LCRC meeting after-action report

As promised, I attended the meeting of the LCRC tonight in Leesburg and found it very enlightening for a whole host of reasons.

Right off the bat, however, I want to highlight that Chairman Paul Protic has said that he will not toss his hat in the ring for another term as Chairman. He said it’s time for him to take a break and that’s all she wrote. The Chairman’s race is now wide open.

The first reason for the enlightened feeling was finding out that Roger Zurn reads this blog! He walked up and introduced himself, having concluded that I really am the guy with the gray goatee that was sitting quietly over in the corner. I’m honored in the extreme that he reads this stuff I scribble (he and Randy Minchew) and, it turns out, he agrees with much of my commentary regarding the atmosphere at the LCRC. Tonight, he stood up and said as much.

“For the past 8 years we Republicans have been eating our own young,” he said. That comment alone tells me he gets it and gets it dead center. He’s tired of it and he’s tired of losing. He thinks we should move past this in-flighting that’s being done. We should send out the message that the party’s re-formation in March will be a welcome to all conservatives – moderate and not so, social, fiscal, defense, whatever. We should not be afraid of or condescending to fellow conservatives who disagree with us on the 20% while agreeing on the 80%.

That said, he also feels that once the discussions are done and the vote taken, it’s critical that members of the party abide by the decision made by the party. I agree. That’s going to be the tough part, though, with so many unwilling to do so. His remarks drew applause from most but I took note of those that didn’t join in. His remark about welcoming back to the party those who have been disaffected drew a very pointed glance from Dale Myers to the man sitting next to her and she very deliberately kept her hands still while the rest of us applauded Zurn’s remarks.

I also met Dean Settle there and I’m glad I finally did. I let that go too long without shaking the man’s hand and Dean, if you’re listening, I appreciate you walking over. Our conversation has sparked enough interest for me to… well, stay interested until we see what happens closer to March.

This is a long post, so bear with me.

Ahead of the meeting start I saw Vincent of Too Conservative fame working the signatures petition for getting Mike Huckabee on the Virginia ballot. I found it interesting to note that Eugene Delgaudio refused to sign it. Wonder why… There was also another gentleman there pushing signatures for Ron Paul but he wasn’t generating much buzz.

The meeting started with Paul Protic addressing the LCRC to offer his congrats to the winners of the races while also acknowledging the losses. He quoted Teddy Roosevelt in recognizing that those who made the attempt, win or lose, were worthy of admiration. For what it’s worth, I agree. He also offered congratulations to “our worthy opponents” and wished them the best in taking up the challenges of leadership of this county. Finally, he offered thanks to the officers and members of the party and particularly to the volunteers who worked the campaigns.

In his view, the obstacles that presented themselves in this election and were the cause of our defeat were 1) a general anti-GOP feeling in the country, some of that trickling down from the federal stage and building upon the normal “voter fatigue” of having a President in his 7th year in office, 2) the changing demographics of Loudoun, which were worse that the LCRC figured on, and 3) the growth issue, which “made it difficult to have a unified party.”

That last one was an understatement. People don’t like watching ill-behaved children fight with each other and they sure don’t elect people who act that way into office. Moreover, there were other issues that worked against us, not the least of which was the sadly underwhelming effort by the party to work on the behalf of their candidates. Lori Waters was actively opposed by certain members of the LCRC, people who have argued for party loyalty. Those same people continued tonight to throw stones at this woman. She ran a good campaign, won overwhelmingly in the nomination fight, had to work a 3-way election race due to the decision by her nomination opponent to break his oath and run as an independent, won that race decisively for the Republican party and still people were trying to cut down on her. Pathetic and short sighted.

All of this combined with a perception that the GOP isn’t interested in fixing the problems we have here in Loudoun (as opposed to pressing their social agenda) was what led to the election-day beatdown. Protic, of course, didn’t mention any of that.

As I mentioned, he took the opportunity to announce he’d not seek another term as Chairman. Regardless of how one feels about him, I think that’s the best move to make. He advised us that the Mass Meeting is tentatively scheduled for March 15th, so you might want to pencil that in.

Bruce Tulloch’s remarks were on-point and, I thought, probably the best speaking I’ve heard him do since I’ve known of him. My feelings about him are on record, but he posed a very good question regarding this outgoing board: What would have happened if it had not been elected to office 4 years ago? What would things be like had that previous board not been sent packing? In the aggregate, are we worse off, or better? I know I’ll likely draw fire from Tulloch’s more vocal opponents for this, but I think we’d have been much, much worse off that before. Dean Settle looks at the 17K houses approved in the past 4 years and the demands on infrastructure and would likely conclude differently than I do but I can’t see that the previous board’s re-election 4 years ago as anything but a disaster.

Growth, you see, is going to be one of those things we all need to have a real discussion about. We haven’t had one recently, not really. We’ve yelled past each other, but we haven’t really discussed. Perhaps we can start doing that now. There were plenty of signs of the previous purity-hunters still going at it. Sally Mann’s still frothing on about her FOIA requests and how Lori Waters (who she said she didn’t want to be negative about just before she started slinging more mud) isn’t giving her all the information she’s been asking for and yada, yada, yada.

Enough, I say. There’s been plenty of crap flying from both sides and I’m just tired of it. Waters won her election and I’m damned glad of it. Get off her back. People are sending their anonymous e-mails being offensive for no good reason. Knock it off. Some people are going to be crass little jackasses and send them anyway. Dump them in the trash and don’t waste thought processes on them. The rest of us are tired of it and don’t want to hear about the personal little dramas when we’re getting our collective asses kicked every election day. As I said to Dean, I detect some signs that some of us are starting to get it. It gives me hope, but the people sending toxic fumes into the air with every exhale they make are still in there, too. Let’s see what happens in the next month or so and see if the lessons given by the voters this year are taken to heart.