On January 22, 2011 members of the state committee of the New Hampshire Republican Party will gather to conduct party business and elect a new Chairman of the state party for the ensuing two years. It is a two-way race between former NH Gubernatorial candidate Jack Kimball, and the chairman of the Cheshire County Republican Party, Juliana Bergeron.
Before talking about the state GOP chairmanship race, though, I think it’s really important to talk about what’s right with the New Hampshire Republican Party. Its nominal legislative majority was wiped out in 2006 ("nominal" because of the number of RINO’s then in office). That allowed the Democrats full-rein over our state for four years. They wreaked destruction during that time. But by 2010 Republicans had regrouped and came roaring back with huge numbers of new activists, unlimited energy, new and improved activist organizations (such as GraniteGrok.com and the Republican Liberty Caucus of New Hampshire), and solid unity. November witnessed a tidal wave victory, bestowing huge GOP majorities in the State House, the State Senate, and the Executive Council. How could the NH GOP have come back that strong in just four short years?
Read on…
First of all, the foolish, harmful, and anti-Republcan policies and actions of the George W. Bush presidency—with their Republican supporters in Congress—came to a merciful end…only to be replaced with far worse. But at least GOP conservative activists no longer had to apologize for their own President on many issues.
Secondly, even in the midst of what I have called "the GOP Civil War," a new feeling and determination of unity has swept through the party. In New Hampshire, the standard is our excellent state party platform: If you support it on the whole, you’re a good Republican, period. This meant that while RINO’s were targeted and defeated by conservative Republican activists in the GOP primaries, the rest of the party joined together to face the common menace of a Democrat majority gone wild. As a result, the Democrats were electorally wiped out by a united Republican Party consisting of traditional conservatives, constitutionalists, "movement" conservatives, longtime party members and workers, social conservatives, and moderate libertarians from all over our state.
Third, the NH GOP benefitted from the influx of two new and extraordinary constituencies who swelled the ranks of the party’s "on the ground activists." First, the Tea Party battalions, sick of the corruption and anti-constitutional activities of both Democrats and Republicans in Washington, DC, flooded into the NH GOP as a reforming force, giving the party principled new energy, vitality, and financial support. Their contribution cannot be underestimated.
Secondly, the NH GOP was augmented by yet another constitutency filled with enthusiasm and boundless energy, the "liberty and freedom" activists. These new grass roots activists included re-energized movement conservatives, constitutionalists, moderate libertarians, 9/12ers, and others. Their contribution to our state party complimented that of the Tea Partiers, and the resulting confluence of forces together with the existing state Republican Party created an unstoppable political momentum, resulting in….
Well, resulting in what happened a moment after the snapshot below was taken! Heh….
So…with all that said, I’ll get back to the state GOP chairmanship race tomorrow!