MC was gobsmacked to learn that several rather high profile Ron Paul supporters have endorsed Tony Sutton for Chair of the RPM. MC knows Nate Hansen, Nick Quade and Grant Cermak a little and likes them all as people who work hard and aren't afraid to get involved. MC has been a consistent supporter of them, and others who supported Dr. Paul, and we are not about to change now. Full disclosure: MC was never on board with Dr. Paul's thinking in foreign policy. Certainly, though, his critique of American foreign policy deserves to be heard. (Candidly though, MC has heard it all before from Pat Buchanan) Dr. Paul's economic analysis has always struck us as cogent and, given the events of late, prescient.What MC does not understand is the reasoning behind a public endorsement of one of their chief tormentors in the party. The text of the letter announcing their support is below. Left unsaid in this letter is the reasoning for such a manifest change. Have they sold out? Seems too pat to MC and we know them to have strong principles. They have often taken arrows from a party that did not trust them. What, then, would cause them to endorse Tony Sutton given their previous experiences?
At least one of the signers below also supports Michael Brodkorb for Deputy Chair. Call it change MC can't believe in.
MC understands that the rest of the Ron Paul community is not pleased with their support of the Old Guard's designated heir to the ruinous Ron Carey years. MC does not speak for the Campaign for Liberty although we count its members as friends and allies. Many people have come to MC to ask what is going on with respect to this endorsement. MC is publishing this post in an attempt to answer that question.
Comments, please.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Dear Republican Friend,
We write today to encourage you to support Tony Sutton for State Chair of the Republican Party of Minnesota.
As relatively new activists to the Party we have gotten to know Tony over the last several months and believe that he is the best prepared candidate to unite our Party, re-build our brand of limited-government optimism and win elections in 2010.
We are faced with new challenges that come with new opportunities. The battle lines have been drawn and the nature of this battle can be most clearly summarized as increasing command and control of the population versus individual liberty. Where Democrats and other leftists have never seen a new law, government power, tax or other oppressive intrusion that they find unacceptable, our party is experiencing a re-invigoration of one of its old and sometimes forgotten cornerstones: individual liberty. Whether you are a long time party leader or a new activist sharing these values, our country needs you and our party needs you.
A few folks are skeptical about Tony Sutton, and cite his long-time party involvement as a black eye rather than a feather in his cap. Tony Sutton was not chair of the Republican Party in 2007 and 2008; he was the Secretary/Treasurer. He did not have the executive privilege to make the decisions some folks thought should have been made over the past few years. However, the job history, service and character of this man are very important when considering him for the position of State Party Chair.
Tony became involved in Republican politics as a young man in Hibbing in the 1980s. He later moved to the Twin Cities and was involved with the Republican Party of Minnesota in varying capacities until 1998 when he became Executive Director of the State Party. Under Tony's direction, this party took back the majority in the State Legislature. Tony has pounded signs and broken bread with activists all over this State. After serving as Executive Director, he went on to serve as Deputy State Auditor under Pat Anderson. In this capacity, Tony garnered the respect of his colleagues and a deeper understanding of the operations of state, local and municipal governments. Tony has rounded out his experience by running a successful business in a very competitive market sector. He is the CEO of Baja Sol Restaurants, a company with nearly 300 employees and numerous franchises. He resides in Inver Grove Heights with his wife Bridget, and their four children.
Tony is an affable, kind, hard-working and caring individual. If someone tells you otherwise, they have probably not spent much time with him. In order to implement our conservative liberty agenda, we need to win elections. Winning elections is certainly about ideology and ideas. But at a practical level, it is also about running and managing campaigns successfully, which requires experience - and Tony has this experience. Tony has a proven track record of successful organizing, raising capital and funds, list development, management, and marketing and that will move us significantly toward victory.
In 1978, two years after Jimmy Carter took office, Minnesota Republicans picked up a net 37 seats in the Minnesota House of Representatives. If we are to have a chance at accomplishing a similar feat we must have someone of Tony's skill-set and experience at the helm.
Tony is a successful organizer, experienced leader, conservative activist and decent man. We hope you join us in supporting him for State Chair. Thank you for your time and let's take our State and Country back together!
Nathan Hansen, CD Deputy Chair/State Central Delegate
Corey Sax, BPOU Chair/State Central Delegate
Grant Cermak, CD Vice Chair/State Central Delegate
Tristan Tieso, BPOU Deputy Treasurer/State Central Delegate
Tony Vandemark, BPOU Officer/State Central Alternate
Nick Quade, CD Vice Chair/State Central Delegate
P.S. To join Tony's campaign, please go to his website at www.tonyforchair.com. You can also find him on Facebook (http://tinyurl.com/tonysgroup) or follow him on Twitter (www.twitter.com/agsutton).
Paid for by Tony Sutton for Chair, 2922 Upper 55th Street, Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota 55076 651.772.4426 | tony@tonyforchair.com | unsubscribe
I too am shocked by an endorsement of the Old Guard that rejects transparency, open dialogue, listen to and engaging BPOU leadership and CD leadership, etc. It doesn't make logical sense.
ReplyDeleteTony has deferred to Ron Carey and supported Ron Carey because they are friends that socialize together. Why didn’t he raise and support motions that would have promoted positive change if he disagreed with Ron Carey? Was he too timid or did he support the destruction of our party? It simply doesn’t compute.
I trust the MC post will get the signatories to dig deep to help us understand their support of the last few years.
Based on the controlling nature of many of the old guard, from the caucuses where many of the Liberty movement started thru the recent conventions, little has changed.
ReplyDeleteOne of the signatories has a blog post about his support. I found nothing in it of interest.
Thanks to MC for helping get this into the open.
It's easy to "stand on principle" when one is standing on the sidelines, but once a person has a taste of power, with the prospect of even more power, those "principles" seems to get modified rather quickly, and quickly drift to the current status quo.
ReplyDeleteBeen there, done that, got the T-shirt.
Too few people within the Republican Party fail to understand what leadership is:
"Having a title does not make you a leader, and a leader does not need a title."
I for one, am getting tired of all the sophmoric rhetoric, and I am still waiting for someone to show me some real results by the "New Guard". Those results are measured when you defeat the DFL.
The chest thumping and gloating by some, proud of their part, in the elimination of "the Old Guard" including myself, means there are very few experienced party volunteers left in the Republican Party, who know how elections are won. So to the "New Guard" I say - You broke it, you bought it, you own it, and it's your responsibility to win.
But don't assume that "Old Guard" volunteers like myself will pack up and leave, there are plenty of arena's where our expertise is still welcome, for we are a proven commodity, and to a select few of the "New Guard", we will show them the ropes, and teach them how to avoid the mistakes and pitfalls. But we will also continue to be on the sidelines, being the critics of the current and future Republican Party leadership.
The clock is ticking and so far, the scoreboard reads - New Guard "0".
John Mc
Hmmmm, seems to me the endorses were promised something by the Sutton/Brodkorb pack. That is how they operate. The former - Liberty Lovers sold out, that's all there is to it.
ReplyDeleteThe author of this blog chastized me at the RNC and asked me why I was rocking the boat with my battles against the party. Now all of sudden it is cool to support Ron Paul folks? I don't buy it.
ReplyDeleteCorey J Sax
http://www.coreyjsax.com
SD59 Chair
CD5 Vice Chair
MC doesn't remember "chastizing" Corey at the
ReplyDeleteRNC but really, who remembers much about that except Sarah Palin's speach? Lori Windels was the beneficiary of my hand delivered margaritas. And I'd do it all over again for her!
Corey says nothing about supporting Sutton.
Why not Corey? Sutton got your tongue? Or other body part?
The burden is on you to explain your hypocrisy.
Have at it.
I said plenty about supporting Sutton.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.coreyjsax.com
Read my blog. There is plenty about why I support Sutton.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know who's on the State Central Committee?
ReplyDeleteThe sad part here is that I when I read the party constitution, I thought State Central members were elected to represent their BPOU/CD not a congressman from Texas.
ReplyDeleteFor someone who was concerned about people "barking on cue" you now express concern that these people are not barking to your chosen puppet master.
And Drew - State Central Committee members are well know to those who they represent.
Just like I don't want a Congressman or Senator from Minnesota representing the interests of San Fransico California - I don't think the State Central representatives from Duluth really need to represent Wright County.
So State Central Committee members should not be allowed to communicate with each other?
ReplyDeleteI think Westover has it right in his post at http://wrightrepublican.blogspot.com/2009/06/westover-listing-to-right.html
ReplyDeleteCraig,
ReplyDeleteI support your motion and would gladly second it.
I have a friendly ammendment for you to consider in order to "set the stage" and put it in the form of a regular motion.
Good luck!
Mike
Whereas, the State Central Committee of the Republican Party of Minnesota has the expectation that the Republican Party win more seats in the MN Legislature in 2010 and beyond.
Whereas, the State Central Committee of the Republican Party of Minnesota encourages the open and free communications between our delegates and alternates,
Therefore, I make the motion move that the State Central Committee of the Republican Party of Minnesota instructs the State Executive Committee to immediately and quarterly that it shall issue the most current and most complete list of State Central Committee delegates and alternates to any duly elected delegate or alternate to the State Central Committee who requests the list for that member’s personal use, unless specific reason is given by the Secretary/Treasurer to that individual as to why he or she, individually, is denied access to the list. Any denial of the list to a requesting delegate or alternate can be appealed to the full State Central Committee. The full State Central Committee can reverse such a denial by a simple majority vote. A written policy for State Central Committee list access, including specific criteria for denial of access, shall be an agenda item for the next meeting of the State Central Committee bylaw subcommittee.
I found this blog today when doing a deep dive of research as to where I have been found on the internet... so while its an extremely old post now, I feel obligated to answer to my(our) critics.
ReplyDeleteThe reason I chose to support Tony Sutton was that he was the best person currently for our state party. The state needed someone who had some new ideas, but the state was not ready yet for someone with too many new concepts and a sweeping change of the guard. Tony seemed to and is still today, making a better difference in the party than previous leadership.
Also, who do you remember was running for state party chair that was VERY MC or RP friendly? No one if I remember right. Tony is a business owner and hates many of the current invasions of our privacy through the Dept. of Health (DNA), etc - but its not the party chair's role to champion a cause such as Dr. Paul's. Its his role to WIN elections for the party he serves. That in the end is how he will be judged and how we RP people will judge him.
In the end, and given the candidates to choose from, I thought that helping to influence a race in the internal workings of the party was better than sitting idly by and doing nothing.
Thanks
-Tony V
(once active 54B officer, now overworked and over-traveling for his job once again)