The Flag of the World

The main event of the GOP’s central committee meeting today in Tukwila was the election of a chairman, in which Chris Vance was reelected with 66 votes out of 112. However, that wasn’t the only happening of import. Anyone interested in the details of the Chairman election, the potential political star that is the new vice-chairman, the GOP’s plans regarding the top-two primary, or President Bush’s thoughts on Dino Rossi’s current situation is encouraged to read on.

Election of the Chairman
The election of chairman went smoothly. Rose Strong spoke first, detailing her experience and criticizing Vance for the way he handled the previous election, noting that Nethercutt was “steamrolled” by Patty Murray, which she called “an atrocity.” Much of the rest of her speech was spent emphasizing the need for increased minority outreach, and the great things that it could bring to the party if it is successful. She’s a very dynamic speaker, and the crowd erupted with applause after her speech. Diane Tobelius, who was acting as chairman during the election segment, noted afterwards, “you need to teach me how to do that!”

Mark Hulst spoke next, extolling the need for a unified party and a clear concise message to come from that party. He specifically noted that Republicans need to reach out to business associations such as the BIAW and realtor’s associations, involving them more closely in the party’s efforts–”they should be our labor unions,” he suggested. He also argued for reaching out to tribal leaders, noting that while they have conservative values, they consistently vote Democrat–but that as they begin doing more and more business outside of the reservations, they are running into the same problems other businessmen are.

Vance spoke last, immediately tying himself to the revote effort. He noted that the party was in a better financial situation than it has been in many years and that it avoided divisive primary battles of the past. He noted that he was working with the national Senatorial Committee to recruit a top notch candidate to run against Cantwell, that they would continue various programs that he has started, and that they would continue to fight for a constitutional primary.

After Vance spoke, Tebelius related the story that, during the last chair election, they had to have a revote, because there were more ballots than voters. Sound familiar? In order to make sure the voting was fair and legal, she had all of us who were not voting leave the room. No one complained.

The vote was 66 for Vance, 24 for Hulst and 22 for Strong. It was a pretty solid win, but a far cry from his 81-25 win over Strong two years ago. If just 10 votes had changed, it would have gone to a runoff between the top two candidates.

Vice Chair Fredi Simpson
Rose Strong, though she lost, had definitely electrified the crowd, and was immediately nominated for Vice-Chair (who has to be of the opposite gender from the chairman). Despite the urging of many, she declined to run. “I’ve been involved in Republican politics for 33 years–I’m not going anywhere,” she assured everyone, but said “I’ve got to do a lot of thinking.”

This meant that the only candidate was Fredi Simpson, the chairman of the Chelan County Republicans. She is someone who might one day be an answer to Matt Rosenburg’s call for strong Republican women candidates. The granddaughter of Mexican and Spanish migrant workers, Simpson described how she was driven to become a Republican by two factors–first, the difference she saw between her uncle, a Democratic big-shot in California who was born a citizen, and her mother, who was born in Cuba and had to work for her citizenship. Her uncle took his citizenship and the blessings that go with it for granted, while her mother never did. Second, when her mother wouldn’t allow her to take government money for college that was offered simply because she was part Hispanic. Simpson helped with the organization of the Hispanic recruitment drive in 2004, bringing in more Republican Hispanic votes in Washington State history. She’s not as dynamic a speaker as Strong, but she’s very close, and is someone to keep an eye on, as she helps present a new face to the state Republican party.

UPDATE: I’ve corrected an earlier error which stated that Simpson headed up the Hispanic recruitment effort–in fact, it was run by a number of people, including Marta Guevera, Pedro Celis and others. I also added the remarkable fact that the entire recruitment drive operated without taking money from the state party.

Republican “Battleplan”
After the elections Vance outlined the “battleplan” for the state party. It’s fairly straight forward: getting the court to order a revote, and then winning that revote; outreach to minority groups; voter ID and registration; candidate recruitment; and the training of PCO’s and other grassroots leaders.

Revote update
There was not much information provided here that a blog reader would not already know, but there were a couple points of interest. First, it was stressed that the party was willing to spend what it takes to get the revote through the courts. Second, Tebelius brought up a possibility I had not heard before: after the judge makes his ruling regarding the Democrats’ motion to dismiss, whoever loses will probably ask for an interlocutory hearing with the State Supreme Court. Like the proceedings on the 4th, this would be over a finding of law, not of fact. Third, Tebelius also mentioned that there is a possibility that some Canadian citizens may have voted in the election, which they are looking into (gee, I wonder who they voted for?). Last, Vance expressed confidence that, if the Democrats’ request to dismiss is denied, the Republicans will win the whole case (at least at the superior court level).

Top-two primary update
Republican party rules written in 2000 state that, now that the voters have approved a top-two primary system, the Republican Party will nominate candidates by way of conventions, and will go to court to prevent anyone other than those who are nominated at a party convention from calling themselves Republicans on the ballot. They don’t expect the state to agree to this, and it will probably end up in the courts.

These rules were going to be updated, but it was a very last minute thing, and the committee voted to instead delay any update until they can decide how exactly to go forward. The unanimous feeling of the committee was, however, to maintain the Republican party’s right to nominate their own candidates. There may be a special central committee meeting to determine how exactly this will go forward, however. As it stands now, however, any candidates for county office that have elections this year will be determined by a convention–and expect a legal fight over other candidates attempting to call themselves Republicans (or, for that matter, Democrats, as both parties are in agreement over this issue).

The Bushes and the Revote effort
When Washington’s three national committee members, Tebelius, Vance and Jeff Kent, were in Washington for the RNC meeting and inauguration, they had an opportunity to talk about the revote effort with the Bushes. During a picture taking session, when the delegation from each state came up and had their picture taken with the President, he stopped the Washington delegation to apologize to them.

The Bush campaign pulled out of Washington State three weeks before the election, and Bush said he was sorry they had done that because, if they had not, Dino would have won. Vance protested that there was a very good chance that Dino would still become governor, and that they had a very good case. President Bush was skeptical, but Laura perked up and said, “Is that because there are more votes than voters in King County?”

Think she’s been surfing the Internet lately?

Posted by Timothy Goddard at 5:52 pm 1/29/2005 | Northwest Politics

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