Chesapeake GOP members seem to advocate for Jeff Frederick as party chair

By JR Hoeft | Thursday, March 13th, 2008 | Catch-All

The Republican Party of Chesapeake is getting more and more exciting these days. You go to meetings that used to be able to be held in a phone booth, and now the room is filled to the brim and out the door.

Perhaps a sign of the times is that they are putting their official call for their mass meeting on their web site for the first time. A small call is going in the Virginian-Pilot (which includes a link to the web site), but the whole call is going onto their site.

Also, they discussed their Grassroots Dinner, which goes back some time, which honors the one member of the Chesapeake GOP who has best demonstrated the ideals of the Republican Party; this person is not an elected official. This year’s winner is Harold Thrasher who has worked tirelessly for years on behalf of the Chesapeake GOP. The young man is only a little over 80 and never misses a polling date. The guest speaker at the dinner will be our congressman, Rep. J. Randy Forbes.

What was really interesting is instead of spending money on Virginian-Pilot advertising, the party decided to give each of their endorsed council candidates $400, which includes the mayor, and $300 for each school board candidate to spend as they see fit.

This led into comments by some candidates.

“As a group, we are trying to make government work better. No matter who you talk to, people think government is broken,” said Debbie Ritter, Chesapeake City Council Candidate. “I think we have a group of people who think working hard, working smart, and working together will make the City of Chesapeake a city that is more responsible to you.”

“I am a conservative to my core and have been all my life,” said Suzy Kelly, a small business owner, former chairman of the Chamber of Commerce, and another candidate for city council. “I will apply sound conservative judgment in whatever decision I make, and I think you will be proud of the decisions that are made in the future.”

Kudos to Bob Berry for actually coming down to the meeting!

“It’s quite a task to start out without anything, and I still don’t have anything!” said Berry.

Berry noted some of his past history in Hampton Roads and is EXTREMELY soft spoken. He has a religious and state police background. He worked for the RNC. Has been active in the GOP. Worked in the Navy for over 29 years. Worked as an intelligence officer for over 10 years, and still does so.

He is running because he sees that there is a belief of true conservatism out there that is not being followed. He has noticed an embarrassing followership of Republicans with respect to Democrats. Such as borders and illegal immigration.

Berry is a well-meaning and very brave man. I have a great deal of empathy and support for the principles behind which the man stands. But the reality is that in today’s modern media age, Berry is not a man of the “prime time.” But if he stays true to his convictions and chooses to continue to espouse them, we’ll be hearing from him for a very long time. And who knows? He could get better.

Mike Wade, 3rd District Chair, also showed up to deliver the Gilmore campaign remarks. Immigration, taxes, the economy, the war, and the fact that we might lose a Republican Senator from Virginia will be a big loss. The issue that he addressed was Gilmore’s life stance.

Wade looked at pragmatism…stated that Roger and Brenda Pogge support Gilmore…stated that Gilmore signed every pro-life bill that came his desk…that a balanced budget was delivered by Gilmore every time…that Gilmore has won two state-wide elections (including wins in Northern Virginia).

From the Marshall campaign was fprmer Chespeake mayoral candidate, Frank Driscoll. Driscoll stated that Marshall wanted to be here, but that events in Richmond precluded his visit. He reiterated that Marshall was the one who filed the lawsuit against HRTA.

Also of interest, Del. John Cosgrove’s legislative aid, Christie Craig, advocated on behalf of Del. Jeff Frederick for party chair. Two other distinguished GOP members also spoke on Frederick’s behalf. In what was perhaps the surprise of the night…nobody advocated for Hager.

Finally, Pete Burkhimer has stated that he will be running for chairman of the local party to replace the retiring Del Quesinberry.

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