GOP SUPPORT

• Several times a year TCRCC is engaged in solicting support for our committee, our candidates and our campaigns. Support, as far as we are concerned, can be revenue, or it can be volunteerism. Please contact us for more information about how you can help!

GOP MEETINGS

• Several times a year, local Tulare County GOP Groups assemble for special meetings. There is usually a special speaker or special event. To find out more about these special GOP groups and their meetings, please contact us.

TULARE COUNTY YOUNG REPUBLICANS

TGOP CENTRAL COMMITTEE NEWS

The election of 2008 will go down as one of totally unpredictability. In January, the smart money predicted Rudy Giuliani as our standard bearer. Many Congress members gave him their support, but many voters did not. He simply didn't campaign in many states. By the time we went to the polls in February, Giuliani had withdrawn. Mike Huckabee decided to run against all odds and took the nomination from Mitt Romney, splitting conservative votes and leaving the maverick John McCain as California's choice. Many Decline-to-State voters were calling angry because the Republican presidential primary was closed to non-Republicans.

A second election in June brought few voters to the polls. There was no excitement on either side. Election day found me alone at headquarters reading a book.

The Democrat primary showcased spellbinding rhetoric vs. the old Clinton machine and found some Republicans thinking Hillary Clinton was the better choice! It seemed to go on forever and Obama was eventually selected by the party bosses rather than the voters. One would think that would turn off the average Democrat, but apparently they have no problem with letting their betters (liberal elite DNC members who run their party) decide who should be their candidate.

We had our candidate and the McCain campaign sent some yard signs and bumper stickers to each county headquarters. No one wanted them. Twice a week I received mail from McCain, RNC Chairman Duncan, Cindy McCain, etc. asking for money. I didn't send any. However, since I had chosen Romney as someone I could support as a delegate and he won the 21st Congressional District, I was committed to attend the Minnesota Republican National Convention and hesitated spending so much money on a candidate other than Romney. Then John McCain chose the Governor of Alaska as his running mate! All of a sudden our base was excited. Sarah Palin motivated Federated Women to staff headquarters, buy buttons, and work day and night if necessary. The convention was electrified by her speech. I enjoyed every moment of it and didn't mind paying the cost of travel, expensive hotel accommodations and the like. We had a candidate we could support with enthusiasm.

Unfortunately, at the convention I saw the national press core in action! What a pack of liberal ideologues! The questions they asked were sexist and contemptuous of Governor Palin. They didn't compare the small population of Alaska with the small population of Bill Clinton's Arkansas, nor did they keep hands off the Palin children as they did for Chelsea Clinton until she was in her mid twenties. Should Trig have been aborted? Was Sarah a bad mother because her teenage daughter was pregnant? Remember, no one asked if Al Gore was a bad parent because his son was in and out of trouble with the law.

The Fourth Estate is biased and corrupt. NBC was obvious in its bias, but others were equally slanted and sexist. Why did they all write story after story about Palin's wardrobe, but nothing about Joe Biden's health? The man had two brain surgeries and was making bizarre mistakes. He thought Roosevelt was president in 1929 and went on television to reassure the American people. He had a long conversation two weeks ago with a Delaware man in a store that had been closed for 20 years. He predicted a terrorist attack if Obama was elected. These comments were different than his plagiarism in law school and the 1980 campaign. They were mistakes a normal person wouldn't make. Did the press make an issue and demand to see his complete medical records? No they did not. I pray that President Elect Obama stays healthy and in office for the next four years.

The fall campaign was exciting. Never has the Tulare headquarters been as busy and energized as it was this year. Almost 4,000 McCain Palin yard signs passed through the Visalia and Porterville headquarters. Several thousand bumper stickers and hundreds of buttons were taken. Over 3 million telephone calls were made statewide. It looked like we had a real chance to win the election until the economy went belly up. The bailout was very unpopular with voters. Everyone was losing money in their 401Ks. McCain was unfocused. For instance, we couldn't mention the racist Rev. Wright, but we could the terrorist Bill Ayers. It was all over the place. McCain threw his full support behind Paulson's request to help his friends out, and we lost the election. Woulda, coulda, shoulda doesn't help. However, we do need to decide how Republicans can reconstitute our party to meet the challenges of the future.

Who should be the new RNC Chairman? Newt Gingrich, Michael Steel, Mitt Romney, or someone else? The McCain staffers are trying to whitewash their own mistakes and blame Sarah Palin for the loss. I point to one example of how they did not do their jobs. The day they scheduled her to appear with Katie Couric was the same day she publicly sent her oldest son to Iraq. No parent should be expected to do anything but return home, pray and cry after such a morning. Sarah Palin had to face a biased journalist with gotcha questions when her mind and heart were so heavy. The staff should have protected her. They did not. How many other mistakes did they make?

Are we to embrace conservative social and economic issues or do we just focus on the economy? Do we want our leaders to work with Reed, Pelosi and Obama or yell and scream as they did when we were in control? I invite you to send your opinions to the CRP, the RNC and to the minority leaders in Congress and the Senate.

Finally, this is my last term as your chairman. I have served since 2000 and the past eight years have been a pure joy. When I assumed the chairmanship, I set several goals. We needed to raise enough money to be able to have a permanent headquarters that was available for meetings and elections all year long rather than raising several thousand right before the election and spending it on high priced headquarters open for three months. We needed to set up member communication with newsletters, e-mails and an expanded web site. We had a magazine for several years but it became too expensive to maintain. Thanks to Ted Olson, our webmaster, we have maintained a web page that is professional and received excellent reviews within the party.

Finally, we also need to help local candidates willing to run for office, get elected. To that end we passed a bylaw change that allowed us to endorse multiple Republican candidates for the same office in nonpartisan elections. Our object was not to choose one Republican over another, but to let our voters know who the Republicans were running for hospital boards, city councils and school boards. We printed the names of endorsed candidates on our door hangers and on our web site. This November we elected our candidates to almost all of the seats in nonpartisan races. For instance, all four of Tulare City Council members elected are Republicans. Two of the three Tulare Hospital seats were won by Republicans. The hospital seat at Kaweah was won by a Republican. Our Tulare County Supervisors are all Republicans.

Last year the GOP lost several counties to the Democrats. Stanislaus and Ventura went from Red to Blue Counties. San Bernardino went back and forth and Fresno was within 5,000 votes of turning Blue, although the county ended up with a 10,000 advantage by October 20th. Tulare County maintained our registration advantage with 66,785 Republicans, 51,855 Democrats, 22,527 who decline to state and the remainder of the 146,415 registered voters in various small parties. We end the year with almost $35,000 in the bank. $5000 was earned on bounty thanks to the CRP's $3.00 and Steve Poisner's contribution of $5.00 per card and Bounty Chairman Jan McKinley's busy fingers typing all those names and numbers on the forms.

The Executive Committee has worked tirelessly to keep us afloat and doing the primary job of a good county party, which includes registering voters and getting them to the polls on election day. To do that we needed to hold fund raisers, do precinct work, attend meetings, staff our booth at the Tulare County Fair, organize phone banks, and a host of other jobs. Bill McKinley stepped in as our Treasurer and was quickly submerged in the mass of BICRA campaign finance laws. Don Estes, Mariann Hedstrom and Marlene Sario oversaw our fund raising events that allowed us to fund our headquarters operation and contribute several thousand dollars to charity over the past couple of years. Marcia Cline kept our records in order and Betty Elliott not only found interesting speakers, she and I cleaned carpets and headquarters many times.

All members of Central Committee supported the committee in various ways. They sold tickets, manned the fair booth, worked a precinct, served as a poll watcher or election office observer. Our work couldn't get done without them.

The Republican Women Federated Clubs in our County have always put their shoulder to the wheel. Visalia has staffed headquarters one day a week during the 'off' season. Tulare Republican Women have helped us register voters. Alta always takes care of the northern part of the county at election time. SETCO runs our Porterville Headquarters and election activities in the southern part of the county.

The 2006-2008 committee has served our local party to the best of our abilities and look forward to the upcoming elections. If Proposition 11 passes, our districts will change and we are optimistic that Sacramento will be forced to step up to the plate and cut and consolidate programs to get our financial house in order. Eventually fair districts at the state level will affect how they draw Congressional Districts. We have been so fortunate to have all of Tulare County in the 21st Congressional District and be so well represented by Congressman Nunes. Connie Conway will do a marvelous job with the 34th Assembly District, but it covers way too much land mass. The same is true of Senator Ashburn's territory. Hopefully, fair districts will stop the gerrymandering and make representation more equitable.

Finally, while I will no longer be Tulare County's Republican Chairman I will remain a member of Central Committee. Thanks to all of you for your support and I look forward to working with the new Committee.

Laura Gadke
CRP Vice Chair Central Valley Region
Republican Party of Tulare County Chairman
Telephone and Fax 559-686-9320

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