Ward Cluster Meeting

First on the Agenda the Caucus and the State Party Chair

At the start of the meeting people talked about the caucus and the problems we had this year. We also talked about how the party feels about the state party chair.

We all agreed that more training should be done for volunteers working the caucus sites. We all agreed that there were problems with this year's caucus that needed to be addressed. We also all agreed that the volunteers did a great job given the circumstances.

When we started talking about the state chair everyone was either upset or angry at him for the fact that it was clear he dropped the ball in a major way this year when it came to the party caucus. He did man up and take the blame for the problems we had during the caucus. Someone suggested that he might be asked to resign by the party. The reaction was strong that we did not want him to be removed because of his mistake. All of us have been new to a job at one time or another and have made mistakes. We know that if he decides to stay that he will never make this years mistake every again. He has done a good job up till now of getting people to care about our party. He has listen to and encouraged people like me to help the party and not just one or two candidates. He is young and has brought that trait to the job. He is honest and caring and it shows in the way he deals with party members. He has a family and has strong roots in our community which gives him every reason to do a better job in the future. I personally hope that Governor Richardson gives him a hard time and then asks him to stay on as our party chair. We need young people to lead our party into the future and we must give them a chance to grow into the positions if our party is to survive. I think that we would loss a lot of the younger people that have stepped up in the last year if he is asked to resign. I hope that the Governor is not influenced by a Republican owned media to remove our state chair for his position because it would be a great disservice to our state party and only help the Republican Party in the future.

Second on the Agenda was Voting for Delegates to the State Convention

Yesterday evening I attended my ward meeting just like I have done for the last year. I am new to being active in my local party activities and did not expect to be elected a delegate to the state convention. In the past I have always worked for outside groups or an individual candidate. I did however decide to run for a position this year just to get my name out. I did turn down requests from individual candidates to work for them this year in favor of helping out my local party. The major difference with this months ward meeting was the number of people who attended the meeting. The room was packed with a large number of new people. People I have never seen showed up for the meetings and somehow I get the feeling that they won't be showing up again for another meeting until another candidate gets the bright idea that he or she can freely and legally stack the votes for delegates to the state convention. The bad thing about this type of behavior is that it engenders anger and hard feelings from people who are active in the party and who have worked hard all year round to support their wards.

New people like these do not stay around and support the group in the future so in the long run this type of behavior by candidates is only harmful to party membership. After all why take the time to attend meetings all year round, work hard to increase membership in the party, and then be blown out of the water by a candidate at the last minute when you run to be a delegate to your own state convention. These new people are one issue voters and don't have a lot of knowledge on other issues that will be voted on during the state convention. They don't take part in party building activities during the year so the party does not grow because of their presents at the state convention. The party did their regular active members a disservice by not having rules in place to prevent this type of behavior from a candidate.

Even though I ran and lost in the election for a position for party delegate, I personally can not be angry because I am new to being active in this group so I did not expect to get elected as a delegate and in the past with other groups I have been just as guilty of the same tactic that was pulled at last evening's meeting. I also knew the candidate that was going to be pulling that political tactic. I got an email from his campaign warning me that his group would be doing this in the ward meetings. One note, because I did not think I deserved to be elected a delegate this year I did not take part in this one even though I could have if I had wanted to do so. I did wonder why the county party did not have a few simple rules for voting in place that would have prevented that tactic from being used successfully during one of our meetings. You would think that a group such as ours would be more political shrewd when it comes to political tactics. I get the feeling that maybe the voting rules for the state party convention delegates should be reviewed in the next county party meeting to prevent stacking of delegates for the state convention by candidate's campaigns. While the behavior is legal, I have to wonder how ethical it was for any candidate to come up with a plan like this one. Winning at all cost can not be good for our local party. I would hope that candidates in the future would not practice this behavior. Maybe the state party chair should look into how delegates to the state convention are elected at the local level.