Questions For Jeff Frederick
I wrote earlier of the decision of over 75% of the Virginia State Republican Central Commission to ask Republican Party of Virginia Chairman Jeff Frederick to resign or face expulsion at a special Central Committee meeting on April 4.
The battle’s now getting more heated. All five Virginia Republican U.S. House Members, including rising star Eric Cantor and conservative stalwart Frank Wolf, have asked Frederick to resign before the April 4 meeting. Virginia AG and Republican candidate for Governor Bob McDonnell has also joined the call for Frederick’s resignation.
Frederick’s supporters, though, are fighting back. As the Washington Post reported on Saturday, “some of his backers arranged for automated calls to party activists accusing McDonnell of being an ‘elitist’ who is taking orders from ‘tax-raising, anti-gun, pro-abortion officeholders in Richmond.’ Frederick denies authorizing the calls.” The text of the calls is here.
And on Wednesday, I received this email (personally identifiable links removed):
This is curious. The RPVNetwork is linked from the RPV website. It’s described as “sanctioned by RPV Chairman” (presumably they mean “endorsed” or “approved,” not “sanctioned” as in Cuba or Iran). The Network is a great idea and an attempt to use new media to bring Republicans together, share ideas, and invite people to events. But, never having received one of these invitations before, when I tried to look at the link to the group, I was blocked on the ground that I had to include a password. Let’s look at this more closely.
After Frederick was elected, I started getting a weekly update from RPV. Fine, no problem with that (other than with some of its content, which struck me as uncalled for and off-putting). That’s push marketing, and I assume they got my email address from the Alexandria Republicans, the 8th District Committee, or the McCain Virginia campaign.
But I never joined the Network or set a password to do so. So why all of a sudden would I get the “We Support Chairman Jeff Frederick” invitation? And is it really the case that of the “231 discussions” mentioned above, this would be the only one issued to all RPV members (and therefore the only one I received)? That seems odd.
What’s going on? Who controls the RPV email list?
The “Grassroots Republicans” call states that the decision on Chairman was made in 2008 and shouldn’t be revisited now. That’s their argument – fine. But something else was decided in 2008, too: that Bob McDonnell and Bill Bolling were the ticket for Governor and Lieutenant Governor and that the party would not have a bruising fight for the nomination but instead focus on winning.
And that’s the decision that really matters.
Bob McDonnell is a pro-life conservative with a few “moderate” positions, such as having supported a “one gun per month” law (For an RPV Network discussion of this that I accessed through a Google search, click here. (Funny how I can’t access the Network from the site without a password, but parts of it are available through Google.)
Frederick’s right that “Anytime a party spends its time and energy battling its own, it's losing.” That’s why the much better course is for him to resign now.
But if the pro-Frederick forces want to have this fight and risk damaging and demoralizing the party so that Terry McAuliffe (yes, that Terry McAuliffe, who’s suddenly decided he’s a Virginian), Craig Deeds, or Brian Moran have a better chance of becoming Governor, here are some questions for Chairman Frederick:
If someone didn’t sign up for the RPV Network website, why are they listed as already having a password? If the response is that one was assigned, is it really the case that the effort to help save Frederick was the first and only appeal given to everyone on the RPV list? (And what does it say about the RPV if this is the case?)
The Washington Post story on Thursday, which Delegate Bob Marshall sent out to his email list, states that you were “noncommittal” about ruling out an independent run for Governor. Will you confirm your support of Bob McDonnell and publicly announce that you will not run for Governor this year no matter what the outcome on April 4?
And if not, why should you lead the Republican Party of Virginia?