items of interest: July 23 - Chairman Mike Mitchell brought up the fact that state Senator Pat Colbeck has become a target. Apparently due to his opposition to Governor Snyder's attempts to implement the Obamacare provisions into Michigan law, Mr. Snyder is now trying to recruit a challenger to run in the primary against Senator Colbeck. Exploratory committees have been set up to plan that attempt.
11th CDRC monthly meetings are usually on the last Tuesday of the month, at 7pm in the Suburban Collection Showplace (used to be called Rock Financial Center). The address is 46100 Grand River Ave Novi, MI 48374. The meeting room is on the right after you enter the front door, then left down a hallway. Chairs are available for visitors to watch from, and two-minute audience comments are allowed at the end of the meeting. This year the custom is for visitors to be asked to stand up and state their name at the beginning of the meeting. Upcoming meeting dates are listed as Sept. 24 and Oct. 22.
Resolution in the face of Obamadversity
Recently, two local Republican Committees passed resolutions calling on state legislators to defend Michigan, against the optional Medicaid Expansion section of Obamacare desired by the Democrat party and Governor Snyder. At their July 23rd meeting, the 11th CDRC passed one such, after some discussion and a motion to substitute new wording. The largest audience so far this year was present (extra chairs had to be brought in), and very interested in the resolution. The voice vote was officially recorded in the minutes as unanimous, but some committee members were noticed looking a bit less than pleased at having to vote.
After the meeting was over, discussion with the chairman revealed that the resolution could not yet be released to the public. The reason given for the delay was that one committee member had family medical problems. For the next month, district Republicans waited hopefully for an official announcement, but there never was one. Nobody could find out what the wording was - there was no announcement in the committee newsletter, no trace of it on the 11th website, no proof of its existence anywhere. Given the amount of time that had gone by, many concluded that it was in the interest of certain parties to not let it out in public, at least until after it would be too late to have any effect. (Maybe they hoped it would just be forgotten?) After a series of public e-mails circulated to the party bosses, the resolution was finally made available on August 22.
On August 26, the Wayne County Republican Committee also voted on a resolution instructing state Senators to vote no on HB4714.
Just a day later, Randy Richardville (the Republican Senate Majority Leader) broke his own party rule in letting HB4714 come to a vote in the senate, when 18 out of 26 Republican senators did not want it to. Eight senators, who had been elected as Republicans, joined in helping the Democrats enact their highest policy goal in forcing Obamacare on Michigan. Mr. Richardville is still Majority Leader today; there has been no move to replace him with someone who actually represents the majority of his caucus. He is free to keep right on being a Democrat collaborator for the rest of his term.
Here is a list of 11th District Republican state legislators, and how they voted on passing HB 4714:
Senate
7 Pat Colbeck - no
12 Jim Marleau - yes
13 John Pappageorge - no
15 Mike Kowall - yes
26 David B. Robertson - no
House
19 John Walsh - yes
20 Kurt Heise - no
38 Hugh Crawford - yes
39 Clint Kesto - yes
40 Mike McCready - yes
41 Martin Howrylak - no
43 Gail Haines - no
44 Eileen Kowall - yes
45 Tom McMillin - no
From the 2012 Republican party platform: "Obamacare .... would tremendously expand Medicaid without significant reform, leaving the States to assume unsustainable financial burdens. If fully implemented, it could not function; and Republican victories in the November elections will guarantee that it is never implemented." (Link)
Is there anyone still gullible enough to fall for this bait-and-switch double talk today?
For a more extensive record: GRM-link
Country Class vs. Political Class
As most readers already know, the Michigan Republican party candidate for Lieutenant Governor is chosen by a vote of the precinct delegates, at the state convention held between the 2014 primary and the November general election. In most years the Governor's choice is endorsed without contest, but in 2009 a challenger ran against Brian Calley. Most observers think the votes were there to replace Mr. Calley, but due to disorganization and mis-communication among the insurgents, the challenger withdrew his candidacy before the voting took place.
A few days ago, Wes Nakagiri, who started the first TEA Party PAC in Michigan ( Retake Our Gov ), formally organized a campaign to run for Lt. Governor in 2014 (more detail here: www.wesyes.com). The people in charge of the state Republican party Do Not want that to happen. Rocking the boat like that would be a serious challenge to the insiders club monopoly on the levers of power.
A change in the Republican party rules has been proposed, and will be voted on by State Committee members at the convention in Mackinac, on the weekend of Sept. 21-22. The change would prevent aspiring Lt. Governor candidates from being nominated from the floor of the 2014 state convention, as has traditionally been done. It would instead require candidates to announce their intentions some time well ahead of the convention, and get the agreement of multiple district chairs in order to be able to run. The number of chair signatures required is not completely clear - different numbers are quoted by different people, and at least three state committee members have not been able to get a copy of the proposed rule change. This is obviously a rather lame, kneejerk attempt to block any rivals to the establishment status quo. Precinct delegates can contact their state committee members regarding this rule change, before they go to the Mackinac conference on the weekend of Sept. 21 - they are elected by the P.D.s, and theoretically are supposed to represent them.
11th District State Committee members:
Tom Cameron (Wayne County)
Ronna Romney-McDaniel (Wayne County)
Barbara Harrell (Oakland County)
Dennis Pittman (Oakland County)
Rich Poling (Oakland County)
Elizabeth Smith (Oakland County)
11th CDRC members link
The challenge to Mr. Calley's nomination is going to have a big effect on the election, in next August's primary, of all Precinct Delegates in Michigan. Up to now, there has been very little competition for the positions - pretty much anybody who put their name on the ballot was elected, with a few exceptions in areas of high Republican activity. The party hierarchy is now, for the first time, going to be very motivated to get their own adherents elected, and to defeat those who they see as potential Nakagiri voters. The Livingston County Republican Party chairman had some observations on the subject; they can be found here: (link)
Some quotes from the August 30 'Off The Record' TV broadcast:
Rick Pluta- 14:00 "Brian Calley is sending out a lot of "Dear Friend" e-mail messages."
Zachary Gorchow- 16:30 "The governor and his team are going to have to place a huge emphasis on getting Precinct Delegates elected".
OTR Link
Getting elected as a precinct delegate probably will not be as easy next August as it always has been, unless you are favored by the current establishment. Those who aren't may want to give some thought to organizing among themselves before next summer. Based on past history, we can expect the Republican party "decision makers" to change the rules for precinct delegate election, and selection to the state convention, doubtless in creative new ways. They probably won't be known or understood by most people until it is too late. This newsletter will try to keep the 11th District precinct delegates informed in time on all the twists and turns.
Event calendar:
Sept. 10 7pm- Troy Area Tea Party meeting (Link)
Sept. 11 6:30pm- Oakland Co. Republican Committee Meeting (open to public, no-CPL-zone) (Link)
Sept. 11 6:30pm- Farmington Area Republicans (Link)
Sept. 12 7pm- Wayne 11th CDRC Meeting (Link)
Sept. 14 2pm- Celebrate Freedom Fundraiser for Pat Colbeck (Link)
Sept. 15, 1pm- Wayne County Republican Committee annual BBQ (Link)
Sept. 15, 6pm- Lakes Area Tea Party meeting (Link)
Sept. 16, 7pm- Rattle With Us TEA party meeting (Link)
Sept. 23, 7pm- Wayne County Republican Committee meeting (Link)
Sept. 24, 7pm- 11th CDRC meeting (Link)
Sept. 28 9am- Bloomfield Republican Women's Club - Social Media Training (Link)
Thought for the day:
From Sol Anuzis' Sept 1 'Weekly Musing': "The Political Class is trying to resist and cling to the status quo, but they will be no more successful than those in the wine, newspaper or polling industries. In the digital revolution, those defending the status quo always lose."
E.I.T.R. Policies and Principles
If you have an article, event, or other news that you think the readership should know about, we welcome your contributions. Editorial judgement will be applied to consider what interest readers will have in the submission, so keep articles or letters to a reasonable length. Articles should be factual - you must be able to provide corroboration of your information. Articles can be published under an alias, but you must be prepared to be able to stand up in court, raise your right hand, and testify to what you personally witnessed (because it may come to that). Unsubstantiated allegations just won't fly here, and rumors will be not be treated seriously unless they have some special reason to have plausible and substantive news value. We will be happy to follow up on tips which cannot yet be proven, but we can't publish them as fact without confirmation.
Letters expressing an opinion are fine, and will be published as such, if they would be of interest to the 11th District readership. Keep it local; there are other venues for national articles and issues. We want to focus this chronicle on items affecting Republican district affairs, including the activities of the office holders elected from this district.
Notices of events, planning, organization, etc. are welcome. If you want to get word out to like minded people in this district, send in your notice or idea. Keep it succinct, factual, and don't bore the reader - nobody wants to plow through long diatribes. The 11th CDRC party leaders have no control over this publication, and cannot censor any notices or opinions.
Responses to E.I.T.R. articles will be considered on their merits, and published if they are informative and a reasonable length. Our intention is to send each issue out at or around the beginning of the month, so sending items in at least a week before that is a good idea. That will allow time for two-way communication regarding any questions that may come up.
Denis Curran, Editor - E.I.T.R.
