By Dianne Wyss, the current President of the Shenandoah County Republican Women; a member of the Shenandoah County Freedom Caucus and the County GOP Committee.
Republican women should support Scott Sayre for 6th District Chair.
The rift between the GOP Establishment and the Grassroots Conservatives is taking a new form here in the 6th: the enlistment of women to serve as fronts for men who want to exercise power behind-the-scenes.
Patsy Walker, the pleasant but under-qualified wife of former 6th District Chair Wendell Walker, has become the leader of the district GOP Women, using the family’s political muscle to push aside the competent and respected Cher McCoy.
In this role, Mrs Walker will have a vote on the District Committee equal to that of an actual GOP Committee Unit.
Now, Jennifer Brown, the fiancée of Roger Jarrell, who is a known GOP operative, is running hard for District Chair, trying to replace the competent and respected Scott Sayre.
It would be nice to know more about Brown’s GOP bona fides, because it looks like she is another pleasant but under-qualified consort of a powerful man. She chose not to address our Shenandoah Republican Women’s meeting when offered the opportunity, and she did not return the information questionnaire we sent to all the candidates for 6th District Office.
So we have few concrete facts about Brown. Does she have a job — she has been in school so long that one suspects her occupation is ‘professional student’. How is she spending the money she is fundraising? How will she fund her chairmanship – will the 6th District Republicans fund her? She has not been a Unit Chair or an RW President, so what is her management experience?
We do know that Jennifer is the Social Media Chair of the 6th District, and that the District is invisible on social media. Twitter is the main channel at present, and the number OF tweets sent out over the past year is – ZERO. This does not bode well.
This is the 21st Century. The 6th District has many women with records of accomplishment and with experience in GOP unit management, legislative activism, and issue advocacy. Among them are Donna Moser, Cher McCoy, Nancy Stone, Karen Kwiatkowski, and 6th District Leader Anne Fitzgerald, who serves here and at the State level.
These women stand on their own. They do not need to be propped up by their partners.
The situation is disheartening. Patsy Walker and Jennifer Brown appear to be pawns in an attempt to con women into supporting GOP Establishment power in the 6th District.
Furthermore, they have been actively disrespectful to the grassroots, and will find it difficult to gain the respect and cooperation of the grassroots conservative activists in the District.
We need proven leaders – men and women – who deserve respect and can unify our sad Old Party. Scott Sayre has been implementing an action plan to return power to the local committees and away from the top down outdated style that RPV and the Establishment wants – where they keep all the power.
Given everything at stake here, the choice is clear – Scott Sayre for the 6th!
On behalf of the Republican Women of Shenandoah County,
Dianne Wyss
