VA 11th CD Convention - May 19, 2012

[thoughtomator]

11th CD GOP: http://www.va11gop.org/main/

11th CD Convention 2012 - May 19th http://www.va11gop.org/campaign/convention12.php

[Lightweis]

I'm running for delegate in the 11th =)

[.roark.]

I'm running for delegate in the 11th =)

James,
I spoke with you on the phone several weeks ago. You said you really were trying to garner support for the vote on May 19th. I plan on being there to vote for you and the other 2 Ron Paul people. I have a somewhat silly questions. What was the vote for on March 24 and how is that different from the one on the 19th?

[Lightweis]

March 24 was the election of the fairfax County chairman and to certify every district delegate in fairfax county to the district conventions. Give me a call at 703-231-3113. I'm launching my website Sunday night and sending out a mailer. I also plan on calling everyone asap!

[thoughtomator]

Some last minute goings on here, update for delegates to VA-11.

DELEGATE SLOTS (3 votes per delegate): Vote for James Lightweis and Brandon Jasionowski. Abstain the third vote (our 3rd delegate moved away from the CD so we no longer have a 3rd). Don't vote for a competing third delegate as that might knock one of our two out of the winners' circle.

STATE CENTRAL COMMITTEE (3 votes per delegate): Clear choice here - vote for David Ray, Matt Damon, Patsy Drain (listed in order of importance for those who wish to substitute).

11th CD CHAIRMAN - TBA, getting conflicting information and am in the process of sorting it out.

[Rebelrouser]

Some last minute goings on here, update for delegates to VA-11.

DELEGATE SLOTS (3 votes per delegate): Vote for James Lightweis and Brandon Janikowski. Abstain the third vote (our 3rd delegate moved away from the CD so we no longer have a 3rd). Don't vote for a competing third delegate as that might knock one of our two out of the winners' circle.

STATE CENTRAL COMMITTEE (3 votes per delegate): Clear choice here - vote for David Ray, Matt Damon, Patsy Drain (listed in order of importance for those who wish to substitute).

11th CD CHAIRMAN - TBA, getting conflicting information and am in the process of sorting it out.

I'm a first time delegate so this is all pretty new to me.

I spoke with David Ray extensively and he was very willing to be helpful and answer my questions. I did see that Patsy Drain worked with the Romney campaign in '08 and is listed as endorsing him this go-around. Can she be trusted? I also spoke with Lillian Vogl, who put together a superb website that explained things very well for a newbie like me. Her support of Primaries over conventions is a bit of a concern to me, but she seems very sincere in wanting ti open up the party more to non-establishment conservatives. She also states that she would not officially back any one candidate if given the position except those who win primaries/nominations.

I notice that the SCC candidates are forming coalitions of threes, but do we have to vote for the coalitions as a whole?

[killerhertz]

It's Brandon Jasionowski. That would be me.

I'm new to this myself. There are a lot of names and a lot of inter-personal baggage that I keep hearing about. Frankly, this is why our Republic is in such big poop. It's all about who's ass you're kissing, not what you stand for.

[davegod75]

I'm running for delegate in the 11th =)

Good Luck James, I think I met you at Jo's house. I'll be at the 10th on the same day.

[thoughtomator]

name spelling corrected, sorry Brandon! I share precisely your concerns, that's why I'm involved.

[lib3rtarian]

So the guys running for SCC are not our guys? We couldn't find anyone to run for it? If the SCC guys are ours, couldn't one of them also run as a national delegate?

[thoughtomator]

update + answering some questions -

re: Candidates pairing up in threes, you don't need to vote for them as slates, you vote for individuals. They tend to pair up in threes due to the endorsements going around and the fact that there are three SCC seats up for grabs, but the races are as individuals.

re: national delegates - to the best of my knowledge we did have a third but one person had to bow out due to unforeseen circumstances.

Here's the update: I spoke today with both Becky Stoekel and with Michael Giere. I'll be talking to Terry Wear sometime tomorrow, after which I will meditate on the issue and make my personal recommendation which may or may not be in agreement with the endorsements of local and campaign liberty leaders. Bottom line is that, there being no liberty candidate for chairman, our objective should be to get the person who will most faithfully adhere to the rules even when the results of doing so don't favor their own political opinions.

It may be that the best strategy is to make all three candidates think our movement is behind them, while individual delegates vote their conscience. But I will reserve that judgement until after I have let the final candidate have a fair say. I'll do one last update on this topic tomorrow afternoon.

[thoughtomator]

OK I promised one last update on this and here it is.

Out of the three chair candidates, I prefer Mike Giere by a slight margin over Terry Wear. I can't vote for Stoekel as she is part and parcel of the establishment, with Cantor and Allen. Of the remaining two, I think Giere is a bit closer politically and has more passion, while Wear has more experience. This is my personal recommendation and I will note that this preference is different from others'. All three candidates have some merits and could be useful to the party organization in some way, with regards to our objectives I think either Giere or Wear should be adequate. Since we have no explicit liberty candidate this is a "vote your conscience and hold them to fair play" vote.

[thoughtomator]

Just got back from the convention... we got one delegate of three, would have gotten two but on the last one which needed a second round of balloting, all the non-Paul people got together to deny it to us. Our endorsed slate swept the State Central Committee slots, not necessarily liberty people but good, honest, smart and experienced folks who should be assets moving forward. The elected chair is a wait-and-see, but I think there's a good chance he'll be fair to us.

The convention itself was a major clusterfuck, serious problems with ballot counting, very long story. I'm exhausted and my feet and brain hurt. But three cheers for James Lightweis for winning a national delegate slot, and props to Brandon Jasonowski for giving a great speech and nearly pulling in a second one.

I'll update more when my brain stops hurting, been up 17 hours straight now