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| Ore. and Wash. Republicans will be selecting their new chairmen in February. |
Candidates have begun emerging and are jockeying for the state positions.
Here are the details for the GOP state organizing meetings:
ORP Organizational Meeting
http://www.oregonrepublicanparty.org/calendar
When: Saturday, Feb 2, 2013
Where: Red Lion Hotel and Conference Center
Address: 3301 Market St. NE, Salem Ore.
WSRP Organizational Meeting
http://wsrp.org/events
No information available at this time, typical of the WSRP.
When: Saturday, January 19, 2013
Where: Red Lion Hotel, Olympia
Our Election Predictions
Oregon
John Lee, Jr. will win running on the coattails of the Clackamas county commissioner wins largely funded by Andrew Miller of Stimson Lumber. He will bring on John Swanson as the new ORP Chief of Staff to replace Greg Leo. Expect more of the same insider-style campaigning with Andrew Miller's money passed through the Oregon Transformation Project. Although the rhetoric may change, don't expect any different results in the next two years.
UPDATE: Suzanne Gallagher was elected Chairman of the ORP. [see her in action]
Washington
Kirby Wilbur will retain his seat as Chairman. Washington Republicans can expect more of the same. Wilbur won't make any major improvements to the party, nor will he create any real damage. All said, it's actually better than it sounds.
UPDATE: January 19: Kirby Wilbur is re-elected as Chairman.
Here are the current candidates, and we'll do our best to keep this post updated as new candidates emerge.
Oregon Republican Chairman Candidates
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| Allen Alley is not running for a second term as the Oregon Republican chairman. |
Allen Alley is the current Oregon Republican Party chairman, and has said he's not interested in running again for office. His most notable accomplishment was changing the ORP logo [here], however, his members have not overlooked the absolute failure of his go-to-the-middle approach. Under his leadership, Republicans gave back all the legislative gains earned in the 2010 elections. Although not illegal, but certainly unusual, Allen Alley has already given the RNC chairman endorsement to Reince Priebus [here]. The endorsement is unusual, because Allen Alley won't be eligible to vote for him. It would be considered courteous to defer the endorsement to the incoming chairman. This is Allen's last act that essentially recaps his legacy as being out-of-touch and divisive.
See ya later alligator
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| Art Robinson has run twice, unsuccessfully, for US Representative in Oregon's 4th CD. |
Art Robinson ran two failed congressional campaigns against Defazio in the 4th congressional district. Some of the skills needed to be a state chairman are political acumen, communication skills and fundraising ability. Look through some of these links, then start praying along with The Governed that some other qualified candidates emerge.
Announces bid for ORP chairman
Defeated by DeFazio | Election Resuslts
Art for Congress | Wikipedia
Art implodes on national television--ORP's future spokesperson
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| John Lee, Jr. has extensive experience serving on the Oregon Republican Central Committee, and it is this experience that will likely propel him to the party's top post. |
John Lee, Jr. current Clackamas County GOP Chairman, is campaigning on the recent successful election of conservative (although not Republican) county commissioners Tootie Smith and John Ludlow. In fact, Lee had very little to do with their elections--it was largely due to the enormous bankroll of Andrew Miller of Stimson Lumber and his own PAC, the Oregon Transformation Project. But success has 1,000 fathers, and Lee is claiming parental rights to these recent wins.
Lee has an extremely optimistic view of Oregon, which may play to the party base. He said:
"The state is conservative," said Lee. "If we get our vote out...we win the issues every time."Getting the conservative vote out here in Oregon may be a bigger trick than Lee anticipates--first you have to find the last remaining Republicans who are few and far between.
Lee has extensive party experience and insider-connections that will likely propel him to the party's top post. Lee has stated that he will raise money to pay a salary so he can devote his full attention to the job if elected.
Clackamas GOP Chair John Lee seeks chairmanship of Oregon Republican Party
Field for Oregon GOP chairman gets larger
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| John Swanson pulled out of the race and has endorsed John Lee, Jr. He may be jockying to be the new ORP Chief of Staff. |
John Swanson likes to run for public positions, however, hasn't won any of his own races yet. He challenged Patrick Sheehan in 2010 for the House District 51, and ran for Position 4 of the Clackamas County Board of County Commissioners.
John bailed out of the GOP Chair race and backed John Lee, Jr. This endorsement probably came packaged with a payoff--our guess is Lee has agreed to hire Swanson as the new ORP Chief of Staff replacing Greg Leo.
John Swanson, chief of staff for Sen. Chuck Thomsen, files to run for Clackamas Cunty commissioner
John Swanson back John Lee for ORP Chair
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| In the wake of two personal election losses, Suzanne Gallagher will have to convince Oregon Republicans how her approach will help Republicans win. |
Suzanne Gallagher has run two of her own losing campaigns. The first for the state House in 2004 and the second for the state Senate in 2012.
She has proven that her campaign philosophy hasn't worked for herself, now she's faced with explaining how her approach will work for other Republicans. It seems like a mountain too steep to climb.
Suzanne Gallagher announces for Oregon GOP chairmanship
Michael Garvin
Michael Garvin is the Portland State College Republicans Vice President. It's great that he's exercising his civic rights and running to lead the Oregon GOP, but quite frankly, has an absolute zero chance of winning.
College Republicans VP declares candidacy
Washington Republican Chairman Candidates
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| Kirby Wilbur is running for his second term as the WSRP Chairman. He fell woefully short in his 2012 elction campaign "12 in 12". |
Kirby Wilbur, the current WSRP chairman, former KVI Seattle talk radio host, and former Washington Americans for Prosperity head is running once again for WSRP chairman. He's made a number of KVI appearances lately when he's substituted for John Carlson. Rumors have been flying that he may make a return to KVI, but those rumors have recently been squashed with his announcement that he's going to run for WSRP chairman again.
Kirby spent the last two years championing his "12 in 12" campaign that would restore a Republican majority to the WA House, Senate and Governor's mansion. He fell woefully short of that goal. The Republicans look to have gained an effective majority in the Senate, but it's due to two defector Democrats, not because of successful campaigning.
Kirby--in a lot of ways--represents the rank-and-file Republicans, but without a serious challenger, Kirby certainly will be re-elected. He won't damage the party, and he also won't make any significant progress in building it.
Kirby is skilled at running meetings and conventions, and at representing the party and handling the media.
It looks like he is following in Allen Alley's footsteps from Oregon, and is trying to refresh the the WSRP brand by creating a new logo. Here is the old logo and here is the new logo. The blog is blank, perhaps Kirby is hoping that the state's Republicans will forget his "12 in 12" campaign.
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| David Eichner's announcement makes it sound as though he was talked into running for WSRP chairman. |
David Eichner was bumped out of the WA 6th CD primary in 2012. He received an anemic 4.92% of the vote. He had no business running in this race--a political miscalculation that should certainly disqualify him as a state GOP chairman candidate. We can't imagine that republicans want a leader that is this inexperienced.
Eichner doesn't resonate as though HE wants to be the WSRP chairman--rather it sounds as if though he was talked into it. Here is part of his announcement that can be found on his Facebook page:
Having been urged by a number of people to do so, I am announcing my candidacy for the position of State Chairman of the Washington State Republican Party.
and
.. but the more I thought about it…the more I realized that my dynamic speaking skills and my ability to work with various groups of people cooperatively would allow me to serve in this capacity very effectively.
He has 58 fans on his Facebook page. His dynamic speaking ability didn't get him past the primary in his congressional race. We don't think it will get him the job of WSRP chairman either.
Eichner's facebook page
Mitch Short is better known in Washington as Representative Shelley Short's husband. He's an amiable guy, who has been around the party for some time.
One of the prime responsibilities of a state chairman is fundraising, and Mitch is dragging some heavy baggage when it comes to money.
This blog post is still floating around from Shelly's 2008 election cycle and claims that Mitch was accused of stealing money from the Northeast Washington Fair:
I've written about this case before; Mitch Short is accused of stealing money from the Northeast Washington Fair, about $3000, while his wife is running to replace Bob Sump as Representative for the 7th Legislative District. Mitch is looking at an arraignment on August 26th, but the story is all over the papers right now, in the weekend before the primary.This may have been simply campaign mudslinging, but Mitch should be armed with answers before he steps into the Central Committee Organizing meeting later this week.
The Mitch and Shelly Short story continues
Candidate's spouse faces theft charges
1 comment:
So the elections are over and Lori Sotelo is King County Chair and Kirby Wilbur is WSRP chair. When will the Republican party learn that these are two incredibly divisive people? Have fun with two more years of the party rending itself in twain. Apparently, a cataclysmic failure in the state elections wasn't enough for the state committee to stop and reconsider its direction.
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