WCRC meeting – January 2007

Little did I know that when I walked into our WCRC meeting tonight it would be a local bloggers’ convention of sorts – but, through a strange convergence of events it turned out to be one. Ironically, the main item on our agenda tonight was discussion of a new website for the Wicomico County Republican Party as a whole. But this local blogger subplot will be related a little bit later.

We began the evening with the usual club business (Pledge of Allegiance, a prayer given by Bonnie Luna, then Secretary and Treasurer Reports) and acknowleged the two County Council people who were present (District 2’s Stevie Prettyman and my councilman, Joe Holloway of District 5). It was also revealed that we’d gotten two additional notes of gratitude from last year’s candidates for the help our club provided to them. One was from the aforementioned Prettyman and the other was from Clerk of the Courts candidate James Gillespie.  

County chair Dr. John Bartkovich added a few remarks. The bulk of them reminded us of what we were there for, as he brought along a poster-sized rendition of the Republican Principles. He also wanted to inform the club that the Central Committee was getting set to meet with our cohorts in Somerset and Worcester to plan a tri-county Lincoln Day dinner with a springtime date, rather than June like last year. It was hoped we could get a more prominent speaker that way.

We then got the registration rundown from Woody Willing and in the last 2 months of 2006 we gained 128 Republicans in Wicomico County while the Democrats only picked up 40 voters. The margin is now just a shade over 4,000. (4,000 voters in 48 months? I think it’s doable.)

At that point, we had a surprise announcement from club member (and one of the Central Committee people I succeeded) Louise Smith. Today she placed herself on the primary ballot for the Salisbury City Council. In her remarks she stated that she wasn’t necessarily aligning herself with the anti-Dream Team per se, but that she was “aligning (her)self with the taxpayer.” Her main campaign theme is going to be accountability and she was already armed with examples of recent city financial mismanagement. With Louise adding her name to the ballot, it means that if Council President Michael Dunn decides to run again a primary will be required because seven people will have filed.

With that, we also got to hear from two other previously announced candidates who came in just before we got our meeting started. Terry Cohen told us about her main focus, which was responsive government. As part of that she sought to “focus on current resources rather than invest in special interests.” Fellow City Council hopeful Tim Spies also addressed our group, noting that his main focus as a City Councilman would be to adequately fund public safety, and that he was “interested in making Salisbury work for the people.”

Also, we heard briefly from the elected officials present, with Prettyman telling us it was just “business as usual” for the county and Holloway adding that the honeymoon wasn’t over yet. To me, this is a definite advancement over the previous County Council.

We then heard from Chris von Buskirk, who’s proposing to upgrade and maintain our party website. He gave a nice presentation that illustrated what we could do with the site under his tutelage. It would place a good face on the county party and become a one-stop shop for those interested in joining us (like those 4,000 voters I’m shooting to sign up in the next 4 years.)

Also, the club began the process of enacting two pieces of “inside baseball” – one to correct minor errors in and amend the bylaws; the other to nominate new officers. Both will be acted on next month in accordance with these same by-laws. We did place seven people into nomination as new officers, and I’m one of those duly nominated.

That turned out to be pretty much the extent of club business. So, about the bloggers convention…

As it turned out, the planned Salisbury City Council meeting turned out to be a relatively short one because the main zoning law change that was supposed to be discussed magically disappeared from tonight’s agenda, tabled for a future meeting. So several people who started there found their way over to our meeting.

Thus, sometime tonight or tomorrow you should see Louise Smith’s smiling face on Salisbury News because Joe Albero was there snapping away. (I think if he snapped a pic of me, it’s going to be a profile shot.) And I got to meet and talk to “Cato” of Delmarva Dealings (and his lovely wife) for the first time. I’d been looking forward to meeting him someplace since he runs a superb website. They’re a very nice couple, and one who appears to be interested in some further involvement with the club. (Could it be that their interest was whetted by my monthly meeting reports?) Unfortunately, we didn’t get Bill Duvall (Mister Duvafiles himself) away from his compound down in Allen or we would’ve had a real news event.

So next month there’s a good possibilty that I’ll become an “insider” of the club – that is, unless someone wants to tell us why they’d be a better person for the job than I or any of the other nominees who have stepped up to the plate. They’ll have their opportunity in 5 weeks, February 26th. We may get another visit from Salisbury City Council hopefuls as well since that’s the night before the primary (should one be required) – so that looks to be a fun meeting!

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.

One thought on “WCRC meeting – January 2007”

  1. Michael,

    As always it was a pleasure seeing you again. I didn’t miss you at all, front row at the West end.

    We were all excited about coming to visit this meeting but never thought we’d get out of the Council meeting in time to do so. Fortunately for us the meeting ended quickly and we were able to attend.

    Mike Dunn was missing from the meeting along with John Pick, (I think he sprained his fingers playing with toy trains all weekend) as well as Paul Wilber, which was a treat because his replacement was MUCH prettier.

    It sounds like the Republicans really have their act together and you shoed perfect respect for the visitors this evening who are truly out to make a difference within the City Council and I hope everyone sees just that.

    And for being so nice I’ll save you the punishment, (as well as all my readers) the hardship of showing your photo on my Blog tomorrow morning. LOL

    Perhaps we’ll see you at Break Time Billiards Wednesday night for our regular Cigar Club get together?

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