Don’t Let Raggio Betrayal Diminish Our Spirit!

(Melody Howard) – It should come as no surprise that Senator William Raggio has chosen to endorse Harry Reid over our Republican candidate Sharron Angle. It’s certainly no surprise to me. There is a very recent history behind this.

While involved in the Republican Party for a few years prior, I became heavily involved in January 2008 when I was asked to serve on the Convention committee shortly before Caucus. We were told the largest convention was in 1998 and had approximately 800 attendees and that if we were lucky, we’d have 500 people, and started planning accordingly.

Imagine the scrambling when almost 1,000 people registered online the first night it was announced. It was amazing and energizing. With approximately 3,500 people attending the 2008 CCRP Convention, a mix of new and old were elected to serve on the Executive Board, and I happened to be one of those elected.

The Platform encompassed the most time, and was debated at length when the delegates voted to amend the agenda to include time for every person who wanted an opportunity to speak, and it was finally passed after approximately 2 hours of debate. There were a lot of people who had something to say. That was the beginning of a new attitude in Clark County.

New (like many of you now) and determined to make a difference, it was demoralizing and frustrating to watch the 2009 legislative session. No matter how many calls we, or the membership, or citizens made – no matter how many posts were made to the legislative bills online saying vote no, there were a select group of Republican legislators who didn’t always agree with us.

Finally, when Senate Bill 429 came up for a vote toward the end of the session, and Governor Gibbons vetoed it, and with a promise that his “sunset clause” would be included, Senator Raggio led the way in helping the Democrats overturn the veto.

For those of you who do not know what Senate Bill 429 is, it is the bill that raised a mother lode of taxes: Doubled the State Business License fee; doubled the payroll tax (yes, your employer is basically fined for every employee they hire); increased vehicle registration fees, and so much more.

Clark County Republican Party Chairman Bernie Zadrowski immediately answered a request to hold a special Executive Board meeting for the specific purpose of calling a Special Meeting of the Central Committee. That Special Meeting was then set for ten (10) days out in the last week of May 2009. The room was packed to capacity!

There were over 75 new members signing up for that meeting alone. Chairman Zadrowski called the meeting to order and Resolutions #1 and #2 were passed immediately (honoring Governor Gibbons for his veto, and honoring those legislators who stood with Governor Gibbons and voted NO on SB 429).

Debate was lively on Resolution No. 3 with most people in support of publicly censuring those Republicans, and those few opposed cited Ronald Reagan’s 11th Commandment: Never speak ill of another Republican. The general atmosphere, however, was that Republicans should not vote to increase taxes, and then hide behind Reagan’s 11th Commandment and expect fiscal Republicans to remain silent.

Richard Scotti, who was the Precinct Administrator at the time (and succeeded Bernie Zadrowski as CCRP Chairman), spoke last and quoted certain planks from the State Party’s platform and stated:

“These planks are clearly posted on the CCRP and NRP websites. Our elected Republican representatives had a duty and responsibility to their constituents to read these, and comply.”
. . .
“The resulting State Platform is the will of the people. It’s the will of Clark County and all of the other Counties. It’s the best and only codification of values at the grassroots level.”

Scotti finished to a standing ovation when he stated:

“We made a promise to each of you to do our best to hold our elected officials accountable to their constituents. It is time to hold accountable any legislator who has abandoned our principles of fiscal responsibility.”

Yes, Resolution No. 3 passed overwhelmingly and is posted below.

Sharron Angle was not my choice for the primary, but she is, beyond any doubt, my choice now. I encourage everyone to please join forces, spend an hour, two, twenty, volunteering with the CCRP, Victory, your favorite candidate, and yes, Sharron Angle’s office.

If you can afford to, please donate to your local candidates and to Sharron Angle, no donation will be rejected. If you can’t do that, maybe you have some time to cook up some homemade treats or even meals to donate to CCRP, and/or Victory, and/or Sharron’s campaign offices, for the volunteers to enjoy.

Whatever you do, please do not allow your spirit to diminish because certain Republicans are endorsing someone other than Sharron Angle. Instead, get motivated and do something to counter those people and make a difference. Let’s move forward and support those who are working so hard to get Republicans, and only Republicans, elected.

Resolution #3: Passed overwhelmingly

Whereas, Clark County, Nevada is already burdened with high unemployment and a sagging business economy; and,

Whereas, the platform of the Clark County Republican Party is clear in its opposition to new taxes; and,

Whereas, raising taxes is extremely poor public policy for Nevada’s people and it’s economy; and,

Whereas, the Nevada Republican Party as a whole, and every Chairman of every Nevada County Central Committee has signed a resolution urging it’s elected legislators to vote against raising new taxes; and,

Whereas, the political damage caused to the Republican Party brand name from Republican officeholders who support higher taxes is tremendous; and,

Whereas the Clark County, Nevada Republican Party has a responsibility to make it clear that individual legislators who are registered as Republicans who voted for tax increases did so in disregard for and in opposition to their own political party; therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Clark County, Nevada Republican Party that for their votes in support of raising taxes in SB 429, we censure the following registered Republican legislators:

Republican Senators:

Dennis Nolan
Warren Hardy
William Raggio
Dean Rhoads
Randolph Townsend

Republican Assemblymen:

John Carpenter

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED that the members of the Clark County Nevada Republican Party urge the Republican Party Central Committee, or any other official party entity from giving any assistance of any kind to those legislators listed above.

(Ms. Howard is a former Executive Board Member of the Clark County Republican Party, County Commission District C)