Recountings from the County - NOW they decide to use the media? - Granite Grok

Recountings from the County – NOW they decide to use the media?

This past Wednesday, the Laconia Sun ran a piece by Michael Kitch "Belknap Co. GOP at war with itself". Upon reading it, one would think that Doug and I are the rabblerousers in the local sandbox.  What the article does not mention is that this same "problem" is going on all over the State and all over the US.  It is part of the political cycle – start losing and the knives come out.

After vowing to bring unity to the New Hampshire Republican Party by serving as "a benevolent dictator,” former governor John H. Sununu, the chair apparent of the GOP, may need to drop the adjective to quell the bloodletting in the Belknap County, where some conservative activists have taken aim at the party leadership in the wake of another setback at the polls.

Make no mistake; even though this County version of the national struggle within the GOP seems to be between a local few names, it is not.  It’s not even the result of "sore losers" even though there a fair flock of both losers and those that are "sore" named in the article.

No, after years of being in the land of plenty here in NH and nationally, the GOP is the minority party again. And given its results, as well as the regional and national ones, this battle is about Philosophy:

  • What does the Republican Party stand for?
  • For what is it willing to go to battle for?
  • Should Republican capitulate and move to the Center (and become more like Democrats) to solely be able to win elections?

That last one is a most important one.  Yes, elections matter – they matter a lot.  The Majority Party sets the agenda, holds the levers of power; the question that has to be asked of the NH and County GOP is "Sure, but what DID you do when you were the Majority Party"?  Did you govern for power or for principle?

Last year here at the County level  I watch the Majority Party, the GOP, fail to follow the Right To Know law and raise taxes on its citizens 8.8%. Tell me WHY those are NOT reasons to start asking questions? And how should one measure these actions against the Party Platform? 

Certainly, staying with the status quo has proven to be a losing proposition – changes are needed and one solid way to carefully ask and discuss that question is in terms of "Does the Party Platform matter and can it be used as a Standard for subsequent activity?  Can it be used for the highly politically incorrect proposition – Accountability?"

And to start the process, one has to question both actions and those responsible for those actions and that means: 

I’m going to name names and point fingers,” vowed Doug Lambert of Gilford, “and not hesitate for the sake of party unity.”

Recently PolitickerNH, [here, my comments here   -Skip] the popular political website, reported Frank Tilton, chairman of the Belknap County Republican Committee, as saying the county had not yet turned blue while conceding the GOP must better articulate its message.  Positing a comment, Lambert shot back “Frank Tilton is a tool,” pronounced Belknap County “hopeless” and insisted “step one in rebuilding the Belknap County GOP is to wait for the dinosaurs…to pass on or move away.”

Earlier this year Lambert, together with former Laconia mayor Tom Tardif, riled the local GOP by taking the Belknap County Convention, where the party held 14 of the 18 seats, to court over the appointment of Sheriff Craig Wiggin and the adoption of the 2008 county budget.

One can also debate results – as the article pointed out, Republicans held 14 seats last year; it was more in the previous election cycle and now it is less. Losses are not tolerated well by most; another reason for the "discussion".

After prevailing in court, Tardif, with Lambert in his corner, challenged Tilton for the Laconia seat on the County Commission.  Tilton won the nomination, but lost the election to Democrat Ed Philpot.

Which is one reason why the relationship between Frank and I has, shall we say, "cooled".  It made no difference that I, for free, ran the election websites for Bill Tobin and Greg Knytych (both Republicans in the County running for NH State Senate).  The fact that I ran Tom’s website and online activities seems to have become a sticky wicket (as the Brits say). 

Hate to say the obvious, but so much for Party unity after not only the primary but the general election!

“The Republicans fought Tom Tardif a lot harder than they fought Ed Philpot,” Lambert remarked.

“The leaders of the County GOP are more anti-conservative than anti-Democrat,” Lambert proclaimed.

There’s no doubt that Doug and I would be considered amongst the most conservative of the active Republicans in the County – I don’t see the same vitriol being cast at those at the other end of the spectrum (except by us).

Meanwhile, Skip Murphy, who shares a political blog – GraniteGrok – and weekly radio show – Meet The New Press – with Lambert, resigned as chair of the Gilford Republican Committee after being denied a place on the Republican State Committee. 

Partially true, but only partially.  I did take it as a "no confidence" vote in what I have been trying to do the last two years and did the honorable thing.  What is "more" true is that  I have stretched myself very thin and some things have suffered because of it.

A bigger (and better) reason would be this – given the actions of both local and national Republicans, it has been downright difficult to attract more people to be active Republicans.  It is quite embarrassing to say that Republicans believe in lower taxes, smaller government, and a less intrusive one as well (e.g., what the Party Platforms actually stands for).  Problem is, as soon as I say such, I start hearing about Republicans leading the charge for higher taxes, expanding government with more regulations and dislocating free markets, and leading the fight to insert government in between parents and their children (parental notification).

A massive case of Republican "This is what I believe in so ignore what I actually do, especially with your tax money".   Now extrapolate!

Want a reason?  That IS the major one but this doesn’t help either.

Frustrated that the party leadership ignored or rebuffed his efforts to make greater use of the broadcast media and Internet during the last election,

Read this blog – you know where we stand.  Listen to the show – you know where we stand.  We talk, we write – we get our message out to the public!  The others?  Can’t even bother to contribute content to their own website.  To Wit:

If you are not communicating to the voting public directly

and by as many outlets as possible, you are not going to win.

I learned a while ago – people have to help themselves first.

he recently posted remarks scolding Representative Steve Nedeau, chair of the County Convention, and Tom Brown, chair of the Laconia Republican Committee.

The latter, yes.  The comment about former County Convention Chair, Steve Nedeau, was more along the idea that he got ambushed by a Republican and all the Democrats on the Convention.

You think THAT sits well?  A discussion can, and was (I imagine), held on how to change the Convention leadership.  How well does it look for the Republicans on how it happened:

  • A Republican recruits Democrats to overthrow a Republican?
  • The Democrats sway a Republican to overthrow a Republican? 

And this reflects well on Republicans – how? 

Veteran conservative activist, columnist and broadcaster Niel Young also expressed disenchantment with the current plight of the GOP, but dismissed Lambert and Murphy, whom he said he ignored, as marginal to the effort to revive the fortunes of the party.  “They’re about healines, not about getting things done”, he said.

Well, you could add political opportunist and blowhard to the list Mr. Kitch enumerated.  This silliness by Young goes back a few years now, when Doug and I "left his fold" and started Meet The New Press.  If he cannot control it, he neither forgets nor fogives.  I guess it is now time to stop being silent about this self described "street bully" but I will do it in another post concerning this "principled conservative" and "his mission".

Tilton declined to comment in response to missles fired by Lambert and Murphy.  However he ventured that “Sununu will have a lot more clout” than Fergus Cullen, the current party chairman who found himself confronted with “too many experienced players that wanted to go down their own path”.  Sununu, he said, “will be able to unify the party.”

The problem that first comes to mind is can Sununu achieve what he says he can be being a "benevolent dictator"?  I hope that Frank will be right in this regards – only time will tell.

The more significant problem locally is can Frank (if he so chooses to run for the BCR Chair again this month) unify the Belknap County Republicans in such a manner as well? Doesn’t it make sense that for the State Rs to be unified, the various Countys have to be so as well?  Looks like Frank may well have a lot of work on his hands – and one of the first philosophical problems is does the Platform have any importance,  and how to implement it?  And then, what to do about those that do not care about it?

Look, I’m not looking to attack those that stay with the Platform 70-80% of the time.  The question that DOES loom large is what to do about Rs that are voting more closely with the Democrat Platform than the Republican
one?

During the last two years, the only thing that has been apparent is that he has tried to solve the problems listed at the top of this post of differing philosophies by sweeping it under the rug and not addressing it at all. 

You know, at one of the Gilford Town Republican meeting, Frank gave a STUNNING conservative Republican speech.  Everything that I would have wanted to hear from a conservative leader, I heard – my expectations were raised.  Let’s see if he may repeat that performance, and then hold people accountable to that vision.

That is why I sent him an email to him asking that this be put on the agenda.

And if he decides not to run, will the new Chair support that speech, implement that speech, and then hold Republicans accountable to the principles within that speech?

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