Okay, so this afternoon Justin Phillips, GOP3.com blogger, put up a post entitled “WICR Convention Curiosities” where he made a number of statements regarding this weekend’s Wisconsin Federation of College Republicans (WI CRs) convention, to be held at UW-Stevens Point. Justin’s post was later distributed to an unknown list of recipients by an anonymous emailer.
First, Justin said that the WI CRs were struggling financially, alluding to an earlier allegation which I have dealt with on this page.
Second, I think it is the height of fiscal responsibility to use Student Government grant funds to pay for our events rather than spending our donors’ dollars. We often talk about how conservatives need to demand fair funding from Student Government – when the UW-SP CRs secure it, now they’re criticized for it? One candidate for chair, John Connors, even highlights the amount of money he has secured from his university in his campaign bio. Conservatives pay in their student activity money; I see nothing wrong in applying for it back to sponsor interesting events. For more on the decision to host the convention at UW-SP, read the official statement from the WI CR chair.
Third, the allegation that any official convention money, either from WI CRs or from UW-SP, is going to fund the campaign of Ryan Wrasse for State Chair is absolutely false. As Chairwoman Burke noted in her statement, the UW-SP money doesn’t even begin to cover the cost of the convention, so there’s no left-overs to be had! And even if there were, it is a sad thing to attack their integrity by alleging the WI CR E-board would steer that money to one candidate in such a way.
Fourth, Ryan Wrasse, the candidate for state chair who attends UW-Stevens Point, issued a statement earlier this evening:
The notion that I am receiving student government/College Republican money is preposterous. In my opinion, this is nothing more than a smear tactic posted on a blog only hours before delegates would head to convention.
Why would you automatically jump to the conclusion that the CRs were paying for something like this? Any expenses incurred by my campaign came from donations or from my pocket – no one else’s.
… We have done nothing but attempt to run a positive campaign based on positive ideas for the future. … To say that I am greatly disappointed is an understatement. This is exactly the kind of stuff we don’t need in the Wisconsin CR’s.
I’ll echo Ryan’s closing line with an additional thought of my own. I believe our campaigns for public office, as with any other facet of our lives, should be, in Mike Pence’s phrase, run in a God-honoring way. Certainly one facet of such an endeavor must be that every argument is grounded in facts, true facts, and that you don’t make allegations that attack people’s integrity if you’re not darn sure that they’re true.
Last 5 posts by Daniel- Tom Barrett's Savings Plan - June 8th, 2010
- C.J. Abrahamson on J. Stevens - April 11th, 2010
- Why always Bill Bablitch? - March 24th, 2010
- Suhr on Nixon on Health Care - February 23rd, 2010
- Did the USCCB Foresee Dead People? - February 8th, 2010
Not that College Dems don’t have their fair share of drama, but the series of posts here reminded me of an article I read a year or so ago:
http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i.....foer100305
Apparently you have to register to read the whole thing. That intro paragraph is kind of misleading as to the crux of the article, but here’s a paragraph that sums it up:
“But the significance of the crnc goes beyond that. The Committee is the place where Republican strategists learn their craft and acquire their knack for making their Democratic opponents look like disorganized children. Many of the biggest-brand Republican operatives–from Karl Rove and Lee Atwater, to Charlie Black and Roger Stone, to Jack Abramoff, Ralph Reed, and Grover Norquist–got their starts this way. Walking through the halls of the convention, it is easy to see the genesis of tactics deployed in the Florida recount and by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Republicans learn how to fight hard against Democrats by practicing on one another first. “There are no rules in a knife fight,” Norquist instructed the young conventioneers in a speech. And, while Norquist described a knife fight, the Gourley-Davidson rumble transpired around him.”
Zach … you have no idea
I don’t know what the regulations are at Stevens Point regarding using student fees to pay for speakers/events, but here in Madison, if we use any student money for such things, we need to open it up to the general student population. Will the speaker and convention be opened up for the general student population to attend at Stevens Point??