Show us the money, Kirby.
At the August state committee meeting in Pasco, a mere handful of “Republicans,” without input from, or notice to, the grassroots Party members they are supposed to represent, “nominated” candidates for statewide office.
Why?
What difference does it make?
How has the party provided money for those candidates? Did they actually vote on that?
Nope.
Here’s a look at Chairman Kirby Wilbur’s priorities:
Rob McKenna (supports abortion rights, gay scout masters, more money for bad educators):
1.6 MILLON DOLLARS + $260,000 in-kind printing
Reagan Dunn (Supports abortion rights, gay marriage):
$22,000 + $50,000 in-kind printing
Clint Didier (Supports the Right to Life, Constitutional Government, Traditional Marriage)
$5000
Sharon Hanek (Constitutional, Conservative Education Reformer):
$0
Justice Richard Sanders (Arguably the firmest Constitutionalist in the history of the State Supreme Court):
$0
On the other hand, you were never supposed to see this.
The State GOP has raised just a little over 3.4 million dollars this year. They have spent 2.4 million so far this year. Which means more than half of what they have spent this year went to Rob McKenna. To date they still have over a million dollars in the bank, so why couldn’t Clint Didier get more than 5,000 and Sharon Hanek or Richard Sanders anything? Kirby needs to go and he can take that Bellevue mafia crowd with him.
The word now is yes they should have helped Sharon Hanek. But that Clint is lucky he even got 5,000.The party leadership and establishment crowd are still mad because he didn’t endorse Dino back in 2010. Just unbelievable
As far as Didier goes, I suspect the state party understands that no amount of money they could realistically pour into his campaign will fetch him a victory over Goldmark. Goldmark is entrenched, and the enviros will spend what it takes to keep him at the DNR (in this case, they don’t have to spend much because Didier, while certainly a good and honorable man, is a weak candidate).
As for Sanders, a fat contribution from the GOP would have done more harm than good for his campaign (from PR standpoint). Typically, state parties don’t directly spend money on Supreme Court races, which are non-partisan.
When it comes to divying up a limited pool of funds, you put the money where you have the greatest chance of impacting a race. The money is flowing to the candidates who have the strongest chances of beating their opponents. This is how it’s done in the real world. Do we wish the political environment were different here in WA? Absolutely. But in the right here and now, this is what we have to deal with.
This, John, is why we are, and have been, a losing Party for decades. You represent it perfectly: No vision, No principles, No insight.
You think a candidate is stronger because he is weaker on principle. You represent the thinking of the GOP elite for more than thirty years.
Clint Didier is one of the strongest candidates in the nation based on the basic assets one looks for in a candidate: Knowledge, character, charisma, image, and a phenomenal ability to communicate. On an equal playing field he eats opponents alive. And you call him, “a weak candidate.”
Your strategic “insight” will always field candidates who stand for NOTHING on the philosophical level and who never challenge the basic assumptions of liberalism, because they share it.
They can’t excite their own base, can’t convince independents that they are even sincere, and when it comes to drawing Democrat votes, well, Ann Coulter said it best (about McCain): “When the voters have a choice between a Democrat and a democrat they usually choose the Democrat.”
Your philosophy has ruled the Party since the sixties and we keep losing and losing and losing and losing and doing the same thing over and over and announcing that it will “change things.”
You ask, “Do we wish the political environment were different here in WA?” as if you cared.
But as long as we follow your prescription, the prescription of Mainstream Republicans of Washington, Kirby Wilbur, and almost every WSRP Chair for the last three decades, the environment will NEVER be different. How could it be? Democrats are promising the benefits of socialism and Republicans are calling “me, too!”
What if…