As major donors push the California GOP to the “center,” the following anonymous e-mail critical of party chairman, Ron Nehring, has been making the rounds of party activist inboxes.
THE RON REPORT — PRE-ELECTION EDITION.
I know what you’re asking. What do they mean pre-election edition? The election was just held. True. But the real election doesn’t happen until February 2009 when Chairman Ron Nehring runs for re-election as Party Chairman. That election for President we just had was just the “warm-up” act for the main event.
And to start, Chairman Ron welcomes his Board of Directors to the newly minted Democrat county of San Diego on Friday for a Board meeting where he will attempt to explain the following:
A) How John McCain lost California by the largest percentage of an Republican presidential candidate in over four decades
B) How under his watch Republicans have lost five counties in voter registration to the Democrats, including the important counties of San Diego, Ventura and San Bernardino
C) How Chairman Ron presided over the defeat of two open Republican Assembly seats both in southern California, one of which in San Diego
D) Why Chairman Ron sat in his car playing with his Blackberry instead of knocking on doors with one of the loosing Republican Assembly candidates
Two years ago the Grassroots Champion promised us that we would have an organization worthy of our ideas. So what failed, our organization, our ideas, or our Chairman?
From the campaign trail…the Ron Report heard over and over from candidates and their staff that the Chairman didn’t want to go out precinct walking with the candidates, and when he did make the trip he wouldn’t even get out of the car. One such campaign official in Riverside noted… I couldn’t believe what I saw. Nehring came to knock on doors, but all he did was sit in his car and play with his blackberry. Maybe Ron was too busy or too shy to actually meet voters. Talking to real people can be scary.
Candidates are also complaining that Nehring refused to make a single donor call to help our targeted districts. As legislators and board members were out making phone calls, raising money, and trying to salvage some of these races, Nehring was jet-setting around the world teaching people what he refused to do…build an organization by rolling up your sleeves and working….living up to the true adage, “Do as I say, not as I do” or the other appropriate adage “You got a problem? I got a flight to Dubai. Goodbye.”
But back here at home, our Republican Women’s Federated organization continues to do the heavy lifting in voter registration. According to one of our Women’s Federated – the San Diego Party only registered 1200 Republicans in the past year. That’s what happens when your San Diego County Chairman is being the bell boy for the Robin Leach of State Party Chairmen.
All that foreign travel has paid dividends.
Under Ron’s leadership the State Party had to deal with an immigration scandal that made us the laughing stock in the nation, and the butt of jokes on late night TV shows. Somehow Chairman Nehring never understood that hiring an illegal alien who sued the federal government, and hiring a Canadian citizen to be the Party’s political director, would cause a problem. It’s no wonder the Party sunk into debt, and no wonder that Chairman Nehring refused to ever pick up the phone and make one phone call to ask a donor for money – even though he teaches fundraising at the Leadership Institute.
The only person who should be more upset than Republican activists and donors is our good friend Sam Hardage from San Diego. Sam is Ron’s mentor and “benefactor.” We hear Sam pays Ron $160,000 a year to build a grassroots conservative movement in California. Sam should fire Ron and demand his money back for lack of productivity.
And so should we.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I don’t know enough about Ron Nehring to take a position one way or another on this issue, but let us not blame just one man for the CA GOP woes. What happens nationally affects every state.
“A) How John McCain lost California by the largest percentage of an Republican presidential candidate in over four decades.”
John McCain lost the election just by being nominated. The man was a joke of a Republican – to put it better, he was a RINO (Republican In Name Only) who sided with the Democrats more often than he did his own party. He was liberal on virtually every issue that mattered (everything to do with economy, illegal immigration, etc) and paid mere lip service to conservative positions (abortion, the militant homosexual agenda, conservative judges, national sovereignty, etc). The first and last smart decision he made was to select Sarah Palin, because she galvanized conservative support for him.
To all you GOP elitists who want the Republican Party to abandon conservative principles and move to the center, John McCain was your candidate (as was Guiliani and Romney). To REAL conservatives, let’s stop supporting Democrat-wannabes as GOP nominees.
“B) How under his watch Republicans have lost five counties in voter registration to the Democrats, including the important counties of San Diego, Ventura and San Bernardino.”
This election was a bad year to be a Republican. The GOP has abandoned their conservative principles, and this is one of the consequences.
“C) How Chairman Ron presided over the defeat of two open Republican Assembly seats both in southern California, one of which in San Diego.”
Same answer as B)
“D) Why Chairman Ron sat in his car playing with his Blackberry instead of knocking on doors with one of the loosing Republican Assembly candidates.”
There’s two sides to every story. Maybe someone should get Ron’s side before making a formal accusation?
Absolutely Renegade, it is our responsibility to question our leaders in good times and in bad – however – that is not what this anonymous e-mail seeks to do. This trash is a personal attack on a high ranking volunteer who has spent a lifetime defending the principles of the Republican Party. Criticize away, but do it constructively. This e-mail amounts to nothing more than a disgruntled coward with a bad attitude and apparent resentment towards our chairman. This e-mail should have never been given validity by posting it to a news website.
Blah, Blah, Blah!! Get over it Kathy. After the recent election disaster we should question everyone in a leadership position at every level in the Republican Party. If someone wants to write anonymously deal with it.
While there is a place for anonymous discourse (see The Federalist Papers) – it is only germane when the intent is useful criticism. The e-mail above appears to be written by someone with a political ax to grind, however, we’ll never know because the person who sent the e-mail is hiding behind a pseudonym. If an attack is factually accurate, then the person making it should not be afraid to declare their identity.
I am a Republican activist and I support Chairman Ron Nehring for re-election. I will not fire our Chairman, but will support him in his next two years as a conservative, committed volunteer to our California Republican Party.
I will also never read “Halfway to Concord” again – by posting this anonymous e-mail, they give legitimacy to something that is little more than a personal attack on true conservative.