GOPAC has high hopes for Washington

By Bryan Bissell, PolitickerWA.com Reporter

MINNEAPOLIS - The GOPAC is trying to build the Republican farm team, and executive director David Avella says Washington state is doing a fine job with the seeding process. Former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, who chairs the political action committee, was supposed to appear at yesterday's lunch at Rossi's Steakhouse in Minneapolis, but a schedule change at the last minute had him replaced with the group's executive director David Avella.

He told the delegates and guests that there were a few main reasons it was important for them to hear his speech. Number one, he said, they represent the diversity in the Republican party.

"You show to America and to Washington state what the Republican party is all about," Avella said. "It is important that they see that our party is every bit what America looks like and what Washington state looks like."

While the Washington state delegation is relatively more diverse than most of the rest of the states at the convention here in Minnesota, Avella failed to mention a report that came out yesterday stating that this convention had the fewest amount of African-American delegates since statistics started being taken forty years ago. It is a fact that GOPAC chairman Steele, himself an African-American, called frustrating and prompted him to tell the wire reporter, "You almost have to think, 'Wait. How did it come to this?' "

Aside from that, Avella reminded the delegates that, second to the candidates, they were the most important resources a campaign had. He told them that, in talking to their neighbors and friends, they could do far more for a campaign than a newspaper story or television report could ever do.

Given their farm team focus, friends and neighbors was really the name of the game, Avella suggested, because it is the local politicians who later become the state politicians. More importantly, though, it is local politics that sets the agenda on redistricting, which will happen next in 2012.

Avella warned the delegates that the Democrats were focusing hard on gaining strong local majorities for the 2012 redistricting meetings, and that the Republicans would have to work hard to keep them from achieving that goal.

He also felt good about Washington's chances to thwart the Democrats. He said that the GOPAC had a great relationship with the Washington State Republican Party, and took time to praise its chairman Luke Esser.

"No state do we have a better relationship with than the Washington state team," Avella said. "Not every state has a state party that is willing to go the extra mile and do what it takes to get your candidates elected."

FOR FULL CONVENTION COVERAGE from PolitickerWA.com click here.

Bryan Bissell is a PolitickerWA.com Reporter and can be reached via email at noreply@politicker.com.

Post new comment

Most Active Stories

RSS Feeds

Comments

Post new comment