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This weekend is the Wisconsin State College Republican convention, as many of you know.

Several questions have been raised about a particular event taking place at the convention. Those questions surround a Ryan Wrasse email sent to people a few days ago about the convention:

Look for more details on Friday at Convention! We’ll be offering free food and both free alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages before we head out for the evening’s social events. All are welcome! I hope to see you there!

The questions on my mind and a number of others are, “Who is paying for such an event? Where did Wrasse get the money for an open bar? Could the students of Stevens Point be paying for this?”

After some thought and a little investigation, I have several concerns about how WICR’s came up with the decision to have the convention in Stevens Point and how they came up with the funding to have the convention. It looks as if some very un-Republican things have taken place.

First look at the location of the convention itself. It is interesting to consider why it is in Stevens Point this year. Some may know that WICRs have been less that stellar on their direct mail fundraising, barely breaking even by some accounts. It has also been rumored that the group is counting on chapter dues to keep it afloat financially.

However CR’s of Stevens Point seem to have rescued the WICRs. Given the circumstance, it comes as no surprise that UWSP would be a financially ideal place to hold the convention (over Madison and Marquette) if you look at their bid information:

UW-Stevens Point has a budget to provide a $1500 speaker. This would be no additional cost to any other schools or the state organization. UW-Stevens Point also has a $300 printing budget. This printing would include all registration packets, agendas, and programs. Again, this is at no additional cost to other schools or the WICRs. These budgets will also help keep registration fees minimal.

A student group allocated money from their student government, to pay for a private student group’s event? It has been confirmed that this was one of the primary reasons Stevens Point got the bid. Is it a Republican principle to have the government finance private organizations?

The Stevens Point CR’s were able to get money to defer the cost of the convention not through standard campaign fundraising but as a result of their intricate connections within UW-Stevens Point student government and the WICRs.

Funding was driven by WICR’s secretary (and thus on the executive board that governs the organization and decided upon the location), the chief of Wrasse’s campaign and an SGA official herself: Ms. AJ Zahn. Stevens Point’s SGA is contributing money towards a state convention; to a private group, that files separately with the state elections board.

It does seem odd that no one up at UWSP would question allocating money from the school to one of its student groups to hand over to another group (private and political might I add) to defray the costs of its annual convention. Where is all of this money going to?

-Ok I disabled comments because they weren’t going in the direction I inteded. I was more curious about things that were happening, and having some things explained, not see the comments take a personal direction

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