So it didn’t take long for Matt Hall to shower praise on the decision by RPV’s State Central Committee to choose a primary to bind our delegates to the 2016 Republican National Convention. [read_more]
Far more erudite folks than I have already covered the events of the meeting itself, so I’ll just address a few things about the meeting, the vote, and its consequences.
First, secret ballots are craven cowardice. We no longer tolerate General Assembly committee votes by secret ballot, and that’s the way every vote taken by representatives should be. Own your vote. Those who voted for a secret ballot on Saturday should be ashamed of themselves… and yes, I would have also voted to oppose a secret ballot on the question of whether to remove Berkley as the chair of the 5th Congressional District committee. His behavior was so obviously egregious, I would have been proud to cast a vote to remove him.
Second, the argument advanced by the pro-primary forces that RPV will gain ‘invaluable’ data is rank nonsense. This same argument has been advanced a number of times in previous cycles, and not once in the past has the party made good on the promise of primary data. Conversely, a 2016 Presidential convention would have brought out the largest level of attendance in Virginia Republican history from activists, no matter which candidate they supported. THIS data would be truly valuable to campaigns from city council on up to statewide races. A detailed list of all our most active members could have been had.
Third, the ‘inclusivity’ arguments ring hollow. The nomination process is not the place for outreach as some try to make it, for one thing. Outreach is a constant process the party should undertake. For another, candidates will have to expend quite a bit of energy just to get on the ballot, more difficult requirements than most other states, as against paying a one-time filing fee. Many states, whatever their method of nomination, operate with filing fees. This is not a significant barrier.
I’d also like to address the ridiculous assertions by Kasha Nielsen at the meeting that a convention would ‘disenfranchise’ CRs. College Republicans elected their leadership, her included, at a statewide convention. The hypocrisy is obvious. CRs can make it to a CRFV convention, but can’t make it out to a statewide nominating convention? Keep in mind that many campaigns cover the cost of CRs and YRs attending political conventions. This would certainly be no different. There would likely be even more opportunities for younger activists to get assistance with attending a mid-March convention, which would NOT fall during final exams.
Lastly, I want to address the issue of Daniel Webb not only supporting a primary, but actually giving the presentation in favor of it in lieu of Chip Muir. Webb promised to be pro-convention as a candidate for YRFV Chair. This is blatant dishonesty on his part. Do campaign promises mean nothing?
We’ll see you at the district conventions next year, primary supporters. Particularly those who switched their votes.
39 comments
This comment is not meant to offend, but do you actually know anything about running a campaign? Access to primary data is critical. Access to activist data can be gained by reading a handful of blog posts. What some people seem to miss is the simple truth that Independents decide elections. A primary gives you a shot at a broad data base. Now, that might not be popular, but it’s true and the sooner the “tent” operators realize it, the sooner you’ll win.
Literally everybody who’s ever worked on a campaign: “Data is important!”
“conservative” activists who never work on campaigns: “lol what’s data?”
It’s so cute when people assume they know who’s done/doing what.
AMEN!
ROCK ON Robert Kenyon, Rock on! I love it.
I can’t believe that we are almost a week out of the SCC meeting last Saturday and that we are still talking about this. Get over it. Start working for the nomination of Rand. Deal with the facts as they are. We have a lot to get excited about next year. Good things are going to happen as long as we don’t fudge things up.
But attacking the YR Chair and especially the CR Chair is low blow — especially for this blog. The young people in the YR’s and CR’s are going to be our not-so-secret weapon next year in turning Virginia red. They deserve our praise…not our scorn.
Robert, I pray that your heart heals. We need you. Now let’s move forward together.
if we don’t include the young voters, we are lost
This blog is well known for low blows. Nothing surprising here at all, the least of which is that Rob is wrong, as usual.
Keep trolling people and isolating yourself, Brian. It’s amusing.
Mr. Kenyon:
,
As YRFV chairman from 2001-2005, I can assure you that no political campaign covered the cost of any YRs who attended an RPV convention. On my authority as Chair, I forbade it under the grounds that it could constitute a de facto endorsement of a candidate. If it happened after my 2nd term ended, then I challenge you to cite evidence that YRs/CRs have had their convention attendance expenses paid for by campaigns. Otherwise, you’re simply making anecdotal pronouncements that have no basis in empirical fact to support your cherished narrative that conventions are superior nomination methods to primaries.
As for my successor changing his mind? Changing one’s mind to fit the facts versus sticking to a questionable cherished narrative is the mark of a statesman. I’m very proud of Chairman Webb and his opposite number, Chairwoman Nielsen, for their bravery to stand up to senior party folks. The YRFV and CRFV are in very, very, very good hands.
In terms of paying the fees for the convention itself, I haven’t seen that happen. But transporttation and lodging assistance has been provided for younger Republicans a LOT. To say otherwise is disingenuous.
Well it never happened under my watch. As for it happening “a LOT”, that’s what you say. And I have a 12 inch penis. There I said it….so it must be true.
I must say that the comments made by Ms. Nielsen were not only valid, but truly represented how College Republicans feel in regards to this issue.
1) Mid-March is midterms for a majority of colleges in Virginia.
2) It is not guaranteed that CRs would become delegates or that campaigns would be willing to cover the students financially.
3) How on earth would the CRFV hold a primary to elect their candidates? The CRFV is a relatively small organization in comparison to a congressional district or county committee. The best means of electing the leadership of CRFV is through a convention because it’s not meant for the whole state, but strictly college students. It’s simply a fallacy to compare the CRFV to the entire commonwealth.
You folks, in fact, all Republicans in Virginia should go to foxnews.com and watch Bill O’Reilly’s warning to American’s Republicans Tuesday night. We spend more time fighting among ourselves over trivial bull crap than we do our common enemy. As long as the majority of our arrows have a fellow Republican – instead of a Democrat – in the bull’s eye, we will lose in this state and in the nation. Democrats are many things, such as delusional deniers of demographic data, but one thing they are not, and that is disjointed and disillusioned.
If you are. It a professional political operative do not talk about the data because you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about and this continued argument is so moronic it makes me crazy
Not*
On your points, I agree with you about a secret ballot. I believe that if you are elected than you should openly vote to represent your constituents and be held accountable. With that being said the environment within the SCC has been malicious and disrespectful so I can understand why people would want to avoid the personal and threatening attacks. But that’s the only leg you have to stand on.
The data from a primary is wayyyyyyy more valuable than data from a convention would be. For one more people participate, aka more name id going in to a Nov. election. But thats just the start to the benefits…
But how dare you attack Kasha and Dan! They both are excellent representations of YRs and CRs across the state. Just think of your friends that vote Republican every year but won’t show up to a convention because they just don’t understand it or they don’t have a weekend to spare…. I have tons. Heck I have friends in the military overseas who would vote republican if they were back home, but they wouldn’t be home for a convention.
It is time for the younger generations of the party to step up. I have had enough of the in party fighting, the personal attacks, and being told I’m too young. It’s time to put all of that aside and win Virginia in 2015, 2016, 2017, and years to come.
Because the YR chair voted for a Primary (after campaigning on conventions) does not mean all YRs are Pro Primary. Same goes for CRs. I am a YR and I think electing our Republican nominee via open primaries is absurd. Bottom line is that Dan let me down with his vote and I imagine he let down a majority of the VA YRs too.
As a fellow YR, he didn’t let me down.
As a College Republican at George Mason I am shocked by this article’s attack on the leadership of CRFV and especially on Kasha Nielsen. First, Kasha did what any leader should do and asked College Republicans across the state their position on the Primary vs. Convention vote. She listened to what her fellow College Republicans had to say and as our representation on State Central she voted in a way that she felt, as our elected Chair, would best help to ensure College Republicans have a voice in this process. Second, to even try to compare a CRFV nominating convention to a Presidential selection method is a hard comparison to make. When we are talking about making our choice as to who Virginia Republicans will select to be our nominee to face Hillary in November 2016 it is important ALL Republicans in Virginia have a voice and that’s what Kasha was voting for, to give all College Republicans a voice in the process. Now is the time to come together as a party not to continue to tear each other apart and to make vicious attacks at the future leaders of our Party. I hope we can all work together to turn Virginia Red in November.
Republican’s all hope for more participation in the party from younger people, especially college students, they are the future of the party. It would, however, be a mistake to confuse the party’s adoration, respect, and hope for the future with a belief that college students are incapability of making errors in reasoning. Being celebrated doesn’t make a person infallible. I don’t think its fair to say the author’s comments are an “attack on the leadership of college Republicans” just because the author disagrees with the leadership’s position.
Dan Webb never promised to support every single convention. In fact, the compromise supported included a nominating convention in 2017. There is a big difference between a convention to nominate candidates for Gov., LG, and AG, and to nominate our presidential candidate. Dan is as honest and forthright as they come and saying he broke a campaign promise and is serving dishonestly is absurd.
Furthermore, any campaign can get the data from the 2012 statewide primary relatively easily. The problem we are running into on the campaign side right now is there are so few primaries over the past four years that we can’t identify our base as readily as we could if we had statewide primaries in ’13 and ’14 on top of the ’12 primaries. Having the information on the actual voter contacts on top of this key data point would be great but if the only benefit we got was to know who voted in that primary it would be invaluable enough on its own to merit a primary.
Several fairly prominent YRs told me otherwise re: Webb on the con/primary issue.
What do you mean RPV has never made good on its promise of primary data? That doesn’t make any sense. Primaries happen. People vote. SBE records the vote. SBE sends RPV a CD once a month with all the new data. That data went into Voter Vault, which gave way to DataCenter, which in VA gave way to whatever it is RPV is using now.
Also if we had a convention bigger than any in history then we would have an unmitigated disaster as the biggest venue in VA can hold roughly 14,500 people. I have still yet to hear anything on how Steve Albertson’s mythical sub-committee would go about making sure too many people didn’t get involved.
RPV has historically failed to take advantage of primary data, which in any event comprises 6-7% of eligible voters across the commonwealth maximum, if previous primaries are any indication. So they’re not exactly ‘inclusive’.
several hundred thousand (primary voters) is certainly more that fourteen thousand (convention attendees). at least by my math. & if this is correct, then several hundred thousand “includes” more voters than fourteen thousand. again, this is just my math.
A primary does not garner a majority or even a significant minority of eligible voters, so it cannot be called ‘inclusive.’ With that in mind, it’s more important to have anoimination process not underwritten by the taxpayers, and one that is driven by the most informed, most active Virginia Republicans. That’s a convention.
my background is in sales. getting the voter to yes is the goal. therefore, getting that voter to the polls is a win. & once they vote in a primary, they’ll vote in the general.
if you have another reason for wanting a convention, it may be valid.
We have no idea who they will vote for in the general election. Democrats in Virginia are thrilled to be able to vote for Donald Trump in our primary. I seriously doubt they will vote Republican in November. And we’ve never been able to capture the data at a primary. We do get it at a convention because everyone has to file with the pertinent information.
Jeanine, if you spent more time working to get your candidates elected…and less griping about the inside baseball aspects of the Party, I think you’d find yourself a happier and more content person.
Tombstone:
You can wish in one hand and shit in the other and you know which one will fill first.
I guess it would be too much to ask her to do that, wouldn’t it? A man can dream, though. Sorta like Reagan’s 11th Commandment.
Not likely.
Jeanine, you’ve never worked on a campaign, right? We capture data from primaries all the time. That’s what we mean when we say data. It’s information. It happens. We get it. We use it.
Folks in the peanut gallery like you don’t get it, or need it. People who run campaigns do need it, and get it, and use it.
Is there anyway you can find someone with a statewide voter file and put this bullshit about Democrats voting in primaries to rest? The most recent statewide data I have is from 2011 and its missing a Congressional district and on another computer in Norfolk and I’m on the Eastern Shore. But I’ve never seen any evidence of major crossover voting in any districts I’ve worked. The most common you get is intra-household crossover where maybe a husband or wife vote in a different party’s primary every so often or with younger voters (Under 30) who don’t know what they really think yet.
Most of the actual elections don’t garner a majority or even a significant minority of voters, Rob. Come on. Unless it’s a Presidential race, you’re always lucky to even hit 50%. Gillespie’s statewide was 41% turnout.
You’re an elitist – got it.
Are you saying that a primary yields LESS information than a convention? It’s just the opposite. And the vast majority of people who vote in a primary (who would not attend a convention) will tell you that the taxpayers funding the primary is the only method of nomination that is REPRESENTATIVE of everyone who wants to vote.
It yields more detailed information on a smaller subset of people, but those people are the activist base the party needs.
Frankly, it does not matter what voters at large think. It is not the business of the general public how the party chooses to nominate its candidates. It’s a private organization. The answer is to get public funding out of the nomination process, not to make the process more subject to it!
What history are you talking about? The primary voter list is where RPV and everyone else goes for everything. RPV wants to do a mailing, they are going to start with primary data. Robocall? Primary data comes first. If 6-7% isn’t inclusive then a convention definitely is not inclusive.