Get Book

Buehler vs. Bentz in the 2nd Congressional District

Knute Buehler is doing to Cliff Bentz precisely what he did to me in the 2018 gubernatorial race. He’s lying and distorting, going scorched-earth. It’s who Buehler is…and nominating him would be a disaster for conservatives. Here’s the story from 2018. Our state-ORP/RINO contingent gets tired of me talking about it, but their annoyance doesn’t make it untrue: https://www.makeoregongreatagain.com/book/rulingclass/

Some Words of Reassurance

Some words of reassurance, passed on to me from Carol Leek:
“The reports are that the truckers are getting supplies to the stores. People are stocking the shelves all night and letting old people shop first. Carnival Cruise line told Trump “We can match those big Navy Hospital ships with some fully staffed cruise ships.” GM said hold our cars and watch this; we can make those ventilators where we were making cars starting next week. Women and children are making homemade masks and handing out snacks to truckers. Restaurants and schools said, We’ve got kitchens and staff; we can feed kids.” Churches are holding on-line services and taking care of their members and community. NBA basketball players said, “Hold our basketballs while we write checks to pay the arena staff.” Construction companies said, “Here are some masks for the medical staff and doctors.” Breweries are making sanitizer out of the left-over ingredients. We thought we couldn’t live without Baseball, NASCAR, NBA or going to the beach, restaurants or a bar. Instead, we’re trying to keep those businesses open by ordering take-out and gift certificates. And many are making a difference by just being still, a virtue thought to be lost.
“What communist China didn’t count on was America saying “Hey, hold my drink and watch this.”
“I think a Japanese Admiral in the middle of the Pacific said it best in 1941, “I think we have awakened a sleeping giant.”
“Give us a few more weeks (maybe months) and we will be doing much better! And stop listening to the hysterical media!!
“Sharing this from another FB friend. The best post I’ve seen this year!
“We have a wonderful country
“I know we will be ok .🇺🇸🙏🏻🙌🏻🙏🏻🇺🇸
#unitedwestand
#merica

 

“Have a great day!”

Carol

For the Record: Last Weekend’s Full Exchange Between Chris Barreto and Me

To SCC members: Pati Horton publicly asked about last weekend’s SCC list-serve exchange between Chris Barreto and me. She didn’t receive it. My guess is that some other members are asking about it too, not having received the original letters Becky and I posted (because of ongoing problems with the SCC database accuracy). So, for those curious folks, here is the summary all in one place. The two posts added together here are long but, I think, quite revealing. I have not redacted a single word. Read from the top down. It’s in three parts, headings noted in bold type. This is worth a careful read….

  1. Chris’s message to the SCC (Sunday morning March 15th)
  2. My Response (Sunday evening, March 15th)
  3. Included as an appendix to the end of my Response, #2 above, my original private letter to Chris (Friday March 13th

1. In her SCC message Sunday morning the 15th, Chris said: 

“Friday I received an email from Sam Carpenter regarding the upcoming NCW and NCM elections. Sam asked that I not share his actual email, and while I did not agree to keep it confidential, I will respect his request at this point in time. But I find his points too disturbing not to share.”

“In his email, Mr. Carpenter feigns support for my campaign, even claiming to have asked Marylin Shannon to step aside, and asks for my help in unseating Solomon Yue as our NCM.

“The email makes it clear that Sam is using John Lee in an attempt to dismantle ORP leadership, and John Lee’s communications with the SCC, using Carpenter’s own talking points, makes it equally clear that John is a willing participant in Sam’s scheme to divide the Oregon Republican party. This greatly disappoints me as I have always considered John a friend.

“Interestingly, Mr. Carpenter went on to say that if he is not elected, he has no interest in joining with the ORP to work toward electing Republicans in Oregon, even declaring that immediately following the election he will be returning home to Kentucky, regardless of the outcome of the election. Clearly, Sam has no interest in forwarding the mission of the ORP, but only seeks to tear down its leadership, hamstring its candidates, and sow division among its voters.

“Let me be clear, Solomon Yue has my full support as Oregon’s National Committeeman.  Without him these fundraising events would not have been possible.” -Chris Barreto

2. Here was my SCC response to Chris’s accusations, Sunday evening the 15th:

“To SCC members: Chris Barreto has horribly distorted the personal letter I sent her, the one she critiqued publicly in her SCC message-blast this afternoon. Her interpretation centred around, quite simply, lies and distortions. The treachery begins in her first lines where she says “I will respect Sam’s privacy,” but then she goes on to publicly twist everything I said. I trusted her to be professional. My mistake.”

“(But before you go on with this letter, and by all means you should do that, read the following carefully: Chris’s diatribe against me here is an October Surprise-type political distraction. It comes in the face of the upcoming National Committeeman and National Committeewoman elections that are now just days away. For sure, take the time here to examine her accusations and my defense (below), but don’t let this bickering distract you from what really matters: the HUGE AND VERY REAL problem right now is that the Executive Committee, headed up by Solomon Yue, is attempting to ram through the NCM and NCW elections this coming Saturday with the outcome nearly guaranteed in Solomon Yue’s favor. This is because of how the election is being conducted. This election MUST be postponed, as I described in a previous message to you earlier this evening).

“OK.  Let’s get back to Chris Barreto’s accusations against me:

“Of course Chris didn’t publish my “let’s try to build a bridge” letter! It would have made her interpretations look paranoid and silly. So, I’m publishing that letter right here, at the bottom of this email. (Chris’s “whistleblowing” is right out of the Democrat personal-attack playbook, horribly distorting a hidden, private document that was not at all diabolical, eg, think the Trump Ukraine phone call manuscript which Trump surprisingly published, thus completely disarming his attackers. So, very Trumpish of me, I’ll do the same here. The unredacted letter is below). Our SCC members can review it for themselves as a whole, and for detail, and can draw their own conclusions about me and about my intentions. (Note to Chris: You should have simply talked to me, as I suggested. I had made several attempts to talk to you, contacting you by email, inviting you and Greg to our home as guests, but you did not respond.)

“I’n my defense, here are “open-letter” responses to some of Chris’s accusations:

“Chris said: received an email from Sam Carpenter regarding the upcoming NCW and NCM elections. Sam asked that I not share his actual email, and while I did not agree to keep it confidential, I will respect his request at this point in time. But I find his points too disturbing not to share.
————–Chris: the points were only ‘disturbing’ to you because you twisted them terribly, turning what was clearly a letter of reconciliation/unification into a vicious personal attack on me. (again, SCC members, the letter is reprinted in its entirety, below. See what you think.).

“Chris said: In his email, Mr. Carpenter feigns support for my campaign, even claiming to have asked Marylin Shannon to step aside, and asks for my help in unseating Solomon Yue as our NCM.
————- I did not ‘feign’ support to you as Committeewoman. I thought you had done a good job and I said it. I meant it. In an effort to unify the party I even asked you if Greg would be interested in being ORP Chair should that position become available. (I was just curious. No, obviously I am not in any kind of a position to make that happen, as a future National Committeeman, or from the outside.)  Marylin and I go back and forth frequently. Yes, as one of many options and topics on the table, at one point I offhandedly asked Marylin her thoughts about stepping down. She specifically told me she would NOT step down. Chris, you owe Marylin an apology. You were just being mean. She deserves better.

“Chris said: The email makes it clear that Sam is using John Lee in an attempt to dismantle ORP leadership, and John Lee’s communications with the SCC, using Carpenter’s own talking points, makes it equally clear that John is a willing participant in Sam’s scheme to divide the Oregon Republican party. This greatly disappoints me as I have always considered John a friend.
———–No one ‘uses’ John Lee! John is his own man and will make a superb National Committeeman if the election goes his way. John is a “willing participant?” Good grief. As I said, no one tells John what to do or can manipulate him. You owe John an apology too. You demean people personally, Chris. For the record, John and I are both CEO’s and entrepreneurs, and have been friends for many years. Yes, we DO understand each other. Re sharing common “talking points”: The majority of SCC members have these same precise “talking points,” talking points that have to do with the utter failure of the state ORP to accomplish anything meaningful.

“Chris said: Interestingly, Mr. Carpenter went on to say that if he is not elected, he has no interest in joining with the ORP to work toward electing Republicans in Oregon.
——-I NEVER said that! Read the letter (below)! I clearly said that if I was not elected I would not serve on the EC, and that is true and that is all I said! If you and I had talked, I would have explained to you that I am not at my best on a committee (although I have served on many.) Truth is, I’m a CEO; much better at leading a group rather than sitting around a table and jawboning. Call that a character flaw if you want. And Chris, you say I’m “not interested” in electing Republicans? You say that considering everything I’ve done to recruit candidates in the last six months? In 2020 Oregon would again have had 25% House seats without Rewpublican candidates, as it did in 2018, if it weren’t for my relentless efforts online and otherwise. Diana and I worked our butts off, and Oregon ended up at an uncontested level of 10%  Wow! I’ve worked damn hard for six years to elect conservative Republicans and everyone knows it. Chris, this was a treacherous accusation and, really, should be embarrassing for you. Regarding Solomon Yue, yes he needs to, in my opinion, be sent packing. But I did NOT attempt to enlist you in defeating him. Read the letter! As I said above: your tirade is composed of lies and distortion, but I’ll add this here, too: your character assination is standard fare for the Left and your demonstration of it here is another good reason we need an EC regime change. And one more thing, you’re suggesting I “join the ORP” as it is? The current ORP EC has been a disaster on every level (except for some feeble fund-raisers), and everyone knows it. Leadership has to change dramatically if this state is to be saved, and if I am in the position to encourage that change, I’m very comfortable doing that. In fact, it’s my sweet-spot: fixing broken organizations. (And God knows that in a failing organization, the big changes must occur at the very top).

“Chris said: ..even declaring that immediately following the election he will be returning home to Kentucky, regardless of the outcome of the election.
——-Chris, I said in the letter (that I assumed was just between you and me), that Diana and I would be returning to our second home in Kentucky “for a while…right after the election.” We’ll be there for a short time. Diana’s elderly mother and daughter live there. Most people who know us realize that we go back and forth. So what? And for crying out loud, Chris. Diana and I cordially invited you and Greg to be our house guests before we left…

“Chris said: Clearly, Sam has no interest in forwarding the mission of the ORP, but only seeks to tear down its leadership, hamstring its candidates, and sow division among its voters.
——–WOW! SCC members, read my letter carefully, as a whole, and make up your own minds. Everything the OPR brass has thrown at me has been under the single assumption that “Sam is a really bad guy.” But, truth is, there is no evidence of that, and everything I’ve done or said (including the letter below that, as I said, you can read for yourself), supports the opposite interpretation…”

3. Original private letter from me to Chris, Friday the 13th. I had previously emailed Chris several times to chat. (She did not respond.)

Friday March 13, 2020
Off the record…

Chris: I’m writing this off-the-record and am specifically asking you to not share this with anyone except, of course, Greg.

Here’s what I’ve been trying to talk to you about: first, that I support you for National Committeewoman over Marylin. Clearly you are the passionate, hard-worker the ORP needs. (I’ve talked to Marylin, asking her to withdraw, but do not yet have her commitment). Truth is, I think you should be Chair, but I also understand you can’t hold both positions. So, my second point is this: Would Greg consider being ORP Chair? No question, he would provide the sorely missing leadership our Party needs to revive itself and to powerfully come together to change Oregon.

I think John is going to win the Committeeman seat, and if that does happen, my bet is that Bill Currier and Jeff Grossman will step down. And when Solomon Yue loses, he should step down immediately too. It’s what happened in New Hampshire a short time ago when the grassroots took control. (https://www.foxnews.com/politics/democracy-2020-digest-longtime-rnc-committee-member-new-hampshire-ousted-by-grassroots?fbclid=IwAR3WLrpmY7s033_c86wUUCDW4HcJZwhGCb3dN_0M1whJNc-zD94mscwBars)

If I don’t win the National Committeeman position, I do NOT want to be on the EC or be involved with internal ORP affairs. My immediate aim has been to remove Solomon Yue and his key lieutenants; for once and for all to give our Party a chance to unite and thus become a power for change.

We have SO much information about what Yue has done to wield his power and finance his lifestyle, that I am certain he can’t survive the election. Those sordid details will be sent out over the next seven days. (He should probably retire to minimize his embarrassment.)

So, with John as the new National Committeeman, and with the other near-inevitable personnel changes mentioned above, I much prefer to step away and continue to blog (or not…) while the EC makes its own way. However I am willing to help in whatever way I can to contribute to rebuilding the party (I have a giant mailing list of passionate followers, my tech guys can quickly straighten out the significant technical problems on the website and in Facebook, etc.).

And of course, if we could drop our defenses and work together it would quickly lead to the unification of the party we’ve all wanted.

If you want to chat about this more, Diana and I can come visit you in Salem. Or, you and Greg can come stay with us overnight in our home in Bend. OR we can just talk by phone. But after the SCC meeting, no matter the outcome, we’re  heading to our second home in Kentucky for a while. We’ll head out just after the meeting.

Again, Chris, PLEASE don’t share this message with anyone but Greg. Thanks.

Respectfully.

-sam

Let’s Not Get Railroaded: Postpone the Election

Let’s preface the following with Ockham’s Law: “The Simplest Solution is Invariably the Correct Solution.”

Most of you know​ by ​now that ​ Saturday’s Republican Party State Central Committee gathering has been canceled by Chairman Bill Currier. (Or maybe you don’t know. Some Delegates have​ ​not been notified yet.)

But instead of postponing the meeting altogether, Chair Currier has decided to extract the most important part of it – the National Committeeman and National Committeewoman elections – and to conduct them “electronically,” this coming Saturday, the 21st.

Currier’s decision was unilateral. He didn’t formally consult the Executive Committee, or the County Chairs, or the Delegates…or the candidates.

Oh, I suppose maybe the ORP Bylaws allow him to get away with that. But his dictate sure annoyed a lot of people, to the point where in the last 24 hours, more than once, I’ve heard the words “recall Currier for this!”

If this election were to have proceeded as originally planned, our informal vote tally shows that Solomon Yue would NOT have been reelected National Committeeman. So, knowing that – and the history of the EC’s manipulations –  some leadership-level grassroots Republicans have been wondering exactly what the inevitable last-minute maneuvering would be. Now we know. (And I can’t help but think of Democrat Rahm Emanuel’s famous words, “never-Let-a-Crisis-Go-to-Waste.”)

Within C​u​rrier’s newly devised “safe-distance” meeting format, candidates are limited to an antiseptic six-minute phone and/or online “candidate speech” to Delegates. What this means is, essentially, opposing candidates like me will be silenced. Rather than simply postponing the entire meeting – like every other organization out there faced with the same COVID-19 challenges – top EC leadership has seized this opportunity to try to ram through this last-minute extreme “electronic” voting format change.

No small thing, and as you can see, Currier’s move significantly favors the reelection of the Executive Committee’s driving force, Solomon Yue – satisfying his almost bizarre obsession with holding onto power – for another four years. Isn’t fifteen years of failure enough?

(And it’s time to finally ask this, here: does anyone really think the imposing of this radical election format is Bill Currier’s personal decision? Don’t you think Solomon Yue is calling the shots, as he has from behind-the-curtain, for the past decade and a half?)

Of course, with the current COVID-19 hysteria, none of us are surprised the gathering was cancelled. But probably like you, and as I said, we expected the meeting to be postponed altogether and not have the most important part of it rammed through via some untested, complex electronic voting scheme. Here are the specific reasons why the Chair Currier/National Committeeman Solomon Yue decision to conduct electronic voting is a seriously bad idea:

  1. Nowhere in the real world is electronic voting standard protocol:  Federal, state or local. Why not? Because it’s fraught with opportunities for fraud, for loss and/or corruption of data, and for all the other inherent vagaries of hardware/software (e.g. the Iowa Caucuses last month). For an organization of our size, hard-copy voting is as close to fail-safe as one can get.
  2. Our candidate presentations would be​ delivered​ through ​a​ combination of online and/or telephone conference calling. ​S​ome candidates have prepared slides to illustrate their most important points. But most of our Delegates will be “attending” via phone, not computer. For them, the presenter’s main points will be indecipherable.
  3. More than a few of our Delegates WILL have technical complications. Getting 150 attendees up-and-running on their computers and/or phones at precisely the same time – via this brand-new ORP experiment – will, no question, lead to the exclusion of some number of frustrated Delegates from the proceedings and from the voting. I’ve owned a nationally-recognized tele-communications business for thirty-six years. Don’t argue with me about this.
  4. Speaking for myself and the other candidates, we deserve to be able to meet-and-greet delegates in-person: to talk, to answer questions, to present ourselves as leaders. That is impossible in a six-minute monologue over the phone or on a computer. Currier/Yue are single-handedly denying us that very standard election protocol.

We’ve always had “live” SCC voting. It’s always worked. Let’s not change that now because of little more than Ruling Class political expediency/panic.

No question, these National Committeeman and National Committeewoman elections should be postponed, most logically until the June SCC gathering. Postponement of the election is the simple solution. There is no rush! Who would object to this postponement except a tiny Executive Committee top leadership cabal that is, for whatever reason, desperately fixated on holding onto power…despite the political nightmare in Salem that they themselves presided over, if not outright cultivated.

Some would say that ORP’s Executive Committee’s colossal failures over the years have been the result of bad decision-making stemming from incompetent, part-time leadership. But is there a deeper, more sinister-factor? You decide: here’s a quote from a long-term former Executive Committee member, speaking anonymously about current ORP top-leadership:

“They stack the deck, count the votes, maintain every possible edge, and use any means to get rid of anybody who is perceived as a threat to their positions within the party, while still saving face.  Everything is about maintaining party control.”

What can YOU do to stop this faux-election? Contact Bill Currier or Solomon Yue directly, and/or your county GOP officers, and tell them the Executive Committee top leadership’s man-handling of this election – because of their own contrived political expediency – is not OK.

Without an ORP Executive Committee leadership shift, nothing is going to change in the ORP and therefore nothing is going to change in Salem. You know it’s true, and you know we can’t let that happen.

And remember this: redistricting will happen in 2021 and with our current supermajority legislature, Oregon will stay blue for no less than another generation.

Obviously, I’m not afraid to be bold about this. How about you?

Bill Currier and Solomon Yue should simply cancel plans for an “electronic” election this coming Saturday. Please immediately contact them, assertively encouraging them, and the Executive Committee, to make that decision.

-sam carpenter

 

Updated House and Senate Race “Vacancy” Maps

As of today, March 2nd, 2020, there are no Republican candidates filed with the Secretary of State in State House Districts: 7, 10, 16, 27, 29, 30, 33, 34, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 48 and 57. (25% unfilled). Here is a map.]

Also, no candidates filed in State Senate Districts: 14, 18, 21, 22 and 23. (33% unfilled). Here is a map.

Great news! Of the three Executive Positions up for election:
Secretary of State: we have a solid candidate, the awesome Kim Thatcher
Treasurer: we have powerful candidate, Jeff Gudman!
Attorney General: I’m working on this now. I think some good news soon…. -sc

Now, all five U.S. Congressional Districts now have Republican candidates (in CD1, thank you to both Laura Curtis and Army Murray!)

March 10th is the filing deadline!

Under the Direction of Solomon Yue: The State ORP’S Faux Trump-Enthusiasm

From Chapter 35 of the book Making Oregon Great Again, published April 2019. (Download this chapter, along with the mentioned Appendix S and T documents, here: www.makeoregongreatagain.com/book)

(Author’s note: The point of posting this excerpt: if we don’t change state-level ORP top leadership, we will continue to produce “moderate” Republican candidates and therefore we will continue to lose the state. These left-leaning Republicans simply can’t win general election races. An opportunity to make this change in leadership comes in an Oregon Republican Party Central Committee election for National Committeeman to be held on March 21, 2020 in an Oregon Republican State Central Committee intra-party election)

Here is the excerpt:
Nothing tangible is going to change in election outcomes until we replace our current top ORP leadership. As things stand now, we’re going to continue to lose important general elections because of the ORP’s failure to find viable conservative candidates due to their…

1. overt and covert preference for “moderate” Republican candidates
2. conscious decision to allow chaos to reign in primary elections
3. failure to quell personal-destruction mudslinging against
conservatives*
4. encouragement of vote-splitting and “capture and hold”
shenanigans
5. deliberate lack-of-action used as a tactic.”

SOLOMON YUE: CRAZY-MAKER EXTRAORDINAIRE
The chief protagonist of the Oregon anti-Trump Ruling Class contingent is Solomon Yue. See Appendix S for a 2010 letter by former ORP Chair Bob Tiernan. It says it all, and it was written ten years ago…

Remember that chaos is key to creating an inefficient and therefore useless organization. (My bet is that Yue has a Mao quote to substantiate that point…).

Note that in my candidacy for ORP Chair in 2019, Bob Tiernan and three other past ORP presidents, plus a former U.S. House Representative, endorsed me and my slate. This action was in blunt opposition to existing ORP Ruling Class leadership. I didn’t personally ask any of them for their support. Unknown to me, they worked together and did it on their own. See Appendix T to read their endorsement letter.

*The Republican Ruling Class’s character destruction protocol: using mainstream media henchmen, the ultimate aim is the personal annihilation of any viable conservative candidate who challenges their stranglehold on power. The leftist-style attacks hinge on treachery and lies, always smothered in a bath of PC/virtue-signaling. The ultimate task is not just to defeat conservative candidates in primary elections, but to destroy them personally – and therefore politically – so they never reappear. And yes, so they will serve as examples of what will happen to any future grassroots conservative candidates who have the temerity to challenge Ruling Class authority.

What the Oregon Republian Party Must do

This is taken out of my book, Making Oregon Great Again: Guide to the Grassroots Revitalization of the Oregon Republican Party, published in January 2019. (You can download the whole book for free, here).

I am making a post of this small segment of the book because I get regular complaints that:

  • My book is no good. It’s BS. Sam is crazy. Don’t listen to him. This ALWAYS comes from people who have not read the book
  • I only rag about the Oregon Republican Party and never give constructive ideas. Yes, these people are the same people who haven’t read the book. (I think there are maybe 40 of these rabid ORP loyalists in the entire state. In a sense they are deaf, but by-God they are loud!)

Although this chapter of the book was intended for an election that was held over a year ago, this particular excerpt is still 100% applicable to today’s Oregon Republican Party. I haven’t changed a single word. (You can download, the entire Chapter here).

Here’s the excerpt.
The ORP must:

  1. Always pursue the prime objective of winning control of the legislature, the governorship and other four executive offices by finding, cultivating, training, protecting and promoting solid candidates. We can no longer be distracted by intra-party bickering. Let’s do our job.
  2. Ramp-up PCP participation and meet membership guidelines (by county), engaging their help in critical programs and projects
  3. Review, update and streamline structure, goals, and Bylaws. Let’s run this organization like a business, lean and disciplined, always using our resources and time wisely.
  4. Transform internal communications and outside marketing to incorporate the latest cutting-edge technology
  5. Provide Point-of-Sale administrative support for county and Congressional District Republican organizations. The county and District organizations are the heart and soul of the Oregon Republican Party
  6. Execute a thought-out, professional organizational and operational plan for GOTV (Get Out The Vote) efforts, including candidate messaging and database security
  7. WE ARE LOSING THE GENERAL ELECTIONS IN THE PRIMARY RACES! In election cycles, via a special committee of perhaps six executive board members, publish objective and brief assessments regarding statewide and congressional district primary candidates (does the candidate support the party platform, have a clean legal record, support the Republican President, if the candidate has been in previous campaigns does he/she have a successful record of fund-raising? etc.). The single focus will be on win-ability in general elections. Then, on the ORP website, we would publish objective and brief “approval” statements regarding the candidates who meet the basic necessary qualifications to actually win the general election. There would be no approval or mention of candidates who, in the panel’s conclusion – supported by objective, tangible facts – stood no chance of winning. (It is a wasted opportunity – not to mention a waste of time and money – to nominate a candidate who can’t possibly win the general election.). Yes, of course we can’t prevent someone from running for office, but we, as an organization – The ORegon Republican Party – can choose whom to approve based on simple objective criteria. The specifics on this plan will be determined in the days after the organizational election in February, then presented to the Executive Board.
  8. In order to discourage obvious vote-splitting intrusions, and/or mudslinging, take a stand via press release, email, and a powerful social media machine in order to instantly update candidate assessments.
  9. Redesign the website, keep it up to date, communicate constantly with membership via the various social media and other communications tools, while protecting privacy, and provide an easily accessible roster of Central Committee members (perhaps, each with an ORP-domain email address). Make the ORP an easily operable “structured machine,” so the next new Executive Board will have a smooth time managing the organization.

    Our positioning will follow these guidelines:

    1. Must reflect a bottom-up mentality where our base, via the county membership, reigns supreme, as reflected in the ORP Platform
    2. Keep the Party Platform front-and-center (pro-life, pro-2nd Amendment, pro-legal immigration, support ICE, police and Vets, no sanctuary state, etc…).
    3. Publicly and without equivocation, support Republican President Trump (as 90% of Oregon Republicans already do).
    4. Whole-heartedly support our nominees and current office holders

The First Step in Taking Back Oregon (is Just Around the Corner)

How do we begin to get Republican control in Oregon? It’s a matter of taking proper steps in the proper sequence, and the first step comes in the Oregon Republican Party internal elections on March 21st in Portland. More on that in a minute.

Get this:  we don’t have a problem with “lazy voters.” I am SO tired of hearing – from fellow Republicans – that “if only our Republicans would vote, we’d be able to take back this state!” That insinuation is flat-out wrong and yes, it’s insulting to everyday people like you and me.

Our own Republican leaders puts forth this BS and too many of us buy into it. It’s a smokescreen and a lousy excuse for leadership’s own utter failure to implement their own Mission Statement which calls for the ORP to find and support candidates for public office.

The prime problem has always been that we don’t have candidates in many, many races. Right now, today, with the filing deadline two weeks away, we have no Republican candidates in a big chunk of our House and Senate district races.

No wonder we have super-majorities in Salem!

So Oregon Republican voters ARE up to the task, in fact are on-fire, but their state-level Oregon Republican Party Executive Committee leadership is utterly useless in finding and encouraging candidates for whom they could vote. That leadership is ruled with an iron fist by National Committeeman Solomon Yue.

The first step in fixing Oregon is to change leadership at the very top NOW, and that starts with the National Committeeman and National Committeewoman elections on March 21st. After that, there are other elections coming up quickly, in May and June and then in November.

It’s that simple,and yes, if you are an ORP Delegate and attending the meeting on March 21st, I’m asking for your vote for National Committeeman. National Committeewoman? Vote for Marylin Shannon.

If we don’t start to get things turned around starting with this March 21st election, our voters will continue to be blamed for the sad state of affairs in Salem and, with that, Republican power will continue to evaporate.

And get this: redistricting happens in 2021. If we don’t salvage our legislatures in this cycle, there really will be no hope for Oregon for the next decade.

-sc

On Saturday: Grassroots Leadership for the Oregon Republican Party

Take a look. Here’s a post I published back in late January and it’s definitely worth reading again now. 

It’s way past time for new state Oregon Republican Leadership. This transformation begins with the ORP Central Committee’s election of a new National Committeeman and a new National Committeewoman on Saturday.

Then there will be more elections over the ensuing months where the transformation will be complete.

You KNOW we have to make this change….

-sam

 

“It wasn’t Close.” Longtime RNC Committee Member in New Hampshire Ousted by Grassroots

The same dramatic political-reversal is about to hit Oregon, the removal of a decades-long establishment RNC National Committeeman…by the Oregon Republican grassroots.

It’s happening here on Saturday in an Oregon Republican Party  Central Committeeman election. You don’t think it’s possible? We’ve been working on this project for months and if you read about what happened in New Hampshire in late January, below, you can visualize a repeat performance here in Oregon. It all goes down on Saturday, March 21st! This is GREAT news and it’s been a LONG TIME coming!

Here’s the report:

Breaking News, Manchester New Hampshire, January 16, 2020
By Paul Steinhauser | Fox News

“File this as another sign of the changing nature of the Republican Party.”

“Steve Duprey — the longtime Republican National Committee (RNC) member from New Hampshire — was defeated Saturday as he attempted to win a fifth four-year term representing his home state on the national committee.

“Duprey — the former longtime state Republican Party chair who was a close friend to John McCain and a trusted N.H. and national adviser on the senator from Arizona’s 2000 and 2008 presidential campaigns (McCain won the N.H. primary in both of his White House bids) — was defeated by grassroots activist and Hillsborough County Republican chair Chris Ager of Amherst, N.H.

“The vote took place today at a meeting of the New Hampshire Republican State Committee. The secret ballot vote totals were kept private by state party officials, but sources told Fox News it wasn’t a close vote.

“Duprey had the backing of much of the state’s GOP establishment, including popular Republican Gov. Chris Sununu. And Duprey — who had served on the RNC’s all-important Rules Committee for much of his 16-year tenure on the national committee — was known for his tireless efforts to make sure the state’s first-in-the-nation presidential primary stayed first in the GOP presidential nominating calendar. That’s a crucial part of his job as an RNC committee member. And the fight to keep the state’s primary status as the first-in-the-nation may be tougher than ever moving forward.

“But none of that was obviously enough, as grassroots conservatives in the state didn’t trust Duprey. They questioned whether he was sufficiently faithful to President Trump and questioned his conservative values. (Duprey supports abortion rights.)

“After the vote, Duprey stepped down immediately from his post rather than waiting until his four-year term ends following the Republican National Convention in August.”

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