HCGOP supporters listen in
Recently, the local newspaper has devoted an unusual number of column inches to new Hamilton County GOP chair Gail Greene, whose entire ticket of party activists earned an upset victory over veteran county GOP regulars at the party’s biennial convention March 1. While the TFP’s apparent concern over the future vitality of the local party is heartwarming, that concern appeared to be overblown to those – about 110 in all – who attended Monday night’s standing room only meeting of HCGOP supporters at Greenway Farms’ conference center.
Maybe it’s just me, but can anyone recall such a number to any previous HCGOP meeting that wasn’t a convention or Lincoln Day Dinner? So Gail and her well-organized crew must be doing something right. She presented the party’s mission and goals, there was a treasurer’s report and an outline of events ahead. So she’s fulfilling the transparency promise she campaigned on, fostering buy-in from party activists who apparently liked – and regularly applauded – what they heard.
It seems the local paper’s editors didn’t realize the state GOP actually has a publicly published list of guiding principles under which elected officials representing the party regularly campaign. Those principles are what have attracted public support that have earned the party’s elected leaders supermajority status in the state legislature. The fact that some of those elected representatives don’t often live up to those principles – and may get reminded of that by county leaders like Gail, which is part of her job description – seems to upset the TFP and those few called out. Hey, it’s not an easy job to live up to these principles, but nobody forced any elected official to run as a Republican.
And to think this was just the first official HCGOP meeting since the convention while the TFP’s writers and editors were all atwitter about the party’s future prospects under such “divisive” leadership. Indeed, several elected officials attended and were introduced at the meeting, including County Mayor Weston Wamp, County Commissioners Jeff Eversole and Joe Graham, School Boardmember Larry Grohn, and Sessions Court Judge Gary Starnes. I’ll point out these elected leaders don’t always agree with each other, yet they are able to cooperate enough to run our local government offices.
Gee, maybe someone should tell the TFP and any disaffected Republicans that grown adults can actually disagree and publicly share their arguments without the republic shattering in pieces.
Brendan Jennings