On Sunday Trump sent out a series of tweets blasting RPV for the “Statement of Affiliation” which will be on the Virginia Republican ballot on March 1st. Voters must sign the statement, “My signature below indicates that I am a Republican”, which Trump found objectionable.
In his first tweet Trump said,
“It begins, Republican Party of Virginia, controlled by the RNC, is working hard to disallow independent, unaffiliated and new voters. BAD!”
Trump believes the RNC controls the Republican Party of Virginia and is urging them to take action in Virginia.
“R.P. Virginia has lost statewide 7 times in a row. Will now not allow desperately needed new voters. Suicidal mistake. RNC MUST ACT NOW!”
More tweets:
“The voters the Republican Party of Virginia are excluding will doom any chance of victory. The Dems LOVE IT! Be smart and win for a change!”
“Straighten out The Republican Party of Virginia before it is too late. Stupid! RNC”
Delegate David Ramadan, no fan of Donald Trump, responded,
“Our party, our rules; your $$$ and your bullying do not work in the commonwealth. MORON!!”
72 comments
Since Virginia does not register voters by party and is an open primary state, the RPV might as well have people sign a statement saying “I am a pretty, pretty princess”. It would be just as legally binding. This is the same stupidity that resulted in the loyalty oath brouhaha surrounding the last Presidential primary. Will the RPV never learn?
I think we have a vice-chair or a unit faction for ‘Pretty, Pretty Princesses.’ They should get votes on district committees and SCC.
If we don’t start being more responsive to the PPP groups, we can never hope to win.
After all, we are a ‘Big Castle’ party.
LOL
And now the Trump ladies have gotten involved, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgHZsvZykSQ They are unaware that we do not have party registration in Virginia. Sigh……
See, so the Pantomime Party Registration works!
We don’t need actual Party Registration because Signature Statement Affirmations are proven effective thusly.
You are too funny!
There is a saying about closing the barn door after the horse is gone. This action is again “fighting the next war with the last war’s tactics”. In previous elections we were hurt by democrat crossover because Democrats didn’t have a real primary. Their candidate had already been crowned. This next year that isn’t the case. There will be a knock down drag out fight among the Dems and little chance of a crossover interference. What could happen is that lots of blue dog dems and independents could switch parties and vote for a republican in both the primary and in the general election. With a good experience in the outcome, they could become converts to the Republican Party. But we lost the horse in 2012 so we are locking the door now.
The story ends with word moron.
A moron is someone who keeps doing the same thing and expects adifferent outcome. These are the continued actions of republican parties in Virginia and they expect to win by continuallyexpelling voters , morons.
For the voter we must vote for Trump to keep from being morons , because we will be delt the same lame R .
I wish I felt like my vote really Counted seems like all politicians are really all just losers our government is embarrassing
Your vote does count, but can count more. Get involved with your local GOP and give them a piece of your mind and tell them to shove it upwards — enough people doing this and we will no longer require someone like The Donald to pull our chestnuts out of the fire.
Some local GOP’s are manipulative people not even residents in the respective community, Example Rick Boyer at the CCRP he wilfully discarded an estimated 500 republican voters , lets see who this hurts in the Congressional 5th primary , Hurt chose to distance himself from these control freaks {RWNJ}.
Freedom and free will is an American trait found in the Trump supporter. The RPV will use thier freedom to expell us , problem is they have expelled themselves from our support of ” thier candidate “.
In America controll, corruption and complicity is the rule of the day for the RNC , hence Trump offers freedom to do things ” properly “.
Support James McKelvey in the Congressional 5th { a republican employer not lawyer }.
Which goes to show that the GOP is not about ’embracing new Republicans’ it’s about embracing voters who blindly follow and support the establishment candidates, it’s about more names for the database, more e-mail addresses for begging appeals.
The Trump demographic is the Reagan demographic yet the establishment sees that as a disruption to the gravy train.
Look at the vitriol spewed out by the party spokesmodel, look at the machinations of the party apparatus, look at the non-Republican behavior of the other candidates — Trump forced to sign a loyalty pledge, Kasich and Bush declare they won’t support the nominee.
You get the most flak when you’re over the target, The Donald parked his campaign blimp over the GOP and is rappelling down guns a’blazing.
When you fly high like an eagle they make you the target for flying at the hieghts Trump does.
I saw the RPV were on CNN tonight. That was a bit earlier than I expected, but you can be sure ole Wolf will be on top of things on primary night as he explains how the republicans in Virginia tainted their election results by requiring a signed statement before handing out open primary ballots.
And now the reports of pissed off voters begins.
Sorry Jean, what did you think was going to happen from this lame idea? The public’s reaction from the first time they pulled this stunt should have been a clue. It’s an open primary paid by the state taxpayers. The RPV in essence relinquishes ownership the moment they call for a primary, Meaningless loyalty statements have no legal standing if the result is denying a voter a ballot. Especially when a voter creates a major scene at the check in desk or gets their mug on the local news for voicing their opinion of the RPV leadership. Is it really worth the bad press?
If only SCC had voted for a convention. We tried to tell them, but the establishment folks on SCC wouldn’t hear of it. They insisted on a primary. I hope they’re happy with Trump as their nominee from Virginia.
So they wanted a primary. OK, but they should have had to accept the ramifications of that decision. But now they want the voters to in effect hold a convention by requiring them to sign up as a republican in the voting booth.
No, this is the result of the establishment outfoxing the Conservatives “We get a primary which favors establishment Republicans, and you can invoke the dopey clause that is pointless but suppresses the Trump non-Republicans as well as the Tea Party Republicans and Libertarian non-Republicans. But we can probably keep out a few of the democrat non-Republicans that can’t find their way to their own nominees.”
However, most all non-Republicans will say “Yeah, right” and do what they are going to do anyway.
So see? The RPV and SCC are having a Potemkin Primary. Dontcha feel great about the GOP now?
Who cares, it’s our Party and we can sign if we want to, so yes, sure it’s worth the bad press. Is it worth gathering bogus data and pissing off pollworkers? I don’t think so.
I had no idea this statement of affiliation would cause such problems. Read the angry comments here, https://www.facebook.com/VirginiaGOP/?hc_location=ufi People are really upset!
these people could be trolls. or they could be real voters. can RPV afford to lose even one vote? Obviously they think so
The RPV lost the battle to have Republicans choose the nominee in a party process, now they attempt to reduce the suck level — but the law of unintended consequences is making this blow up in our faces and is aiding the establishment.
Smart money would back down, what do you think the RPV will do?
Since SCC voted for this, I don’t think they can step away from it without another vote. Since they are meeting again in January, they could revote then, but I don’t see that happening, even with this outcry from voters.
They actually voted on this? Was their no discussion as to the cost and wisdom of this?
Lipstick on a pig. Barn door closed after the fact. Is it worth the trade offs?
Republicans will comply, non-Republicans will ignore or dole out grief to pollworkers.
When did our strategy become ‘We have to do something’ or ‘what the heck, why not?’
Pretending it is not an open primary and requiring/not requiring a signed ‘statement’ is only a self-delusion that we have a pseudo-party process.
Of course we can add these ‘brand new’ caltrops — But should we??
Once Again, spot on. Thank you.
Can we afford to lose one vote in primary? Absolutely.
We can lose whole bunches of votes, we practice for that in the SCC.
But the goal of the establishment is that we lose votes by watering down the will of the Republicans with ‘open’ primaries.
“Well if we just had contests where Republicans participated, we’d elect more Republican nominees — by opening it up to non-Republicans, we make sure that the the Republican votes are ‘balanced’ by the non-Republican votes. That way we get a more establishment-palatable nominee.
VERY well said. Spot on. I wish I could frame this one.
Having an open primary is stupid. Making the Taxpayers pay for it is stupider. Requiring something ‘special’ sprung upon the voters and pollworkers is stupidest.
What do they see when they look in the mirror, in the morning?
A Republican? Hahahahahahahahaha..
When I look at them, I see unindicted felons.
As long as Emmett Hanger and his ilk are allowed to openly encourage Democrats to vote in Republican primaries (oh yes this happened) then this statement is meaningless. I will sign it and continue to support who I want when I want.
Yep, Trumpeople will neither be dissuaded nor suppressed.
Ignoring the electorate will not bode well for the GOP.
Or reveals the hypocrisy of ‘Republicans’ Constitutional AND otherwise.
But what’s the point of the Statement anyway when you have Republicans like Kasich and Bush telling us how they wouldn’t support our nominee.
Well I am only supporting Trump.
Because of the lame Republican controlled GA and the previous VA. R Administration willfull desire to be complicit to illegal aliens donumented vioilating state laws { willfull failed inaction } or stupidity.
http://watchdog.org/202012/subcontractors-shadow-economy-
No I do not stand with the murders , child molesters and drug dealers { fact } in Virginia.
Our GA is pretty good, the Senate could use some help, the Governor is a short-timer and the AG needs impeaching. Your issue needs better politicization and articulation — I think your association and PAC should be doing their job better.
Support Jim McKelvey in the 5th.
A employer not a lawyer.
Same “good Ole’ Boy” system in Virginia. In order for Virginia GOP to
stabilize with more creditability, they need to get rid of the “good ol’
boy’ members. Forcing signatures gives the GOP ways to harass voters later
should they lien toward the most reliable candidates for office.
These are bullying tactics! Virginians overlook way too much
criminal behavior, which comes from the GOP public offices. We have local level
politics, elections, with looming criminal investigations, such as; Loudoun
County Sheriff committing felony crimes, but is not being investigated, even
though, a special prosecutor has been appointed. It doesn’t place much faith in
the the party if they wont clean up their on backyard!!
so criminal behavior comes from GOP public offices? that is sort of a slanted view, don’t you think?
Six days ago I commented on an article by Guest Contributor John Fredericks here in the TBE on the apparent lack of value these new Republican presidential primary required statement of affiliation pledges created for the RPV. My question was simply why would the state central committee spin this rule out of thin air for so little to no gain? I simply stated “why do it then”? I offered some not particularly flattering options regrading motivations but I see I was clearly off-base in this assessment. The purpose of this (or at least the observable consequence) has been to make the entire RPV look like a group of manipulative connivers on the national media scene. I’m not claiming they are manipulative connivers BUT have been successfully media portrayed far and wide as such. The piece de resistance to this bad judgement was Delegate David Ramadan’s further inflaming the issue by resorting to name calling in I suppose what he thought was some kind of defense of the whole affair. The party has managed to make itself look petty and foolish on the national level for NO demonstrable gain or political advantage. The RPV “club” is not only an organizational mess but becoming a standing PR joke. Perhaps it’s time to start running some of these self inflected damaging concepts past group’s of the voter base before embarrassing themselves on a national level as they currently have achieved. A little marketing smarts goes a long way in selling a laundry detergent or a political party!
Ramadan is just upset that the elite money and establishment power shoe is on a different foot now.
let’s say this whole “statement of affiliation” flap angers just 1,000 regular Republican voters. Would 1,000 votes for a Republican ever matter anyway? Ask Mark Obenshain. We cannot afford to lose one vote.
RPV should be in the business of building the party. Yet they continue to excluse voters.
I agree completely
The best argument is that since we have to have a primary, we might as well use the statement to keep out the riff raff and cause discomfort for non-Republicans playing in our sandbox.
On the surface it is a nothing, no big deal, and nobody should care.
I certainly don’t expect non-Republicans to acquiesce to the spirit of the statement let alone the letter of the statement.
But below the surface we are trying to pretend and intimidate voters into also pretending that this is a morally valid party-selecting nomination process.
It’s not. It’s a popularity contest held by the traditional establishment Republicans pandering to an incumbent-friendly low-info electorate.
But this time the voters could go off reservation and select the ‘Trump/none of the above’ option which would have dire consequences for Establishment Republicans as well as many Constitutionally-challenged conservatives.
Either way, it shouldn’t matter a hill of beans beyond the blustering and posturing, but this pointless gesture does screw with voters and poll workers when it doesn’t need to.
I blame the RPV State Central for coming up with this method as well as the ‘Click Accept to Install’ equivalent statement.
Every vote matters, but in a Republican nominating process, it is not that absurd to attempt to restrict participation to Republicans. ‘Not that absurd’ is not equal to ‘a good idea.’
To late they lost me! I have voted GOP for the last 5 elections but not this time, if I didn’t know better I would swear there working for Hillary…
Then clearly you are the last straw.
There are multiple GOP’s. You just have to vote for and support the right one while realizing there is a constant struggle for the soul of the GOP that conservatives win once in a while.
One could make the case that the GOP consistently wins and securely holds second place to the democrats.
Why is that?
Obenshain lost in the general election. This concerns the Primary process. Think of it this way: your company is deciding where to build a new factory, and shareholders vote their approval/dispproval. Do you let folks from a competing business vote? Do you confirm that those in the room belong there?
The problem for Obenshain was, polls were open longer in some select (Democrat) precincts. The recount was delayed (Oh, did you need to count those locked-up ballots THIS week…? Sorry, the only person with the key is *cough!* out of town), time ran out, and he conceded. I suggested to William Howell, that the outlying precincts ought to hold off on sending in their results until AFTER Fairfax, Arlington and Falls Church finish theirs. He seemed intrigued.
Wow, the RPV continues to show how irrelevant they are by stooping to name calling.
Actually, the name calling came from a guy who gave away a delegate seat.
lol Trump brings out the worst in people I guess. PS – we need his voters and we aren’t going to get them by creating a barrier exclusively for them in the primary process.
Open primaries have been the death of Republican Party candidates in King County, WA for decades. The teachers union directs all members to vote for the weaker candidate, thereby ensuring an easy victory in the general election. Then, if the outcome is not to their liking, the obligatory recounts kick in…until they’ve ‘discovered’ enough additional votes to put their guy over the top. Yes, open primaries have a track record of disaster. Why does the RPV not understand this?
Because the RPV exists to elect Republican Congresscritters first and foremost. The Primary is more incumbent protection. This cycle it’s to suppress a different group of Non-Republicans from the traditional dem ‘crossover buffer.’
Republicans are pissed off for a myriad of reasons — this is yet another push toward Trump.
I’m afraid you are correct. Of course Trump has played it beautifully to make sure that happens.
RPV has nothing to do with whether or not the primaries are open. It’s state law that says they must be open and the General Assembly has seen no reason to change that. They won’t vote for party registration.
I believe that the declarative statement is a good move. It will at least weed out a good number of interlopers. (I’d like not to see another 29th District debacle anytime soon)
If we wanted to have a party process, why didn’t the SCC vote for that? We can’t make an open primary into a party process, no matter how much lipstick we put on this pig.
There’s a difference between a ‘Party Process’ and having people who agree with the platform voting for a candidate. Ever hear of Norm Maleng or Dino Rossi? No? Both ran for Governor in Washington State: The first lost the primary due to crossover voting , the other lost the general due to three ballot recounts (only in King County, stopping as soon as they ‘found’ enough more votes for Gregoire). If we make it easy to cheat, we’ll get cheated every time.
What a puerile response from RPV. Calling a popular candidate a “moron” is not remotely persuasive, ironically it’s just an attempt to bully Trump. Ugh. Really hate the way the republicans operate in Virginia.
He’s not RPV.
You should see it from the inside -shudder-!
Stupid is what stupid does. RPV, go right ahead and mandate a signature pledge. People like me will sign it, and treat that piece of paper like toilet tissue. Go right ahead. Just keep swinging and missing. Hillary’s brother is already the governor of Virginia. Let’s go for Hillary in 2016! #Trump2016!
How many comments have been left on this blog or on web articles from people claiming that they didn’t leave the GOP,the GOP left them. Will these people sign such a statement? I don’t know. What about followers of Franklin Graham, who so publicly left the GOP recently over the PP funding? Would they declare themselves to be Republican?
Point is, we need all these voters.
In the past when we have had such statements, the majority of democrats in my precinct signed the document and placed their vote for the candidate they thought was the easiest to beat. In this case it will be Trump. I have only known ONE democrat who refused to sign and therefore was denied the right to vote in our primary. Democrats feel no moral compunction to not sign the statement. It doesn’t bother them one bit. Trump need not worry about it.
this “statement of affiliation” has angered Trump voters. How many other people will be angered when they are presented this on primary day? How many voters can the Virginia Republican Party afford to lose? Doesn’t anyone remember how close Mark Obenshain’s election was?
If they’re not Republicans, why do we want them voting in our primary? Do we really want Trump to be the nominee? I don’t.
But the polls say the American people do..your thinking is why I left the GOP or as I see it they left me…I hope Trump goes 3ed party and shows the GOP that what they have done is hand the POTUS to Hillary.
In that case it would be Trump giving Hillary the win. The blame would fall on him and him alone, not on anybody else. The GOP’s actions would be forgotten, and Trump would be remembered as the man who handed the country somebody as weak and under qualified as Obama.
No, it will be Trump who hands it to Hillary whether he’s our nominee or runs as a third party.
Or he’s the guy that saves the GOP by being the only one taking the fight to the Progressives and the media — And Winning!
Is Trump the best choice for our nominee? Not sure yet.
Is Trump just as good as our eligible candidates? Yes.
Is he the one that is freaking out Dems, Media, all establishment Republicans? You betcha!
But is that the best criteria to choose the nominee? Are things so bad that we say ‘the heck with our brand and nomination selection responsibility’ and we pull the Pin on The Donald and toss him over the wall?
I’m having a hard time reconciling greatest political amusement and entertainment with President, leader of the free world and planet.
We must think if the consequences and pretend for once that our nominee might actually win and then we have to deal with it… with our hollow Congress.
Then what?
How about unaffiliated conservatives? Whether they consider themselves to be Republicans or not… they likely believe in the Republican Creed more than some Republican candidates. Are they to have no voice in this race unless they are willing to lie?
Around 166 , to bad the RPV then did not want the votes of Trump supporters today. Can the RPV say President Hillary Clinton , well they better get used to it by discarding the patriotic Trump voter.
The GOP can’t grow the base by being watered down democrats. I’m still trying to figure out how the omnibus is acceptable to the GOP.
It’s not acceptable to the base of the GOP.