BUNCOMBE COUNTY CENTRAL COMMITTEE MEETING

November 27, 2006

 

Present

 

                        George Keller                           Alice Keller

Chuck Durand                          Bill Lack                        

                   Sandra Bradbury                       Bill Reynolds                 

                   Kathie Lack                              Bill Porter

                                                                            

Absent

 

          Nancy Day:  251-1988                        Michelle Cox:  683-4620

          Robin Ramsey:  628-3216                   Renee Russell:  684-0037

          Frank Kirkland:  258-2432                   Bob Long:  258-9987

          Mary Jane Westall:  254-6221              Matthew Hebb:  337-0728

          Beki Taylor:  667-8119                        Daniel Rodriguez:  628-0804

          Jennifer Styles:  667-8511          Frances Cosgrove;

          Jerry Orr:  669-9279

                                     

Visitors

         

Chris McClure

Chad Nesbitt

   Ed Osada

                                                  Danny Roberts

 

 

Chairman George Keller called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. at Ryan’s Family Steak House.  George gave the invocation and led the pledge of allegiance.  Sandra called the roll.  A quorum was not present.

 

Minutes of the last meeting were approved as shown on the website.  There was no financial report.  George said Charles Taylor’s office is in an uproar.  People are calling to ask for help, but they are not getting it.  All the experienced staff are moving on to other jobs.  Senators Dole and Burr’s offices cannot handle all those inquires and hands-on assistance.

 

 

George said the Executive Committee of the NCGOP will meet in Greensboro on Saturday to elect a new interim Chairman.  George had write-ups on the various nominees.  Bill Lack said he knows Senator Andrew Brock, the Minority Whip.  Bill thinks he is a pretty straight shooter and a good candidate.  Marcus Kinley is from Guilford County and has increased Republican participation from 80,000 to 100,000.  Mike Harrison said he has talked to Kinley and knows he got lots of support from new Republicans.  Candidate Linda Daves has asked the State Central Committee to appoint several ad hoc committees to study several management issues within NCGOP.  Bill Peasley has resigned, so we need to also hire a new Chief of Staff.  George said we will find out the criteria for that position. 

 

Headquarters needs to plan to move soon.  The building is now being rented to other people and we have to be out by January 1st.   We will soon (Dec 15) have a storage building.  We are looking at Suite 102 (100 square feet) in the old hospital on Woodfin Ave..  We would only need to buy an air conditioner in the summer.  We need an office, for one reason, to answer questions usually sent to Congressman Taylor’s office. 

 

George said we will save Mumpower and Hebb signs, and metal stands and Gorney signs will go to Eric.  Paper signs have been recycled.  There are other things left over from a yard sale in the back room at headquarters.  George asked people to please take them.  Anything left over will be taken to ABCCM.

 

George said we need to do more work outside the polls.  Democrats had groups, paid Young Democrats, and worked in shifts.  We need to be patient while the Iraq war and the Bush haters die down.  Kathie said not all Democrats stayed the whole time at polling places.  George is going to put Mike Harrison’s list of lessons learned from this election on the web site (see attached).  Don noted that other than him, other Republicans won in the Flat Creek precinct and felt we did very well compared to the last election.  George said many thousands of canary cards were printed and passed out. 

 

Ed Osada said they manned their precinct almost all day.  They made phone calls to all registered Republicans in their precinct a couple of days before election day and were pretty active.  Precinct 8 is strongly Democrat and Ed was not convinced that having people at the polls on election day and making phone calls helped win elections.  We are outnumbered in Buncombe County and have to work smart.  Work is done before election day.  Ed is frustrated when making phone calls, one reason being there are many disconnected numbers.  The City election is coming up and Ed wondered if we should go door to door like Shuler did before the election and take registration applications.  We could sign up voters and ask if they are registered at their current address, then turn in registrations for everybody.  This is good personal contact. 

 

Danny said he worked ten hours at the polls and it did make a difference.  Bringing candidates in to speak helped even though we lost.  George said he and Alice just got back from Maryland and saw some good Republicans beaten there.  They attributed it to the war. 

 

Chris said we need to let people know about high taxes from Democrats in North Carolina.  He felt going door to door was a good idea and we need to get back to strong conservative principals.  There are some moderate Republicans.  Don said he was tired of people lambasting Bush.  Either we have a war over there or here.  We need to put guts back in the Republican Party. 

 

Mike felt we need to view the election as a skirmish, not the war.  We should worry about long term.  Our candidates made a clear distinction between Republicans and Democrats and we should pat ourselves on the back.  Mike said we did lots of good stuff.  He went door to door and called every registered Republican in his district.  We should build on that success. 

 

Don thought we should start acting on the City Council race.  Chuck said we need to recognize where big money is being spent to kill the Republican Party nationwide and find an organized way to battle the media. 

 

Chad said he had great news and bad news.  Friday is Ken Bagwell’s last day.  That’s the bad news.  Regarding the Andy Reed case, a local activist who got ten months in jail rather than 81 years on a child pornography charge, John Armor will speak on our behalf on the Bill O’Reilly show.    Chad feels we do have friends in the media.  Larry Blunt is on our side and Matt Mittan is against us.  Chad thought it was shameful to blame Congressman Taylor for what happened on the debate.

 

Chris said we do not have time to fool with Matt Mittan and should give him no interviews.  All independent voters do not vote Democrat and we need a way to appeal to them.  We can win some independent votes back.  Kathie thought if you are not happy with what the media is doing, don’t keep giving them your money.  Cancel the Asheville Citizen-Times and turn off Matt Mittan.  If you feed them you help them.  (George said they have done both.)  It’s hard to have an impact on the national media, but we can locally.  Kathie said we want journalism.  George said we will give information to Bill Fishburne at the Tribune.

 

George said Bob Van Wagner is the Republican on the Board of Elections.  They recounted all 78,000 ballots in the 2006 Stephens/Stroud race.  Stephens got one more vote and Stroud got 26 more votes.  Nobody will say what that means, but we will find out tomorrow. 

 

With regard to a previous suggestion to raise money, George passed out envelopes asking for $100 per family per year.  We want to make the Buncombe County Republican Party lead the 11th District and we will not have to ask the NCGOP for anything. 

 

Bill Lack said if Linda Daves is elected, Dave Sawyer will run for interim Vice Chair and Renee Russell will move up to the Chair of the 11th District.  These offices will be in effect until late May or early June, until the convention.  Mike said he got a message from an educator who told him not to feel bad about the election because we had the best slate we ever had in Buncombe County.

 

The Lincoln-Reagan Day reception and dinner is scheduled for Monday, February 19, 2007, at the Crest Center.  Matt Kibbe is scheduled to speak.  Don asked if $100 members will get a ticket discount and George said that would be discussed.

 

Bill Porter, President of the Buncombe County Men’s Club, said the public needs education; e.g., 35% think Speaker Black is a Republican.  They also plan to work on fund raising.  Bill felt one of the (women’s) clubs needs to take on a welcome wagon. 

 

Bill Lack said next Thursday the North Carolina Federation for the Men’s Club will have a meeting and send out a package to every County Chairman.  Bill said their next meeting is December 9 at 7:30 p.m.  Bill had talked to his barber, a Democrat, who said it was the first time he voted a straight Democrat ticket.  Bill thought it was because of the new ballot.

 

Alice, President of the Buncombe County Women’s Club, said their Christmas luncheon is this Saturday at noon at O’Charley’s.  Everyone is invited, RSVP to Alice.  We will order from the menu.  The speaker will be Kathy Hildreth, State Chairman (for this project) from the North Carolina Federation, who is collecting movie DVD’s for families of service members who are receiving treatment or therapy at Fort Bragg at Fisher House.  She is also collecting game DVD’s to send overseas to our service members.  Chris said his church does this kind of thing and got some information from Alice.

 

Kathie, President of the Action Club, said they are strategizing on education, recruitment and fund raising.  In December they will have a party at Kathie’s house in Barnardsville instead of a meeting. 

 

George said there is a new group of Republicans is organizing in the county through a blog.  Latte Republicans will meet at the Well Bread Bakery in Weaverville at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday.

 

Congressman Taylor’s Christmas dinner will take place December 9, same as every year.

 

Our County Convention will be on March 10.  We will elect some new officers.  Chad said Democrats have used the Buncombe County Courthouse in the past for free.  Mike asked that we consider appointing an audit committee so we can have a smooth transition to new officers.  George said he will appoint a nominating committee and Kathie asked why we need a  nominating committee.  George replied to be sure we have someone willing to serve in each office.  There is talk about changing to two Vice Chairs.  Mike asked that once the nominating committee decides, publish those names. 

 

Mike said we always have difficulty getting delegates to attend the convention.  He wanted to know if we can get a high-powered speaker.  Several suggestions were made, including getting whoever is elected the new interim Chairman.  Don said getting people to the convention is key to getting poll workers.  We should promote a good speaker as soon as possible. 

 

There will be no meeting in December, but George said he will keep up the E-Mail.

 

 

Chad said we cannot mess up the Andy Reed case.  We are getting ready to go national on Bill O’Reilly.  Ron Moore and everybody in the courthouse will look like a bunch of idiots.  Chad thought this would get money for the Republican Party when the story breaks and we should capitalize on it.

 

Bill Reynolds said a couple of years ago a man killed his daughter and put her body in the dump.  The authorities didn’t want to investigate.  The man took a plea and they sent him off.  Bill wondered if there was anything improper done in that case, because they tried to keep it off national television.  Chad said he would check into it.

 

The meeting adjourned at 7:45 p.m.

 

 

Respectfully submitted,

Sandra Bradbury, Secretary

Buncombe County Republican Executive Committee

 

Observations and Lessons Learned

Election of 2006

Mike Harrison

 

1.      Our message of medical reform, especially tort reform, is strongly supported by the Buncombe County medical community. We should cultivate the medical community (and other such groups) year round because of their numbers, influence and tendency to make campaign contributions. Ask to attend their meetings as a means of saying informed; provide speakers, put them on our mailing lists, etc.

2.      The Action Club is a good source for volunteers, but they are stretched thin trying to cover all local and state races. Individual candidates must recruit their own dedicated volunteers for their respective races.

3.      There are groups in the minority (black) community who support GOP principles. We need to identify those groups and establish a formal, year round outreach program to them, including attendance at their meetings and events.

4.      There are certain groups such as the LOWV who are nothing but front groups for the Democrat party. Participating in their meetings and attending their forums is a waste of time.

5.      Commercial mailing lists are relatively inexpensive and are an efficient way to contact almost any imaginable target group of voters, e.g. veterans, clergy

6.      Radio talk shows are commercial ventures with no loyalty to political objectives or candidates. They are not above “ambush journalism” so approach talk show hosts with caution and ensure that you define, in writing if possible, the parameters of any interviews they may request. Candidates should not be afraid to refuse to participate or to leave if an agreement is broken.
I also believe that local radio stations, e.g., WWNC) are intimidated by the democrat controlled power structure in NC.  Consequently, they curry favor from incumbents to avoid the possibility of retribution.

7.      Letters to the editor are of marginal value if submitted too very far in advance of the election when people are not focused. They are more helpful within the last several weeks of the campaign.

8.      Structured precinct meetings with GOP activists and candidates are very helpful in generating enthusiastic supporters.

9.      Voter polls in Buncombe County would be valuable for tailoring local candidate messages and communication methods

10.  Consolidated mail outs by the Party to absentee voters and the GOP base of “good voters” are effective and save candidate funds for targeted mail outs

11.  Local Republican incumbents such as Nathan Ramsey and Charles Taylor should be much more pro-active about supporting local candidates, e.g., letters of endorsement, joint campaign appearances, campaign contributions, raising funds

12.  Criticism is hurtful but inevitable. Candidates must expect and prepare for it.

13.  Inside and outside poll workers must be taught to be very assertive about confronting questionable polling practices. They should all carry a small camera to record incidents and immediately call a designated number for assistance, if required.

14.  Candidates should be very assertive about filing complaints with the board of elections when warranted. Put the opposition on notice that we know the rules and will use them as appropriate.

15.  Voter registration must be a year round effort not just in preparation for an election.

16.  The GOP should conduct a year round program of public education regarding what it means to be a Republican. Include newspapers, radio, TV, speakers at local high schools, colleges, social and civic clubs, etc.  Set up a GOP Speaker’s Bureau. Buy space on billboards.

17.  The local party should interview all prospective candidates and verify their bona fides and suitability for office.  The party should withhold endorsement of candidates that fail to commit their support of the GOP state party platform, i.e., RINOs.

18.  The GOP should have a year round fund raising effort with a committee and committee chair

19.  The BC GOP should request the state provide special training in the local area for all candidates, party officers, including Area Coordinators and Precinct Chairs regarding their duties and best political practices.

20.  Purchasing of campaign materials, advertising, etc. should be centralized as a means of cost savings for those candidates who wish to participate.

21.  We should continue the practice of an annual “thank you picnic” for all party officials and volunteers

22.  The party should identify and designate a well trained and capable data base manager and be prepared to pay for such services, if necessary

23.  The party should initiate and sustain an outreach effort to like minded groups, both local and statewide, incl. ALIPAC, GRNC, Freedom Works, etc. who endorse and support conservative candidates

24.  The party should have a designated individual to manage the telephone calling program and install sufficient phones to support the effort. Robo calls are counter productive. Personal candidate calls to “good, GOP voters” are effective in getting out the vote and building voter enthusiasm.  People are flattered when the candidate personally calls.

25.  The party should make it a practice to invite well known, inspirational speakers to events such as party conventions as a means of generating interest, attendance and enthusiasm.