I found this mornings blog reading interesting and as usual if you read the entire story or dig a bit further 'The Rest of the Story" comes out. This is the problem of just reading headlines or just skimming the post titles for your information. Roanoke Red Zone has a post about what he saw at the recent 6th District Convention in Lexington last week. Some of the information was reported in other forums, but with a little more investigation, "The Rest of the Story" or the flipside can be found...
"Kurt Michael was confirmed as Augusta County Chairman. Congratulations! I was able to sit in on the credentials subcommittee on Saturday and he is an impressive and detailed man. This should be the end to this disruption in our party. Let's move on."
Now looking at the otherside of the coin the "Rest of the Story" can be found...
"Well not quite so fast. What disappointed me was the argument pressed by Dr. Micheal from Augusta that those attending the 6th District Convention that were not certified in his half of the April 10th Augusta County mass meeting should not be seated as delegates. My understanding it was a total of 5 people--come on. Whether or not these 5 were handled properly in the Augusta mass meeting, it was clearly their intent to be a delegate. They were allowed to vote by provisional ballot. That means their vote doesn't matter unless the count was close enough for a challenge. Regardless of these 5 individuals reasons for being there on Saturday, what does it say about us a party? This was a great opportuntity for Dr. Micheal to take the high road and argue they be allowed to participate if they gave up their Saturday to be in attendance. It bothers me that citizens outside our difficult to understand process are given the message that we don't want them to join us. Too bad."
Red Zone did well to provide both sides of the story as he saw it and it is important to view the entire story when possible instead of "one sided" tidbits provided at some sites. In fact Red Zone brings up a good point regarding how the party has gotten caught up in so many rules, regulations, agendas, and procedures that it is getting to a point where we are ignoring the intentions of the voters and their votes. The Augusta mass meeting had obvious procedure issues but the fact is that when given the clear choice between two candidates for the Augusta County Republican Chairman spot they elected Dr. Larry Roller over Kurt Michael by a obvious 60% - 40% split... It is very important that we do not lose sight of the clear intention of the voter by arguing over procedures and rules. If we disregard the clear intention of the voter and change the outcome for technical reasons, we will be in clear danger of not seeing the voter come out again in the future and participating in the election process...
2 comments:
I did include all of his post in my post http://yankeephilip.blogspot.com/2008/05/brandon-bell-said-lets-take-breather.html
I agree with what you say. but as I have said before, we will have to agree to disagree on the rules change. I think that was just an elected incumbent protection act.
Which voters are more important? The ones from Beverley Manor – 24 Pastures – 42 , Riverheads – 21 , North River – 74 , South River – 39 , Wayne – 37 , Middle River(3). – 30 , and full Mass Meeting Voter Count of 267.
or the 11224 people who voted in 2007.
or the 16000 people who voted Republican in the Governors race?
"It is very important that we do not lose sight of the clear intention of the voter by arguing over procedures and rules. If we disregard the clear intention of the voter and change the outcome for technical reasons, we will be in clear danger of not seeing the voter come out again in the future and participating in the election process..."
That is the question. Are the votes of 267 Republicans who vote in one mass meeting, more important than the way the whole Augusta County Republicans cast their votes in the Governor's race. Even in the State Senate, more people voted for Sen.Hanger from the Fishersville area than all but 1 precinct. At the Mass meeting the Wayne district had the third lowest # of voters. In the regular elections, all 7 districts are almost even.
Voters will not come out, if you change the rules in the middle of the game. What was the "real" intention of the voter?
The mass meeting brings out friends , relatives of the candidates. It brings out people interested in ideology. Who else does it bring out?
It brings out employees of the candidates. It brings out people who owe the candidates.
Ask yourself this question. "AS I look around the mass meeting how many employees of Kurt Michael did I see? Now ask yourself, How many people owe their jobs to Emmett, Jean, David, Jean, Rich did I see?
Now ask yourself How many people there owed a zoning varience to Kurt. How many owed it to David?
I don't know the exact number. I know there were some. That factor was taken out of the equation by the original rules. The original rules were far more democratic. The mass meeting allows for oligarchy.
Yes but who stood up in front of the church congregation on Sunday to tell ALL in attendance, politicaly active and not, that there were five other people running against him and how society will decline in Augusta if they do not come out and vote for him? Is church the right place for political fearmongering?
Anyone of the "Five" elected would\will result in widespread decadence in Augusta County?
Porn shops will start showing up on every corner?
Many of these people will NOT return to local GOP politics after seeing the takeover by Kurt Michael and his real side and tactics. Its a shame and we must be careful when politics\religion are mixed.
I would have rather seen the original "Electorial College" form of election remained for the value of the election would have been more. Once the "Other Side" determined that they had the votes after the first division was noted, they took the route of popular vote instead. Even Kurt in his 2nd meeting remained with the popular vote otherwise it would have been a vote of "7". one vote per district. Why did he not change back to the original rule that he claims?
As far as who did Kurt have to turn out to the mass meeting as compared to the workers or people who "Owed" things to the other side? How about the fable 1,000 name email list that SWAC has and not given to the ACRC members? Sure Lynn compiled that list and did most of the work and it's her (Kurt's) list, but some of those names came from GOP headquarters and other functions paid for by the Augusta County Republican Committee. Should those names be the property of the party?
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