Yesterday a good number of people received an email from J. Kenneth Klinge calling for RPV Chairman Jeff Frederick to resign in face of the results of this month’s elections.  Klinge gives his credentials in the email, but one should also note that in addition to supporting Wolf, Drake and Fimian in this year’s house elections, Klinge also contributed $250 to Democratic Virginia Senate Majority Leader Richard Saslaw.

UPDATE: Norm Leahy gives his take:

Virginia Republicans have, since 2001 but with a vengeance since 2004, gone out of their way to undermine their own cause. Yes, things have gotten better for them, at the margins at least, with the departure of people like John Chichester. But they remain ill-served with a leadership that has no agenda, with members who, generally, tend to wait until January to focus on the road ahead and an overall message that is neither coherent nor energizing (quick…what does the GOP hope to accomplish in the next session? One priority…just one…will do).

UPDATE 2: Klinge was Executive Director of the Republican Party of Virginia from 1973-1974 under Richard D. Obenshain.

Klinge’s letter is after the break.

Today, the Navy, announced based on a year-long Environmental Impact Study (EIS) their preference to homeport one aircraft carrier within the next five years in Mayport, Fla. vice in Hampton Roads.

The announcement elicited reaction from several of Virginia’s elected officials…

Gov. Tim Kaine:

“I note with disappointment the news today regarding the Secretary of the Navy’s preferred alternative for carrier homeporting. While the selected alternative moves one carrier and no additional support ships to Mayport, any such action, if approved and funded by Congress, would incur substantial costs for what appears to be a limited operational advantage. Considering the impacts of the financial crisis on federal, state, and local budgets, we question the wisdom and timing of an option that will cost the Navy an incredible amount of money and not significantly improve the nation’s security.

“Clearly the Navy and the nation’s needs are best served by maintaining Hampton Roads as the east Coast carrier base, co-located with the east Coast Master Jet Base at Oceana. Virginia will continue to offer substantive information in support of this fact during the comment period on the environmental impact statement. I will continue to work closely with Virginia’s Congressional delegation to keep all of Hampton Roads’ fleet in Virginia.”

Rep. Thelma Drake:

“I strongly disagree with the Navy’s decision today. Norfolk has served the Navy well as homeport to the East Coast carrier fleet. Our national debt is exploding and many defense priorities are unfunded. This is not the time for the Navy to spend what they estimate to be $500 million on duplicative infrastructure which President-Elect Obama has already said he is not inclined to support. Our commitment must be to the 313 ship Navy.”

Rep. J. Randy Forbes:

“In the midst of a ballooning budget deficit and a declining economy, every defense dollar should be spent on the most important national security priorities, including the Navy’s stated priorities of providing benefits to our soldiers, reaching a 313-ship Navy, and restoring the readiness in our aging aircraft fleet. Moving a carrier to Mayport will require a great deal of time and upwards of half a billion dollars. I am concerned that the decision made by the Navy today not only lacks strong national security rationale requiring the move, but brings into question the political nature of the decision making process, creating significant challenges for the Navy to meet its stated priorities.”

Michael Steele, chairman of GOPAC, on the heels of his announcement yesterday that he is running for RNC Chairman, held a conference call with bloggers this afternoon.

Steele stated that he is “sick and tired” of the “whining” in the Republican Party and that the party should quit pretending to be “Democrat-lite”.

“If I wanted to be a Democrat, having grown up in Washington DC and living for twenty years in the bluest of blue states of Maryland, I would have been,” said Steele. “We are the conservative party.”

Steele stated that being honest and open about the value of life and enterprise and entrepreneurship, while not being nasty, scowling, or pejorative, but relating to real life experiences, is key.

“Have fun, stop scowling, speak to the people, and be honest with how we’ll get there,” he said.

Steele was very critical of the last campaign, stating that the party had no message with a lack of direction. He stated the election was more a repudiation of the Republican Party, than it was support for liberalism.

He stated it was very important to hold President-elect Obama accountable and not allow him to have a free pass because of his race. He felt McCain did give Obama a “free pass” by not putting Obama’s judgment up to scrutiny for his twenty-year relationship with Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

“Bad policies don’t have color,” said Steele. “They’re just bad policies.”

Steele feels that while he is an African-American, that does not make him a better spokesperson to oppose Obama. He said he’d oppose Obama’s policies “because I’m an American.”

Steele praised Obama’s communication strategy, citing how Obama was able to connect people together in a way never seen before. He said that he will implement a new communications strategy at the GOP, which includes engaging bloggers regularly (such as today), having an open exchange of ideas from all parts of the GOP, and reaching out to new voters.

Jim Riley also posted at Virginia Virtucon and Leslie Carbone at her site.

Here is the entire conference call.

I could probably write a novel (or at least a pretty long post) on this subject, but just for kicks, here’s what I’m ruminating….

America became great under our founding principles. It was a haven for the free market, abundant in natural resources, and governed with limited intrusion or restrictions on the everyday lives of its citizens.

Sure, there were problems. The right to vote was infringed, an entire group of people were enslaved, and workers were under-paid and often worked in deplorable conditions.

But it still was a place where people wanted to come to live the American dream and escape even more deplorable economic and political conditions.

Yet something interesting happened as more and more people came to the United States — a progressive movement started which, in the process of making things “better”, gave more and more power to government and labor groups. So much so that the pendulum has swung well past a happy balance between freedom and big government.

That’s in the macro. Now let’s look at this at a state level.

Following the Civil War and Reconstruction, the north dominated in manufacturing and industry. This is where all the jobs were. The conditions in our large northern cities were such that business could thrive. Taxes and regulation were low. (While the South was largely under military rule, followed by a series of political machines).

Therefore, people gravitated to our large cities like Chicago, Detroit, New York, Cleveland, Philadelphia - in hopes of finding a job and a better life. But as more people came to the region, more progressive policies followed. Which has led to higher taxes, more regulation of business, increased social engineering, and, of course, big government. So much that our northern cities and regions are in decline.

After machine politics, southern realignment, northern decline (the rust belt), and increasing technology to improve shipping, production, and all-around business efficiency, the south began to emerge as a place to create jobs.

There are good universities. Right to work laws. Low taxes. Etc.

So, businesses and jobs began flowing into places like Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, Mississippi to augment the largely agrarian and textile-based industry that had been in decline.

However, as people who suffered high taxes and regulation from northern areas began coming to places like Virginia, they brought with them their politics as well…just as all immigrants have.

And, when politicians say that in order to do good, we can just give government just a little more power, folks who have seen anything but over-regulation and taxation don’t seem to mind so much, because it’s better than where they came from.

I don’t think it’s so much that people themselves are liberal, but I think it’s folks who have a liberal agenda follow the people with a do-good mentality. And, in the process, end up wrecking all the positive gains a region possessed when it was conservative to begin with.

So the bottom-line - conservatism does well, populations grow, liberal ideas come in, society declines. Therefore, in order for liberalism to survive, there must initially be conservatism.

For the cool price of $109, plus hotel fees ranging around $150 a night, bloggers from across Virginia can travel on their own nickel to Hot Springs and learn how to blog!

“New Media: Blogging, E Campaigns, Websites” is the name of a workshop scheduled at this year’s RPV advance. So far, I don’t know of any Virginia bloggers asked to be on the panel. Maybe they’ll tout their huge new media successes like this or this (those are the blogs that double their hits by refreshing the screen).

Some workshops may be canceled to make room for a huge Q & A session on the future of the GOP. (wonder what they’ll do with the workshop called “Growing your Unit”?).

But I’m curious who they’ve planned on teaching us about New Media, and what state they are hoping will tell us how it’s done. Virginians like JR, John Henke, Shaun Kenney, Jim Riley, Lynn Mitchell or Chris Green - and a host of others - don’t seem to have made the cut.

I hope they all can attend the advance to learn how to do this the RPV way.

The smart way to do a workshop about new media would be to comp Virginia Republican bloggers to attend and make it very easy for them to post all about the Advance, leading up to and during the event. Lord knows the mainstream media won’t do it, except to attack us.

We all have so much to learn, I guess.

Last night, Vivian Paige, Brian Kirwin, and myself participated in an “Election Dissection” in Virginia Beach, sponsored the Nimmo Republican Women’s Club.

The crowd, which included Del. Sal Iaquinto, RPVB Chair Kenny Golden, and Virginia Beach Progressive Blogger Joel McDonald, involved some spirited discussion on the part of all.

Topics we discussed included:

Consultants and Negative Campaigning
The future of the GOP
MSM
Social Marketing
Gov. Sarah Palin
Fulfilling campaign promises
Motivating conservatives and reaching out to minorities
New and minority voter turnout
and, of course, our thoughts on
What happened to bring about the result?

All in all, it was a fun and informative night.

Fox News is reporting that Chairman Terry McAuliffe has created an exploratory committee for the Democratic nod for governor. He will be starting a 60-day journey to decide whether or not he wants to run.

No word yet on whether Brian Moran or Creigh Deeds will assist Chairman McAuliffe with travel directions. My guess is only Deeds knows the way to “real Virginia.”

With the appointment of Rahm “fuck the Republicans” Emanuel as Obama’s chief of staff, Obama’s insults of Nancy Reagan (typo corrected), Democrats beginning talk of “bailing out” the three auto makers, the return of the Clinton-gang as chief economic advisers to the administration, liberal congressmen wanting to push less liberal Democrats off of committee chairs, all I have to say is:

“HOIST THE MAINSAIL”:

The new flag of the Republican minority.

For a good read on how to “Block the Liberal Agenda”, read Kimberly Strassel’s WSJ column.

Danae Jones-Aicher joins me tonight for Virginia Politics On-Demand.

Tonight’s show is a recap of the election, including everything from why Democrats did well, to what the Republicans need to do to rebuild, and a discussion on race in America. We also talk about what each of us expects from an Obama administration, and much more.

 

 VPOD: Danae and Jim recap the election. Nov. 6, 2008 [33:13m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (48)

To listen to any of the previous podcasts, click here.
To automatically download and sync VPOD with your MP3 player, use this feed.
Opening music “Highway Run” by the Charlie Wheeler Band available through Ariel Publicity.

One question coming up in the navel-gazing aftermath of Election Day is what can the Republican Party do to appeal to young voters?  As one person put it, Republicans are at the point that they risk losing an entire generation of voters.

The problem with Republicans is that the perception of young people toward the party is not a good one.

18-24 year olds have no memory of Reagan or the Cold War.  To them Republicans are the party of impeachment for a sexual act with an intern, George W. Bush and the War In Iraq.  None of them have been in the workforce long enough to experience a tax cut.  None of them have been paying attention long enough to remember a balanced budget (or give the credit to a Republican controlled Congress).

Republicans have done nothing positive in the last 16 or so years that is memorable enough that young voters can associate it with them.

What 18-24 year olds do know, though, and agree with, are Conservative values.  As has been pointed out time and time again, when Conservative values are on the ballot they win.  When Conservative candidates are on the ballot they win.

And, not a slight to the Social Conservatives, but I’m talking FISCAL Conservative values here.

Look at the popularity of South Park.  South Park is a Libertarian minded show, they mock both parties and a lot of social norms, but at its root the morals are Libertarian in value: the Government doesn’t get it, leave us alone.  That’s something kids can get behind and they do.

But we have not had a Conservative candidate come forward to excite them in a very long time other than, yes, RON PAUL.  Ron Paul was able to tap into that young excitement and fish for a lot of money and movement, but he wasn’t electable because he also failed to appeal higher up the food chain within the party.  Also he was crazy.

Republicans need to start rediscovering their Conservative roots. Their FISCAL Conservative roots.  Joe The Plumber was a popular ploy not because he hated “The Gays” or because he was pro-life but because he represented a fear of government intrusion into our pocketbooks. But he was a middle aged, middle class appeal that was too little too late.  Start talking Conservative values and putting them in terms young folks understand: education tax credits, tax cuts that put more money in their pockets to do with as they please, a government that is smaller and less intrusive in their lives - push the issues that not only matter to them but transcend age.

And show them that they have a voice and am impact.  Sure they make good foot soldiers, but also let their voices be heard.  Mobilize them not only to get the word out but to get the word in.  Right now the party is viewed as being run by crazy old men who don’t get it.  Young blood needs to be sought out, cultivated, and promoted.  But that only comes by finding the issues that matter and bring even these activists into the fold.

Too often young activists have been dismissed or used as ready volunteers and then abandoned post election.  The Party needs to be more open to them, needs to allow them a seat at the table, and needs to take them under wing to help cultivate a youth movement of its own.

Otherwise, yes, we do risk losing an entire generation of voters.

First of all, congratulations to Senator Obama and his 63 million + supporters. This race made history in ways that none before it has.

As a candidate and as a campaign, Obama displayed strengths that no national Democrat has in my lifetime. The Obama revolution - and so it may rightly be called - may be rivaled only by the Reagan revolution.

The “whys” of this election will be hyper-analyzed by pundits of much greater note than yours truly. I suspect they will fall into some major categories:

• After 8 years of an increasingly unpopular, wartime president and in a worsening economy, the generic Democratic candidate had a strong edge on the generic Republican candidate. McCain / Palin, as a ticket, brought together the potential for both independent and base appeal on multiple fronts - in combination, I’m not sure how the GOP could have done better.
• Obama was far better than a generic Democratic candidate. He is possessed of an intellect, imagination and personal magnetism that appears to far exceed that of the Democrat’s last two-term President (who was no slouch at least in the two latter categories). He raised money at unheard of rates and spent it equally freely, overwhelming cable TV, the internet, and every other reasonable venue with his face, logo, and tag lines (and the network coverage didn’t hurt him, either). Heck, this guy even advertised on video games. He kept his base and appealed to independents - tricky for a candidate of either party. Obama’s dynamism and his well-funded air war provided the cover on which to base his secret weapon: an unparalleled ground game. Like Mark Warner’s VA 2001 victory, Obama’s win was dependent on an ID / GOTV campaign that combined political technology with paid operatives and volunteers on the ground. The GOP did not come close to matching the Obama team in the air war or the ground war.

Result: President Obama, and a strong Democratic majority in the House and Senate.

But what is the Obama mandate?

It is not a policy mandate, for he tried very hard to avoid articulating any detailed policy proposals to the general public. In public, Sen. Obama spoke of lofty goals and broad objectives while presenting compelling personal narratives - his own and that of others.

His theme was

Hope

Change We Can Believe In

and a call to group achievement -

Yes, We Can!

It was a powerful message and, obviously, a winning one.

But, while it catapulted him to the White House, Obama’s message will serve as a two-edged sword for his administration - something his more seasoned advisers have long recognized. Obama himself has demonstrated a thoughtful understanding of his image - his carefully crafted public role, stating in his autobiography:

I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views.

Senator Obama’s governing problem is this: when people heard of hope, they heard their own hopes; their image of change imported their own ideas of what change should be; to the mantra of “Yes, we can!” they brought their own vision of the goal to be accomplished.

We can hardly be blamed for this individualistic interpretation of Obama’s words. He encouraged us to see his story through our own narratives and rarely did he cast a specific vision of his own for us.

This is why the Obama revolution, for all its superficial similarities, differs greatly from the Reagan revolution.

Obama’s mandate is one of personal magnetism.

Reagan had that, certainly, but he also had clearly articulated ideas, a vision for America, policy objectives and goals for the future. America knew what it was getting when it chose Reagan’s leadership.

Not so with President Obama. He is successful only to the extent that people personally like, trust and believe in him.

This will present a problem for him when he begins to govern based on his own ideas - or the Democratic Congress forces him to take a position on theirs (Employee Free Choice Act, Freedom of Choice Act, Fairness Doctrine, Bans on Offshore Drilling, Kyoto Protocol, Income Tax Increases, etc). The public is fickle.

When we all figure out that Obama is actually not a blank screen and all our hope of change cannot allow us each to achieve our personal vision of the future through him, there will be a price to pay for the new administration. And, should he fail to govern to the left, his activist base (ActBlue, MoveOn.org, etc.) will turn on him as quickly as they embraced him.

Clearly, this lack of definition to Obama’s policies presents an excellent opportunity for emerging Republican leaders to make their case to the American people. I hope Sarah Palin will be among those presenting such a conservative vision, along with our emerging Congressional leaders.

Fox News is projecting Mark Warner the winner of the U.S. Senate seat in Virginia. Congrats to our next Senator. And congrats to the Gilmore campaign on a hard-fought effort.

I know this will sound like sacrilege to my conservative compatriots, but I can think of worse senators than Webb and Warner.

We’ll live.

Check this post often today for updates, podcasts, and photos of today’s events as they unfold.

Please check back on Thursday for our post-election wrap-up podcast. To automatically download and sync “VPOD” with your MP3 player, use this feed. “Virginia Politics On-Demand” is recorded weekly.

The Results:

There is also the State Board of Elections Site

Updates:
6 p.m. - Coal turning to diamonds for McCain? Late word is that Pennsylvania voters are breaking to McCain on the coal issue.

5:17 p.m. - Military ballots to not be discarded, immediately, in Virginia

“We are pleased that the judge has ruled to preserve the ballots cast by our men and women in uniform currently serving overseas. This will help to ensure that local election officials do not destroy or dispose of these ballots before the court has had an opportunity to rule on our complaint. The McCain-Palin campaign strongly believes that no military ballot should be discarded as a result of a failure on the part of several counties and independent cities to mail ballots to service members in a timely manner. We believe without exception that the servicemen and women on the front lines protecting our freedoms deserve every opportunity to make sure their vote counts.” –Gail Gitcho, McCain-Palin spokesman

5 p.m. - Statement from Gov. Tim Kaine:

“Virginians are turning out in record numbers to vote in today’s historic Presidential election, despite the weather. The State Board of Elections is working closely with local election officials to make sure that voting runs smoothly, and we are confident that the problems that some precincts have encountered are being addressed promptly and resolved quickly.

“Those still waiting to vote should be aware that turnout is very heavy, but precinct volunteers are working hard to make the lines move as quickly as possible.

“Voters should remember that polls close at 7 p.m. and the hours will not be extended. However, all who arrive to vote by 7 p.m. will be allowed to vote notwithstanding the length of lines. We ask everyone to be patient and encourage voters to stay in line to participate in this historic event.”

4:47 p.m. - Politicking inside a Virginia Beach precinct?

4:00 p.m. - Rep. J. Randy Forbes shares his perspective on today.

Just got off the phone with Rick Fromberg of Glenn Nye for Congress. He’s feeling very good about the turnout and the response Nye is receiving at the polls.

2:40 p.m. - Had the chance to vote and caught up with two volunteers. My precinct is seeing heavy turnout, already close to the numbers voting in 2006 for Allen and Webb. I spoke with Jim Bailey, campaign manager for Rep. Randy Forbes, and he said that the high turnout is indicative of what is happening all across the district.

11:45 a.m. - Heading to vote. Saw Palin give her news conference after she cast her ballot in Alaska. She did fantastic. Wish we would have seen more of this during the campaign.

10:30 a.m. - Kenny Golden, chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia Beach, tells me that, for the most part, things are going well process-wise in Virginia Beach. Two irregularities did come up, such as one poll worker showing up drunk, which caused the poll to be delayed in opening, and about twenty-to-thirty state sample ballots being marked up by some Democratic volunteers.

All in all, turnout is very high at the beach. It took Golden more than two hours to vote, and that remains consistent through now.

In Northern Virginia, turnout is also very heavy.

8:50 a.m. - Update from Keith Fimian, candidate for congress in VA-11

8:00 a.m. -

A precinct in Chesapeake shows the interest in today’s election.

6:30 a.m. - My significant other went to vote before work. Line too long in this conservative precinct (we typically go 65-35 for the GOP). She’ll have to go later. Brian Kirwin also reported that more than 300 people are in line at his precinct in Virginia Beach.

Questions for today:
- How many people will be turned off by: long lines, the weather, weekend robo-calls?
- What is the most important issue influencing the vote?
- Will the election be over before midnight?

National Journal Poll
If you can spare a second, go check out the bloggers poll on National Journal On-Line for today’s predictions from 46 bloggers accross the country, including yours truly and our friend, Jon Henke, of Next Right.

Podcasts
Listen to our past podcasts with Jim Gilmore, Keith Fimian, Mark Ellmore, Thelma Drake, and more before you cast your ballot.

To automatically download and sync our podcast with your MP3 player, use this feed.

VOTE!

Sen. John McCain

The presidential election occurs at a pivotal moment. Our nation is fighting two wars abroad, suffers from the greatest global financial crisis since the Great Depression, and is facing a painful recession. I believe in the greatness of America. I believe in our capacity to prosper, and to be safer and remain a beacon of light on the global stage. But we cannot spend the next four years as we have spent much of the last eight: waiting for our luck to change. We have to act immediately. We have to fight for it….

Sen. Barack Obama

This is a defining moment in our history. We face the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression — 760,000 workers have lost their jobs this year. Businesses and families can’t get credit. Home values are falling, and pensions are disappearing. Wages are lower than they’ve been in a decade, at a time when the costs of health care and college have never been higher….