I Know You Missed Me...
It's good to take a break from things once in a while. Everyone needs a chance to recharge their batteries, reexamine things, and determine what's next.
I'll be completely honest with you - after the complete shellacking the Republican Party took on Election Night, I wasn't much in the mood to discuss politics, let alone write about the results of the election; and I certainly didn't want to get into a squabble about the direction of the Connecticut Republican Party which seems to predominate the majority of Facebook Pages these days. My prediction piece from earlier this year turned out mostly accurate with two major exceptions - Mitt Romney didn't win, and neither did Andrew Roraback.
With regard to Romney's loss, I'm still very surprised at the outcome. It's hard to believe that America rewarded a failed politician who maintained a full-term of near double-digit unemployment, a stagnant economy, ran a inept foreign policy, and who had no plan on how to get us up and running again. My guess is that the reason Obama won was that things are so bad that people were afraid to give up what they were clinging to in order to survive: aid, support, unemployment checks, and what-have-you. (The perception being that Mitt Romney would have taken all the safety nets away). In short, for the first time that I can remember, we've become a nation that fears the future which is hardly the mindset for creative thinking, or finding solutions to our deepest problems. Thirty days post-election, people around me are still in the mindset that if we just close our eyes - eventually our troubles will just go away.
As for the Republican National Committee, well - they certainly have their work cut out for them to regain respectability - at least in this writer's eyes. Mitt Romney wasn't a terrible candidate, per se. But the strategy to focus solely on key swing states was a big mistake in my humble opinion, and it had devastating consequences for our election chances beyond just the Presidential Race. Abandoning loyal Republicans in states like Connecticut sent the wrong message to millions of voters; and in doing so severely damaged the Republican Party's brand nationally. Mitt Romney was quick to come to Fairfield County and pick up millions in donations, but as a reward for our generosity - he told our State Chairman to go purchase his own Romney signs and bumper stickers, if they wanted any Romney visibility around the state. They didn't even bother to fake a presence here; not even so much as a closet space to give the pretend to give the impression that we mattered one iota. I propose that anyone receiving a GOP donation card aught to scribble the words: "F*CK YOU! CAMPAIGN HERE NEXT TIME ASSHOLES!" and mail it back to RNC, postage due.
A National Party that abandons it's constituents is not worthy of support. Sorry. I don't want to hear any excuses that outline strategy and tactics, or hedging bets; you can tell all the overpaid, career campaign hacks that results count more than political theories - and so far our so-called experts have done us in, brilliantly. You know, it wouldn't have taken that much to make a reasonable effort; and it could have helped the under ticket to some extent. If Republican Nutmeggers feel abandoned, well - they should.
I don't have to tell you that in Connecticut our issues run much deeper. We have double the trouble. Here we have a crazy Governor, and a Legislature that spends far more than it collects, and has made the private sector the enemy of the State. And Republicans aren't even on the radar except for the few media-whores who show up up on John Rowland's show to have a knee-slapping good time preaching to the small choir that commutes home from our dwindling Capitol. Lately, the best part of that show is traffic and weather, for the rest is about as boring and uncreative as ever.
As far as the Connecticut GOP is concerned, things pretty much turned out as expected. Linda McMahon torpedoed the ticket from top to bottom; her selfish last minute tactic to garnish her appeal by hooking her train to Barack Obama did wonders for poor Andrew Roraback in Connecticut's 5th District. You'd have to be ignorant not to see how McMahon's strategy polarized the CTGOP in the final weeks of the campaign, leaving many to stay home or skip the Senate line all-together. Andrew Roraback deserved better, but the rest of the GOP-field pretty much got what it deserved. Many of our campaigns were manned by novice campaign staff and volunteers. Serious campaigns require serious experience at the helm; and the State GOP did a huge disservice to many of our first time Congressional Candidates who put their lives on hold to try and make a difference by ignoring their requests for help and direction.
One high ranking CTGOP Official told me: "Every minute I spend in the First, Second or Third District, is a waste of my valuable time." Boy, that aught to make our future candidate recruitment pool feel confident.
Notwithstanding, McMahon's army of well-paid, experience, career-favor collectors ran both her prospects and ours into the ground. This started with buying convention delegates and RTCs which is old hat by now. Linda McMahon was and always will be a bad candidate - and GOP insiders decided long-ago that it was more important to cash-in and take from her treasure trove then it was to win the U.S. Senate Seat. What a lost opportunity. What a shame!
The saddest part of the whole thing is that there are still CTGOP State Central Members out there defending the choice. Really? You have to be kidding, us? It's hard to look at some of these people with a straight face when they spew such nonsense. It's people like this who make me believe that the disease within our CTGOP Party leadership is both terminal and incurable. And although there are a few bright spots where new seats may have been captured, they don't offset those that were lost.
So the big argument that's engulfed the CTGOP is whether or not we are too conservative, too liberal, or too idiotic (I happen to think its the third option). I've looked at all the arguments on both sides of the equation and actually took the time to compare it against the election results map. On one side you have Peter Wolfgang claiming that all the right-wing candidates the FIC endorsed won handily - that's of course, if you discount people like Len Suzio or Bill Wadsworth, and other conservatives who lost. On the other side of the equation you have the left of center crowd crowing that moderate Republicans picked up seats because of the popularity of social liberalism. But this argument too is nonsense; where Democrats were involved in 3-way races, or faced a challenger from the independent line more closely aligned with their ideology, they lost. The results also show that this contrived argument that moderate positions are more appealing to Connecticut residents is equally as fallible as those made by my friends on the right.
Do you want to know what wins elections?
It's getting off your ass every-day, taking nothing for granted and knocking on doors, talking to voters, attending important events, distributing signs and palm cards and having a support team in place to help you get your message out. There is no magic bullet wrapped in some ideological position which makes one more or less attractive to voters (that's just posturing and power-playing by certain political cliques and interest groups vying for control). It's all about elbow-grease. If you took your constituents for granted and campaigned half-assed, then you got the result you deserved. If you went out everyday and worked like it mattered then you likely won. I admit that demographics play a role in certain locations - I understand that. And Republicans aren't likely to take Hartford anytime soon, but lighting does strike - if you're willing to put in the time and make it happen.
There's a lot on the horizon. There is a massive effort underway to determine who the next leader of the CTGOP will be. Our current State Chairman is finally showing a bit of life after a disastrous election, and is now out campaigning for his survivability (which I'm not so convinced he deserves). So we have our internal wars, listening tours, and feedback sessions - which are largely pointless bitch and gripe sessions - which are least productive in helping us rebuild our Party. Then you have your early jockeying for the next big thing - the upcoming Governor's Race which at this point seems like it will be made up of the usual suspects which Democrats eager to run against based on CTGOP candidate appeal and perceived electability.
Still our problems persist. And in the end we'll have to decide whether competency and electability will trump pay-offs and the favor-patronage system. Honestly, I'm not that hopeful. But there's always a glimmer of hope that the public will become fed-up enough of the status quo and replace the entrenched, self-serving saboteurs among us with those who will put constituents and the public interest first.
I AM
THE KING
This original blog entry can be found at http://www.thekingsview.blogspot.com.
Disclaimer: This entry and others will be modified/updated at a future date. All entries are for the sole purpose of entertainment. This article does not imply endorsement of any candidate, nor has it been solicited for publication by any political candidate, party, campaign, or PAC.
I'll be completely honest with you - after the complete shellacking the Republican Party took on Election Night, I wasn't much in the mood to discuss politics, let alone write about the results of the election; and I certainly didn't want to get into a squabble about the direction of the Connecticut Republican Party which seems to predominate the majority of Facebook Pages these days. My prediction piece from earlier this year turned out mostly accurate with two major exceptions - Mitt Romney didn't win, and neither did Andrew Roraback.
With regard to Romney's loss, I'm still very surprised at the outcome. It's hard to believe that America rewarded a failed politician who maintained a full-term of near double-digit unemployment, a stagnant economy, ran a inept foreign policy, and who had no plan on how to get us up and running again. My guess is that the reason Obama won was that things are so bad that people were afraid to give up what they were clinging to in order to survive: aid, support, unemployment checks, and what-have-you. (The perception being that Mitt Romney would have taken all the safety nets away). In short, for the first time that I can remember, we've become a nation that fears the future which is hardly the mindset for creative thinking, or finding solutions to our deepest problems. Thirty days post-election, people around me are still in the mindset that if we just close our eyes - eventually our troubles will just go away.
As for the Republican National Committee, well - they certainly have their work cut out for them to regain respectability - at least in this writer's eyes. Mitt Romney wasn't a terrible candidate, per se. But the strategy to focus solely on key swing states was a big mistake in my humble opinion, and it had devastating consequences for our election chances beyond just the Presidential Race. Abandoning loyal Republicans in states like Connecticut sent the wrong message to millions of voters; and in doing so severely damaged the Republican Party's brand nationally. Mitt Romney was quick to come to Fairfield County and pick up millions in donations, but as a reward for our generosity - he told our State Chairman to go purchase his own Romney signs and bumper stickers, if they wanted any Romney visibility around the state. They didn't even bother to fake a presence here; not even so much as a closet space to give the pretend to give the impression that we mattered one iota. I propose that anyone receiving a GOP donation card aught to scribble the words: "F*CK YOU! CAMPAIGN HERE NEXT TIME ASSHOLES!" and mail it back to RNC, postage due.
A National Party that abandons it's constituents is not worthy of support. Sorry. I don't want to hear any excuses that outline strategy and tactics, or hedging bets; you can tell all the overpaid, career campaign hacks that results count more than political theories - and so far our so-called experts have done us in, brilliantly. You know, it wouldn't have taken that much to make a reasonable effort; and it could have helped the under ticket to some extent. If Republican Nutmeggers feel abandoned, well - they should.
I don't have to tell you that in Connecticut our issues run much deeper. We have double the trouble. Here we have a crazy Governor, and a Legislature that spends far more than it collects, and has made the private sector the enemy of the State. And Republicans aren't even on the radar except for the few media-whores who show up up on John Rowland's show to have a knee-slapping good time preaching to the small choir that commutes home from our dwindling Capitol. Lately, the best part of that show is traffic and weather, for the rest is about as boring and uncreative as ever.
As far as the Connecticut GOP is concerned, things pretty much turned out as expected. Linda McMahon torpedoed the ticket from top to bottom; her selfish last minute tactic to garnish her appeal by hooking her train to Barack Obama did wonders for poor Andrew Roraback in Connecticut's 5th District. You'd have to be ignorant not to see how McMahon's strategy polarized the CTGOP in the final weeks of the campaign, leaving many to stay home or skip the Senate line all-together. Andrew Roraback deserved better, but the rest of the GOP-field pretty much got what it deserved. Many of our campaigns were manned by novice campaign staff and volunteers. Serious campaigns require serious experience at the helm; and the State GOP did a huge disservice to many of our first time Congressional Candidates who put their lives on hold to try and make a difference by ignoring their requests for help and direction.
One high ranking CTGOP Official told me: "Every minute I spend in the First, Second or Third District, is a waste of my valuable time." Boy, that aught to make our future candidate recruitment pool feel confident.
Notwithstanding, McMahon's army of well-paid, experience, career-favor collectors ran both her prospects and ours into the ground. This started with buying convention delegates and RTCs which is old hat by now. Linda McMahon was and always will be a bad candidate - and GOP insiders decided long-ago that it was more important to cash-in and take from her treasure trove then it was to win the U.S. Senate Seat. What a lost opportunity. What a shame!
The saddest part of the whole thing is that there are still CTGOP State Central Members out there defending the choice. Really? You have to be kidding, us? It's hard to look at some of these people with a straight face when they spew such nonsense. It's people like this who make me believe that the disease within our CTGOP Party leadership is both terminal and incurable. And although there are a few bright spots where new seats may have been captured, they don't offset those that were lost.
So the big argument that's engulfed the CTGOP is whether or not we are too conservative, too liberal, or too idiotic (I happen to think its the third option). I've looked at all the arguments on both sides of the equation and actually took the time to compare it against the election results map. On one side you have Peter Wolfgang claiming that all the right-wing candidates the FIC endorsed won handily - that's of course, if you discount people like Len Suzio or Bill Wadsworth, and other conservatives who lost. On the other side of the equation you have the left of center crowd crowing that moderate Republicans picked up seats because of the popularity of social liberalism. But this argument too is nonsense; where Democrats were involved in 3-way races, or faced a challenger from the independent line more closely aligned with their ideology, they lost. The results also show that this contrived argument that moderate positions are more appealing to Connecticut residents is equally as fallible as those made by my friends on the right.
Do you want to know what wins elections?
It's getting off your ass every-day, taking nothing for granted and knocking on doors, talking to voters, attending important events, distributing signs and palm cards and having a support team in place to help you get your message out. There is no magic bullet wrapped in some ideological position which makes one more or less attractive to voters (that's just posturing and power-playing by certain political cliques and interest groups vying for control). It's all about elbow-grease. If you took your constituents for granted and campaigned half-assed, then you got the result you deserved. If you went out everyday and worked like it mattered then you likely won. I admit that demographics play a role in certain locations - I understand that. And Republicans aren't likely to take Hartford anytime soon, but lighting does strike - if you're willing to put in the time and make it happen.
There's a lot on the horizon. There is a massive effort underway to determine who the next leader of the CTGOP will be. Our current State Chairman is finally showing a bit of life after a disastrous election, and is now out campaigning for his survivability (which I'm not so convinced he deserves). So we have our internal wars, listening tours, and feedback sessions - which are largely pointless bitch and gripe sessions - which are least productive in helping us rebuild our Party. Then you have your early jockeying for the next big thing - the upcoming Governor's Race which at this point seems like it will be made up of the usual suspects which Democrats eager to run against based on CTGOP candidate appeal and perceived electability.
Still our problems persist. And in the end we'll have to decide whether competency and electability will trump pay-offs and the favor-patronage system. Honestly, I'm not that hopeful. But there's always a glimmer of hope that the public will become fed-up enough of the status quo and replace the entrenched, self-serving saboteurs among us with those who will put constituents and the public interest first.
I AM
THE KING
This original blog entry can be found at http://www.thekingsview.blogspot.com.
Disclaimer: This entry and others will be modified/updated at a future date. All entries are for the sole purpose of entertainment. This article does not imply endorsement of any candidate, nor has it been solicited for publication by any political candidate, party, campaign, or PAC.
10 comments:
Welcome Back Your Highness!!!!!
It's time for conservatives to get a backbone and teach themselves how to articulate conservatism. It seems that being "right" in the state of CT is not only "evil" in the eyes of liberals and Democrats, it's just as "evil" in the eyes of many GOP insiders.
The squirrely idea that "moderate Republicans" will win, has been (repeatedly) proven to be the most idiotic strategy yet. It's beyond the time to get back to what the Party stands for: smaller government, appreciation for the free market system, and less taxation. And, it wouldn't hurt some of these "insiders" to get their butts to a U.S. Constitution refresher course! Many of them cannot even recall what the amendments are. When a 2nd District candidate for federal office isn't able to verbalize the difference between the 2nd and the 10th, it is clear we are backing the wrong ones.
Time for a good old fashioned housecleaning!
Newsflash King
Tom Foley with his Vincent Van Gopher sidekick Justin Clark (blind to the City Vote) being politically in bed with Linda Democrat McMahon has caused more harm than good to our brand and now he wants a re run too? I don't think so Tommy, keep doing your hostile takeovers and washing Binkies.
Then there's The Teachers Union Lawyer Me Up Elmo Larry Cafero with his we Republicans don't do God, Guns or Gays is a real reason to start a third party if he ever got the Jesse James Gangs (GOP Convention delegates) nod.
Next we have John McKinney who doesn't answer his phone (unless it's the media ) which may make it difficult for John to know how to run a Governors Campaign with all the communication with your staff requirements. Just keep doing the Hokey Pokey John.
And as far as Mayor ( Mr Peabody) Mark Boughton, well he just isn't tall enough to be Governor Simon. You may need to ry using the "Way Back Machine" for what's wrong with this candidate.
What we need is someone will balls to run for Governor, someone who doesn't give a damn about any of what the above jokesters even think (loosely defined here) about or winning since that ain't gonna happen anyway.
Got anyone in mind out there to fill that role in your Kingdom Folks?
As for Labriola getting re elected, he's already re elected according to the politically all corrupt business practices playbook, but what does he have to do with winning races?
For the record (which this comment will never be held to) isn't it obvious to the most casual observer that the "If you can't beat em join em " strategy is what we have going on with the CTGOP ?
It's Malloy in 14 no matter who we run because in the public's eye we Republicans do not have ANY INTEGRITY....... Thank You Linda Vote for Obama McMahon !!
I'm happy to see king is back from vacation. CT Gop is incurable because the fight with their own selfish interests in mind and miss the big picture. Foley will bring the money and he is going to win the nomination. Nothing is going to change because 1/2 state central farts dust and the handful of good people aren't enough to overcome the disease. Crazy Joe and his videos are inside ball no one cares about.
Welcome Back King, got a call from some friends that said you put your website back up and I am so excited. Looks like more posters like the old days gripping about our election loses while most sit on their cushy office chairs, complain and do nothing.
No matter what many think there are a lot of hard working folks out there in the outskirts of the establishment who really went all out for this election. Suzio's loss was horrible to read about and it's so sad that Roraback lost.
You are correct bout Linda. I voted for her but never felt good about it in the end days but what else could I do not vote for her? I thought about it and now wish I listened to many folks who called for leaving the line blank.
Chris Shays was my pick and even though he may not have won I feel he would not have lost by 12 percent. Shays would probably have gotten outside money like Andrew did and not have been treated so bad in the press. Those things cost us dearly and I'm afraid to say cost us some close races like Suzio and Roraback.
Your Post today was awesome but I am confused about the Romney Lawn signs. Although I heard from my town committee chair that Joe Visconti was calling around the state for lawn signs donations from all the RTC's for Chairman Labriola I thought that was just to augment what Romney gave us. I am shocked to learn that Romney bailed out on giving us any but took millions of dollars for his campaign from our residents. Guess you never hear the real story until after elections.
Oh well again welcome back and stay true to the cause.
Rita
King You're back !!!! I feared you were never going to write this blog again. Your post today hit the nail on the head.
What's with the commenter above talking about Foley will bring the money? There is state grant money available for candidates "Like Malloy again" to fund campaigns. There is upwards of 6 million dollars to someone who qualifies at the convention. So What does "Foley will bring in the money" really mean? Does it mean Foley will buy delegates with Linda's list and donate to our party chairman (Pay to Play)?
Does it mean the corrupt CTGOP insiders are lining up again already?
As for our chairman I think he did a good job this past cycle getting our affairs in order but he lost my support when he backed up Linda by laying down at our state central meeting you wrote about. The chairman of our party letting a major candidate for high office spend millions of dollars telling voters to vote for a democrat president and not calling that candidate out is beyond disgusting.
Lastly as to my pick for governor I think a female candidate would be our best hope even if she doesn't make it past the convention, someone not necessarily from the political world but not a Linda McMahon either.
Again as others have stated, welcome back.
Crazy Visconti did a hell of a job on his Malloy Video.
Maybe they should hire him and help them grow some cojones and take it to Malloy like he does everyday.
But I think they have the nerve to take on Democrats, they want to work in a bipartisan manner with Dannel 88 because to many of them are state contractors, their employers have state contracts or they work for law firms that work on state deals like Cafero.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KMI7-xKbHs
Hey Hey Hey what's all the talk about me for in these comments? Guess I'm relevant? Too funny. But anyway since my birthday yesterday was a smash success by just making it to 56 I would like to put some stuff out there for the CTGOP to ponder regarding some of the Bombastic Extreme Posts from the anonymous losers above :).
First off the way for our Party to get free from the Greenwich cash addiction is to continue rolling out the idea I gave to Chairman Labriola two years ago concerning modernizing our database and getting it up online in the form of a Mobile App not a website.
Step 1 is to launch the CTGOP Mobile App which most of you have never heard about. Quotes for the launching costs have been gathered by a State Central member (no I wont tell you who) that were handed my idea last year, where we are in the App Launch process I do not know, I just have great ideas :).
Step 2 lays out the possibility of the GOP having about 10,000 App subscribers from the pool of all of our 169 Town Republican officials from Board of Ed folks to Town Councilors, Mayors, Zoning Boards, State Reps, State Senators to Dog Catchers.
Step 3 is were the App will be available on IPhones, Droids, Blackberry's etc so users can get notices on where there are fundraisers, events, elections, door marketing campaigns, GOTV efforts, recruiting days etc.
Step 4 is where we grow the App subscribers out to our 430,000 registered Republicans and seek $.99 - $1.99 donations from each subscriber, then our Appeal letters will not be profit neutral anymore and donors can see a direct correlation between their donations and results (which haven't been that good in a while)
Step 5 is where GPS locations from users can be coordinated with a central command (Party Headquarters) during elections so we can know where our volunteers are as well as candidates can utilize our CTGOP network for their campaigns coupled with voter vault.
Step 6 is where anyone who gets the App can begin to coordinate their interests at the local level in their community and know when there is an RTC meeting, who all of their elected officials are in their town and elected officials can reach out to them when they need folks to show up at budget hearings in force to oppose stupid democrats (hehe) amongst a dozen other uses everyone of you is realizing as you read this, and which I have already thought of :) :).
Step 7 is where Greenwich is done and so are the self funders like Linda McMahon who do not want to align their campaigns with our State Party and Chairman like Linda did not this past election cycle.
There is much more that I will not print here because as of today after Nancy Dinardo reads this post and launches the Dem APP I would like her to have to spend a couple of weeks to get up to speed on her own.
This post will be put on my blog in 5 minutes and put up on twitter so the entire media world can see it. They will still give someone else credit as usual but hey like Reagan said " If you dont care about be paid or getting any credit for your work there is no telling what you can accomplish" words to that affect. Well see you all on Capitol Report, Maybe :):):):):)
Dear King,
Seeking your thoughts on the current budget cuts. I'm disturbed by the bi partisan message and not by the bi partisanship but the fact we share the good things with the democrats when the are responsible for the bad things and we let them off the hook. King, I feel like a unich in a whorehouse being a CT Gop republican. They have no firepower at all. Please help!
Didn't know THE KING was back. Uh, until today, of course.
Listen, that comment by a CTGOP official saying "Every minute I spend in the first, second, or third district is a waste of my valuable time" is meaningless: he/she/it never spent half a second in our third district.
I was with Wayne Winsley at the Convention. I saw him get the lethargics pull their lead rearends out of their seats for him, AND ONLY him. A thousand people.
After all that, where were they? Oh, big names were thrown around. Lots of experts hoved in, peered around, and soon were gone. Larry DiNerdis was among em.
Gone to Linda, that is. Where the easy money was.
With Wayne, they might actually have to teach and coach and invest more than a few minutes of their valuable time.
In so doing, they would have made a long-term investment that could mean big payback in elector wins and an increase in party relevance and influence.
But no, they're narrow-minded, short-sighted parasites. Does a tapeworm care if its host dies? A tapeworm is too busy engorging itself to think about consequences.
So, these party insiders and consultants preferred to glom onto the cash cow and ride it into the ground. Perhaps their broken reputations could survive the crash -- but if not, at least they got some cash to ease the pain.
On the last day before the election, it was just us -- handing out fliers, shaking hands, plastering car windows with lit in the freezing cold wind while dodging parking lot security.
A far cry from the heart-pounding action on the floor of the convention a May evening in what must've been another dimension of existence...
And yet, that's how it was. And God help us all if the unholy witch of Wooster Square retires. Then we'll see a gaggle of unscrupulpous opportunists elbowing one another to prove their conservative fighting credentials followed by a flood of parasitic bloodsucking consultants and their ghastly tag-alongs.
And what of the good guys like Wayne who did all the hard work, knocking on doors, handing out lit, waving and shaking hands in the coldest wind, right up to election day?
F em. Hard work, integrity, perseverence, and dedication are unknown concepts to the tapeworm. All they need do is latch onto a cow and ride along until it falls down dead....
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