Wow #1 – Led by John Whitbeck, Pete Snyder and Curtis Colgate RPV went on an unprecedented 3 month campaign to erase over $217,000 in debt. [read_more]Today they announced their final numbers: $245,396 from 1,044 donors. Every Republican should feel good about this kind of outreach.
Wow #2 – Bearing Drift, led by perennial campaign loser Brian Schoeneman, decides to publish a post attempting to tear down this accomplishment.
One of the very first rules I was ever taught in Virginia politics was never ask RPV for money. Ever. If you wanted to run in Northern Virginia you needed to talk to Tom Davis. If you wanted to run in Richmond, you needed to talk to Eric Cantor. Hampton Roads? Randy Forbes or anyone named Stolle would do. If you were a House candidate, go see Speaker Howell. Senate candidate? Tommy Norment.
RPV has never worked the way Brian claims he wants it to. RPV has been where factions go to fight, it has never functioned as any sort of unify force within the party. Honestly, I don’t think anyone expects much from RPV even on it’s best day. I wanted to make sure we established that fact so we understand the context of what Whitbeck et al have done here.
What Republicans across the state did not expect was to find the state party carrying exactly $217,499 in debt with a measly $252 cash on hand. Shoot, there are middle schoolers with more cash on hand than that. Putting down what Whitbeck accomplished as “spin” for bad numbers is laughable. Those were bad numbers.
Brian bemoans the fact that Eric Cantor lost reelection and was removed as the party’s chief source of money. What that statement sadly exposes is the RPV was controlled by a small number of large donors and a single congressman who couldn’t find the time to hold a town hall meeting in his own district. Considering Virginia has voted Republican in exactly two statewide races (US Senate, President, Governor) since 2001 I don’t think that business model was giving us the proper … what’s the phrase? … oh yeah, Return on Investment (ROI).
I know you won’t be surprised, but Brian has it wrong when talking about the amount of money Snyder and Colgate are donating. Pete and Curtis are matching $50k each – not 1/3 each with the grassroots. This really is an unprecedented outreach by the state party to the grassroots and local committees. Everyone should be excited about this and hope they keep it up.
Never in my time has RPV ever spent this much time on the road connecting with regular Republicans, especially in the offseason when nobody is paying attention and no headlines are to be had. There is a team there trying to rebuild the party, and instead of kneejerk second-guessing, how about helping out. Embrace the idea of actually building the party from the ground up. Unless, of course, that’s not what you want to do.
But beyond simple math and basic facts, Brian’s post is obnoxious because it’s attacking and belittling an accomplishment we should all be proud of. But it’s not surprising giving that blog’s deep connections to the previous RPV leadership and the embarrassment it no doubt feels about the sorry state it left it in last February. Nevermind the author’s undoubted resentment at John Whitbeck for issuing a statement of support to his primary opponent. Again, context matters.
Is RPV suddenly rolling in money and ready to take on the Democratic Party and its big dollar, Clinton-backed governor? Clearly not. But being in the black is certainly a start and much further along than we were four month ago.
Baby steps and patience, friends. Tearing down accomplishments made together is not a good look. It’s like an arsonist criticizing the way the house he burnt down is being rebuilt. RPV is back on it’s feet, and working together maybe we can finally get it moving again.
62 comments
Great article.
But is it too much to ask you people to stop throwing rocks at each other? Probably.
This is clearly a battle for party control. A battle between the have’s and have not’s.
If the grassroots want control of the Republican Party then they will rightly have to finance the party. Do not expect corporations to finance a party that they do not control, nor get what they want. It ain’t going to happen.
Good luck trying to play in the middle of the two!
I did a little research into past donations to RPV since one of the complaints Brian makes in his post is the number of donors. According to Brian,
“they got the equivalent of 0.998% of the voters who voted for Ed Gillespie, 1.03% of the voters who voted for Ken Cuccinelli and a minuscule 0.572% of voters who voted for Mitt Romney to donate.”
So I decided to look up the total number of donors RPV has had annually for comparison. I added up all contributors above $100, all contributors below $100, and all in-kind contributions above $100 (I didn’t actually see any in-kind contributions below $100).
Here is the link so you can see for yourself. http://www.vpap.org/committees/148557/finance_summary/?start_year=2015&end_year=2015 Just click on the filter and change the year to see each years totals.
According to VPAP, here are the total number of contributors by year:
2014 – 201 donors
2013 – 479 donors
2012 – 210 donors
2011 – 311 donors
2010 – 163 donors
2009 – 252 donors
2008 – 191 donors
2007 – 662 donors
2006 – 659 donors
So to put this in perspective, in the past three months John Whitbeck has convinced more people to donate to RPV than the total number of ANNUAL donors for the last nine years. In fact, in the past three months, more people have donated to RPV than the last three years COMBINED.
I don’t know how anyone can look at that result and see it as a bad thing.
“Considering Virginia has voted Republican in exactly two statewide races
(US Senate, President, Governor) since 2001 I don’t think that
business model was giving us the proper … what’s the phrase? … oh yeah,
Return on Investment (ROI).”
I think I am missing something in the counting methodology here.
This thread is the perfect example of why Brian Schoeneman can’t win elections and will never win elections, he can’t stay off the blogs! He has spent more time on my blog today than I have, or anyone else at TBE! He can’t help himself. He must ALWAYS have the last word. It’s an illness, an addiction.
I like Brian and hope he stays on the blogs, even if he and I do not agree.
This thread is fascinating to read!
One thread to rule them all
While this probably qualifies as piling on, allow me to add to the chorus in commending John Whitbeck’s great leadership in this Grassroots Challenge. I was proud to join many other Republican elected officials in contributing $1,000 to this campaign.
Chairman Whitbeck’s appointment of Pete Snyder as RPV Finance Chairman was brilliant and this highly successful Grassroots Challenge will be one of many great leadership examples we will see under his leadership of our Grand Old Party in Virginia.
Isn’t Bearing Drift the same outfit that also blamed John Whitbeck for RPV having less than $300 in the bank and not paying payroll weeks after he was elected? Now that he has raised over a quarter of a million dollars in a couple months, Bearing Drift is bashing him for it? No wonder no one reads them anymore!
Susan Stimpson is going to get absolutely smoked by the Speaker he is going to win by at least 15 cant wait to see Susan’s career end
What do you mean “You People”? Are you making the same racially charged reference Jeanine was in that article she shamefully posted after having 1 to many wine coolers at 1 am?
I wouldn’t place Jeanine as a Boone’s Farm or Bartles & James kinda gal. She seems more of a proper wine type, particularly with her refinement and proximity to Loudoun’s great wineries.
But your point still stands, there must clearly have been some alcohol underlying that brilliant piece written in the late hours of the evening…
Bravo and thanks to these fine gentlemen for their efforts to re-establish a Republican Party in Virginia. The cult-of-personality that passed for unity in the past was unacceptable. Worse … it was ineffective. Once RPV credibility is re-established, the money will flow in from rank and file.
Thanks Jerry! You are exactly right.
Can an attack chihuahua really be a victim? Not much of a bark, not much of a bite, but a sensitive nature, yap, yap, yap!
John Whitbeck did an outstanding job as 10th District Chairman, and now as RPV Chairman. He didn’t spend his time whining that he inherited an enormous amount of debt when he took over. He and Pete Snyder immediately put their heads together and took action to fix the problem. And it was a huge success! We need more leaders like John! 🙂
We have to give credit where it is due, John Whitbeck was handed a crap sandwich walking in the door as RPV Chairman. He didn’t accumulate the debt but he and his team are talking care of it. Being RPV Chair is a thankless job, everyone can agree on that point. John has been in office a whopping 5 months, and I say kudos for moving us in the right direction and TCB (everyday!)- that’s Taking Care of Business for you non-hipsters 😉
Blah, blah, blah, blah. Say what you want, but don’t forget:
John Whitbeck is THE MAN.
This is pretty much the textbook definition of an ad hominem attack. Most of it is spent attacking me, rather than addressing my point, which, oddly enough, is that what RPV did doesn’t deserve lavish praise because it’s still not not making as much progress as it needs to, which you grudgingly acknowledge in the last paragraph.
The money doesn’t go to candidates, Chris. It goes to data collection, mail, staffing, and other support operations. Coming from someone who has never been a party official and never run for office – whose activism has never extended beyond $2 wing night with the YRs – it’s surprising that you’d go this route.
As for what Pete and Curtis did (Pete lost a primary, too – did you want to attack him for that?) I noted they both gave $50k. I don’t know where you are getting that I got the facts wrong. Reread my piece.
As for me being a perennial loser, I have lost the same number of races as John Whitbeck. Does that make John a perennial loser?
No matter how you want to spin this, attacking me or trying to say that my commentary is just sour grapes, the facts remain – RPV is not raising as much money as the Democrats and this has been an issue pretty much since Ed Gillespie was Chair.
You want to hand out participation trophies and give out credit for getting back to zero, fine. That’s not good enough for me and for a lot of folks.
1. Your right, I think RPV should be weak – but not $217,000 in debt weak.
2. It could POSSIBLY give you your argument if the venue your write from isn’t co-owned by people who helped put us in this mess in the first place. Nobody wants to hear criticism about how the house looks from the people who burned it down.
3. John has lost races. But instead of ankle-biting from behind a keyboard, he’s actually rolling his sleeves up and working to make the party better. Big difference.
4. I you get a participation trophy for erasing an inherited debt of over $217,000 then allow me to pay for it because that’s pretty awesome.
1. You said yourself that “I’d rather have money raised at home then by a state party apparatus” and “I don’t want to live in a world where the Republican Party of Virginia political apparatus controls the the party in the state.” That’s far harsher than anything I have ever written about RPV, including in my last post. You’re now defending RPV – why?
2. I could say the same thing to you, given that the blog you posted this on is run by State Central Committee members who served during the same time period as my colleague. Where were they when the house was being burned down?
3. I’m doing the same thing, but I do my work on the local level, as you’ve suggested people should do. Remember when you wrote “I prefer having vigorous unit, county, and congressional committees lead the way in party building, finance, and candidate recruitment.” It is funny that you say you want local committees party building and doing candidate recruitment, yet you attack the local folks doing candidate recruitment, and didn’t have a problem when Whitbeck endorsed in a local race. You might try, just once, to be consistent in something other than your dislike for me.
4. Give the trophy to the donors who donated, not RPV.
I’m defending RPV because for once its not trying to exist on the paychecks of a few select masters.
I played no part in RPV whatsoever. Criticism of a state party when it’s sinking deep into debt is different than criticism of a state party when its actually engaging.
No, I attack local people for recruiting terrible candidates who never lived in their district and then trying to game the system for them. Herrity gets bravos from me for Gandee and Chronis, those were great recruits. Not sure why they couldn’t find a professional female candidate with business credentials in Sully.
Can we start a GoFundMe site for these donors, then?
“Herrity gets bravos from me for Gandee and Chronis, those were great
recruits. Not sure why they couldn’t find a professional female
candidate with business credentials in Sully.”
And instead you got a Latino candidate with cub scout credentials…
Yep.
Well said!
Mailers aren’t sent for candidates? Data Collection isn’t for candidates? Of course those things go to candidates and help in their elections.
It looks like Chris hit nerve with this very accurate piece.
Chris said RPV doesn’t help candidates, Jeanine. Not me.
I am not really sure why you indulge in responding to any sort of article that is a textbook cheap shot, particularly one written by someone that is a perennial political observer. He’s showing up to a shoot out with limp wrists, meanwhile you’re wasting ammunition. Holster your pistol.
He need not re-read your post. His facts came directly from RPV.
So did mine.
BD is rapidly becoming a Dem trojan horse within the party and needs to be ignored or pushed out. Their constant attempts to destroy the party and its candidates for personal gain are an embarrassment to the brand.
You are living in a glass house, Steve. put the stones down.
You know what my glass house is filled with Brian? Wins. 22 of them. I know you don’t recognize what those are, but I may just need a bigger glass house to store all the extra wins I will have in the rest of 2015.
Next time your fellow Dems at BD take it upon themselves to attack fellow Republicans for being ‘unelectable’ or ‘not raising money’, remember you will never have what John Whitbeck and Susan Stimpson and i and Dave Brat has:
Wins.
Now go back to being a gadfly.
No Steve, you don’t. The clients you worked for have wins. You ran once and lost. I have run twice and lost. John Whitbeck has run twice and lost. Only Susan Stimpson and Dave Brat have an actual win for elected office, and they also both have losses.
People win and lose in politics. Attacking anybody for losing in this game is a cheap shot.
You can’t complain about Bearing Drift attacking Republicans when that’s what the Bull Elephant does daily as well – there at at least four pieces on the front page here attacking Republicans, including this one. You also can’t claim that we “destroy candidates for personal gain” when that’s what you do for a living.
The lack of self-awareness is mindboggling.
No Brian, I have two wins for unit chairman; John has a win for 10th CD chair and RPV chair. You however have none.
Why is that? Because you can’t keep your mouth shut online. Trying to poop on RPV’s fundraising- its best haul in years- is weak. It reeks of bitterness and betrays a writer who has lost a grip on reality.
You would do yourself and the party a world of good to just stop. Give up Disqus for Lent- then consider Lent to be all year long. Seriously. I know I am not the only one to have said this to you but I will say it again- just stop. You do yourself so much more harm than good.
Party office does not count, Steve. Those are internal organization elections, not public elections. Sorry. I don’t count winning my HOA elections or my church Vestry elections, and neither should you.
And, no, this haul is not it’s best in years. Look at the numbers. They raised more in the first quarter of 2014. My article doesn’t reek of anything other than commentary from somebody who can see through the smoke and mirrors of a poorly drafted press release.
Save your disingenuous advice for people you in-kind your work to. I don’t need it.
Only you could mistake a win as not a win; and mistake a great fundraising quarter as a disappointing one.
Of course, at the rate you are going with the losses piling up, I could understand drinking the haterade.
Only you could claim a win that’s not a win, and not do your homework in making comments that are demonstrably not true and easily proven with a 1 minute records search.
I’m kind of tired of living rent free in your head. How about you focus on doing something that moves the ball forward for your clients instead of attacking me?
How bout you and your buddies at BD stop attacking my friends and clients? Or at least try to be factual? But no, that’s too much to ask for the least respected blog on the right.
Which of your clients have we attacked?
We are always factual, Steve. If we’ve made any factual errors, feel free to point them out.
Steven, no one on any side of this mess (and I’ll include myself) has any high ground when it comes to attacking other Republicans. None whatsoever.
Not you. Not Brian. Not BD. Not TBE.
Stephen, there is a difference. BD has been debasing itself with wild baseless accusations- ONLY against conservative Republicans- nearly without end. Its neurotic obsession with tearing down Susan Stimpson can only be explained by the group being on Howell’s payroll. This is also sadly a trademark of the new BD- being paid for propaganda and not disclaiming it.
When TBE puts something out, it is almost always to correct the blatant lies and sad campaign propaganda BD uses to attack other Republicans.
Put another way: BD is not contributing to anyone’s debate anymore. Without BD, there would be no (or virtually no) attacks between Republicans, and you would see a more united party with a better robust debate than we now have.
Le sigh.
TBE generates new content, not responses to other sites. Some of that content is in support of the candidates that author supports. Some of that is in opposition to Republicans that author opposes. Some of the latter category could also be considered “neurotic”, “obsessive”, “propaganda”, “sad”, “lying”, and “attacking”.
To that end, the “obsession” with “tearing down” Stimpson is the same as this site’s “obsession” with “tearing down” Howell. Individual posters have a preferred candidate, and are advocating on their behalf. There is literally no difference in the conduct of the posters from both sites.
One HUGE difference, no one at TBE is being paid to write about their client or drag down their client’s opposition. BD posters are hired guns, paid consultants. It’s their job. It’s how they support their families. They are not objective about races because they are paid not to be.
Someone will have to explain to me again the distinction between “Bull Elephant Media”, which counts Stimpson as a client, and this blog.
That said, Greg Letiecq is the only blogger who writes about his candidates (or his opponents). To my knowledge, authors at Bearing Drift who are a hired consultant do not blog on their races; other authors do. If you have information that shows otherwise, I’d be interested in seeing it.
Yes, Steve designed a website for Susan for which he was not paid. He is not a full time consultant who makes a living defending his clients on The Bull Elephant. Writers on BD are full time, paid, consultants. It’s their JOB.
Some authors are consultants. Others are not. The ones that are don’t blog about the races they consult on. This has been covered, at length, previously.
With that settled, I’m glad we’re agreed that TBE and BD operate the same way.
Who?
That is not true Jeanine. Steve Thomas is a contributor on your site. He’s a paid consultant.
Let’s look at the consultants on BD. How DJ Spiker make a living? Brian Kirwin? Shaun Kenney? Jason Kenney? JR Hoeft? Which consultants have I omitted?
Yes, Jeanine, please educate me how DJ Spiker makes his living.
Oh, so I was wrong about one. Thanks for letting us know.
They all have bios on the site, Jeanine. Or you could just ask them.
Brian, when I post on a race I am consulting I include a disclaimer. Your buddies at BD do not.
Yes, we do. That’s our policy.
Oh my, Steven Thomas taking locker room measurement to the next level. And you’re conveniently comparing two completely different measurements, “your” wins vs. Brian’s losses. Are you this much of a pissant in person?
I am sick and tired of everyone comparing the other as being “political consultants”, “political operatives”, or “political insiders”. If you post on these blogs, using your real name, you are sad and pathetic. I didn’t think it was possible, but you actually give real people with those titles a bad name.
There is a big difference between someone that runs for office and a person that helps a person run for office. You can call those people whatever you wish — consultants, operatives, managers — but you cannot call them candidates.
I love your user name we should be friends
For a second I pondered if Brian had donated to the Challenge but quickly concluded the word ‘Grassroots’ to him is like the sunrise is to a Vampire.
No, I didn’t give to the grassroots challenge. I have given RPV plenty of money over the years in the form of delegate fees and sponsorships at the Advance.
As for the grassroots, I am part of the grassroots and have been since I joined the party.
I expect no better from Brian. Most days we should expect worse.