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Virginia GOP Leadership Shakeup Outlook
By Greg L | 9 November 2006 | Virginia Politics | 34 Comments
After a mixed GOP performance in the recent election, as usual there’s conversations going on about leadership changes. This is nothing new, and probably worthwhile. Here’s what seems to be shaking out:
Kate Obenshain Griffin, the chairman of the RPV is probably going to be replaced, and it’s getting some discussion over at Elephant Ears and Mason Conservative. This shouldn’t be a discussion about who won or lost in the election, but about the effectiveness and quality of the RPV. The RPV is one of the more troubled state GOP organizations, with little money and a notorious stinginess in supporting localities. The practice of making Republican nominees pay for access to Votervault is but one example of how the RPV just doesn’t get it. Improvement at RPV will require a change in the leadership.
Jim Rich, 10th Congressional District Chairman is probably safe. Despite his atrocious performance at the 10th District convention if he has the support of Frank Wolf, he stays. I expect a minor rebuke for the 10th CD Convention debacle, and hope the lessons learned get applied.
Tom Kopko, PWCRC Chairman is likely going to draw some fire, especially from the 10th and 11th CD Chairmen. With a solid win for Corey Stewart he makes up some needed ground. I expect Tom to stay.
Steven Thomas, Manassas GOP Chairman Pro-Tem did an outstanding job this election cycle. The only thing which might threaten his position is a clamor to promote him to something bigger.
Kevin Brendel, Manassas Park GOP Chairman is finished after a far too long period of complete inactivity. There were questions about whether there just weren’t any GOP committee meetings in the park, or whether they were held secretly. I expect a complete revamp of the Manassas Park committee to happen soon. It’s long overdue.
Although these shakeups can seem troubling to many, they do provide an opportunity to make needed changes and improve the performance of the committees. In the midst of them, we hopefully will remember to thank those who are being replaced for their past efforts and dedication.
UPDATE: TC also agrees a shakeup is needed.
UPDATE 2: Smyth County Conservative joins in the call for a shakeup here.
The opinions expressed here are solely the views of the author, and not representative of the position of any organization, political party, doughnut shop, knitting guild, or waste recycling facility, but may be correctly attributed to the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy. If anything in the above article has offended you, please click here to receive an immediate apology.
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Kopko should not remain. His single-minded focus on Stewart, at the expense of Allen, Miller, Wolf and Davis, probably cost us the Senate. Stewart’s win shows that PWC is still reliably Republican. But if that is the case, why did Allen lose? Because the local party didn’t bother to help.
Kopko is very good at getting his buddies elected - but that’s not his job. His job is getting all fairly nominated Republicans elected. His record in doing that is embarrassing.
We’ve lost Fairfax despite good local leadership. We can’t afford to lose PWC to because of an egomaniac like Kopko.
He should be replaced.
The local party did help. The Allen campaign barely worked with us at all in prince william.
It seemed like I got calls almost every day from the Allen campaign in Prince William during the last month, and they helped publicize precinct door-to-door activities. Although I don’t think the folks were really experienced as much as I’d like, they did work hard and were trying to get things moving with the local committees. I’d say they were a lot more responsive than the Wolf campaign. If you barely worked with them your experience was a heck of a lot different than my own.
The Allen campaign tried to dictate local campaign strategy for a while, which wasn’t too brilliant and ended up wasting resources and upsetting a few folks. My biggest complaint with them is that they were trying to grab volunteers from the local organizations rather than bringing their own. It’s sort of a repeat of what happened with Kilgore’s campaign. When they don’t have any volunteers of their own and try to suck resources from the bottom of the ticket to knock doors and drop lit, it’s a very troubling sign.
The sole reason we lost the Senate seat is due to the macaca ststement. Regardless of how dysfunctional the local committees were, all of our incumbent Congressional candidates were able to win. The macaca statement torpedoed that seat. Had Allen won, we would not be so critical of the ROV chair and the committee chairs. It is truly unfortunate that one gaffe erases Allen history of accomplishment in this Commonwealth, crushes his presidential hopes and rewards the “cook left” with the political spoils.
Onward to 2007. This lost should motivate us to work hard to get Republican candidates in office in 2007.
Although not a Republican I would think that Kopko should go for a couple of reasons. First, he manages to make himself the story all too often as opposed to the candidates he is supporting. Take for example his unfortunate out burst at the Committee of 100 debate between Davis and Hurst. His behavior was atrocious.
Second, as Chairman of the PWC GOP I would hold him responsible for the false and misleading mailer that went out claiming that the October 30th financial disclosure forms for the Pandak campaign showed that she had taken $80,000+ from developers. Stewart has since admitted in the Washington Post that the numbers from that report do not add up to $80,000. This was an attempt to deceive the public plain and simple and committee members should be embarrassed to be associated with the mailer. Claiming that the numbers will eventually add up to that much doesn’t cut it when you quote a specific reporting period and form.
I don’t know that he is that bad…
Kopko and Brendell, not to mention KOG, the RPV chairman need to go. We can’t afford another ‘06 in ‘08. Best to do it soon, and get to rebuilding now, to be ready to counter-attack in ‘08. ‘07 State Senate, and Delegates races will be a good indicator as to where we need to adjust, and be ready for ‘08.
Craig,
You make Kopko sort of look like a local equivalent of Donald Rumsfeld.
When I asked Jackson Miller about the help he was getting from the parties he was very happy with the Manassas unit. He told me the Park dosent have a committee, and that the County did nothing for him at all.
The PW Democratic Committee gave quite a bit of money to Rishell and had most of her precints covered on election day. Including in the City. A quick look over at SBE shows that none of the “R” committees gave Miller any money.
Sorry guys, it just looks down right weak. Im afraid the dems are getting stronger while the R’s are losing steam in our area.
“A quick look over at SBE shows that none of the “R” committees gave Miller any money.”
While SBE might not reflect an actual cash donation to the Miller campaign, the Manassas GOP provided space for their campaign in the headquarters. The Committee had to pay for things like rent, utilities, internet access, and other various expenses including helium tanks, food and refreshments for community events.
All campaigns benefited to some degree. The Manassas GOP used funds that may have otherwise been given as a token donation to provide a first rate headquarters in a very strategic location. Thanks to the members of the Manassas GOP and other volunteers, we were able to provide a headquarters to be proud of. I think Jackson appreciates what we were able to do as a committee, even if it meant we did not give a cash donation.
One last comment - Thank goodness Jackson won!!!
I got the feeling in PWC that Stewart was their number one priority and if that meant sacrificing Allen to get Corey elected, they’d make that trade off. There is no reason why Stewart should have outpolled Allen in PWC.
It sounds like you were one of the people that were not volunteering on a consistent basis. There for you have no business criticizing the committee or Tom Kopko.
There’s plenty of reasons why Corey would out poll Allen - it’s a local election, growth, and no perception of racial problems for Corey. I’m sure people could list more reasons.
If Allen had a good campaign, pushing for republicans to come out and vote for Corey should have pulled Allen along. It’s not like the committee went out and begged DEMOCRATS to come out and vote for Corey and Webb, instead of Corey and Allen.
Allen did worse in the county, the 10th, and the 11th district than the other republicans did. Wolf did much better, and he had a seriously funded candidate running agaisnt him. Are we going to blame the 10th and 11th district chairs for their house members cruising to victory while Allen way underperformed?
I saw no indication that the committee was dumping Allen to support Corey. There was an independent group supporting Corey who did nothing else, but they were not part of the committee effort.
If Kopko is to be criticized, it shouldn’t be for getting Corey elected — that was an important race for our county, and the county committee must first and foremost be about COUNTY politics.
Allen had 10s of millions of dollars to spend. He had a statewide campaign, he was governor and senator, he should have had his own set of volunteers and staff for a major county like prince william. But our people DID work for Allen, they did lit drops, they did phone calls.
I have long said that the PWCRC has been on a steady downturn in effectiveness. That’s to be expected when its goals appear to be directed toward turning it into a committee of ideologues rather than Republican Party activists. That is not to say, however, that ideologues cannot be effective activists…but it’s just not enough. Whatever I may think about Denny Daugherty and his role in the Steve Chapman affair, he knows what he’s doing when it comes to mobilizing the Republican faithful, which is far more than I can say about the other District Chairmen…all you have to do is look at the numbers. Jo Ann Davis was actually fortunate that she did well in the remainder of the 1st CD, given her poor showing in Prince William County.
It’s time for the Prince William County Republican Committee to take a hard look at itself. They need to look back to the years of Party growth in the county, when Reagan’s “big tent” philosophy moved us into an era of continual success. When, regardless of personal philosophy, we were all able to come together after the nominations process for the benefit of the Republican nominee because we didn’t publicly vilify our own (I don’t remember anybody screaming invectives in the faces of fellow Republicans as I’ve seen in recent years, or march on their offices to publicly scourge them). We all worked hard for our respective causes, using them to build the Party rather than tear it down. The electorate has forced us to take a step backwards…perhaps it’s time for the Republican Party to LOOK back as well.
Here’s what I don’t understand, how does the constitutional amemdment on marriage pass so strongly and Allen loose?
My belief, Senator Allens’ campaign ran a poor race. If that means fault lies with the RPV so be it. But it goes farther. The failure of the Rebublican party in both VA and nationwide starts with political blundering at the top. Carl Rove has lost touch. Why was the Sec Def fired the day after the election after the Pres had said he was here for good? To make him the scape goat? Better to have done it before the election and given Allen and others something to hang their hat on. At a national level, the party failed to capitalize on having a sitting President and control of the House & Senate. Shame on us!
We have a strong GOP party in Manassas. We need to duplicate this accross the Commonwealth. Tony and Steve have done a wonderful job retaining our strength. That I see, we’re not being complacent and are addressing the issues the citizens want. Jackson listened and the people responded. More importantly Jacksons margin of victory was in the City. Maybe the rest of the State should learn form us.
Batson is right, we need to replace the top now so we cvan have a strong nationwide showing in ‘08.
The Marriage Amendment passed and Allen lost because 30 percent of amendment voters also voted for Webb according to exit polls. When you break down votes for the amendment and in the senate race along racial lines, it becomes clear that socially conservative African Americans voted for the amendment, but reverted to party loyalty in the senate race.
I put up a post at TC about the interesting dichotomy between PWC and Loudoun. Corey Stewart won convincingly because of growth issues, and the LCRC will lose everything unless it changes its tune and public percpetion. Loudoun County is going to be ugly for Republicans in 2007, especially without the marriage ammendment helping conservative turnout.
Back to the topic (sorry!). What about the great NoVA Strike Force? Were any lessons learned? Will they before the next round of local elections? Growth is the huge swing issue and will be a death knell for Republicans. The big question is who is going to capture the middle in NoVA, and the Dems are learning their lesson. Their moderate candidates did well (Webb) while their wacky leftists did poorly (Feder and Rishell). As much as the hard rightists hate the thought, the GOP must moderate to stay viable in NOVA. One big twist in this is that candidates can stay pretty far to the right socially and fiscally if they moderate on growth. Look no further than Corey Stewart for proof of this, and Lori Waters in Loudoun is the only Republican with that same outlook. Of course you could also count Scott York in that category who won as an Independent after being forced from the LCRC over growth issues.
Amen to RHarrison’s post at the start. The PWC Republican Committee deserves a leader that is interested in supporting the efforts of all Republican candidates running in PW, not just the party chair’s personal favorite. Prince William Republicans deserve a chairman interested in strengthening the party, not someone concerned with advancing his own personal agenda. Notice the lack of unity in the PWCRC. Party strength and unity starts with the party chair.
“Party strength and unity” being preached by an anonymous critic? How purely hypocritical. If you had the courage to sign your name, as at least Harrison and Cheney do, you should join them on an apology to the hundred+ PWC “Team GOP” workers who dedicated untold hours for many months to nothing else than the complete ticket.
Our operations was strictly joint so that every campaign would benefit from any work done. Ask Frazier, Kelly, Puleo, Patrick and my Magisterial District Chairs if “Team GOP” was real and they’ll tell you that I and my Ops Chair chewed their butts multiple times when it wasn’t fully joint. Of course each campaign had responsibility for showing up and coordinating. To be sure, Allen was at the top of our ticket call script, at the top of the ticket door hangers, and had at least equal sign placement. Tom Davis himself praised “Team GOP” for working so well together.
Of course, anonymous writers have to remain in the shadows and not ask too many questions lest your hand be tipped. Or are you so deceitful as to have worked alongside me and still spread lies about me and the PWCRC? No, you have removed yourself from reality with the result being the fantasies you describe above.
Cheney, your musings about the PWCRC are fully marginalized by your lack of membership or activism in it. You have never even had one conversation with me yet you feel qualified to pass judgment. The word prejudice comes to mind.
As for driving out moderates that is absolutely false. It’s undeniable that conservatives are actually the survivors of a purge attempt by moderates last year. No such thing has happened in return; in fact I have reached out to every name on every list and sign-up sheet we can find or collect. There is no marking on the spreadsheet for conservative or moderate. I twice offered the membership job with zero strings to one vocal moderate critic months ago. They didn’t take it but then again there was no reason to do so. This notion is therefore axe-grinding.
To all, let us please get back to work with Voter ID so that every ‘07 candidate will benefit. Also, our Delegates, now one additional conservative stronger, are going to need a lot of moral and letter-writing support regarding transportation this coming session.
I put in my time in the trenches when you were probably in diapers Kopko…at least “knickers,” as the expression goes. When you have your 20, often doing 24/7 for the cause, down in the trenches, then maybe YOU will have the right to criticize my level of activism. But, under any circumstances, you have no right to demand that it is incumbent upon me to join a committee that I helped build and no longer feel welcome, or certainly comfortable, in order to offer an observation based upon my experience.
Mr. Harrison, perhaps you should suggest to Tony Kostelecky (sp?) and Steve Thomas that they offer a seminar on how to build a Republican consensus as they BUILD a committee, rather than a personal power base. I’m sure that there is some Republican leadership in the area that would truly benefit…and I know those volunteers on those committees who I’m sure did, indeed, work their collective glutious maximi off would appreciate the help that knowledge would bring them in the future!
““Team GOP” for working so well together.”"
Huh? If Kopko’s team worked so well together, how come Allen lost PWC? I don’t care how fancy the plays, what matters is the score when time runs out. Kopko blew it. Add to that his antics in the press, from the 50th’s convention, to the Davis Hurst debate, and you can see that Kopko only cares about his cult of personality, helping those he deems ideologically pure, his buds, bros and homies. I have to ask, how does it feel to be the chairman in a PURPLE DISTRICT!
To truely see Kopko’s failures, one only has to look at little old Manassas. Committee 1/20th the size, yet executed near-flawlessly. Worked with the same individual campaign staffs, yet delivered different results. Hmmmm? Quite a contrast.
Kopko will come on here and cry foul, that anons and pseudo-anons should not be taken seriously. It is Kopko who should not be taken seriously. He is a joke, and will become a punch-line faster than you can say “Chapman”. It has already started. The best part is, Kopko can’t help being Kopko.
I have to weigh in here a bit in defense of Tom. I’ve worked with Tom a lot, and he’s a dedicated Republican who puts in an astounding amount of time and a lot of effort to get our candidates elected. He’s about as imperfect as the rest of us, and he’s probably made no more mistakes in this first at-bat as chairman during an election as I probably would have. Actually, I’m certain I would have made more.
There aren’t a whole lot of people who would be willing to pick up this heavy load and carry it so diligently. PWC is a big county, and this is a darned hard job. Although George Allen didn’t carry PWC, every other Republican candidate won in the county, which isn’t a bad record. It’s also worth noting that George Allen had a lot to do with what happened.
Comparing the Manassas City GOP to the PWC committee probably isn’t fair as well. The Manassas GOP was built over many years with a stable handful of officials and influential groups, and that hasn’t been the case in PWC. The challenges facing PWC have been going on for years, before Tom got elected, and it may take a few more to get everything working as it should.
I think all of us learned this cycle, no matter how well we did. We all have some lessons learned to apply.
“Although George Allen didn’t carry PWC, every other Republican candidate won in the county,…”
Sorry Greg, but you’re wrong on that. Take a look at the PWC portion of the 1st CD. Also, the Davis campaign had a very strong, visible presence of its own in the County, leaving nothing to chance. Wolf’s portion of PWC included the Cities, as well as the exceptionally strong Republican western portion of PWC…and Denny Daugherty’s exceptional organizational work in Brentsville (note comment above). No one is saying, Greg, that we don’t have a lot of dedicated Republicans in PWC…just that we have a lot less than we used to have.
Anke, you’re right about JoAnn Davis in the 1st CD. I’ve just been focused on the other end of the county, I guess.
Greg, your commentary throughout bvbl is admirable and reasonable. It’s a shame you keep getting surrounded by such hateful and cowardly people on bvbl. You deserve better my friend.
The point is that Allen recieved top billing on equal work yet underperformed his ticketmates. His defeat was therefore not caused by the grassroots effort put forth by the PWCGOP. It’s worth discussing the real reasons why he along with so many other Republicans lost across the nation, but that does not seem possible in a reasonable way here.
However, there are lessons that can be directly applied to the ‘07 Session and races. The biggest is to solve real problems, especially while in the majority. In Prince William the Republican Board Chairman will begin solving gridlock with the bold and sensible step of a controlled growth policy.
In Richmond the Republican House leader is solving the NoVA transportation conundrum by boldly demanding state spending where the taxes are paid, in NoVA, instead of blindly raising taxes or fees. Our thankfully conservative Delegates are in that corner too. Though proper, it is not an easy place to be.
The immediate lesson for us all is that our Delegates need our help now to shape the public’s expectation. The public should know that the state budget has ballooned, that there was a $2 billion surplus last session, and that less than 50% of the taxes NoVA pays are spent here.
The public’s expectation should be that the Governor’s budget in December should, but won’t, put all surplus monies towards transportation.
We Republicans need to begin now by fighting, together, the media bias against us with letters to the editor, talking with our neighbors and friends, holding rallies for surplus dollars to be spent on transportation, and committing strong support to our Delegates.
That’s fine on the policy level, but what is the Republican leadership doing to fulfill it’s ultimate mandate to build the party and organize for future elections? It is NOT the purpose of either the RPV or member committees to establish Republican policy…that is the province of the Republican membership at large. It is the purpose of the Republican leadership to build the Party and win elections. I have yet to hear any strategy in that direction…it seems to be treated as an afterthought.
Greg,
Perhaps I was a bit OTT on Tom Kopko. You are right. PWC is a different beast, as it’s size does create a bigger challenge. Also, the Allen campaign is as much to blame in it’s execution. However, I do believe that the PWCGOP Chairman focused the majority of its resources at the BOCS race. Individual PWC Republicans took personal initiative in many precincts, especially in the 50th.
But, in reading Tom’s responses above, it sounds like he’s positioning himself for a run at an office down the road.
I again give Cheney credit for using her name.
I disagree on the proper role of RPV or unit committees. I don’t understand how you separate them all since those groups are exactly the Republican membership at large to which you assign the duty of policy. The RNC defines the GOP platform at the national level and the same applies at the other levels. In other words, committees ARE the membership and therefore have the duty to define policy.
Please also note that while I did promote a policy regarding transportation, with which you agree, I listed specific grassroots actions to take that will serve, right now, to help win next year’s elections. I wonder in return how those could have been overlooked.
Now, I wish I could avoid repeating myself by saying that: if you were a member of, or at least active in, the PWCRC you would know the many changes and programs I have put in place to grow membership and build activism for election success. One can opine about effectiveness but perhaps you can now understand why your criticism paired with ignorance of today’s reality is so frustrating.
Uhh, Kopko, have you ever attended a National Convention?? If so, how is it you missed the Platform Committee Report and floor vote?…or the Platform Committee Report at a State Convention, which is why we had State Conventions regardless of whether or not we had contested state-wide nominations contests. The basic policy of the Republican Party from the National right down to the lowest unit level is established by convention where far more than merely the Committee members are present and voting. The Republican Platform is SUPPOSED to be representative of the majority opinion of more than a small committee, otherwise you will be unable to reach a Republican consensus on any level…gee, doesn’t that sound familiar? Ya know, I love the way you and your buddies always manage to prove my point.
From RPV on down, we have witnessed a subversion of this process which has placed the power to ASSUME the thoughts on issues of the many into the hands of the few, and in the process we have witnessed the steady decline of the Republican Party. Congratulations. Maybe policy should once more be placed in the hands of the Republican faithful (at large) instead of in yours. If the Republican Committees that are guilty of trying to lead people blindly by the nose would put that energy into actually doing their jobs (organizing Republicans throughout their units), just maybe the Party would rebound.
I also find it interesting that you should wait to post your response to me until it was so far down in the string that it’s doubtful anybody but Greg, and MAYBE you, will read it. I would have sent this to you in an email, but I also find it interesting that the Executive Committee of PWCRC does not have individual email accounts listed so that your constituencies can communicate with you. Afraid that you might get some negative feedback, or be held accountable?
Oh yeah, one more thing…I am a Republican, and have been a Republican, for many more years than you. What you call growth of the Committee is a steady decline from what I’ve heard. I have FAR more experience than you, not only in successful campaigns, but in actually organizing and BUILDING committees, so I earned the right (which, btw, is an inherent right in this country…or at least it used to be) to express my opinion on nuts and bolts matters (actually on everything, when you get right down to it) without your censure. The fact that you believe that no Republican has the right to criticize you unless they ARE a current member of the Committee speaks volumes!
Cheney, as a new 2LT in the Army I learned very quickly to rely on my experienced NCOs to get things done right. I therefore would tend to listen to you except that you are so biased and hateful towards me and other conservatives that I couldn’t trust a word.
Criticism is one thing, but your criticism in willful ignorance is quite another. I’ve refuted every wacky accusation of yours but it falls on deaf ears. You not only criticize in ignorance, you stubbornly choose to stay that way by ignoring evidence to the contrary. It’s a ridiculous cycle with insidious results.
Now you imply that I control my Exec Committee’s emails to oppress criticism. Good Lord, what next? We use position-level email addresses for the very reason that they are easy to remember and easy for anyone to use! Politicians, corporations, and info@anycompany.com use this method every day for that exact reason. Do you see how absurd your fantasies are? And it’s all because you are not involved.
I urge you to stick to commenting only on what you know first-hand and otherwise ask questions first and only afterwards provide suggestions as a humble outsider.
Kopko, you arrogant expletive, you didn’t answer ANY of my criticisms (I don’t expect you can) and, as far as someone who should be “a humble outsider,” I consider YOU more in that category!