This past weekend, 1500 Republican leaders from all around the Golden State gathered for the biennial organization convention of the California Republican Party. Despite the rainy weather outside of the Capitol Hyatt Hotel and the Convention Center, inside Republicans were excited to be able to elect new Party leaders, and they selected some great ones.
Lots has been and will be written about the weekend, and frankly I am ready to take some time off after spending months on the campaign trail myself. But I will take a few minutes to pen some brief observations from the weekend.
My first one — our Republican Party remains 100% committed to our core Republican values. It was clear our new Chairman, Ron Nehring, and our new Vice Chairman, Tom Del Becarro, are committed to seeing the GOP win in elected by pushing our winning issues with the voters, not capitulating and adopting the positions of the liberal Democrat Party. As a matter of fact, there was a strong, vibrant campaign for Vice Chairman waged all weekend long at the convention, and both of the candidates were equally as conservative, both emphasizing the need for our Party to strike a contrasting view to those presented by the Party of Hillary Clinton. After Del Becarro’s convincing victory on Sunday, his opponent, Tom Bordonaro, came up on to the stage to give a rousing congratulations to Del Becarro, that really exemplified a spirit of team-work and unity. Duf Sundheim was applauded for his hard work — as he should be — he selflessly gave everything to the California GOP for four years.
Elected Regional Vice Chairmen at this convention were Jerry Maltby, Paul Bruno, Laura Gadke, Mark Pruner, Luis Buhler, Doug Boyd, Aquanetta Warren, and, of course, yours truly. I look forward to serving with all of them. Of course, others who continue to serve on the Board who were elected by the CRP Membership include Treasurer Keith Carlson, Secretary Jalene Forbis and Republican National Committeemembers Barbara Alby and Tim Morgan.
There were a lot of events that took place at the convention – from the Governor’s starring role in the Friday night banquet, to Presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani’s lunchtime appearance. Those have all been and will continue to be written about on this site. And most assuredly we’ll be able to cover some of the more notable ‘inside baseball’ aspects of the event when this website publishes its traditional "Winners and Losers of the Convention" column which will run one week from today. But I did want to spend a moment to talk about the end of the convention, and the CRP leadership meetings that followed.
CRP Board Meeting
After the convention was over, I had an opportunity as the newly elected Vice Chairman, South, to participate in two meetings. The first was a joint meeting of County GOP Chairmen and the CRP Board of Directors. It was a great, positive meeting that reflected, right out of the gate, the commitment that newly elected Chairman Ron Nehring and newly elected County Chairman’s Association President Keen Butcher have to created a very close, and productive relationship between the State and County parties.
Immediately following this larger meeting was the first meeting of the newly constituted CRP Board of Directors. I will say that is was a really great meeting, and Ron Nehring and an enthusiastic Board of Directors accomplished a lot, including the adoption of a detailed Strategic Plan, and supporting the Chairman’s proposal for a comprehensive performance review, which over the coming months will entail a top-to-bottom in depth look at everything the CRP is doing, in order to figure out, from an educated position, what the best plans should be going forward.
Knowing Ron Nehring, there will be no shortage of communication about what is going on with the California Republican Party, but I will say that from my perspective, he will be backed up with a very committed Board that is intent on seeing him, and all of us, successful in electing more Republicans and seeing our GOP public policy positions implemented at the national and state levels.
I was very touched and appreciative of the warm reception that I received as a new Board Member. I am one of three "new" members — along with LA County’s Doug Boyd and the Central Valleys’ Laura Gadke. All of the others were either re-elected to their Board seats, or moved to a new one. I was also very impressed that Immediate Past Chairman Duf Sundheim was not only at the meeting, but was active and engaged, making it very clear that his love and appreciation for our Party will extend long beyond his time as Chairman.
I’ll close out my ten cents on the CRP Board Meeting by praising our Treasurer, Keith Carlson. It was clear at the meeting that this is someone who is engaged and understands the finances of our Party, and is committed to really moving the ball down the field. We’re lucky to have someone of his abilities donating his time to the CRP, and I will really look forward to serving with him.
Many Thanks
This seems like the most appropriate place to thank all of those who supported my campaign for Vice Chairman, South. As you may have read, I was heartened to be elected by an overwhelming over the appointed incumbent. Over the past few months, I ran a campaign that stressed three themes, all of which it is clear resonated with the delegates in the Southern Region (nearly a quarter of the entire CRP membership) — the importance of helping the four counties in the area develop and implement their political plans, providing solid, experienced leadership on the CRP Board of Directors, and working to ensure that the Party of Ronald Reagan stays true to its core beliefs.
Republicans in California have a big challenge ahead, in a state largely dominated by Democrats. But I can tell you that 1500 Republican leaders left Sacramento enthusiastic and excited to make positive gains for the Party of Lincoln. And I as I looked at our two newest leaders, Chairman Ron Nehring and Vice Chairman Tom Del Becarro, I can tell you that they are the most excited of us all, and their energy is contagious. It was a great weekend.
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