May 6, 2008
Petersburg Republicans elect delegates, chairman
At a mass meeting held yesterday at the Ramada Plaza Hotel, Petersburg Republicans elected delegates to the Virginia Republican Partys 4th District and statewide conventions which will be held on May 17 in Windsor, and May 3031 in Richmond, respectively. Mr. Linas Kojelis was re-elected chairman for a two-year term.
In brief remarks upon his re-election to the position he has held since July 2005, Mr. Kojelis observed that there is broad-based unity within the GOP, both nationally and throughout the Commonwealth. “We’re all united now behind American hero Senator John McCain (R-AZ) for President in 2008. In 2009, we’ll all be behind our great Attorney General Bob McDonnell for governor and for the re-election of our excellent Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling. We have two full years to focus on party building by strengthening unit organizational structures and bringing new members into our activities.” Mr. Kojelis pointed to the Petersburg Republican Committee’s (PRC) very successful third annual Lincoln-Douglass-Mahone Dinner last month which saw more than three times the participation over the previous year.
Nine delegates were elected to represent the Cockade City at the 4th District Convention in Windsor, Virginia on May 17th. The delegates will participate in the election of a new district chairman, state central committee members, delegates to the Republican National Convention (September 1-4, Minneapolis-St, Paul, Minnesota) and a presidential Elector. The nine Petersburg delegates are Deborah Bice, Patricia Harvey, Susan Huysman, Linas Kojelis, Adrian Maver, Larry Akin Smith, Patrick Washington, Ashleigh Moody and Allan Rickard.
Mr. Kojelis announced his declaration to run at the Windsor meeting for re-election to the RPV state central committee and as Elector. As proscribed by the American Constitution, voters in each state do not vote directly for president but for a slate of electors, these being the persons who cast the actual ballots to elect the nations next chief executive. Collectively these persons make up the Electoral College.
At the mass meeting, eight delegates were elected to represent Petersburg at the statewide convention of the Republican Party of Virginia (RPV) in Richmond, May 30-31. At this convention, the delegates will elect a party chairman and nominate the GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate seat of outgoing Sen. John Warner. Incumbent RPV chairman and former Virginia Lieutenant Governor John Hager is being challenged by Del. Jeff Frederick (R-Prince William) to lead the state party. Former Governor Jim Gilmore and Del. Bob Marshall (R- 13) are facing off for the U.S. Senate position.
Petersburg Republicans heard energetic presentations by representatives of all four campaigns; Richard Crouse (field director for Jim Gilmore), Steve Waters (Campaign Director for Del. Marshall), VSU Professor Ted Brown on behalf of John Hager and Tom Bunnell from Del. Fredericks campaign.
Elected as delegates representing Petersburg to the state convention were: Pat Harvey, Susan Huysman, Linas Kojelis, Adrian Maver, Larry Akin Smith, Patrick Washington, Ashleigh Moody and Lauren Barboza.
At the meeting, Petersburg Republicans also gave a warm welcome to special guest Susan McCammon, who was elected chairman of the Dinwiddie Republican Committee last week.
More information is available at www.gopetersburg.org.
It funny to see a self proclaimed Libertarian & Ron Paul supporter representing the Republicans of Petersburg. If McCain is the nominee its time for GOPetersburg to reel in its delegates and show a unified front. Remember the Qualifications for Participation?
“…who are in accord with the principles of the Republican Party and who, if requested, express in open meeting either orally or in writing as may be required, their intent to support all of its nominees for public office in the ensuing election…”
It’s all part of operation chaos.
Insert maniacal laughter here…..
“It funny to see a self proclaimed Libertarian & Ron Paul supporter representing the Republicans of Petersburg.”
The republicans have a candidate. The republicans actually ARE a diverse party, much to the chagrin of many both inside and outside the party. If you truely are a LCR, you are already aware of this.
William F. Buckley considered himself a libertarian, but I’m not sure I would agree with him.
Ron Paul has a little (r) after his name, last time I checked, and he ran in the republican party, just like Lyndon LaRouche and Dennis Kucinich run in the democratic party.
Hey David, I heard that O.C. just lent Hillary $6.4 MM! ;)
Just like I always tell people that a lot of Virginia Democrats would be republicans in other places.
The other way I tweek people sometimes who think they are lefty libs is to ask them “Who do is better informed on out to spend YOUR money?” They always answer “well myself of course!” So I always answer, “See! Your a Republican!”
Makes them crazy.
Typo city… here’s how it SHOULD have read….
Just like I always tell people that a lot of Virginia Democrats would be republicans in other places.
The other way I tweak people sometimes who think they are lefty libs is to ask them “Who do you think is better informed on how to spend YOUR money?” They always answer “well myself of course!” So I always answer, “See! You’re a republican!”
Makes them crazy.
Man, if I worried too much about my spelling, I’d never post here.
I was considered a republican in my former home.
What I am is a fiscal conservative/libertarian.
I have voted for democrats and independants since living in VA, since they the republicans here often seem to be busy lionizing “real” virginians, denying people equal rights (marriage is the latest), and even their anti-tax stances seem to be tainted with stupidity.
I look forward to the day that I will be able to vote republican in virginia, but will still vote for mccain.
“The Republican Party has been the party for the defense and promotion of civil rights in America and individual empowerment based on equal opportunity and personal responsibility with a strong belief in the free market system, faith in entrepreneurship and personal economic growth. The GOP has been fighting bloated and wasteful government spending and high-taxes and keeping America strong in a troubled world”.
I read these words from the bedrock Republican principles of the Petersburg Republican Committee. At first read, I thought that these Petersburg Republicans write what is true in their actions. However, I remember that since the year 2000 through 2006, the Republicans spent more money,committed more fraud, under-funded more social programs, and caused a unfounded war that cost $5,000.00 a second, bailed-out more corporations than any Democrat in modern history.
They go on to state..”Keeping America strong in a troubled world”. The Republicans assisted in this so-called troubled world by creating an illegal war, and as John McCan’t stated the other day, that the Iraqi war was for the freedom of oil and could last 100 years.
I have come to a conclusion that the Republicans are big on war and corporations, and little on constitutional rights for all citizens. Having secure borders, fair-labor practices are just a few issues that the Republicans neglect.
More fraud? HA …… There’s enough of that on both sides… don’t even pretend that the Repubs have more of that than the Dems. The only difference is that we are not surprised when a Dem is caught but there is indignation when a Repub is caught because they are supposed to be more honest.
“under funded social programs”???? you are lucky I’m not in charge… I wouldn’t underfund them.. I’d SHUT THEM DOWN! I’m pissed at the Repubs because they had the White House AND congress and didn’t do a damn thing with it that they should have as far as cutting government.
Unfounded war? Spare me. We are taking the fight over there where it belongs. It’s a standard military maxim that you take the fight to the enemy’s camp. The modern parlance is that you “engage at the maximum effective range of your weapons systems.” that means do it as far from your soft spots as you can.
Were Gore in charge when we got smacked in the face on 9/11 he would have treated it as a law enforcement problem and we WOULD have been struck again.
Corporate bail outs? Last time I looked the Dems are in charge of both the house and the senate. Why don’t THEY reform things? It’s because the whole system is rotten up there. Both sides are culpable.
The war is NOT illegal. Were it so, no one in congress would have signed off on it, which they did.
YES it’s for freedom of oil. Have you not noticed the price of a barrel lately? It’s because there are a few billion Chinese and Indians who are up and coming and have a car in the drive way. This countries safety is tied to the free flow of oil. In order to fight the Terrorists who want to kill ALL of us we need to have that supply. Oil is not evil. It’s the country’s life blood. You would have us bleed to death?
Little on constitutional rights? Must I remind you that a republican saved the union and freed the slaves? Granted he said he’d do otherwise to preserve the union if he had to but he DID DO IT.
Must I remind you that back in the day, MOST Democrats were the ones fighting for segregated schools and “separate but equal”?
Come back with facts that substantiate “Un-founded, illegal, fraudulent and un-constitutional” and then you might make a point.
Until then you are just spouting the usual lefty mind numbing-go-along-with-the-crowd drivel.
bwahahahahaha….sorry I just had to laugh at your post CSD. That is all.
“I have come to a conclusion that the Republicans are big on war and corporations, and little on constitutional rights for all citizens. Having secure borders, fair-labor practices are just a few issues that the Republicans neglect.”
I am not a republican, but the democrats hope the electorate have short memories too. The democrats taught me growing up that Vietnam was “nixon’s war” It took a LONG time before I realized it was “LBJ’s war” and “Kennedy’s war” (because he was too weak to fight the communists in cuba, the dems had to try to hold the line in vietnam, right in the communist’s front yard.
Korea was Truman’s war, Eisenhower got us out. Though it was congress that actually got us out of vietnam, nixon was far more successful at “Vietnamification” of the war than was LBJ.
As far as civil rights go, don’t forget that it was the dems who wouldn’t let black have civil rights in virginia, and killed, through their paramilitary arm, northerners and scalawags throughout the south that were pro-business, pro-education, and pro-civil rights.
The truth is that politicians on both sides are both fakers. Every year that a democrat is expected to win the presidency, the stock market goes down, as people with economic sense are scared by their electioneering. The year AFTER the democrat is elected, the stock market almost always goes UP, when people realize all that the guy wasn’t the populist idiot that he/she was portraying themselves as.
The exact opposite occurs with a republican. Optimism prevails leading up to his victory, then disappointment sets in when it becomes clear he is not as much of a champion of free markets as he portrayed himself.
The dems are just as willing to prostitute themselves to international business criminals such as marc rich as the republicans are, so don’t let your “sudden” epiphany form your long-term opinion.
I really like Obama. I really DON’T like his wife, or his chosen cleric. I am sure he’s got a few opinions about how to run the country I disagree with too. I expect that from EVERY poitician.
I really DON’T like Hillary. Everything from her flat affect to her pantsuits to her constant pandering to america’s most incompetent.
That’s why I voted for Obama in the primary.
As I told Linas when I met him, American politics, for as long as whites are the majority in this country, is all about capturing the Stupid White Vote. Within that vote, are incuded whites of otherwise average intellegence, but either unsophisticated in policy matters, or easily manipulated by emotional arguements.
Republicans didn’t have a chance to capture the SWV in reconstruction-era south - hence their rout throughout the south, and the rampant hatred for their postbellum activities that extends to this day.
Nation-wide, Obama has had trouble capturing the SWV. Clinton’s posturing as a Woman of the People has been successful only to a limited extent, but the sad truth is that the SWV is more than a little frightened of “change” even if that change is positive.
Of course, Obama has no problem getting the SBV, but that group is just as prone to emotional racial preferances as the SWV, so, no surprise there.
I am actually looking forward to this election. Mccain, who I have always liked, and prefered as a republican to the guys who usually pander to the most bigoted in the party, instead of sticking to the principles of limited government, strong defence, and low taxes — has always been nervous about the prospect of running against Clinton, who is willing to say ANYTHING and do ANYTHING to get elected, just like Bush and Karl Rove were…. and a lot of the SWV are extremely hostile to Mccain as a person, merely because they feel personally slighted by him. A few would even vote for Hillary to spite him.
But Obama is a totally different story. He can give Mccain a run for the independents such as myself, but in the SWV catagory, Obama has a very hard row to hoe.
The superdelegates are aware of this, of course, and are a more than a little scared of an Obama candidacy. Not that they don’t think he’s the better person, but because they know the electorate is hardly guarenteed to choose the better person, as Mccain learned in 2000.
Clinton is not only not a better person, but is also not a better party person. She and her husband have hardy proven themselves to be team-players, over the years. That’s why Hillary is the true leader of Operation Chaos.
“But Obama is a totally different story. He can give Mccain a run for the independents such as myself, but in the SWV catagory, Obama has a very hard row to hoe.”
Now, I quote myself. The mark of the Truely Arrogant.
Obama doesn’t just have a problem with the SWV because he is black — that’s just one of his many problems.
The man was a lawyer before he officially became a politician (he was always a politician)
The SWV doesn’t like lawyers, even ones who work to help poor people.
Mccain is an unassailable military hero.
The SWV was tricked into questioning John Kerry’s heroism, and counted the dubiousness of higher than the fact that Bush served in a unit of the guard that was filled with the children of the texas elite and hence was never deployed. A high level form of draft-dodging that cannot be compared to TODAY’s N. guard service in any way.
You try to question Mccain’s heroism, you look like a jerk, or a delusional peace-nik. Just helps him.
The more conservative element of the SWV has never understood Mccain’s “I know where the party is on this, but my principles say I can’t go along on this” tendencies. They see him as a traitor, an egotist.
But he has suffered 7 long years of being a team player under Bush. Has done little to undermine him, and will pay for it with independent voters.
But that is nothing compared to what Obama faces. He choose a “pastor”, a profession that traditionally in the black community is synonomous usually with “politician” that he could use to gain credibility with the SBV. Obama was well aware of the demagoguery common in the black church that stylistically reminds most intellegent americans of politicians in the first half of the twentieth century. But capturing the popular vote is no easy task, as someone as intellegent as obama is well aware of. That’s why he needed help.
Now that Obama is “too big” to just need the SBV, we see resentment from his old friend, esp since the better obama does, the more his brand of thought looks ridiculous.
But the SWV will not see this. They will think Obama is as bigoted and angry as his old crony is, on the inside.
I listened to Obama’s Philadephia speech, and was impressed.
But, it’s not me he has to impress.
“Mccain, who I have always liked, and prefered as a republican to the guys who usually pander to the most bigoted in the party,”
I say this because I would rather vote for a Islamic, black homosexual from mississippi, or mexico — who I felt was for limited government, low taxes, and strong national defense — than a white, episcopalian heterosexual who was weaker on any of these core issues.
But I think the numbers of rebublicans who would vote with me are sadly limited.
Not that the average democrat is any less bigoted in their identity politics.
They are often moreso.
I got this message from OC HQ this a.m.:
“Dear Friend,
Today, in every way that I know how, I am expressing my personal determination to keep forging forward in this campaign.
After our come-from-behind victory in Indiana, there are just 28 days of voting left. But we’ve never campaigned with the stakes as high or the time as short as they will be over the next four weeks.
And with you by my side, I’m going to keep fighting for what I believe in until every voter has had his or her say.
From the very beginning, you and I have counted on one another, working through every challenge and seizing every opportunity. That’s not just the way our campaign works. That’s the way America works.
As we enter the final four weeks of this contest, let’s keep working our hearts out.
Contribute now to keep moving our campaign forward.
In six days, we have the chance to show our strength in West Virginia. If you’ll stand with me, it’s an opportunity I intend to make the most of.
There’s no question about it — we’ve got to make every one of these next 28 days count — starting with today.
Contribute now, and let’s keep winning together.
As we’ve told each other time and time again. There will be good days and not so good days in the course of this campaign. But there will never be a day that we can’t count on one another.
As we enter the final 28 days of voting, I know you’ll give it everything you’ve got. And you know I will do the same.
Thanks for being such a wonderful friend and ally,
Hillary Rodham Clinton”
Come-From-Behind victory? Why, because obama is good at basketball? She won 51-49 in a state that is in every-way below average (except maybe in Meth use), and was one of the hottest beds of Klan activity in the country during the 20th century even though it is a Northern state.
She’s either stupid, a liar, or both.
I predict she’ll do well in WV too, considering they have an ex-klan member as senator-for-life there.
And he’s a DEMOCRAT.
Operation Chaos!
Operation Chaos from a draft-dodger?? The tactics of fraud and disception live on in the Grand OLD Party.
If, and its a big IF, Ron Paul was elected as the nominee, I would vote for him. But it seems that business is usual in the Grand OLD Party.
“Operation Chaos from a draft-dodger?? The tactics of fraud and disception live on in the Grand OLD Party.
If, and its a big IF, Ron Paul was elected as the nominee, I would vote for him. But it seems that business is usual in the Grand OLD Party.”
Ron Paul’s pretty old himself.
You would vote for Paul against whom?
You should get together with some dittoheads. You seem to have a lot in common with them, just different viewpoints.
More dispatches from operation chaos HQ (Hillary’s Brain):
The New York Post: “Clinton played the race card yesterday as she dismissed Barack Obama as a candidate who will have a hard time winning support from ‘white Americans.’ It was the most starkly racial comment Clinton has made in the campaign, and drew quick condemnation from some Democrats.
“ ‘I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on,’ she told USA Today in an interview published yesterday. She referred to an Associated Press story on Indiana and North Carolina exit polls ‘that found how Sen. Obama’s support among working, hardworking Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me.’ She added, ‘There’s a pattern emerging here.’”
Here’s what some said in response: “Muriel Offerman, a North Carolina superdelegate who has not disclosed her choice, said, ‘That should not have been said. I think it drives a wedge, a racial wedge, and that’s not what the Democratic Party’s about.’ Asked about Clinton’s comments, Massachusetts superdelegate Debra Kozikowsi said, ‘That’s distressing. I’m not even sure how to respond to that.’”
The New York Daily News: “Hillary Clinton misplays race card while Barack Obama is treated like rock star.” “[S]ome of her supporters — including Rep. Charles Rangel (D-Manhattan) — slammed the comments. ‘I can’t believe Sen. Clinton would say anything that dumb,’ Rangel told The News as he headed to the House floor, where earlier he had embraced Obama. The bitter words came as both candidates looked ahead to West Virginia’s primary Tuesday and pressed their talking points — Clinton insisting she was in the race to win, while Obama argued he could have the nomination wrapped up when Oregon and Kentucky vote on May 20.”
Peggy Noonan also believes Clinton played the race card in her USA Today interview. “If John McCain said, ‘I got the white vote, baby!’ his candidacy would be over. And rising in highest indignation against him would be the old Democratic Party. To play the race card as Mrs. Clinton has, to highlight and encourage a sense that we are crudely divided as a nation, to make your argument a brute and cynical ‘the black guy can’t win but the white girl can’ is — well, so vulgar, so cynical, so cold, that once again a Clinton is making us turn off the television in case the children walk by.”
“‘She has unleashed the gates of hell,’ a longtime party leader told me. ‘She’s saying, “He’s not one of us.”’
John Edwards said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe that he disagrees with Clinton’s “white Americans” comment and that she’s got to ask herself, “Where are the lines?” He added, “I think it’s fine for Hillary to keep making the case for her. But when that shifts to everything that is wrong with him, then we’re doing damage instead of being helpful.”
And did Edwards tip his hand on who he’s backing? He called Obama the “likely nominee.” And we’ll chalk this one up to his Southern accent, but he said he “voted for ‘em on Tuesday.” (Sounded an awful lot like “him.”)
Also… “I think Barack Obama’s doing pretty well without my help.” Edwards also said, “He is clearly the likely nominee at this point.”
Clinton thinks she can say these things because she’s a democrat. She may have a point, but, is she trying to tear the party asunder? People speculate she is trying to bloody-up Obama so she can run in 2012. Besides the selfishness and stupidity of thinking about 2012, doesn’t she realize that if she is percieved to be what causes Obama to lose, her name will be Mud amoungst dems, and she may even lose her senate seat.
I never disliked Bill. I even have some affection for him. (and I voted for him twice)– but this race has made me see even him in a much more negative light.
The point is: What the hell does it MATTER if Obama can win in the general compared to what the will of the democratic voters is? If either the dems, or the GOP decide to have an unelectable guy represent them in the general, that’s their choice.
And I REALLY think Clinton supporters underestimate how much so many americans really HATE her. I mean, who cares if a few rubes in Penn won’t vote for Obama. I am not involved in politics, but I would become involved if Clinton is the nomininee. I don’t want another no-character, terrible public speaker in the white house, or a populist.
“A liberal is a man (person) person who wants to build bridges over the chasms that separate humanity from a better life” Richard Milhous Nixon
The pundits of tv and radio have distorted the true definition for years, and politicans without backbone run from the label.
So please, use your own brain, think, stop receiving your Morning Joe, Fox News, etc, to become educated on the issues. Those programs live on ratings, not on reporting political truth to power.
You seem very interested in the race, so keep you morals in-check and don’t belittle those who really want this country to be a better place. Not everyone can be right, take a look at what has happened to the US in the last 7 years. Consider all the major issues that need to be addressed, then consider how you would like to see positive change, and how would you do it?
Its all so easy to follow the radio and tv political so-called experts. Stay informed, and vote of what you truly believe is right. Think for yourself.
“So please, use your own brain, think, stop receiving your Morning Joe, Fox News, etc, to become educated on the issues. Those programs live on ratings, not on reporting political truth to power.”
I don’t watch any TV news.
I’m just saying that the far left tends to be as deluded as the far right.
I have been called a liberal by many, and I guess when I am called a “classical liberal” I am correct.
“You seem very interested in the race, so keep you morals in-check and don’t belittle those who really want this country to be a better place.”
I’ll stop if you stop. Please don’t allow yourself to think that people in ANY political party, liberals, christian fundementalists, rebublicans, Islamists, communists, libertarians, democrats — don’t believe they are trying to make the world a “better place”
It is always someone else who thinks they are working for “evil”
One of the silver linings of the present administration is that I have never in my life heard so much emphasis on and respect for the constititution from the far left until they saw bushcheney in power.
Before, many lefties talked about tearing Madison’s work up.
There is a lot delusion in the extremes of BOTH republican and democratic parties. What bothers me about the group that, rightly or wrongly, are called “liberals” today, is that they insist that other people pay for their deluded plans, and pay to clean up for the mess that ensuse when the plan doesn’t work.
Now, before you bring up iraq, please understand that, in many people on the right’s mind, the species of right-wing hawks that are called “neo-cons” are percieved by many conservatives, especially fiscal conservatives like myself, to be big-government liberals. If you actually talk to a bunch of them, they really do sound like liberals, bleeding heart ones even, albeit often with a strong paranoid, sometimes bordering on bloodthirsty, streak.
But hey, this describes Lenin, Castro and Chevez too.
Its all so easy to follow the radio and tv political so-called experts. Stay informed, and vote of what you truly believe is right. Think for yourself.
Hey, how about those W. Va. Democrats? (shudder)
I guess they just wanted to prove that W. VA. is an outlier in yet ANOTHER way.
Conservative democrats make my skin crawl like few others can.