College Republicans Gone Crazy! Resignations, Censure & More!
By D.J. Spiker | Friday, December 10th, 2010 | PolicyIn the aftermath of the recent congressional elections, there’s been a sense of contentment among most party activists in the commonwealth as we prepare for the 2011 cycle and focus on retaking the State Senate (never any rest for the weary) We’ve taken the Governor’s mansion, kept LG and Attorney General, have great representation, swung to a majority congressional delegation with 2012 in the sight lines. Everyone must be pretty happy…right?
Cue the College Republicans (with emphasis added by yours truly):
Hello Everyone,
As a member of the CRFV Executive Board this year I have experienced all that the CRFV has to offer. Considering my interactions, I can honestly say that this offerings of this organization are minuscule at the best. After considering this information, I hereby advocate the complete abolition of the College Republican Federation of Virginia effective as of the next convention. As a principle sponsor of this organization’s Constitution I can accurately say that this organization accomplishes nothing and provides nothing more than a way for its members to enhance their personal resumes. This is not what a political organization should be about. We need to alleviate the RPV’s need to “babysit” us and completely disband as an auxiliary organization to the RPV. Our chapters can do more on their own than with the “guidance” of the CRFV (for reference please see the W&M CR’s operations record for the last 2 years). Please join me in voting for the abolition of the CRFV at our next convention in January and finally ridding our state chapters of this drain on their operations. Any questions on this motion can be directed at me directly at (540)-***-**** starting tomorrow at 10am.
In case you could not tell from this message, I hereby tender my resignation as Secretary of the CRFV. I hope that you all will join me in restoring sanity to the College Republican movement. Again, all questions should be directed at me directly.
Regards,
John Michael King
Ex-Secretary, CRFV
Brutal!
Provides nothing but padding of personal resumes? Calling for the abolition of the entire organization? Are these simply one man’s publication of his private concerns or an indication of something deeper?
Tonight, more trouble in the CRFV.
That resignation letter was sent Monday. With no action taken or announced after that letter, a formal complaint went out tonight to RPV executives regarding constitutional concerns. In it the ODU College Republican Chair calls for action regarding a half dozen constitutional violations and other ethical concerns.
In preparations for our upcoming annual convention and elections the executive board leadership of the CRFV has violated multiple articles of the constitution. When questioned by unit chairmen there has been resistance in trying to get the leadership to respond and comply with CRFV constitutional procedures. I’m requesting formal action be taken, including up to censure and temporary suspension of the CRFV, if these issues are not addressed within five business days.
Suspension? Censure? Oh my! All is clearly not well with the CRFV right now heading into their elections in January. While the CRFV helped coordinate volunteers with the congressional campaigns and apparently have been chartered new clubs, there’s some deep dissatisfaction amongst members of their leadership regarding communication at a minimum. Fellow BD contributor Josh St Louis has been coordinating with John Michael King (ex-Secretary above) and the current chair Lena Morrill for another article upcoming regarding these issues and some CRFV accomplishment.
In the meantime, the formal complaint letter below for your daily reading enjoyment and entertainment.
Chairman Pat Mullins
The Richard D. Obenshain Center
115 E. Grace Street
Richmond, VA 23219Dec 08, 2010
Notice of CRFV Constitutional and Ethical Violations
Chairman Mullins,
The College Republican Federation of Virginia held a constitutional convention this past summer. In preparations for our upcoming annual convention and elections the executive board leadership of the CRFV has violated multiple articles of the constitution. When questioned by unit chairmen there has been resistance in trying to get the leadership to respond and comply with CRFV constitutional procedures. I’m requesting formal action be taken, including up to censure and temporary suspension of the CRFV, if these issues are not addressed within five business days.
Specifically:
1. The Board did not determine the date and location of the Annual Convention at a Board meeting to have occurred before October 10, in violation of Article VIII, Section 2 (The Board shall determine the date and location of the annual Convention at a Board meeting to occur no later than October 10). Additionally, the Chairman did not appoint a Credentials Committee and a Committee on Standing Rules with committee membership subject to the approval of the Executive Board. An announcement was furnished from the Chairman to the Executive Board on December 1, 2010, fifty-two days late announcing a date and time without discussion by the Executive Board alleging a decision had been made over the summer.
2. Refusal to recharter existing clubs at the convention as stated in Article IV Section 6. (Each charter and rechartering is effective until the following annual Convention. When it must be renewed according to the procedures in Article VIII)
3. Minutes were not sent out to Club Chairmen from the constitutional convention, violation of Article V Section 6. (The secretary with keep the minutes of all Executive Board, Executive Committee, and Annual Convention meetings and send out copies via e-mail or certified main within ten (10) days of said meetings)
4. To date, the recent resignation of the Secretary this past Monday has not be announced nor has an election been scheduled. Such announcement is required within five days, an election via Executive Board meeting within fourteen days. The Executive Board meeting must be scheduled ten days in advance; with the Secretary resigning Monday evening the Executive Board is now again in violation of Article X, Sections 1, 3 and 4.
5. Have violated the oath of office to uphold this Constitution, a violation of Article V Section 8.
Ethical Violations
1. No Executive Board meeting or teleconference in over six months. The CRFV constitution does not call for a minimum number of leadership meetings, however given the crucial midterm congressional elections coordination and communication would have been mutually beneficial.
2. CRFV State Central representatives have not solicited/shared opinions or votes for State Central Committee motions, including most recent meeting regarding constitution or primary. Have not discussed or given explanation to Executive Board or Club Chairmen for their votes; had the meeting not been public with CRFV members in the room, no identification of the CRFV votes would have been known.
3. Multiple clubs have been chartered in the recent months without notice to Executive Board. Seven new clubs have been chartered and while not required for approval by the Executive Board, members of the Executive Board did not know these new clubs existed.
4. Congressional District appointments with no notification. Most recently the 3rd District representative was appointed without notification to the Executive Board. Again while not required, due to lack of communication the representative was questioned regarding his status.
I believe that you’d agree any constitution is to be taken seriously and the lack of communication creates opportunities that must be addressed. I’m requesting formal action be taken, including up to censure and temporary suspension against the CRFV Executive Board if these issues are not corrected within five business days. Any such suspension may be removed after proven compliance and correction of the issues contained herein.
I appreciate your time and assistance in correcting these unfortunate missteps. If you have any further questions you may reach me at 757-***-**** or via email at ****@odu.edu.
Respectfully,
Chris D’Ambra
Chairman – Old Dominion University College Republicans
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Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right...entrenched on the right as a member of the Establishment, proudly tattooed member of the Republican Party, bartender by trade serving both sides the libations needed to continue the debate and discourse. College student, ten years late, majoring in Public Policy and Administration with an eye to serving the conservative and Republican movement in the public or private sector. ducit amor patriae You can find D.J.on facebook, Twitter, or contact via email at gosport.conservative@gmail.com. You can find D.J.on facebook, Twitter, or contact via email at gosport.conservative@gmail.com.
Comments
54 Responses to "College Republicans Gone Crazy! Resignations, Censure & More!"
I agree with King, The CR should completely disband as an auxiliary organization to the RPV. The RPV takes the CR’s for granted and would they would get more done on their own. RPV is in need of REAL leadership.
The RPV has been taking the youth for granted for as long as I’ve been around. They see us as nothing but tools to do the grunt work.
The bit about padding resumes couldn’t be more spot on. Far too many people are involved for the sake of saying they’re involved; when it comes time to do real work they suddenly don’t have time.
The only thing about this that surprises me is that some in leadership roles are actually coming out and complaining about this publicly.
If you want to see how a real student organization should be run, check out Students for Liberty.
I walked away from the CRs over a year ago out of disgust.
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Nothing more than high school drama. Resume padding? Oh no! No one EVER has done that before in ANY organization. Miscommunication or lack thereof? Halt the presses! The questions I have involve the actions of Mr. Former Secretary in this matter. What are his motives for doing this? Did he make attempts at correcting the issues in house, or did someone do something that he didn’t like and this is him just whining. The same questions apply to Mr. ODU. There’s two sides to every coin, and I would positively adore to see the other. Finally Chris, I know precisely who you are and what you’ve done. You can’t walk out on something you never walked in on. You attended all of one meeting and then disappeared off the face of the Earth, so save your condescension for people who care.
Clearly you don’t know who I am, because if you did, you would know that for two years I chaired a CR chapter.
Mmmmmm, going to say last time I checked you were in the area of VCU and you certainly weren’t chairing anything around here. Annnnd if you were a chair, well then you didn’t get there by being surrounded by people who didn’t work with you, otherwise you would have never received the vote to maintain that position for two years. That being said, you had a considerable amount of influence on your personal CR experience. If it didn’t turn out to be a good one, well then I would have to say by all conventional logic, you were a part of your problem.
Umm… it’s finals time. Do you people have nothing better to do?
First: I have no idea who’s right or wrong in all this.
Second, this is a fact: College Republican organizations are useless resume-padders. Anyone who’s been paying a bit of attention knows that.
Third: the person who called this all high school drama had it right. Unfortunately, it looks like some kids haven’t grown up.
I’m going to go back to actually being a student now and maybe finish this paper.
As a recent college grad from a VA University many individuals in these organizations do a great service to the Republican cause.
However, most of these organizations have been reduced to glorifyed drinking clubs, hook up scenes, and resume add ons.
Grow up. Show some backbone and build a reputation as an individual in your community. Again, I have no gripe with the productive CR clubs that make a difference.
I don’t know about the vast majority of the CRs, but it’s finals season here at Catholic Law and I just wrapped up two this week, with a take home I still need to finish before next Thursday.
Does anybody else think it’s probably in the CR’s best interest to study and pass their exams rather than worry about an extracurricular activity?
Most of these charges can easily be explained away by folks not having enough time, and there’s nothing here that can’t be done over Christmas break when finals aren’t looming.
I guess this is Chris and John’s version of procrastinating. Maybe they should play Halo instead?
Who is the Chairman of the Cr’s? Does anyone know?
Being a former CR I can attest to the resume padding, but on the other hand CR’s do great things as well and is a proving ground for those who want to get into the political field. That being said, some things need to be cleared up.
Both Michael (Former CRFV Secretary) and Chris (ODU CR Chairman), need to actually understand the organization in which they (or used to) belong.
RPV has no authority whatsoever in this situation and CR’s are not an auxillary to RPV, never has and never will be, this is the same for YR’s and the Rep Women Clubs.
Therefore any correspondence requesting RPV to get involved in this situation is ignorant, irresponsible and inappropriate.
Each chartered club is under the CRFV. Each state federation is under the College Republican National Committee and only this organization, NOT RPV has authority to address this situation.
Both Michael and Chris do the CR’s a great disservice by not understanding the chain of command of their organization and also by airing its dirty laundry in public.
Warcraft Brian.. PWNED.
Break off from the RPV as an organ but work towards rebuilding republican values among student. Asking Pat Mullins to help is like training the fox to tend the chickens.. He can do it but he has his own establishment agenda.
I’m more than a but surprised at the apathy expressed about this. If RPV or the RNC violated their constitution multiple times we’d be outraged. We threw out Jeff Frederick for exactly that. But when it’s CRFV it’s just kids?
It’s important to note that two members of the Executve leadership in the CRFV expressed their discontent. ODU clearly states they’ve attempted to fix these issues and bring them to the attention and are continually rebuffed. I don’t blame them for going public, it sounds like some of these leaders shouldn’t have been elected innthe first place.
Those of you mentioning finals: leadership involves willing accepting responsibility. If you’re unable to meet those requirements, you shouldn’t serve. That seems to be the case here.
And no amount of finals explains 52 late violations, no meetings in six months, no email communication, etc.
I commend Chris and John for stepping forward and trying to fix the ship, putting the CRFV and elected Republicans before their resumes. Kudos.
Here is another example of mismanagement. JMK stood up for the Chapters while others would not. Here is an e-mail that was forwaded to me where he defends the CRFV Chapters:
I would like to address the unfounded personal attacks on me that were just made by Chairman Morrill. She states, “Former Secretary King did not fully perform his duties as secretary of the College Republican Federation of Virginia throughout his term. Because of this, the federation was not able to fully communicate and function in a professional and timely manner with member chapters and chairmen.”
First, the Chairman will be kind enough to remember that the duties of the Secretary are to maintain the Federation’s records and to receive and send all official correspondence of the Federation. I was prevented from performing these duties to their fullest extent by the fact that Chairman Morrill insisted on personally maintaining the Federation’s records and having all materials and correspondence sent to her directly. Anyone who rechartered this past year will remember that she had the chapters send their material to her at Sweet Brier rather than to me at William and Mary. The Chairman did not provide me with the Federation’s physical records (despite my numerous requests for them) until September of 2010, more than 10 months after this slate of Executive Officers had been elected. Due to her insistence that all correspondence and materials go through her, the only aspect of this position that I was able to perform was sending out the Federation’s emails (which I cleaned up grammatically from the ones she sent me).
Second, the Chairman will be kind enough to realize that performing the duties of Secretary requires being up to date on what the Federation is doing in all of its various operations. Unfortunately, the Chairman, 1st Vice Chairman, and 2nd Vice Chairman would go weeks or months at a time without any form of contact with me, even when I would try to get in contact with them. The response I so often heard was “I will be sending you an email on that soon”. Personally, however, I do not consider “soon” to be several weeks later. The only way that I was able to be at all informed about what was going on with the Federation was by staying in contact with the Political Director at the time, although that contact ceased as soon as that person moved up to 2nd Vice Chairman.
Third, the Chairman will be kind enough to remember that once this academic term began, she usurped my duties as Secretary and began sending all correspondence of the Federation leaving me essentially with nothing to do. This fact played a huge factor in my decision to resign.
Fourth, the Chairman will be kind enough to remember that the Secretary was never furnished with a list of the newly chartered chapters so as to inform the Federation or send the new chapters the required materials. This is in large part due to the fact that the Secretary was not included in the discussion of these new chapters that 2 current candidates for CRFV Executive Office were instrumental in chartering.
Fifth, the Chairman will be kind enough to remember that there were no minutes from the Constitutional Convention because the Constitution served as a record of what went on during the meeting. Additionally, she will be kind enough to remember that it was circulated late because I had a death in the family immediately following the Convention that prevented me from sending them out within 10 days.
Sixth, the Chairman will be kind enough to remember that the date that was set for the Annual Convention was a tentative date with the provision of re-evaluating once we all returned to school. The Board was not ever involved in this decision, and no date was finalized, so the information was never sent out.
Seventh, to re-address what the Chairman “addressed” in her reply, there has been no Executive Board meeting since 17 April 2010. This is almost 8 months without an Executive Board meeting, which is unacceptable and directly contributed to my decision to resign.
Eighth, the reason for the concerns over the chapters not being informed of the date or the new chapters is due to the fact that it gives one particular ticket (Rusnak/Horyn) an advantage over the other tickets because of their knowledge of the new chapters and thus their ability to reach out to them before the other candidates. Unfortunately this insider politics was not addressed in the Chairman’s email, although I believe everyone will agree that it should have been. December 20th would be fine, but only if Ms. Rusnak and Mr. Horyn were also kept in the dark on the information until that time.
In closing, I hope that this will make people realize just how broken the CRFV is. Additionally, I sincerely hope that the Chairman checks her facts next time before she makes a personal attack on someone trying to reform her broken organization.
It’s clear that the CR’s don’t have effective leaders.
Having skipped the entire CR scene and jumped straight into unit committee fistfights, does any of this sound anything different than the strum und drang of any other unit/district committee in Virginia?
Sounds like folks are getting on the job training…
Beyond that, other than airing out the dirty laundry and allowing sunlight to be the best disinfectant, I’m sure this will sort out with the appropriate grudges to be held for the next 40 years or so.
Again — nothing new under the sun.
This bruhaha looks like a lot of inside baseball to me. It looks like a distraction at best for RPV, which has better things to do. It looks like a few folks are maybe trying to make their problems into RPV’s problems, unwisely.
Wait, CR’s are a hook-up scene? I’m going to go join them again!
But seriously the CRFV is a joke, its petty politics. Do they even have over $1,000 in the bank?
I’d never join a club that would have me as a member.
Ryan, it’s not leadership. It’s college. The entire point of college is to earn a degree. It’s not to hook up, it’s not to burnish a political career, it’s not to be the BMOC. I learned that the hard way – at the end of the day, when it came to getting into grad school, law school and future jobs, no one gave a rat’s ass that I was Vice President for Judicial and Legislative Affairs for two terms of our Student Association, or that I was President of my Fraternity or Executive Vice President of the Interfraternity Council. They did care about my grades. They did care about the fact that I also worked while I was in school. The did care about the fact that I actually graduated.
This whole exchange sounds to me like there are a few too many folks in the CRFV that are taking the Republican part of CRs more seriously than they’re taking the College part. That’s a mistake.
All of these “constitutional violations” seem like the kind of pointless sea-lawyering that makes joining organizations like this tedious.
There are more important things in life than this nonsense.
J.M. Ripley please do not talk about things you do not understand. The CRFV is underneath and most certainly connected the RPV. It is in our constitution.
Also this is to all of those who say we need to be focusing more on college then politics. Who are the future of the political scene? Oh thats right, the students who will be graduating soon. If we can be successful in our school, then why can we not try to spread our conservative values to all students throughout the state.
Brian Schoeneman: I applaud you for honing in on the central message, why we went to college in the first place. Walking away with the degree in hand is the most important thing. Yes, volunteer if you have the time.
But College Student please do not accuse me or any of the other people here of not caring about the “future of the political scene”. Most if not all of us see this as a vocation not as a hobby and have dedicated our lives and careers to the Republican/Conservative Movement.
okay my friend you are the one who in your earlier post accused many of the college republican clubs of turning into a drinking, hook up opportunity. Also if you read my post earlier I did not accuse anyone of not caring about the future. I was speaking about how many of you, and I include you, think that we should be worried more about our school work then politics. You all make it sound like we cannot handle two things at once and that we are too immature to handle the political scene. Read all of the post and you will see where I am getting at before you reply to this. Thank you.
John Michael King is a self-serving weasel that seeks to stir up trouble where none exists in the first place. I have dealt with him in the past and I can guarantee you that he has been gunning for Lena and Lexy ever since the CRFV Executive Board passed him up for the vacant 2nd Vice Chairman position created when Willie Deutsch quit after being elected for about a month.
It frankly doesn’t surprise me that he is behind this non-sense. The whole William & Mary crowd has been pouting over in the corner ever since they fell out of the leadership ranks of CRFV a few years ago. Most in the CRFV and RPV just ignore this type of petty childish drama created by those who lose and have no other response beside whining and ranting about nothing of real substance. Its the petty politics and tit-for-tat back stabbing like this that makes others in RPV treat CRFV like the red-headed step child. Sounds to me like King is causing the same problem he decries.
The CRFV and Lena were instrumental in helping Morgan Griffith unseat Rick Boucher, they have helped in fundraisers, volunteer recruitment, providing assistance to chapters across the state, starting volunteer initiatives, and leveraging CR resources to maximize the support they could give to candidates.
As for the accusation about resume padding…sounds like someone is jealous they dont have a resume padder….
Josh St. Louis.(Local gop) As a writer for BD why are you not commenting under your own name?
@Tyler: That is not JSL it is Kyle McDaniel. Good luck from SW Va.
Hey, enough BS.. If you want to be looked upon as young adults, act like them. The deeper you dig to throw mud the more ground all of you lose. And the more publicly you shame and humiliate each other, the more ammo you give to your endearing liberal friends who will be waiting for you across the aisle..
The irony is that elected grownups do much of the same stupid crap you are doing to each other, but in a more sophisticated (private) way, and the result is the fine state of affairs we often find our party in and now find our country in. In 10 years go back and read the words above from Shaun Kenney. The man speaks from experience.. privately email him and LEARN FROM HIM. Put your egos aside, take the high road and work out your differences without telling the world how you did it until after you have peace and harmony from top to bottom. This is a prime learning experience too good not to miss out on.
I used to work at ODU and saw several students blow their grades over petty extracurriculars.. put this on the back burner enough to at least get a passing grade on your finals.
College Student, I also said in my first post I mentioned twice for support for the people and clubs that actually make a difference.
“many individuals in these organizations do a great service to the Republican cause.”
“Again, I have no gripe with the productive CR clubs that make a difference.”
I stand by those statements and have seen both the good and bad CR’s.
I just do not think that inside VA CR politics is the “political scene” and would rather time be spent on working on campaigns and in county republican committees than this stuff.
CS, I’m not saying you guys can’t handle more than two things at a time. The problem is that it’s never just two things – like I said, I was that kind of guy in college (which wasn’t that long ago, honestly) and I literally was juggling leadership positions in half a dozen groups at the same time, while going to school and working. Inevitably, school suffered at the expense of the rest of it. And, in the end, the only thing that really mattered was school.
This isn’t a question of maturity – I’ve seen plenty of older folks go crazy over chickenshit (and I use that word in it’s historical sense) that has little rational relation to the overall cause. We’ve spent hours in FCRC meetings where people have played parliamentary games because they think that’s fun. It’s not. It’s a waste of everyone’s time. If the biggest violations of the constitution are regarding missed deadlines, that’s not legitimate. And when you’ve got Ryan here arguing that the situation is analogous to the Jeff Frederick situation (not even close – no one here has broken any actual laws or run up a six figure debt) – it makes me think that the whole thing is overblown and the drama llama is following a bunch of people home.
Turbo is absolutely right. All of these issues are best resolved behind the scenes, and if you can’t resolve them, it’s not the end of the world. Bear down and focus on school because at the end of the day, that’s all that matters.
The deeper you dig to throw mud; the more ground all of you lose.
I like that.
This whole thing reeks of sour grapes and really games being played by the secretary and by Chairman D’Ambra and Tyler Spiers, a candidate for CRFV Chairman. Sounds to me Tyler is behind in the votes and taking up defensive tactics to blame a potential loss on if you ask me.
I have to agree with Shaun how is this any different that the crap that goes on in units from time to time. Sounds like some serious OJT if you ask me.
As for your complaints about the current CR leadership I do think results matter and our ability to say Congressman Griffith, Hurt, and Rigel speaks volumes to any of this negativity being spread.
Ok Brian I respect your response but maybe you should have cut back on the activities if your grades suffer. Some people can handle all of it. From what I have heard is that they have tried to settle this behind closed doors, but nothing is done. Also not following the constitution in hopes of favoring one candidate is pretty significant, especially when it is to only further their political career.
Lee what did the CRFV do for Regill? From what I have seen and heard from the Chairs at Regent, ODU and TCC the CRFV had little to no contact with these clubs or the Rigell camp. Please do not try to make it sound like the five executive committee members where a huge part of the other two’s success. Zach Martin did a better job then all of them with the call centers that he ran and the club (Liberty) he brought in to help these candidates.
CS, you’re absolutely right. I should have done that. I wish I had someone as smart and worldly as I am now giving me advice back then.
Like I said, this whole thing is an unnecessary drama fest, and I sincerely hope that everyone involved takes it down a notch and works things out in January.
Lee,
Right on. Lena’s leadership of the CRFV and that of the chapters directly resulted in the election of Robert Hurt, and Morgan Griffith.
College Student…
I have read your constitution, apparently you have not…since both of us are correct.
Article III. Affiliation
The Federation shall be affiliated with the College Republican National Committee and shall be subject to the governing documents of that body insofar as they affect and prescribe the functions of the Federation. The Federation shall also be affiliated with the Republican Party of Virginia and shall also be subject to the governing documents of that body insofar as they affect and prescribe the functions of the Federation.
What I stated is true. The CRFV is subject to the CRNC and RPV. But my argument is the same. Chairman Mullins does not have the authority to disband the CRVF. There is nothing in the Party Plan that gives him the authority to do so and to address this issue only to RPV and not the CRNC is inappropriate.
Also, blog under your own name…probably because you are Chris D’Ambra. If you are going to “play” in politics then you need to have thick-skin and a backbone.
That wasn’t Chris
This whole thing is a disgrace! What kind of example does this set for other CR youth and the future leaders of America? Republicans pride themselves with upholding the constitution to the highest standard, yet it’s for reasons like these that we get a bad name. Shouldn’t we, as the up and coming leaders of the party be able to set the example and show that when the rules are followed, the country will flourish? Granted, no one is free from flaws, and to be honest, I would even agree that some rules are made to be broken, however it seems clear from the samples stated in this letter that there was malice intent behind the decisions made by some of the CRFV and that’s completely unacceptable.
I do not ever get on this but Mr. Ripley needs some help. Here is the newly ratified Constitution as of April.
Article III:
The Federation shall be affiliated with the Republican Party of Virginia and shall operate as an auxiliary organization to that body and its governing documents insofar as they affect and prescribe the functions of the Federation. The Federation shall also be affiliated with the College Republican National Committee and shall operate as an auxiliary organization to that body and its governing documents insofar as they affect and prescribe the functions of the Federation and do not conflict with the Republican Party of Virginia’s directives.
Every time I open this thread its like I hacked into a private blog for crfv. I am losing respect for some of you kids every time you air out your laundry here.
Completely agree with Turbo. It is inappropriate to take an internal private dispute public in an attempt to one up your opponents.
I definitely have to agree with that. Public pi#$ing matches only end up getting everyone all wet.
To reply to what Kyle McDaniel said earlier.
Mr. McDaniel has a lot of guts to come on here and accuse me of trying to serve myself in this matter considering his past. I agree with Turbo’s most recent post, however, and will not air out those details on this site. Anyone interested in them can contact me directly at jking@email.wm.edu and I will gladly send you everything I have about Kyle from when he last ran for CRFV office and dropped out after an ethics challenge. Such an upstanding you gentleman…
Additionally, he is completely misguided in trying to implicate the William & Mary chapter in all of this. The chapter honestly could care less about the CRFV because the CRFV has never done anything to support the chapter. Despite this lack of support (or, more likely, because of it) our chapter has been the among most active in the state since 2008, and many would argue that we have been THE most active. Mr. McDaniel will be kind enough to recognize that our burst of activity occurred after this “ousting from power” that he refers to, and he will also be kind enough to remember that a William & Mary student has sat as a CRFV Executive Officer since spring of 2009.
Do not say, sir, that my actions are in any way tied to our chapter. They are not. I acted on my own accord without consulting anyone from our chapter because again, they couldn’t care less about this crap. And that is the point to which I am getting as well.
Additionally, I find it very hard to believe that anything the CRFV did directly contributed to Morgan Griffith (or Robert Hurt, as David Skiles so eloquently implied) winning their seats. From my recollection, the only thing the CRFV accomplished during the campaign season was petty bickering and a beach trip. I will acknowledge that support was given to Scott Rigell on that trip. However, unless I was left out of the loop on some massive outpouring of CRFV effort and “resources”, this is hardly an impressive resume for a state political organization (but then again, it would not be the first time the Secretary of the organization was left completely out of the loop…).
And this is not to mention the pathetic state of the CRFV’s finances. I will attribute this largely, if not entirely, to past mismanagement of funds and to Chairman Morrill’s general incompetency as a fundraiser.
Mr. McDaniel should take the advice that I gave his good friend, Chairman Morrill, and check his facts next time before he makes a personal attack on someone.
More distorted mud slinging I see John Michael….I guess the shoe does fit. First you take to the blogs attacking Chairman Morrill and the current CRFV trying to play games and score political points. Then when there is blow back for the VAST majority of commentors saying that internal private disputes should never be taken public for political points, you attack those commentors by slinging even more mud. Will you ever learn?
It would be very beneficial of you to take the advice of Turbo, James Hawkins, and Lee Talley when they note how childish it makes you and by defacto the CRFV look.
Anyone that agrees with Mr. Talley is just proving how incompetent they are.
Dear John, Knock it off.
This is NOT the venue to fling poo or to throw it in the mud hole of your opponent. All of you are embarassing yourselves and feeding G2 to the democrats who closely follow this site and wallow in the same behaviour.
Look into the future and ask yourselves if you want this page to be online when your own college age kid can read it. And while you are looking into the future, look back and ask yourself if engaging in this way is the way forward. You know the answer and need not reply.
With all due respects, if I was the admin of this site I would send a friendly pm to you young people and put all of you in time out until after finals if this self disgracing public airing of grievances continues because education is far more important at this time in your lives. We have too much at stake in this state and our country to sit back and watch what could become the next generation of leadership make the same mistakes that some from our present generation continue to make.
Don’t feed your elephant meat to the donkey..
Take the high road and listen to your inner voice.
Well, all I did was go to the CRFV’s website on Saturday and pasted the supporting article. Well, I guess the leadership of that organization is in disarray, when the website hasn’t been updated since April. Apologies gentlemen, only based my opinion on what I read on your website.
Also, though, you do are affiliated with the CRNC, which would be the more natural relationship and they too should be made aware of this situation. Enough said…I am starting to have flashbacks to my CR days in the mid 90′s.
Dear Turbo,
I am done with finals and have been since Wednesday. I put academics far ahead of this pathetic organization because I have no future plans or aspirations in the political world. There is simply not enough integrity (or money) in it for me.
The only way we will be giving the Democrats more fire is if we continue under the pi$$-poor leadership that has been shown by the CRFV and those in the RPV who work most closely with them for the last several years. It is a defunct organization and its stench is beginning to work its way up into the rest of the party structure.
That is why I am doing what I am doing.
As to what Mr. McDaniel said about me trying to score “political points”, it is simply not true. I DO NOT WANT A CAREER IN POLITICS AND I AM NOT EVER GOING TO BE LOOKING FOR A JOB WITH A POLITICAL PARTY. I could honestly care less how the people in the CRFV and RPV feel about me. Do you really think I would be calling them all out if I wanted a future there? No. I want to see a real change take place in those organizations and I am just trying to serve as the catalyst for it.
Hope that clarifies my intentions and makes people realize that I am not just “airing dirty laundry” or on a personal vendetta against the CRFV leadership. I simply want to see real change.
Also, Kyle, please have the balls to comment under your own name. Quivering in the corner behind “local gop” is not flattering. Just a suggestion.
JMK,
It’s called a handle (and I’ve been using this one on dozens of blogs for more than a year), get over it and yourself. Your blood lust is really getting out of hand and all the emails you keep sending me are as well. You are making yourself look foolish and not helping anyone or your cause. You are further alienating supporters from your grand schemes and giving people a real insight into your motives and intent.
And just FYI….scoring political points is not restricted to those who seek a political career. It is a common phrase used in many, many different areas such as social and business settings. Just as the word ‘politics’ is not limited to public office and political parties. But, like you said “maybe they forgot to teach me comprehension at George Mason. Wouldn’t surprise [you]…” Such a class act.
As I said earlier, don’t take my word for it. Take the advice of those on here who call for you to cease the political (yes we all know you don’t want a career in politics) mud slinging and calm down before you really shoot yourself in the foot.
“Yo Momma..”
Enough, Knock it off guys.
Last I heard, the point of CRFV and CRs in general was more or less to campaign and discuss conservatism on campus. Instead, I’m seeing four or five immature, egotistical kids who think being a part of a political organization is just some sort of meal ticket to privilege and entitlement. These swine don’t know the value of hard work or of true conservatism, and I hope they all fail in their future endeavors, especially so that none of us are subject to their petty, megalomaniacal governance.
Every organization to which I have ever belonged has, at some point, been “soft” in following its own constitution. That is the nature of the beast. Occasionally, people willfully violate their constitutions, and they should be punished. Almost all the time, however, people are simply unaware of bizarre restrictions contained in organizational constitutions, or they have different interpretations. Effective organizations minimize the use of prohibitions or regulations in their constitutions and allow for more flexible decision making, while preserving the rights of members. From what I have hard and what I am reading, the CRFV could probably take a page from this book and allow its internal structure to make decisions more quickly.
At worst, it sounds like someone in CRFV just forgot a deadline. For their sakes, I hope these five complainers do not forget anything, lest there be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Most CRs I have ever met are good kids who believe in the conservative cause and campaign for Republicans. It’s a shame they have to be lumped in with the likes of John Michael King, Tyler Spires, Kyle McDaniel and Chris D’Ambra and any other self-important egoists posting on this board.
Dear bloggers,
I have remained quiet and distant from this blog and I have refused to make any official comments in regards to the CRFV. However, at this time I would simply like to say a few things and then I will hopefully not comment ever again.
I think we all need to take a serious step back and consider the advice of some of the elders and experienced Republicans in this blog. We should try our best to handle this in the most democratic way possible. The election!
I hope that I am not drug into any war over this comment and to do so I will try my best to remain positive.
Today, we dislike Democrats, we complain about Obama, we complain about liberals or RINO’s. However, we cannot change anything until an election. We all know this to be true. The same dilemma we are faced with now. For those soon to be chartered College Republican clubs who will be sending delegates to the annual convention. The convention takes place at RPV on January 29th. I hope you will charter and be there.
Many of us see problems from different perspectives with CRFV/CR and whatever else you have problems with. However, please do not make damaging comments especially if you are not accurately informed. I am happy that my name has only been mentioned once by “College Student” and it was a positive post. Thank you for that by the way.
To continue…
Until the election we need to manage ourselves and increase our knowledge. When the time comes, vote in the election for the leadership style that fits your preference. Read up on your candidates, email them and ask questions do not slander anyone. Not Lexy, Tyler or myself.
As someone/anonymous wisely said “there are always two sides to a coin” so please be sure you have your facts as straight as possible. If you have any questions for me, please email me. I will be happy to answer anything you ask to the best of my abilities. Zachary.L.Martin@gmail.com
To the comments on the purpose of College:
We need to manage our lives the best we can. We need to do several things
A. Get our Degrees.
B. Pursue our respective careers.
C. Take advantage of opportunities that God puts in our paths.
D. Do these things wisely taking the counsel of the experienced leaders.
RNC, CRNC, RPV, and CRFV along with all the chapters are very important in my humble opinion. However, these organizations are only useful with leadership and members that understand true leadership. With ineffective leaders who are not able to obtain followers we have situations/disgruntlement and dissatisfaction. By the time you realize what is causing problems it is too late. Here we are today, different sides throwing sand, throwing around the constitution. Very few of us are providing solutions, and even less are getting involved with the election. Yet many are complaining! This does not make sense. We get mad at Voters for the same thing every election!
Maxell in his book titled “Developing the leader within you” quoted James C. George of the Par-Training Corporation in his statement from an interview on what the definition of leadership was to him. The answer was “leadership is the ability to obtain followers”. Working backwards the answer later becomes “influence”. Look for this ability in your candidates. Look for a leader who produces results, follows the rules, leads by example and has character. If you cannot find any of these in the candidates then I would say perhaps you should run if you posses such qualities.
On another subject.
RPV’s role? Yes, many of you are correct they do not have any direct control over CRFV. However, are job is to get Republicans elected and RPV is full of people who have been doing this way longer than we have. Therefore it is wise to listen to their advice.
Should RPV handle all of the CRFV problems? I understand that emails were not answered and problems were not dealt with so many assumed running to RPV would fix the problem. The logic being that perhaps they would feel our pain and offer advice from experiences. Unfortunately, we now have different CR’s finding their allies in the RPV and asking them to take sides. This COULD create problems for RPV as well. This side picking for arguments does not get Republicans elected. Democrats are raising money and working as hard as they can to face Republicans in the 2011 November elections. We need to prepare to campaign against the enemy, not fight online amongst ourselves. Do your best to follow the rules that are being followed by CRFV and VOTE!
How to be involved and not sacrifice everything?
When I first started in the College Republicans I immediately went to people I respected, Professors, Deans, Party leaders, and other student leaders. Taking their advice has allowed me to be active and in leadership with College Republicans at Liberty University as former 2nd Vice, 1st Vice and now Chairman. I am also the Vice President for the Frederick Douglass Foundation student Chapter. I am a SGA Senator, and I have been involved with Concerned Women for America (CWA) and Pro Life clubs on campus. On top of this I also assist in voter registration drives at Liberty and partnering with different parties we registered over 2500 students to vote last year. All of this was difficult and came with sacrifices. Thankfully, none of my sacrifices were devastating. However, I had to be careful and work extra hard to avoid as many mud slings as possible as they are time wasters.
Brain is correct that being involved too much can hurt your grades and cost you dearly. You have to balance your involvement with your mandatory activities.
One of you mentioned that some of us are more capable then others, this is true. However pride comes before a fall and I would suggest we all be respectful and checks our footing.
Lastly, I want to encourage you all to consider your own life, consider your short comings and faults. It is easy to see that everyone has them because few if any of you have not been picked on or accused of something in this blog. I respect each of you as fellow Americans, Republicans and hopefully as Brothers and Sisters in Christ. I pray that we can all allow this blog to go silent. Focus on being informed and voting your principles/values and preferences on January 29th.
Lastly, if you did not already know I am running for Chairman of the College Republican Federation of Virginia. I do so humbly and respectfully with great determination. My candidacy will be positive to the best of my abilities. Should I prevail I can promise you the same thing I have given to Liberty Cr’s, “Commitment to Principled Results”.
My ticket consists of myself for Chairman, Tyler Spires (ODU) joined my ticket (by his choice) as 1st Vice Chairman and Tony Cavicchi (PHC) 2nd Vice Chairman. My ticket did not field anyone for Treasury or Secretary because we endorse Chelsea Morin from GMU and Mary Martha Scott from UVR for their respective positions. I have spoken with both of them and believe we can work together should my ticket prevail.
As I said previously my reason for commenting is to encourage action, not complaining. I would not be running if I did not see problems with the past and present CRFV leadership; however I will not begin to bash these fellow Republicans on the internet for every person to see.
Sincerely, respectfully
God Bless and Happy New Year!
Zach Martin
B.S. Study of Business Management, Politics and Policy.
Chairman College Republicans at Liberty University
Vice President The Frederick Douglass Foundation Student Chapter.
Student Government Senator
Candidate for CRFV Chairman.
Its a bit long but you are off to a good start of the new year..
Nice work Zach
I apologize for the length. I was hoping to cover a lot of ground in one comment.
Happy New Year!
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