Today, in Charlottesville, the State Central Committee of the Republican Party of Virginia met for the first time since our four year District Conventions. At this meeting the main job is to elect officers.
Today, by closely divided votes for six of seven positions, the SCC elected new officers. The votes were by secret ballot. As such I feel it appropriate to disclose how I at least voted. I voted for the conservative fellowship candidate for all seven positions. All but two of them lost, Diana Banister and Kevin Gentry. The results can be found in the live blog here. I’ll add some commentary for those officers I have come to know below.
I had a good idea of the whip count before we started. I honestly do not think a single speech swayed a single vote.
Transparency loses, for now
I have been quietly and vocally working to push candidates over the past few months to support transparency measures, specifically near blanket opposition to executive session, and open roll call votes on nearly all measures (notable exception for litigation for example).
First up, executive session: a motion was made to go into executive session to discuss “the budget.” During the rush for a voice vote I rose in opposition and explained that the information to be discussed was the type that would be in public filings. We moved forward with a voice vote that was overwhelmingly in favor of executive session. Approximately 12-15 people voted with me against the motion, including the SCC members from the 8th. Maybe someday, I’ll be able to share with you the super-secret budget information.
Secondly, and more importantly, officer votes: Chairman Whitbeck rightfully identified that a motion was needed to approve the rules for nominations and voting. Immediately after a motion to approve the rules was made and seconded I moved to amend the motion to change the vote from a “secret ballot” to an “open roll call vote.” I believed as I drove to Charlottesville I had about 20-25 votes for this even though I had done no whipping. Members argued for both sides:
Those arguing against an open roll call vote suggested:
– This is normally done by secret ballot
– We need to work with these people so a secret ballot is needed to avoid hard feelings
The question was called, and the vote was not overwhelming. The Hon. Susan Lascolette (7th Dist. SCC) moved for a roll call vote. Chairman Whitbeck called a standing vote. Those in favor of my motion had to stand and be counted. Then those opposed were counted. We lost the vote 31-49. Lascolette called for a roll call vote. I do not believe the Chairman heard her so I stood and called for a roll call vote. The Chairman ruled my request out of order as he had already completed the standing vote.
Without a roll call vote I can not properly identify who stood in favor of transparency, even at that contentious moment. Some in the Fifth and Sixth Districts stood with us. Most of the Seventh District supported transparency.* All of the 10th and 11th Districts supported transparency. I am very proud to have stood shoulder to shoulder with my 11th District Representatives from varied backgrounds who stood in unity to oppose secret ballots, Kyle McDaniel, Fredy Burgos, and Ryan Rauner. I would try to list the remainder who stood with us, but fear missing some who deserve to be commended.
*As Anita Hile (Proxy for Nancy Smith 7th Dist.) notes, the entire Seventh voted in favor of open roll call. I wasn’t sure if every person from the Seventh voted in favor and did not want to imply as such if it was not the case. I spoke with Mark and Anita Hile before the meeting, and appreciated to find that they were strongly committed to transparency.
Some have already told me they will support open roll call votes for matters other than officer elections. With some effort, transparency may become the order of the day, not because of the advantage it yields a faction, but because it is the right thing to do as representatives of the Party.
Officers
I do not know a number of them, but would like to comment briefly on three I did not vote for, but I know well enough to acknowledge their assets.
Nancy Dye: When speaking with Ms. Dye early on I delved into her personal and professional background. She, and her husband, both doctors, have led truly amazing lives. She has substantial board experience, and has worked in high pressure high conflict environments. She will be an asset to RPV. She also may not remember, but she invited me to her house the next time I am in Roanoke which is in a unique place…
Jill Cook: Ms. Cook is a staple of Fairfax County politics. I got to know her during campaigning from the neighboring 10th District. EVERY time I have seen her she has been moving, quickly, to accomplish something. Her energy is incredible. It is no surprise she has been a consistent winner of Republican volunteer awards. I hope she enjoys recording our long term winning plans and activities, and occasional bickering.
John Selph: Mr. Selph has a long history of handling campaign finance for a broad variety of candidates including some of Virginia’s most conservative candidates. I am glad to be working with him.
9 comments
So other than voting against transparency and for specific officers what specific “course” forward has actually been debated and agreed to for the rest of 2016 and beyond? Proverbs rightly declares “where there is no vision, the people perish.” As a purple state politically, what can or will the newest members of the State Central Committee do to energize the demoralized base after eight years of Obama?
For while Republicans have consistently won the rural vote in the state, Democrats dominate in the more populated municipalities across the Commonwealth and across the whole country. This in turn is sadly reflected in the Electoral College voting as well between 2008 and 2012, in which we flipped only one state from the Democratic camp to the Republican one. So even though these demographics have in the recent past enabled Republicans to win a majority in seven of the state’s eleven Congressional districts, those votes were in turn dis-enfranchised by statewide voting patterns across the state in both statewide and national races where the heavier Democratic turnout in NoVA particularly and elsewhere overturned the majority Republican and conservative voting especially in much of the western part of the state.
As such can anyone else besides the Governor, General Assembly or U.S. Senate grant me and my fellow conservatives in the 5th Congressional District and elsewhere a political divorce from voters in NoVa, or at least bravely help champion an effort to subdivide the commonwealth into four or more separate states, file suit in federal court (since the GA failed to do so again this year) to change us from a “winner take all” state in voting in the Electoral College to a “by district” voting state? For as one close friend recently calculated, that if this had actually been done here prior to 2012 and in every other state as well as a few of us have been pushing for, Romney and not Obama might have actually won the Electoral College vote last time by 10 votes!
In addition, while I certainly have enough confidence in God and Donald Trump that he can be transformed himself if elected to the Presidency such that he could become one of the nations best Presidents ever, I am also extremely tired of not only our long primary season, but how it also seems to almost always end up producing a nominee who is only “the lesser of two evils” to vote for every four years. Whoever we nominate must run a much stronger campaign this fall than our last two candidates put forth. Similarly whomever we send to Congress must provide more principled leadership either in opposition or in actually governing then we have been getting as well.
If on the other hand we cannot find such candidates for office at any level who truly embrace and remain loyal to our state Republican creed and values, or who refuse or fail to make the hard choices necessary to curb the oppressive annual federal overspending and redistribution of wealth that continues to take place via the progressive income tax, then maybe its past time for those of us who have become so disappointed with such a feckless GOP over the past eight years, to finally leave it in possible favor of introducing a whole new alternative political brand (after November) which I would call the POG (People of God)?
Until then, and unless the delegates to our national convention can do otherwise, any other such pre-election third party move will likely only result in another political defeat for not only those of us still loyal to the fractured Republican Party, but for every working and taxpaying American as well. Such a fate, may God forbid, would be a fate almost worst than death and one therefore which Russell Kirk himself would say we can neither afford or accept under any circumstance without at least also implementing some new mitigating check and balance the power of the Presidency and regulatory agencies themselves. More on this later.
New members of SCC are at a disadvantage to help change party campaign operations for the better between now and November 2016. RPV’s plan and staffing have largely been in place, and I feel attempting to drastically change such plan would do more harm than good. Think of the SCC as a board of directors and the Chairman as a CEO. The Chairman already is executing a plan.
That being said, as the newly elected Chairman of the 11th we are working directly with the Trump campaign to help them in the County of Fairfax. We will not have much in the way of our own operations, but are already playing a support role to the presidential campaign. Reasonable differences in the Fairfax County vote could have flipped 2 statewide elections in the past four years.
Thanks Paul. I appreciate what you are trying to do and your assessment about what is already developing at the top of the RPV to set a clearer course to election victory later this year and hopefully for our shared future. Unfortunately, this year, as outlined above, we must not only think, act and communicate our commonsense approach to various issues in such a different way than we may have in the past, in order to retain and re-engage many of our life-long but discouraged local activists to stay involved and still attract newer and younger voters as well to join our ranks rather than drink the cool aid of the other party promising to provide all new but expensive entitlements such as a free college education free or making marijuana no longer illegal in all fifty states.
FYI….ALL of the 7th stood with you for transparency. We were the ones sitting right in front of you.
Anita, Thanks for the clarification. I updated the article. Just in case I was wrong about unanimity in the seventh I held back. It was great to meet you and Mark and I very much look forward to working with you at future meetings.
Thanks, Paul. The 11th is in good hands.
I loved the comment about hurt feeling if we have a roll call vote. Even crying face Boehner in 2015 had a roll call vote for speaker so we know how our congressmen(women) voted for that leadership position. and what was with the abstention? that was crazy.
Yes, we always know how our representatives vote on Capitol Hill. Why shouldn’t we know how our representatives on SCC vote?
Proud of you for standing strong for transparency! Roll call votes should always be the order of the day so we can see how our representatives voted. We elected them we should know how they vote.