It’s election day in Virginia.

Every seat for the House of Delegates is up for grabs.

Every seat in the State Senate is up for grabs.

Every member of the county’s board of supervisors is up for grabs.

Every county sheriff is up for grabs.

Every representative for the soil & water conservation board is up for grabs.

Every school board seat is up for grabs.

This election matters.  If you know someone living in Virginia, tell them to go vote – TODAY!

I’ll post another entry this time tomorrow.  Wish us luck!

Regards,
Matt Genkinger
Operations Officer, Clearview Precinct Republicans
Vice-Chair, Dranesville District Republicans (Fairfax County Republican Committee)

While the national media – and even local media here in the DC area – is totally fixated on the 2012 election cycle, a very important set of elections will take place next Tuesday in Virginia.  If the conservative wave is indeed still cruising towards the shore, you can help carry it on into 2012.  The signal will be the results of Virginia’s 2011 election.

Virginia flipped Blue (or Purple) in 2008, as Barack Obama carried the Commonweath with 52.6% of the vote.  A year later, Bob McDonnell, Bill Bolling, and Ken Cuchinelli won with near landslide numbers.  2010 continued to be a good year for Republicans, as Tea Party activities supplemented the normally drowsy mid-term turnout  into historic numbers.  The GOP was able to achieve majority status in the House of Delegates, but fell just shy of claiming the majority in State Senate.  We stand a very good chance of securing the Senate this year.  But this election cycle is even more important than the State Congress, as the fight for county boards of supervisors, school boards, sheriff’s departments, and soil and water conversation are all up for grabs. 

Read More →

I live in Fairfax County, Virginia. I am a member of the Fairfax County Republican Committee and am assisting my precinct captain (whilst kicking and screaming) to win our county-wide elections this fall. After attending several county meetings and exchanging emails with my PC, I decided to get involved. While my (somewhat) eager attempts to join the big boy club were ignored, a letter to editor of a local e-newspaper caught the attention of members of the county executive committee and the campaign manager of the candidate the LTE was written in support of. After exchanging several other emails with my district chairwoman, I was offered the position of Vice-District Chair. Mind you, I’m just a guy who wrote a LTE (which, BTW, was edited by the campaign manager before publishing). I offered my support to my precinct first and that is my focus, for now.
My precinct lies at the very western edge of the county. We have one of the largest rolls of registered voters (4800) in the county (although we have no apartment complexes and very few townhome communities). While waiting for my PC to provide a copy of the voter rolls of the precinct (and I’m working on my district chairwoman to give up the entire district’s), I went to the Commonwealth’s Board of Elections page in order gauge the effectiveness of my PC.

Looking at only the numbers – in terms of voter turnout – over the last the past few election cycles, I began to notice a pattern.  As expected, off-year election turnout is rather low. But when comparing good years like 2009 to the worst of years, like 2006, my numbers don’t change much. For instance, in 2006 – a terrible year for Republicans in general and George Allen specifically – 910 voters pulled the lever for Senator Allen (1235 for Webb).  In the next off-year election cycle, 2009, only 924 voters turned out for Bob McDonnell (now Governor) (858 for Deeds).  One would think that the general elections would prove to turn out many, many more Republicans, yet in 2004 John Kerry won the precinct with 1482 votes to G.W.B’s 1462 (yeah, it was that close) and 2008 was slightly worse with only 1255 votes for McCain to Obama’s 1684 (perhaps ~200 registered Republicans voted for Obama? Reverse Operation Chaos?).

I’m also a member of my home owner association’s “Dad’s Club.” One of the members stopped my house last Saturday to see if I would be interested in organizing an event with him.  As we talked, I got the sense that he was right-of-center and tried to gauge his interest in helping out with precinct operations.  He was excited to become involved and seemed eager for victory in 2012.  While I matched his enthuisam in defeating President Obama and the democrat nominee for outgoing Sen Webb, I mentioned that this years elections were even more important, as all seats from Soil and Water Conservation to State Senate were up for grabs.  He. Had. No. Idea. No idea that 2011 was an election year (and to be fair, there are no campaign signs up in the district, as campaign laws ban any signs outside 75 days or so on an election.  Candidates in primary races have signs displayed all over the rest of the county though!).  I have to estimate that less than 50% of all registered Republicans in my precinct are in the same boat as his poor guy.  So, having this understanding and knowing the numbers from past election cycles, what is a guy to do?

I think it is possible to increase voter turnout in November of this year.  Assuming that I get some help from like-minded neighbors, I think it would be rather easy to get a general election turnout for an off-off year election.  I think a reasonable goal, though, would be 1100 Republican votes.

Oh, and if I put all of this effort into this, I would very much like to challenge my PC at the very earliest possible time. Are there any Virginians here who may know when that time would come next?

Crossposted at PROCINCT and Unified Patriots.

Fairfax County Republicans will run a primary election in August.  The vote came during an official meeting of the Fairfax County Republican Committee (FCRC) held last night in a packed high school cafeteria.   The 53 known candidates will now be required to fundraise and campaign against one another in a county that can hardly afford to lose a single seat, and would have stood a chance to win critical seats on the board of supervisors.

Having no opinion on the matter coming into the meeting, I was quickly persuaded to join those advocating for a convention-style nomination process.  Considering the relatively brief period between the primary date set for Virginia and the generals, it would have made more sense to hold a convention in, say, May.  This would allow the nominees to save money and time to build credibility in their districts (whatever they look like after final redistricting).  Secondly, a convention would make selecting conservatives much easier.  As is with several other states, the Commonwealth of Virginia holds open primaries.  While proponents of the primary chuckled off the “myth” that democrats cross the line to vote in Republican primaries, the potential for democrats to choose our candidates was enough for me to support a convention.  Conventions have proven fruitful for Virginia conservatives, as our current governor, lieutenant governor, and state attorney general were selected in the 2008 Virginia Republican Convention.  Third, and probably most salient point for me, as a voting member of the FCRC, is the purpose of having a committee in the first place!  If it did not provide endorsements, the FCRC would be totally useless if it failed to hold a convention.  Why do I bother paying my membership dues if I’m going to give away my influence to those who don’t?  Seems like a sucker’s game to me.  This is a critical election cycle in Virginia.  We have virtually every seat up for grabs.  We will require a pretty heavy turnout in November in order to claim the State Senate – not to mention the school board and the county board of supervisors.   

Further, is the fact that a primary is wholly unnecessary for the majority of the countywide races!  There is one race which is loaded with a good crop of conservative candidates all vying to unseat Dave Marsden (S – 37, this is Ken Kucinelli’s former State Senate seat).  The only other contested race (that I am initamately aware of) is for Fairfax County Sheriff – which pits an elderly veteran of the NYPD/Secret Service/FBI against a young, recently retired 23 year veteran of the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Department. 

As a veteran of the military service, who – while deployed – did not take part in the 2008 presidential primary, I was particularly put off by the mother of serviceman now in Afghanistan.  She made a compelling argument in favor of the primary, stating that her son is Afghanistan protecting democracy.  Of course he wouldn’t be able to participate in a silly convention, but could cast an absentee ballot in a primary.  I’m not sure what her soldier-son would have thought about his service being interjected into this debate, but it struck me as rather odd.  While her story rubbed me the wrong way, the committee president also voiced his opposition to a convention – sited financial concerns to facilitate a convention – that probably persuaded those on the fence.

As disappointed as I am in result, I will work my butt off to get conservatives elected in my district, county, and state.

Crossposted at Unified Patriots

The local NBC affliate in Washington, DC – Channel 4, has posted to its website a local news story regarding the President’s commencement address to the US Naval Academy at Annapolis coming up this weekend. The “author” begins like this…

Will abortion protesters refuse to give him honorary degrees there, too?

It only gets worse from there…

Will anyone simply let the President of the United States speak at a college graduation ceremony this year without getting so obnoxious? Jesus.

The magnanimous author, Jim Newell, who wrote this gem in defense of the One’s teleprompter use and this stunning expose of Virginia GOP gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell, goes on to say to credit (ahem, undermine) the USNA’s Midgies for being adults, unlike those brats at Notre Dame.  Well, I sincerely doubt that President Obama will receive the same welcoming at Annapolis that President GWB received at the US Air Force Academy.  However, I have the shinking feeling that the Cadets will probably treat President Obama with more respect than those brats at Miami-Dade College  (For some reason I was not able to embed the video, if someone wants to edit my posting to hook it up, please do so…  Air Force Academy video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2_xftZ-Yl4 , Miami-Dade video http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=bush+address+at+annapolis&hl=en&emb=0&aq=-1&oq=#q=bush+commencement+protests&hl=en&emb=0.  Thanks).

You can call NBC 4 at (202) 885 4000, but good luck speeching with Mr. Newell or the editorial staff.

I assume that you all are aware of Obama’s “fix” for the lost tax revenue due to overseas tax havens and “exporting jobs” overseas.

While they are talking about how wonderful this $21 billion will be, it reminds me of the stupidity of saving money by eliminating a program (D.C. vouchers) that costs the federal govt $8,000 per student in order to funnel them into the public schools, where it costs $14,000 per student.

Apparently the messiah said that he will hire 800 IRS agents to accomplish this. At a peasy salary of $50,000 per agent (which I think is a ridiculously low estimate), that would cost $40 million. Unless I am not hearing correctly, the messiah believes that is a pretty hefty sum. If you double the cost per agent, that means that you would get $262 per dollar invested (or should I say, “speculated.”) That does not take into account that, after 20 years, you then pick up the cost of govt retirement.

That would be a pretty good rate of return, if this enforcement went as smoothly as is envisioned. But, to move beyond stage 1 . . .

I assume that the estimate of tax revenue generated would be assuming that you catch EVERYTHING. We know that that is uncertain, as that is the whole idea behind this new program–getting revenue that is missed. We also know that it is in the interests of those who calculate the figures.

If they are able to add 80% of the tax revenue, that means that, at $100,000 per agent (starting salary for a newbie would be about $51,000; add benefits and assume that most will not be 21 year olds coming on board), the program will generate $165 per $1 spent in salary. Seems impressive, but we have already lost about $5 billion per year.

But what about the losses from companies that will change the way that they do business in order to avoid paying the extra taxes? I have a feeling that that might be in the trillions.

And let’s not forget–while libs and lefties LOVE the idea that this revenue digs into those evil things called profits, basically extra taxes get passed on to the consumer.

So . . . while this seems to placate our desire to get back at these CEO villains, are we really interested in taking the chance that this pursuit of tax revenue may actually COST us?

After a weekend of Republican leaders telling us that we need to forget about Reagan,  Specter claiming that the Republican party has moved too far to the right,  and we mourn the loss of Rep. Jack Kemp, a shining pearl of a story emerged from Panama.

The Alliance for Change candidate, Ricardo Martinelli, won in a landslide against the leftist governing party candidate Balbina Herrera. 

A graduate of the University of Arkansas, Martinelli is the owner of the largest supermarket chain in Panama.

While Martinelli’s political creditentials are sparse, the conservative brand was wildly popular among Panamanians young and old.  Along the campaign trail, Martinelli pledged to shrink the Panamanian government, cut taxes to encourage private sector growth, and build upon free trade agreements with partners in Europe and United States.

Conservatives should take note of this tremendous victory.  In a region where devout leftists are nationalizing everything in sight, Panama has a elected a center-right president and a new coalition of center-right/conservative legislative branch. 

Now this is the Change we can believe in!

This from the Indenpent Party of America…

Inspired by his meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama at the Americas Summit, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez declared on Sunday that Venezuelan socialism has begun to reach the United States under the Obama administration.  

“I am coming back from Trinidad and Tobago, from the Americas Summit where, without a doubt, the position that Venezuela and its government has always defended, especially starting 10 years ago, of resistance, dignity, sovereignty and independence has obtained in Port of Spain, one of the biggest victories of our history,” Chavez said. 

“It would seem that the changes that started in Venezuela in the last decade of the 20th century have begun to reach North America,” he added.

Thanks!

President Obama will fly to Iowa today to commerate Erf Day.  President Obama, and a handful of White House staffers, will travel by Air Force to an airport in Des Moines then travel on Interstate-80 38 miles by motorcade to Newton, Iowa where he’ll make a speech in front the former Maytag appliance factory to push for new “green” jobs.

On future federal holidays, like Erf Day, the Prez should stay in the White House with no electricity and concentrate on controlling his breathing so as to limit his carbon emissions.

Cheers!

Grammy award winning jazz pianist Herbie Hancock says that large radio syndicates don’t take a “humanitarian approach” to business, which opens private companies like Clear Channel to government investigation.

I see a real problem here–the idea that the government should regulate businesses based on their values is being thrown around with no regard for whether or not it is right (not to mention Constitutional).

Pathetic.

Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence? Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured. Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War. They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.
What kind of men were they?

Read More →

In the most recent case of praise for the People’s (Communist) Republic of China, our friends over at Yahoo! ranks the competing nation’s medal count by “gold medals won”. (Update: Mea culpa, I viewed this page via a link from Drudge. I guess there was a Freudian slip over there on Drudge.) Of course, the communists did win more gold medals than the United States (that is, until the IOC overturns all of the medals won by the “women Chinese gymnasts”.).
Meanwhile, Obama lauds the “Chinese”.) for all of the money the commies dumped into their infrastructure for the Olympics. Sheesh… Rush said it best (paraphrasing) “If you think China is so great, why don’t you go run for president over there!”