Today the Prince William County Republican Committee held its county convention, It was very well attended and attracted several statewide party leaders including Attorney General McDonnell, Gov Gilmore, Party Chairman Hager, Attorney Gen Candidate. Sen. Ken Cuccinelli, and US Senate Candidate Del. Bob Marshall.Attorney General and Future VA Governor Bob McDonnell gave the first speech, in which he announced a plan to double party membership by Labor Day, The crowd was very enthused and the speech was delivered exceptionally well, Except at one point when McDonnell said that Mark Warner and Jim Gilmore had nothing to do with VA being the best place to start a business, raise a child, Best Managed, etc. He instantly clarified that it was Warner and Kaine that had nothing to do with these honors and apologized to Gov. Gilmore, Explaining he has just trying to give him some name recognition.
Then came time for the US Senate Candidates to speak, Gov. Gilmore gave a pretty good speech, The only mention of Marshall was when he claimed Marshall "Misled" people about his abortion position, even though Gilmore stated in the Presidential Debates he was pro-choice in the first eight week's of the pregnancy. He Delivered it well and the crowd was very polite.
THEN, It came time for Marshall to speak, only problem was he wasn't in the auditorium at that point, so after some confusion, a surrogate spoke, And did very well (If it was off the cuff as I suspect), Partway through the surrogate's speech Del. Marshall entered the room and took to the podium under a standing ovation, After about a minute of wild applause, He Finally gave his speech, it was shorter than Gilmore's as the surrogate's time was counted along with Marshall's limit. It touched on the principles that his campaign is based upon, And included several analogies of victory's he had over Mark Warner, Including the Marriage Amendment and a shout out to McDonnell for going to bat for him legally during one battle with the Democratic Administration over Taxes.
11th District Congressional Candidate Keith Fimian spoke, giving some history and position's, I found him to be very likable, the only exception was when he told of playing for W&M and beating both UVA and VA Tech, We Virginian's love our college football teams, Its best for Politicians to stay neutral on that issue.
Than Party Chair Hagar and Del. Frederick spoke concerning their race, I Can't tell you much about Frederick's speech, It lasted for an eternity so my mind was elsewhere, Hagar spoke about the importance of continuity and his "Success's", He described Rob Wittman's race as "A Great Victory" which I personally think was an overstatement, The 1st should have been a cheap easy victory but I Digress. I Have no idea who I'll end up voting for in this race, I Appreciate Fredericks grassroots experience but I didn't like when he took a walk on the Transportation Bill and I'm not sure if we should rock the party further with yet another chairman being replaced, But on the other hand I don't like the way the RPV Leadership ran (or didn't run) the election, Assistance from them wasn't the greatest.
4 comments:
As a first time attendee I was struck by two things:
1) The comment (I can't remember the who said it) that our job is "to beat Democrats". Funny, I thought our job was to elect principled Republicans who want to reduce the size of government, cut taxes, guarantee our individual liberties, and maintain a strong national defense.
2) The makeup of the attendees--overwhelmingly white, male, and 55 or older. There needs to be a dedicated effort to get more young people involved.
I agree with your argument, especially the first point, however as a 17 Year Old GOP activist, I can tell you that its very tough to get young people active, however it can b done. The vast majority of Bob Fitzsimmonds ground campaign was teenagers, Most young people that get into politics however, land on the left side of the fence. Young Republican Activists are more civilly aware, With the Majority being either:
1)Involved Christian
2)Private Schoolers
3)Home Schooled
Not only should we try to reach out to young people, We need to begin a serious outreach campaign to the Hispanic and Asian Community's
I agree with both of your arguments I am a 15 year old from California try being on the frontline of the Liberals. The reason that so many youth go to the left side is because it appeals to them a lot more in other words they don't want anybody telling them that they are wrong. Sure Obama can appeal to youth but they also have to think about if he will not admit that he's wrong about what his brillant Pastor said about America. So do not worry there is conservative youth out there ,heck this blog is written by two conservative teenagers. Just keep us in your prayers that we may get accross to this wicked liberal youth and show them the true way of life.
I was in HS from 1969 - 1973 and was the only vocal conservative in my big city school as I tutored myself by reading the National Review from cover to cover. It was quite a mish mash of students--ethnic whites from my neighborhood, blacks bussed in from outside the district, and a bunch of snooty university faculty kids who ended up in my school because the HS they attended on the university campus was merged into ours. More than once I was the only one to speak up against the liberal insanity. I have to believe that a lot of the "regular" kids from my neighborhood agreed with me but didn't want to speak up. In any event, the "discussions" I was involved with with both students and teachers were relatively civil (remember, this was during Vietnam), and based on feedback from my buddies I won the arguments and was respected becasue I spoke up and didn't back down.
Be bold yet civil, make your arugments with facts, logic and passion, and don't back down!!!
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