RE: Plans for the future?

Within 24 hours of my sending an email to our Ventura County GOP, an answer was received by the new Executive Director.

My sense is, as a state all but abandoned by the National Republican Party, there are probably money issues. Hard to fathom in a state the size of California, and “my sense” isn’t verified as yet by anyone with any power around here, but it’s not hard to imagine with states elsewhere up for grabs in major elections this one would go hopelessly blue with no real effort by National GOP to take it back.

Erick,

My name is Chris Collier, and I have been brought on as the new Executive Director of the Ventura County Republican Party.  I share your concerns on changing our County back to Red, and am beginning to lay the foundation for doing so. 

As far as our website, I agree.. at the end of last week, I began starting to fill our calendar- the results are not set to post for a few days (I’ve been not only uploading events, but also reconfiguring the calendar software on the backend to make it more user-friendly going forward) , but I assure you I am working on improving our content. There is a lot of work to be done, and I’m starting my second week.

We also have a Facebook group- Ventura County Republicans, and we will be expanding the functionality of that group significantly in the future.

I will keep you posted on upcoming events and ways to get involved- if you have any questions or would like to discuss this further, please give me a call- my contact information is below.  I appreciate your enthusiasm and hope to hear from you soon.

Chris

I have a good feeling about this guy. Granted I felt good about my 401k last year, but that said we needed a change here, and one was apparently already in the works.

Now how does one get involved without getting in the way, or becoming a pest?

This is the question frequently asked by blue-collar types like me. Definitely I don’t fit in with the “typical” GOP image; in fact I don’t even own a suit.

One woman was delighted to be attending her first Republican Women’s club meeting, and felt strangely out of place;

1. It’s old. Of the 80 people there, 15 were under 60 and no one was under 30.

2. It’s expensive. The fancy hotel that the club holds there meetings in charge $18 for lunch. They do have a “reserved” table in the back for those of us electing to not eat lunch. Of course, that ensured that not one member spoke to me.

3. It’s full of moderates. They spent a great deal of time encouraging us to support the new speaker of the house because “he’s a nice guy from a good family.” I am not kidding you. One member even stood up and said that he had been to dinner at Straus’ daddy’s house and could vouch for what a decent human being he was. Is this our vetting process? This is how the Republican party now chooses their candidates? By how nice the dinner was at his momma’s house?

4. It was full of white people. There was maybe 10 people that didn’t fit the W.A.S.P. criteria that most people associate with our party.

Still her conclusions were spot on and more than worthy of inclusion;

1. The Republican Party must stop feeding the image that it is the party of the wealthy and snotty. Let me assure you that no one in jeans or sneakers would have been welcomed in that room;

2. The Republican Party must start reaching out to minority groups NOT by moving to the left (centrist), but by being true to our conservatism and showing them that they are conservatives, too. In their hearts, Hispanic and African-Americans are conservative. The things that are important to them–life, family, jobs–are actually conservative issues that we have allowed to be kidnapped by the Democratic party because of our ineffectiveness in deliver the message.

3. The Republican Party must embrace technology. There are so many available tools to communicate with each other and we are still focused on phone banks and mailers. We can do this better and faster electronically. Open a twitter account and join the conversation.

Again, I’m just a chick with a keyboard and an opinion. If you have a better idea, I welcome your responses.

And I’m with ya sister!