THANK YOU to everyone who participated in the 11th District Convention yesterday. You were one of only a few hundred people who came out to determine the course of the Republican Party for a district with a population of nearly three-quarters of a million residents.
I especially want to thank my supporters. Special shout-outs go to my volunteers, my financial supporters, and the many of you who signed up to be first-time convention participants because you shared a vision for new ideas and a renewed focus on growing the party and winning elections. Extra special thanks goes to my family, who endured many extra nights when I was away from home, and weekends when I was tied up making phone calls or writing campaign materials.
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I also want to apologize for the unacceptably long delay between the first and second ballots. This was caused by a tabulation spreadsheet and voting machines that were not in synch with each other. I noticed a possible problem with the tabulation spreadsheet a week ago when it was sent to me for review as a candidate, and I did express my concerns to a couple of party officials, but in retrospect I did not press hard enough to get this resolved in advance of the convention when my concerns were ignored.
If you have not heard the results, all three incumbents in the race were reelected; I came in fourth. Personally, it is undoubtedly for the best - I will have more time to spend with my family and turning out the Republican vote in the Providence District of Fairfax County.
As long as I have been involved in the Republican Party in Virginia, I have seen that the real influence and the lion's share of the hard work of freedom is at the precinct level, where people talk with their neighbors, and network around their schools and community groups, and knock on doors in their larger neighborhood. That will continue to be the case. And I will continue to do everything I can to equip, motivate, and respect the volunteers who make this all happen, particularly in the Providence District which has recently made me their Chairman.
I hope you will join me. We have a primary coming up on June 12 to choose our Congressional and Senatorial candidates for this year. Not only should you vote in this primary, but it is also an excellent venue for recruiting yet more volunteers who will be more boots on the ground to help us win Virginia in November. Please save the date, and contact your precinct captain to let him or her know if you can help out for a couple of hours at the polls. (If you don't know who your precinct captain is, please email me your name and address and I'll redirect you to the right person.)
After seeing how things go on June 12, you can decide for yourself whether you think primaries or conventions do more to grow our party, and please make your voice heard on this issue.
I also will continue to be an advocate for reforming the convention system for intra-party races. More than ever, I believe it is disenfranchising for far too many people, too technologically backward, too arcane for most activists to understand, and too often fails its purported purpose of engaging and energizing local activists.
The new 11th District Chairman Terry Wear and State Central Committee members David Ray, Patsy Drain, and Keith Damon deserve congratulations for their well-fought win yesterday. They all can frequently be found at local GOP events, so please make their acquaintance if you haven't already, and know that you are welcomed and encouraged to voice your thoughts about the local and state GOP to them.
What matters most of all, of course, is that we take back our Country, our State, and our District from the statists who are robbing us of our freedoms and our children of their future. I look forward to all of the GOP races being settled by the middle of next month, so we can all jump in the same boat and start oaring together at ramming speed. I hope to be pulling an oar next to you.
Gratefully,
Lillian
Lillian
Lillian,
ReplyDeleteI appreciate you putting your name on the ballot. It is very hard work to be a candidate, and I appreciate your willingness to step up and lead.
Your opening paragraph shows how your inexperience makes you totally unqualified for the office of State Central. The 11th U.S. Congressional District is made up of three counties, not one. So quoting that 3/4 million residents is disingenuous.
Furthermore, based on what was reported to me by those that attended the convention, you confused people by running on a ticket with Becky Stoeckel, Bob Patten and Rick Herrington and then showing support to another group of candidates, including Gerry O'Delle!
I have seen you at numerous events and speaking opportunities and I have to say, you might want to study the documents governing the Republican Party before you decide to take on, three extremely qualified members: Damon, Drain and Ray.
Thank you, Anonymous, for another post full of inanities.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, you might want to look up the population of the 11th District after redistricting. 727,366 is the official count. Fairfax County is actually over a million, so I was clearly not referring to that one county.
And for the record, I DID NOT authorize the page in the program that pictured me with Becky Stoeckel. I did not even know it was there until someone showed it to me, and I was very unhappy about that. I certainly never supported Gerry O'Dell! If getting a decent "grade" from him is somehow construed as my support, then I guess David Ray and Keith Damon "supported" him too.
Finally, the Party Plan can be amended by the State Central Committee. I care about growing the party and winning elections, and not being bound by a document that is amendable and frequently amended. I am regretful that we have too many people representing us on State Central Committee who are so focused on knowing and exploiting the rules that they cannot see where the rules ought to be changed. That was the animating reason for my campaign.
With just over one month between the beginning of my candidacy and the registration deadline, I did not have enough time and resources to get enough people to the convention who were willing to give several hours of their time to challenge the status quo. We'll have four years to get that in place for next time.
Lillian,
ReplyDeleteFirst, at several events including the FCRC Convention and the PWC convention (that I attended) you clearly were part of the Stoeckel-Herrington-Patten ticket. I mostly supported that ticket, except for you but to claim that you were not running with that team is a fallacy.
As for amending the Party Plan, have you even read it? It's not easily maniputable. You seem to think its easily changeable, which shows your naïveté.
Finally, you chose to run. Don't make excuses like you've done on the campaign. The fact there was a short filing window shows you weren't prepared. You should've thought about that before you ran. And, the fact you couldnt get ppl there just shows the shallow (at best) support you had. Please don't run in 2016.