Let me tell you about a couple more races that the establishment stuck their hands in.
Marcia McCraw (right) hugs Jane Hague at sentencing
Lt Governor race of 2012: Back in 2008 Marcia McCraw first ran for Lt Governor. She is a novice when it comes to political campaigns. The State GOP didn’t take her seriously and gave her no help. We all know Brad Owen won easily. Lets fast forward to 2011.
My friend David Adams drew up a plan of action that I believe would have spurred Marcia on to victory in 2012. We did a lot of background research on Brad Owen and we were ready to go. We knew it would take at least a million dollars to defeat Brad Owen. I have no doubt we could have raised the money. But alas it was not to be. So what happened?
Well back in October the State GOP had their fall dinner. Marcia McCraw’s campaign reserved a table at the event. We all thought it would be a good idea for Marcia to circulate and let people know she was running again. This event had 55 tables, numbered 1 – 55. Keep this in mind as I will come back to it shortly. About ten minutes before the dinner was to start David approached Kirby Wilbur and asked him if he was still going to introduce Marcia during the event. Kirby said he would. So the McCraw campaign took their reserved seats at Table 11.
Now these tables were all supposed to be in numerical order. In fact the first two rows were 1 – 5 and then 6 – 9 and table 12. Where, may you ask, was table 11? Table 11 was all the way in the back next to table 55. 
So the meeting went on and Kirby never introduced Marcia. It was pretty obvious they were sending a message to Marcia that they weren’t going to support her should she run. A couple of days later Mark Hulst asked Kirby if they were going to support Marcia or not? Kirby hemmed and hawed and finally said well there are others running in the primary and we don’t endorse candidates in contested races. Really? Then why are they endorsing Rob McKenna? And why when John Koster had, at the time, a contested primary, did Kirby endorse him? Well as it turns out the real reason this all happened was that Richard Debolt apparently got tired of arguing with Glenn Anderson and wanted him out of the legislature. So he got Kirby to support Glenn running for Lt Governor. Its worked out real well, too. As of today Glenn Anderson hasn’t raised any money.
Mike Hope: Mike was a candidate for Snohomish County executive. I didn’t really pay very close attention to that race as I don’t live in Snohomish County. Anyway, some of you may have noticed that Mike didn’t really get much help from the State GOP. Well, there’s a good reason for that. Someone within the establishment crowd told Kirby that the State GOP needed to stay out of that race. Why? Because they were comfortable with Aaron Reardon. Gee, I thought the objective here was to support your own candidates.
One more thing before we get into what can be done about all of this. Just a short time ago I learned about this. As most of you know the nonbinding presidential caucus takes place on March 3rd. From there it goes to the state convention in Tacoma at the end of May. It’s during this convention the delegates vote and determine who wins the delegates from state of Washington. These delegates are then seated at the national convention. Well apparently the State GOP has already started selecting delegates. This morning I was informed by a highly placed source that a close friend of his was told by an individual that he is going to delegate training class for the National convention. Well, since the caucuses and the state convention haven’t taken place yet doesn’t that seem a little strange to all of you? It’s very simple: he’s going because he’s already been named a delegate. Making these caucuses an even more colossal waste of time.
So what can be done about all this? For starters considerably more of the grass-roots need to know these things are happening. Only then will things start to change. A whole lot more of the rank and file need to get involved in this. We have to take back the power of selecting candidates from these people. Many years ago that establishment crowd usurped the power from party members and they have held on to it ever since. It’s time to say enough is enough and were not going to take it any longer. Many more PCOs need to be on board. The PCOs have a lot of power but they don’t realize it. We have to be stronger than we are. We have to stand up for what we believe and candidates we support. More, we need show everyone else why the candidates we support are better than theirs. So how do we make this happen? This is where Restoring Olympia and Reach Out Washington come into play. In part 3 I will explain this.
I can’t wait to hear the rest, although I thought part one was pretty accusatory
towards Koster without presenting what I perceived as any direct evidence.
I don’t want you to jump ahead on part three before you’re ready but I would like
to know how exactly the leadership is pulling off this national delegate
chicanery and where their supposed authority comes from?
Sledge,
Well I’m glad you like it so far. In regards to Koster, look all he has to do is come out and say he knows nothing about why both of his opponents would drop out on the same week. As far as I know he hasn’t done that. What I have seen is an accordion and violin press release from Koster saying how grateful he is they dropped out. Unless I’m missing something Anders has yet to endorse him. That’s a pretty telling thing at this point.
As to the chicanery of the State GOP they have a history of this kind of behavior. Doug Parris has detailed a lot of that over the years. I’m sure if you want details he could supply you with that information. They have no authority to do anything like this,but since when has that stopped them from doing whatever they want. Yes there are rules and bylaws they are suppose to follow.But remember there is no way to enforce any of those rules or bylaws without enough involvement from PCO’s and other party members . They know this and that’s why they continue to do whatever they want. If you think the RNC is going to do anything about this should they find out? Romney is their guy so why would they care.
Phil,
The link below might help.
http://kosterforcongress.com/news/press-releases/429-greg-anders-endorses-john-koster-for-congress-.html
That’s good to hear, I think I need to make it very clear that I have nothing against John Koster. The fact is I like John,most things we agree on. I just don’t like the way this all has appeared to go down. Anders and Watkins had just as much right to run as anyone else. They shouldn’t be strong armed into dropping out. That was wrong and for those of you who would say well that’s just politics. Fine it still doesn’t make it right. If I were John Koster and this happened and I didn’t know why it happened, I would want to find out for myself.
For those of you who don’t know,Jason Easton was actually Greg Anders campaign manager. Just so were clear I was not on some bandwagon for Greg Anders. I think he probably would have lost anyway. You don’t tick off a guy like Mark Hulst and insult David Adams and think your going to win. It was boneheaded move on your part Easton and its a good thing it ended the way did for Anders or you would have found out the hard what big mistake you made.
Check out Aaron Reardon’s PDCs.
You will find a lot of typical Republican donors on that list.
Please forgive my ignorance on this subject but you have a photo above with the caption “Marcia McCraw (right) hugs Jane Hague at sentencing.”
Now I am sorry, I haven’t really paid attention to Marcia McCraw and it is really hard to tell the players without a program (or even with one) so I realy don’t know her.
BUT I DO KNOW JANE HAGUE. She is bad news for so many, many reasons, that I really don’t want to take the time to go into here. It would go into volumes.
And I know how easy it is to think that everyone comes at things from the same frame of knowledge. But I do bet that some here might not know “whose’s sentencing”.
The sentencing I assume is Jane Hague’s for a Drunk Driving offense she committed. She didn’t only commit the offense but got mad at the cop for DARING to arrest her (I guess in her world public officials are beyond the law).
But anyway, like I said, I know Jane Hague (well not personally but I have followed her), and I don’t know Marcia McCaw. And I am not one to defend the Republican Establishment but…
If Marcia McCaw is a Friend of Jane Hague, so much so she would seem to be consoling her when she is getting her just deserts (well really she got less than us “regular” people would have gotten in the same situation) then I am sorry she is not one of us, in the sense of candidates I believe people who believe in the spirit of the Reagan Wing should be supporting.
Sorry if that sounds harsh Phil, but please remember the information you have given me on Marcia McCraw is limited. I am not about to come to the defense of someone who is friends with one of the biggest most corrupt RINO in this state (and that is saying a lot considing the competition for that title).
If there’s a reason I should be behind Marcia McCraw, now is the time to give us that reason. I hate to side with Kirby here since I believe the other situation you explained, with the Snohomish County Executive is just so sleazy on Kirby’s part.
Phil,
I know you and I haven’t had an opportunity to talk for many months. I would like to clear up one item in your article; I didn’t ask Kirby if the State Party was going to support Ms. McCraw. I asked Kirby if he knew who she was and what he thought about me getting involved in her potential campaign. This call was one of several I made as I was part of a small group who met with Ms. McCraw to discuss her possible candidacy for Lt. Governor. I wasn’t real comfortable with how the discussion had gone and made calls to several individuals making inquiries about the potential candidate, at no time did Kirby nor anyone else say anything negative about Ms. McCraw nor did they give the impression that they wouldn’t support her. I did however on my own accord do some additional internet research and based on that research found that my “gut instinct” was correct.
Nathan and everyone else,
I wondered if this kind of response would come up. Nathan you have misunderstood the point of these stories. It’s not about ideology, this is about what a corrupt state political party can do to a candidate if they don’t want them to run. I don’t think much of a Jane Hague either,but that has nothing to do with what I have been talking about. Nor did I have anything to do with that photo being placed in the story.
As to everything else I have stated in these stories I stand by every word of it and that is all I will say about it.