Brown County GOP Celebrates Holidays and Election Sweep

Last night, the Brown County GOP celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas and the Holiday Season with a Dinner at the Southern Hills Career and Technical Center. The event was a thank you to poll workers and others who contributed to the victory in the 2010 general election. Paul Hall made clear some of the important gains aside from the electoral victories. Where the GOP had only 3 presiding judges before the election, it now has all 32 for each precinct. Among the honorees were Al Spiller, for being an all around utility man and precinct captain, as well as Central Committee MVP Jeanne Glassmeyer, for working hard in Perry Twp. Other awards were handed out including gifts for every poll worker and central committee member. Rick Eagan received an award for his perseverance and hard work in overcoming a near death experience in a car crash and reverse the vote totals from his first run against defeated Democrat incumbent Margery Paeltz, turning over 4000 votes to his side. In other news, it was revealed that Margery's husband Wade, who attends Republican meetings, voted for Dick Cordray, the losing democrat, to (snicker snicker) "moderate" Republican Mike Dewine. I guess this shows Wade has a history of backing the wrong horse, so to speak.

New Senate President Tom Niehaus couldn't make it, probably partying with the tax hikers in Columbus too much. Jean Schmidt was not in attendance, but her husband Peter and staffer Steven Caraway represented her well. State Reps. Danny Bubp and Joe Uecker, two of several sponsors for the event, were also in attendance. Rumors swirl that these two will be facing off for a State Senate seat candidacy in two years, as I believe both are term limited in the state house. Many of those present "in the know" say Danny is the frontrunner, with Uecker's main hope being if Kasich appoints Bubp to some type of administrative or judicial position.

Danny Bubp made a great point in discussing the NRA and the Buckeye Firearms Association. They backed Ted Strickland based on a promise he is not keeping, regardin the improvements of the concealed carry law. Ted promised both organizations, according to Bubp, that he would sign the bills and make sure they passed. However, he is being a sore loser and is not doing it. Danny said it is time these organizations got back behind people who do what they are say they are going to do and have a track record that is believable on the gun issues.

Other luminaries in attendance included: former County Treasurer Gail DeClaire, Judge Scott Gusweiler, Prosecutor Jessica Little, State Board of Education member Jeff Hardin, Sheriff Dwayne Wenninger, County Clerk of Courts Tina Meranda, County Auditor Doug Green, who gave an informative presentation on his journey as an election observer to Albania, as well as members of the Central Committee and other elected officials. Also in attendance was Hannah Faulkner, a Brown County resident who is also the President of the Northern Kentucky University Young Republicans club, who closed the evening in prayer and benediction.

More Excuses From BFA

My good friend Chad from BFA penned a long piece about the Strickland Endorsement Debacle.  Read the whole thing if you want to listen to the company line, but I just had to pull this bit out for specific scorn and ridicule:

We don't hold people's friends against them
This argument is best summed up by a telephone call we had with a GOP State Central Committee member:
GOP Central Committee member: "How can BFA support Strickland? The guy supports Obama, who wants to ban all guns! You're supporting the enemy of guns!"
BFA: "So we should pull support from an A+ rated candidate because he supports another candidate who is anti-gun? OK, after we do that, should we then move to pull support from all the GOP State Central Committee members who just voted to endorse Mike DeWine and Paul Pfeifer?"
GOP Central Committee member: "[silence]......[chuckling]"
There is no politician, anywhere, who would be immune from the swinging axe if this was a standard, and our volunteer endorsement committee frankly does not have the time or resources to cull over 400 surveys AND then check to see if those same people ever supported or donated to an anti-gun candidate. Besides, it still wouldn't change the steadfast support a candidate has given us over the years - only a vote against us will do that.

Let me field that question Chad...  Yes, you should pull support from SCC members who vote for Mike DeWine and Paul Pfieffer.  It is specifically because of these people that RINOs like DeWine and Pfieffer are allowed to continue having anything resembling a career in Republican politics.  
Thanks for addressing the appointing of judges in your piece, Chad...oh, wait, you failed to address that one altogether...  Appointments of judges are the single most important thing that will effect 2nd Amendment issues in this state and BFA isn't even bothering to take a look at that subject.  Sad.

OhioDems Are At It Again on Guns

Michelle Malkin highlights this Cleveland Dispatch story about how Ohio Democrats tried to get the names of Ohio's CCW permit holders for political purposes.

Let's remember, folks, its John Kasich who is the enemy to the 2nd Amendment......or not, as it turns out.

One has to wonder what our friends in the Buckeye Firearms Association think of this...

Team Morgan Not Exactly Clear on Endorsement Either

Our friends in Columbus sent me evidence that Team Morgan wasn't exactly clear in their Twitter and Facebook posts either, but I will point out that by the time Team Morgan sent their posts out they were having to beat back the impression that Yost was solely endorsed.  That's not an excuse for not being clear (even though I will admit that the 140 character limit on Twitter does make clarity difficult sometimes), but my criticism of Gormley and Bir wasn't about the "dual endorsement" language, it was about the lack of transparency on the correction.  Trying to say that the Buckeye Firearms association re-affirmed their dual endorsement is NOT the same thing as saying that the BFA asked you to fix a blunder.

But I will admit that Team Morgan failed to get it right too...

ORP Issues 527-Media-Style "Correction"

The Ohio Republican Party now acknowledges that the Buckeye Firearms Association issued a "dual endorsement" on their website. The responsible thing to do would be to also acknowledge this correction with a flurry of Twitter and Facebook posts as well, but I guess we can't expect that to happen.

Why do I call it a 527-Media-Style "Correction"? Because they don't acknowledge at all that they made a mistake and it is exactly that sort of thing that the Republicans accuse the lamestream media of doing in their coverage.

But they finally did the right thing...

UPDATE: Still misleading Ohio on the homepage though...

Buckeye Firearms Association Fires Back at ORP on Endorsement Kerfuffle

Release:

The Buckeye Firearms Association (BFA) has asked the Ohio Republican Party (ORP) to issue a correction to a press release published on the party's website March 24.The release, entitled "Yost Endorsed by Buckeye Firearms for Auditor of State", failed to report that Yost and his primary opponent Rep. Seth Morgan, both received endorsements."In failing to make that important distinction, it appears the Ohio Republican Party hopes to mislead voters into thinking our political action committee issued a singular endorsement to Yost," said Jim Irvine, BFA Chairman. "Buckeye Firearms Association will not 'choose between friends' in this primary race, and has issued a dual endorsement of Seth Morgan and Dave Yost. It is frustrating that Republican voters, which were until recently looking forward the prospect of voting for pro-gun candidates in many statewide races, are now facing a situation where one race (for attorney general) is left without a strong candidate on our issue, while in the auditor's race, one staunch friend will surely lose."ORP Chairman Kevin DeWine has not responded to BFA's request for a correction in a timely manner. As such, it became necessary to issue a public statement denouncing the misleading press release.

As I have been saying all along this distortion by the ORP is highly misleading (at best) and unethical (at worst).