Had the
opportunity to sit down with a friend from the past and share some “Catch-up”
time since dropping out of the local Shenandoah Valley political world to focus
on work. During this get together that featured a fine “Romeo-Y-Julieta 1875” a
sip or two of a fine single malt, conversation came around to political turmoil
in our nation’s capital with the upcoming 2016 election. Little did I know that this was about to be
overshadowed by the antics going on now here in the Shenandoah Valley.
As I
got caught up on what happened recently at the sixth district meeting at the
Homestead it came back to me how the VA-GOP has perfected the art of destroying
the perfect atmosphere of the Homestead with political antics. Turns out a
familiar name surfaced once again and after I read her vivid “description” of the meeting at the Homestead I got
sucked back into local 6th politics and her somewhat “fantasy world”
of the blogworld. Now RightsideVA is not one of the big ones out there with
impressive logos, graphics, or even a neat decal to put on my laptop, but it
does give me the opportunity to ask\investigate a question or two.
After
reading Lynn Mitchell’s post which failed to cite sources, I made a call, text,
and visit to check into the facts regarding the most recent Sixth District
Republican committee meeting held at The Homestead.
What a
nice place to tarnish with these antics and falsehoods…
Turns out, only three committee
members opposed what the other 22 committee members wanted to get done at
the meeting. Those three Committee members; Georgia Long, (the wife
of Ed Long, who has worked for Congressman Goodlatte and who was conveniently the
Parliamentarianfor the meeting) Roger
Jerrell, (former employee of the Congressman) and Cole Trower, (current
employee of said Congressman) were
accompanied by three proxies: the Chairman's wife, Roger Jarrell's
Secretary, and a college student from JMU.
Now, Lynn Mitchell says
the meeting was hijacked. Neat catchword and I am sure it works well with
some in the political blogworld, but how so in this case? When 22 members allow
three members and the Chairman's wife (as a proxy) to shout, attempt
parliamentary procedure tricks, and call into question the integrity of the
committee's Vice Chairmen and others for 2 1/2 hours, one can hardly describe
this meeting as being hijacked. This sounds like a familiar writer with an
opinion influenced and bias with prejudiced disposition towards the majority of
the members of the Sixth District committee. And that describes the
SWACGIRL from the past.
From what I hear by the
end of the meeting, the 22 members allowed almost every
substantive amendment to the business they were trying to conduct, which
was the adoption of a draft Call for the District Convention submitted by
the Vice Chairman two days in advance of the meeting.
It seems that hindsight
reveals that most of the amendments were made by the Roanoke County Chairman
(now Virginia State Senator) David Suetterlein who never attempted to
amend the location of the meeting. What was the reason to have a district
convention all the way in the extreme south of the district when a more
convenient location, say the central region, would have been better for all of
the district members?
As I hear it by the two
and a half hour mark the shouting, innuendos, provocation and questioning of
their integrity led a member who opposed the three vocal committee members to
Call the Question. Who will ever know if David Suetterlein did not oppose the
location of the meeting because the eventual nominee would be his boss, State
Senator Ralph Smith, also from Roanoke? Well that’s just darn convenient.
Is this what Ralph Smith meant when he said at the Botetourt County
Ham dinner three months ago that he was not retiring from politics?
This would not be the first time the Senator and his
Legislative Aide, now Senator, have worked together to create a
favorable outcome (see Virginia's New Senator Stooge by John Fredericks, TheBull Elephant).
So I called Vance
Wilkins to get the facts on the scoop Lynn Mitchell presented. Turns out he had
not talked Sixth District Republican Party politics since June 2015 to anyone
on the committee or present at the meeting that day.
So I called Scott Sayre
to find out more regarding Lynn Mitchell's "sources" uncovering a
secret meeting held on November 21st in Rockbridge County. Turns out Sayre was
at the Virginia Tech football game that day. He admits caucusing with several
members of the committee, but they share a common goal of bringing efficiency
and conservative principles to the table. Something that we just have to get
back into Virginia Conservative politics. I now just read that Republican(?)
Senator Emmett Hanger was one of the two “R” votes that sunk the Charter School
bill in Virginia. Surprised?
I also asked him about
the video he made the day before the District meeting. He commented that he
planned to announce he was running for district chairman at that particular
meeting because it was at the same meeting, two years ago, where Wendell Walker
voted against his motion to research and recommend a database for the entire
Sixth District. Had the draft Call not been adopted nor the date set he simply
would have run a different video. As to having a website up and running
before the end of the meeting he said that was just his way of being prepared.
That’s pretty much it
and confirms what I learned a long time ago in 6th and “Valley
Politics”. You have to make some calls, send a text or two, and fill the email
boxes to find out the “other side of the story” and not rely on a single feed
coming from some blogs. I saw in the past that when there is only one info feed
to the troops that is all they have to go on without any other voice present.
That is something Richmond never understood about what was really going on in
SWACLand for they were only getting one feed and that was from a committee chairman not interested in growing the local GOP party for the good of the party. Smaller committees are much easier to control but exclude the people we need to seek to grow the party...
