Posted on 11/30/2001 7:31:13 AM PST by Captain Jack Aubrey
Edited on 09/03/2002 4:49:35 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
RICHMOND, Nov. 30
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
You always get the sense that we want victory a lot less than the Dems.
It is tough to be the top fund raiser and campaigner for a party, when you can't deliver your own home Republican state. Gilmore faced wide-spread big-donar republic defections. (While not real public info, this is common knowledge in VA political circles.)
His departure was not a shock, but it might be a blessing. I think he did not have the statute, contacts, or background in the national party to for the job.
It is tough to be the top fund raiser and campaigner for a party, when you can't deliver your own home Republican state. Gilmore faced wide-spread big-donar republic defections. (While not real public info, this is common knowledge in VA political circles.)
His departure was not a shock, but it might be a blessing. I think he did not have the statute, contacts, or background in the national party to for the job.
I am with you. Every time I get a mailing from any of the GOP money raisers, I tell them NO until they do something about the fraud in our elections. I want election reform to keep the rats from stealing the elections!
Further, I send my letters back to them in their pre-paid postage envelope. I feel few rats would ever win an election if things were clean.
We already have a co-Chair of the RNC. I can't see how we would not elevate her to the post. It would make us look really bad for us to have what amounts to a successor in place, but deciding she shouldn't be upgraded because she's a girl. She is the head of Missouri's GOP.
No offense, but I don't think Racicot has the backbone for the job. I don't think Schundler can manipulate and strategize to the level required to dominate. President Bush (41) is a great guy, I like him a lot, but not in this job.
Now Chavez? Maybe, I just don't know enough about her to have a firm opinion.
Yes, Rove is good for the Whitehouse, but Ari and Karen can handle it from here. We've got to have someone who does things in an unconventional way. Someone who the dims won't be able to predict. Someone with the wherewithall to carry it to fruition. Someone who can take the criticism that will come his way.
Karl Rove is all of these things and more. The man is uncanny in strategy, completely unpredictable, and absolutely unflappable. I'm with Innocentbystander on this. It's got to be Karl Rove.
So, we triple-team Terry. Get Bret out there developing a plan to help GOP candidates carry urban areas. He did it three times as Jersey City mayor, and his problems in his first state-wide race were more of DiFrancesco's making than Bret's.
Put J.C. up as the main voice of the party. A black male. And to also help out, Linda Chavez to handle the nuts-and-bolts, and to join J.C. on the PR circuit.
I don't know enough about the current co-chair, but get her out there, too, preferably against Nita Lowey and Patty Murray. Let's play a matchups game. Get a mismatch, and work with it wherever possible.
No, but I'll bet you it is someone with a squeaky clean record--Gilmore's got some flaws that I don't want to discuss--because the GOP is preparing to go after McAuliffe and wants to preclude the Left's typical argument that "They all do it!!" This announcement caught me off guard, but it is very good news for those who want to see McAuliffe--and eventually, Der SchleekMeister--to Justice!!
FReegards...MUD
BTW...this might also mean Gilmore is considering challenging John Warner in the GOP Primary...hmmmmmmm!!
Here's the Cook analysis of the race and I agree with it:
From early on the race in New Jersey was a mismatch. Democrat Jim McGreevey already had the experience of a statewide campaign under his belt with his near-upset over Gov. Christie Whitman in 1997. He never stopped running and was long ago anointed by a unified state Democratic party anxious to regain the governor's mansion and delighted that McGreevey was back for a second try. In contrast, not only was it Republican Bret Schundler's first statewide foray, but his relationship with his state party's leadership couldn't have been different.A conservative championed by the pro-life, pro-gun wing of the party who had spent the seven long Whitman years on the outside looking in, his primary campaign rhetoric was as critical of the Republicans running the state government in Trenton as a Democrat's. Still, Schundler was stunned with attempts by the state party leadership to search for a candidate they believed was viable statewide, leading to the failed campaign of acting governor/state Senate president Donnie DiFrancesco, and the eventual candidacy of last year's Senate nominee, Bob Franks. The hard feelings among the moderates never healed and DiFrancesco more than once was loudly critical of Schundler during the general election campaign while Whitman waited until well into October to generate a feeble letter of endorsement.
Once past the primary, Schundler seemed never to regain his stride. Within days of winning the nomination he was immediately demonized by McGreevey surrogates who played up his conservative views on social issues with no GOP surrogates in sight to come to his aid. Said on veteran political observer here, "Bret was kept on the defensive. He never learned the lesson that when attacked, attack back." He and other insiders also point to Schundler's verbal gaffes and seeming series of back luck - branding McGreevey an "ayatollah" this summer, then, down 18 points in the polls at Labor Day, he went out of the country on a pre-arranged trip to Israel, got stuck overseas in the wake of September 11th, came back and insulted state emergency workers, and in his final debate with McGreevey nine days before the election managed to offend just about everybody when he dragged McGreevey's pregnant wife into the abortion debate and then alluded to his opponent's children being from his first marriage.
Long touted as a new styled Jack Kemp with innovative economic theories and a possible national future in the GOP, Schundler failed to sharpen a message for the general election contest and, in the words of one observer, "never learned to work in sound bites," instead speaking in paragraphs.
You can afford to eat your own when you have plenty to spare. We don't. We are in a dog fight next year. The Dems are out for blood in 2002 and 2004.
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