Now I don’t know Dave all that well. I do know that when it came time to find the new RPV Executive Director, I was happily ensconced with a pro-life group and very happy doing the job I was doing… though it was a tempting offer to make my way to Richmond.
Rexrode was by far the better choice for executive director.
One senior Republican compared Rexrode’s task to mucking out the Augean Stables — one of the Labors of Hercules. If there was the definition of a Herculean task after l’affaire Frederick, this was it.
RPV’s finances were in a shambles, confidence was low, the party split right down the middle, and everyone recoiling from the 2008 losses.
Enter Pat Mullins.
Enter Dave Rexrode.
Im 2009, fortunes reversed. In 2010, Republicans recaptured VA-05 and VA-02. Morgan Griffith held in VA-09. By 2011, Virginia Republicans reached parity in the Virginia Senate, sending long-time and long-rumored potential Democrat LG candidate Edd Houck into an early retirement.
While 2012 was no picnic for anyone across the country, the fact of the matter was that the Republican Party of Virginia was once again a healthy, robust organization capable of making its presence felt in elections and among the grassroots.
Much of that turnaround is the direct work of Dave Rexrode.
Now I’m quite certain that Rexrode is already plotting out his Caribbean cruise, or heading out to do some R&R in Europe or something. Dave has certainly earned it.
There are many even with State Central Committee who have no idea how bad things were at the Republican Party of Virginia in the wake of the Jeff Frederick era. That full story — perhaps — may never truly be told, nor does it deserve to in some respects for the utter shame the condition of the state party had become. Rexrode deftly turned what could have been a five year fight into a miraculous turnaround.
Enjoy the brief retirement, Dave. I’m sure we’ll see you in the trenches soon enough.
