Doyle, please stay home; I need you there.

We are where we are. I could go on a rant about how we got in the shape we are in, but we need to look to the future.

A Republican governor can’t do much with a dem house and senate, and a lone republican senator doesn’t have as much pull as one from a state with a Republican governor, legislature and congressional delegation.

I have lived in other southeastern states that have built the Republican Party into a competitive organization. They worked on winning seats little by little, developed a farm team and instituted practices that continually cultivated new Republican candidates. It wasn’t exciting. It wasn’t always fun. It was long and hard. They now compete every cycle and at every level, and the loss of one superstar doesn’t cripple the party. They have others in the pipeline.

We cannot survive without a well built farm team.

I am here and involved not because it’s fun.. but because I’m a Republican.

Sure, we have to focus on those races and win them, but how very sad that we could not find candidates for three Congressional races and a Senate race. The fact that we suck so bad that no one will take a shot at those races says a lot. Those JP wins don’t offset how bad we do suck. And we should have won at least two other house seats. So, while I do agree with you in general, I disagree with your optimistic view of how well we did.

I’d say if our party had a living will, the docs would have pulled the plug long ago.

Where the local races matter is that it accustomes people to voting for Republicans. That’s the value in local races, we need that. But we also need people up the ticket to build from that end as well. That’s where the money and the influence is…and lets not kid ourselves, that stuff is very important in a political party.

I think we did a great job this cycle. We held our seats, picked up three, and competed closely in at least three or more others. We also picked up JP seats across the state.

We weren’t distracted by statewide, congressional, senatorial, or presidential races that drain volunteers and money from our local races. Once we build some strength at the local level we will be able to compete every cycle at the higher levels.

Think of it as a football program. If you don’t have a good program, you may have a winning team every now and then or a superstar player from time to time but you won’t consistently compete for the championship. We need a good program.

We have had a governor, senator, and multiple congressmen. We have lost local representation under all of them except Hammersmidt. He was the only one who cared to build the state and local parties (as did Win, but his was an uphill battle). When they lost or termed out we had nothing to replace them.

If we get distracted by a larger race we won’t be building a good program.

…. by the way did I mention that the chairman’s primary responsibility is to raise money and help recruit candidates.

This isn’t a popularity contest, this is politics. Do you want to win or sit back and fight over the same scraps you’ve fought over for the last few years?

How about Dan Greenberg, a man found on this very blog. Should he be disqualified as he served on Huckabee’s staff? Me thinks not. Just because Dan worked for Huckabee, it does not mean he shares all of Huckabee’s views or is Huckabee’s drudge, vassal, or peon. But Dan did get experience in Huckabee’s office that is probably pretty handy from time to time.

If we actually want to win something, we all need to stop being petty and fighting each other for scraps and about whom is more Republican than whom. Who did or did not work for a candidate that you don’t like doesn’t matter. The chances are, that person probably did not agree with their boss 100% on all issues. If you want to know that person’s opinions on issues, then ask that person. Don’t assume that someone that worked for Huckabee agrees with him totally or that he is forever enslaved to Huckabee to serve only Huckabee.

What matters is experience, the ability to raise money and the ability to get things done. Judgment is pretty handy too.

So, go ahead and cast aspersions based upon your own cult of personality but be prepared to continue to wander about the wilderness. Until we can give up our infighting, jealousy, etc., we are not going to be anything more than we are now.