……………………… today. I attended District meetings for the 3rd (Grinnell) and 4th (Mason City) today. Both meetings were well attended. The purpose of the District leadership meetings is to provide a venue for County leadership to provide their perspectives on our recent electoral disaster and their ideas for productive change.
All three 4th District central committee members (Larry Smith-Madison; Bonnie Hall-Boone; and Dave Jamison-Story) were there; of course as were Chair Ray Hoffmann, Co-Chair Leon Mosley and myself from leadership. Our current E.D. Cullen Sheehan also came up to Mason City. Two legislators, Linda Upmeyer (HD 12) and Jodi Tymeson (HD 73) also were in attendance. There seemed to be a pretty good representation of County leadership as well.
We held our 3rd District meeting at 1:30 in Grinnell. Ray and Bonnie came down from Mason City about an hour through the Grinnell get together. Steve Scheffler (Campaign Committee Chair) Loras Schulte and I hosted. We also had a good turnout of County leadership with almost every County present.
Thanks to everyone who attended on short notice. Almost identical conversations occurred in both locations. Unlike the rancor that floods the blogs, and the drive by media’s depictions of us, both meetings provided good critical analysis of Republican failings within the context of the search for common success. So thanks again to all the participants for their input.
We’ve asked the participants to keep the exact content confidential so that’s about as much detail as I can provide. I can say we heard you and you have just reinforced the commitment to complete reform of the Party and the process that I and many other Central Committee members find to be the predicate upon which future success depends.
Finally, I continue to be struck as to the extent of shared principles within our Party, particularly when contrasted to the Democrats, whose most core constituencies share nothing but a common hatred of us. Our failing has been one of advocacy-representing those shared principles and defending them to the critics in the media………….and that’s the first change you are going to see!
All three 4th District central committee members (Larry Smith-Madison; Bonnie Hall-Boone; and Dave Jamison-Story) were there; of course as were Chair Ray Hoffmann, Co-Chair Leon Mosley and myself from leadership. Our current E.D. Cullen Sheehan also came up to Mason City. Two legislators, Linda Upmeyer (HD 12) and Jodi Tymeson (HD 73) also were in attendance. There seemed to be a pretty good representation of County leadership as well.
We held our 3rd District meeting at 1:30 in Grinnell. Ray and Bonnie came down from Mason City about an hour through the Grinnell get together. Steve Scheffler (Campaign Committee Chair) Loras Schulte and I hosted. We also had a good turnout of County leadership with almost every County present.
Thanks to everyone who attended on short notice. Almost identical conversations occurred in both locations. Unlike the rancor that floods the blogs, and the drive by media’s depictions of us, both meetings provided good critical analysis of Republican failings within the context of the search for common success. So thanks again to all the participants for their input.
We’ve asked the participants to keep the exact content confidential so that’s about as much detail as I can provide. I can say we heard you and you have just reinforced the commitment to complete reform of the Party and the process that I and many other Central Committee members find to be the predicate upon which future success depends.
Finally, I continue to be struck as to the extent of shared principles within our Party, particularly when contrasted to the Democrats, whose most core constituencies share nothing but a common hatred of us. Our failing has been one of advocacy-representing those shared principles and defending them to the critics in the media………….and that’s the first change you are going to see!
29 comments:
i was watching VH1. sporer looks like the evil version of phil collins.
just joking uncle teddy!
Music fan just demonstrated the Democratic Party thought process - attack the person if you can't attack the issue.
Seriously, Ted did mention the only common theme of the Democratic Party which is to hate Republicans. He failed to mention their motives which can be summed up in one quote as well as the focus of all of their efforts.
"It's the money stupid"
welfare, preferences, pet research projects, pork barrel projects, giveaways, class division, unionization, health insurance, and pretty much anything else to bankrupt the treasury to get a vote without accountability.....
"...Democrats, whose most core constituencies share nothing but a common hatred of us."
How is that any different from the R's? Being a regular reader of both D & R blogs, I see more pure hatred on the R blogs and by R bloggers. Yes, many D's have been angry, and in particular with W many on my side (myself included) have gone overboard and succumbed to actual hatred. However, just reading your blog I find an awful lot of vicious, hateful attacks by R's - even against fellow R's.
Many Democrats are like the Dark Side of the Force and like Aniken said in Star Wars III if you go to the Dark Side the light side becomes evil from your perspective.
When good becomes evil and evil becomes good it all depends on the master you serve.
Hey Ted, Bringing Bonnie Hall? Big Mistake! She is a problem!
What is the deal with "secret" meetings. I thought only democrats in Des Moines do that?
Anon 7:55
Typical Democrat. Compare apples and oranges.
Democrats in public office holding secret meetings is illegal.
Republicans holding private party meetings is not.
You demonstrate yet again that Democrats simply don't understand the distinctions between governmental actions and private actions.
Another critical difference as the DSM Democrats hold private meetings for payoffs and job hand outs. You have to love the millions in "Bonus" pay they seem to get.
Republicans vowed to never leave a child behind while Democrats vowed to never leave a dollar in the treasury if they could put it in their pocket and pay off the rest. Chet knows the deal well enough.
What Ted hasn't told you is that there is an "unholy" alliance between Bonnie Hall and Ray Hoffman to hyjack the party for another 2 years of poor leadership. My Fear is that Ted to is being SUcked into this. That is why there is secret meetings that few are allowed to attend. I would have love to have seen the roll call of those who attended.
Music Man you just made me google "Phil Collins" and Ted looks remotely like 1 Phil Collins picture out of multiple - but I'm very upset you made me go and look.
It's still Sunday morning so I'm not stoned enough to see any resemblance. May check back around Midnight.
Anonymous, if there really were secret meetings, you would not know about them. "Secret" meetings don't fit the description of what you're describing.
Anonymouos (10:42)
I was at the Mason City meeting. What are you talking about-there were 15-20 county chairs and all of the other people in Ted's column.
Based on what I saw and have heard I think its pretty clear that we need Ted in a prominent leadership position.
I have no problem with Ted being in leadership it would be Bonnie Hall and Ray Hoffman That I would have a Major problem with. Many describe her as the wicked witch of the west and that might be mild!
What's the deal with Bonnie Hall?
anon 7:55---and in West Des Moines
sporer, was your impending coronation to st. chair and Cullen's pending firing a topic at any of these meetings?
Bonnie Halll is the most spiteful person in Iowa Politics.
Hell hath no feary like a spurned staffer... or wannabe staffer. Wonder what Bonnie did to cross you but suck it up - c'est la vie.
I don't hate you Ted, I think you're hot!
I don’t see why anyone would want to waste Ted on RPI Chairman. Ted’s an idea man and a party motivator. People like Ted are much more valuable building and promoting our party message, not organizing conventions, holding meetings, and negotiating leadership squabbles. Why not make Sporer our Political director so he can craft a unified GOP message for 2008?
Wes - great idea. I agree. We are devoid of any unifying party message within which the individual campaigns can flourish. The candidate ultimately is the messenger of whatever message they want to deliver but, the party can provide the message on our underlying principles that unify us all under the big tent of being a republican. That part has been missing for a long time.
In 1994, we didn’t just win because people were voting against what they viewed as corruption in Washington. The force behind our takeover 12 years ago was a message. Republicans rolled out a “Contract with America” to cut taxes, control spending, strengthen our military defend family values. When people went to the polls, they knew why they were voting Republican. We had a vision for the country, and people were excited by it.
What did/does Chet and the Iowa Democratic party have? A cigarette tax hike, a repeal of English as our first language and constant finger-pointing at the President for Iraq and Congressional Republican scandals. That isn’t a message, that’s just pandering to angry voters. Now that Democrats control the legislature and Terrace hill, what are they going to do? I don’t know, but the horrific visions running through my head are motivation enough for me to beg our party leadership to put aside politics as usual and bring in dynamic, articulate people like Ted to help build our message for 2008.
That way, we can fight back when our new Governor wants to ensure that every Iowan pays $10 a pack for cigarettes that they can only smoke in their house, under a wool blanket with the lights out. Or when the governor wants to turn our state into a Canadian style bi-lingual disaster How about when the governor allows union leaders to act like mafia thugs, forcing working families to pay them protection money?
But where were we during the election to counter the asinine logic of Culver and the democrats? Surely we countered with out own message of strengthening families and relying on personal responsibility and … (gasp!) FAITH, to combat social problems! No, we basically had all of our own candidates running around spewing disjointed rhetoric with multiple answers to the tough questions and no coordinated effort to unify our message.
If we ever want to be competitive in Iowa again, we need change at RPI. Not lip service change where we bring in 1 or 2 new people, and train them on how “our system works,” so in 2008 when our same old failed method fails again, we have someone new to blame and subsequently fire. We need monumental change! We need to change our entire perception of who we are, and how we act as a party. We need to throw out our current system and replace it with one that pushes a unified message. One that is unafraid to say the truth and call Chet Culver what he is: “A Fortunate Son from the gilded halls of the Washington aristocracy!” We need to adapt to change in perceptions and public moods with a business-like methodology where vision and leadership take front seat and back-room-political deals are kicked out of the car. We need to spend the next 2 years recruiting, training, and helping candidates in EVERY legislative district across the state, not just the 5 or 6 that we think we can pick up.
On November 7th, the voters of Iowa have us a golden opportunity to restructure our party with the kind of dynamic leadership we need to lead in the 21st century. But if we don’t take it, and we stick to the same path that has brought us defeat every year since 1998, its going to be a long winter for the GOP in Iowa.
Go Wes!!! It's great that people in Des Moines feel the same way about the direction of our Party as we do out here!
We NEED a change!
An interesting, albeit inept point from an obvious supporter of yet another step along to road to turning the United States into a nanny state akin to Britain or Canada. I hear a lot of hype about the dangers of second hand smoke, but I have yet to hear any solid research evidence from a creditable source telling me that inhalation of second hand smoke is any more or less dangerous than the toxins I take in on a daily basis from vehicular exhaust or industrial fuel expulsion. Tell me, cancer man, does that mean that you are also in support of eliminating cars from public streets, or forcing Firestone tires to halt production, costing thousands of Iowa families their livelihoods because the smoke they emit may, or then again, may not be causing any more suspected harm to your body than the millions of toxins released every day by nature in the form of methane gas, mercury, volcanic ash, etc?
What’s more, I think its also important to point out that the largest demographic group of smokers in America live either at, or below poverty level. Do you really think that raising the cost of cigarettes will cause them to just quit? Every year, Americans spend millions of dollars in counseling, medications, and hypnotherapy to quit smoking, but large numbers of those people who quit, only do so for a short period of time. What about the guy who cant afford to spend money on counseling, medication or therapy because he only makes 16,000 a year working at Wal-Mart? Statistics tell us that he is the most at-risk individual to nicotine addiction, but he’s also the guy with the least means to break his addiction. What is he going to do when cigarettes become exorbitantly expensive? The most likely scenario is he’s simply going to pay the high tax out of his already meager wages at a cost of thousands to his already struggling family, making government assistance for food and clothes even more necessary at a high cost to taxpayers. Worse yet, his government, in all of its self righteous wisdom has decided that he is a threat to those around him so they’ve sent him out into the rain and sleet and snow to smoke. Who do you think is going to pay the bill when he is hospitalized with pneumonia? That’s right, taxpayers, because in all likelihood, he isn’t insured.
I think its important to note that I am a non-smoker, but government behavior of this nature is an affront to every political instinct I have. It’s government interference in daily commerce choices of Americans and it puts us on a very slippery slope toward regulation by self-righteous crusaders who want to play the role of mommy for other adults. How far off is the day when they use the same lines of logic they are using to take down smokers to attack our second amendment rights? How far away is the day we use this logic to delve into prohibition again?
Smokers or not, I think we as the party of personal responsibility took a stand against the rise of government over-regulation/taxation. That’s what this is about, that fact that we are talking about smoking is irrelevant in my opinion.
You want to stop smoking? OK, let’s do it by working to strengthen our families to give kids the support they need to grow up as healthy adults. Let’s do something crazy, and allow faith to again play a role in our daily lives or (gasp!) our education system, to fill the void of nicotine addition among young adults. That’s what being a conservative is about in my mind, not using regulation and over taxation as a control mechanism.
Speaking of cigarettes, check out State 29's well done post on the bait and switch that our Democrats in Charge keep playing on us with respect to tobacco money. They have NO INTENTION of using tobacco tax money to either, reduce smoking or offset taxpaid healthcare costs associated with smoking. They aren't using the tax money they already collect, why do we think they'll use more tax money for it?
Not - won't happen. It's total fraud on the taxpayer.
Wes, I agree with 99% of what you say, but wow you write long!!! I am at work - I cannot read or concentrate that long! haha - just kidding bud. Go GOP!!!
Wes - those posts rival the LENGTHY emails that you send me. How's work? Do you even know? You're the MAN!
How about this...
People who want smoking banned can pay extra in taxes to make up for the shortfall in state coffers. I'm sure they won't mind. It would be another chance to show how enlightened they are.
Same goes for drugs. Those who want to fight the drug war can pay for it.
Banning smoking is not about public health, it is about power and control.
Banning smoking is also about pussies who have bought into the liberal media hype to such fanatical extremes they cannot even tolerate a smoker who smokes in an already secluded designated area.
My dream is to see the marketplace correct smoking. With the increasing popularity of every restaurant/bar being smoke free, the marketplace should be able to handle a majority of smoke-free establishments and we Americans should be able to tolerate a few refuges for people to smoke.
Still, I hate when the government stepps in to say which businesses WILL and which businesses WON'T tolerate smoking.
If you're seriously worried about what we breathe, clean up the East side!!! The stenches are pungent!
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