If anyone was curious as to why the (Independent) Republican Party of Minnesota has had it’s electoral tuchus handed to it recently your gaze should settle right at the top, Ron Carey. From financial mismanagement, weak staffing, being outworked in the field, Ron Carey has hit all the bases of mediocrity. Although the Republican party suffered an embarrassing defeat in the SD25 special election there was always hope that this could be the year that he stopped the bleeding.
Nuh-huh.
Rest safe dear readers, Ron Carey went above and beyond the call of incompetence today.
Today it was announced that Carey is supporting and will be the chairman of Mike Huckabee’s MN campaign.
Wait — read that again. One more time for clarity. Got it?
The Chair of the Minnesota Republican Party is taking a leadership role in a campaign, that is participating in an election that he has extraordinary power to effect. Howard Dean nationally, and Brian Melendez locally haven’t endorsed in any endorsement race as far as I can figure; because the referee shouldn’t be playing for one of the teams.
If I’m a Republican caucus goer — how can I be sure that my vote is going to count, when I know the guy who controls the counting is working for one of the sides?
The responsibility of the chair of a political party is to first ensure that their party wins. How much can a Presidential campaign trust the state chair of a party if they worked actively against them in the endorsement race? The second responsibility is to run, promote, and build their party. Can Republican activists trust the state party if they know the chair is actively working for a candidate that they may not support? (and as Pawlenty’s for McCain, Coleman’s for Giuliani, and Seifert’s for Thompson it’s pretty fair to say lots of people in Minnesota don’t support the Huck) One of the most important responsibilities of any leader (not just a party chair) is the bring people together. And this isn’t going to do that. The Republican Party in Minnesota has a lot of work to do this year (I’m just saying guys — I want to beat you, but come on it should at least be a fight! There’s no fun if you all just roll over) can Ron Carey devote the time to the state Republican party that is required of him, while supporting and promoting Mike Huckabee’s candidacy?
I’m not about to say that the members of the Republican Central Committee should do anything — how they run their party is their own business (although, given their success recently they might want to branch out on whose advice they listen to), but as a DFL Executive Committee member, if Brian Melendez endorsed a candidate pre-endorsement let alone actively supported and was the chair of their state campaign, my fat Polish ass would be standing on a table at the next DFL Central Committee meeting shouting for his immediate resignation.
Finally, this story has been floating around since at least 11AM and there is one pretty spectacular set crickets going at MinnesotaDemocratsExposed — Mike has written about Minnesota Republicans endorsing Presidential candidates previously but this unprecedented story has received bupkes from MDE. Is Michael as ashamed and bewildered by the actions of his paymaster as most every other freethinking political activist in the state?
Update: Just thought of this. Is Ron Carey going to be fundraising for Mike Huckabee? If so, how do the Republicans in the state feel about him asking donors for dough when he’s got his own party to worry about?
Update 2: IIRC the RPM chair is paid. Again, IIRC, this was one of Joe Repya’s talking points during his election (he was going to be a volunteer). If Ron Carey is paid — is he going to be paid by the Republican Party of Minnesota while working for Mike Huckabee’s campaign?
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This is awesome… Thanks!
buaaaaahahahahhahahaahahhaahhahah…
Say g’night MN GOP! FF
Damnit I hate when Democrats are right. Kudos to MN Publius on this one.
What the hell is Carey thinking?
Ron Carey and Michele Bachmann, the gifts that just keep on giving.
Let’s not forget the other factor — the long history of a ….strained, shall we say? relationship between Ron Carey and Tim Pawlenty, who’s supporting John McCain. I’m curious to see how that dynamic plays out.
The MNGOP continues it downward spiral towards implosion.
First of all boys at MNPublius, he is the state party chair and he can do whatever he wants as an activist that can be separate from his party chair responsibilities. This sort of thing happens every four years, people within the same party disagree on what other people are doing in the presidential race, it comes with the territory of politics.
Second, Joe Repya was NOT running on a platform of a volunteer chair. He advocated for a cut in the chair’s salary but under no circumstances was he going to be a volunteer. Everyone knows that he was doing it because he wanted another steady paycheck, especially since McCain was not going to pay him (which after McCain wins NH tomorrow night, how is the Thompson campaign going to be traeting you Joe?).
Third, to Joe Bodell. The Governor and Chairman Carey have a wonderful relationship. The Governor emphatically stuck out his neck and went way above and beyond advocating for a second Ron Carey term as state party chair. The Governor put out letters and spoke on his behalf. Why would I expect you to know anything about any inner workings of the GOP though, you are far from a credible source within DFL circles from what I hear.
Bwaaaa-haaaa-haaa!
I’m sure your sources are solid, gopgal. Then again, at least I’m not hiding behind a pseudonym.
“… he is the state party chair and he can do whatever he wants as an activist that can be separate from his party chair responsibilities.”
This is one of the sillier things I’ve heard out of a grown ups mouth. Ron Carey isn’t ‘an activist’ he the activist for the Republican party in the state of Minnesota.
As the Chair of the Party he is charged with representing the Party — all of it’s activists, all of it’s donors, all of it’s voters. He doesn’t get to be Joe Blow supporting Mike Huckabee because it’s his professional responsibility to be the activist for all those folks — it’s his responsibility to be their leader.
There is no off and on switch for him. He can’t be “Ron Carey Chair of the IR” at 4:59 and “Ron Carey, humble chairman of the Choirboys for Huckabee, Minnesota Chapter” at 5:01.
“This sort of thing happens every four years, people within the same party disagree on what other people are doing in the presidential race, it comes with the territory of politics.”
Actually it doesn’t GOPGal — when you read the news coverage of this, you’ll actually read things like…
In what may be a historic first in Minnesota politics, state Republican Party Chairman Ron Carey today endorsed Mike Huckabee for president and announced he would serve as honorary chairman for the former Arkansas governor’s fledgling campaign in Minnesota.
http://www.twincities.com/allheadlines/ci_7904700?nclick_check=1
In an unusual move, Ron Carey announced his personal
endorsement.
Brian Sullivan, a businessman and Republican National Committee member who is supporting Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
“Traditionally, the chairman doesn’t endorse particular candidates because his job as head of the party is to help all Republicans win and essentially not introduce a bias for one candidate over another,” Sullivan said.
“It’s hard to disassociate what he wants to do personally from what his official capacity is,” Sullivan said. “I don’t think that that’s possible.”
http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/president/13508721.html
“The move is unusual…”
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/collections/special/columns/polinaut/archive/2008/01/state_gop_chair.shtml?rsssource=1
It’s unusual for the leading party official to take sides during a hotly contested nomination battle.
http://wkbt.com/Global/story.asp?S=7589506
Now I know I’m going to sound like some college-edjumacated-elitist-liberal-goober but all of those things mean “this ain’t never happened before, and if it did, it was a stupid idea all those times too…”
Ron Carey continues his forward progress in making the state Republican party smaller, not larger.
I can hear the big checkbooks all around Lake Minnetonka slamming shut. Nice.
Carey has done nothing but hurt the GOP.
Gopgirl, I’ve got to wade through my crush on you and agree with Sean on this one, and I like the Huckster.
Huckiepoo may be a fundy who rejects science and news but, he actually gives a damn about poor people which is a lot more than the others could try to say. Plus he drives Andy Aprilowski crazier, that’s worth seeing him prevail in some of these primaries alone.
Carey is paid to do a job that carries a 24 hour a day title. When Hucks list him as Chair of his MN Campaign, it will no doubt say MNGOP Chair Ron Carey. Not, Ronald F. Carey.
Pawlenty gets along with Carey like Hillary and Bill did in late 1998, they have to or they both could loose everything political. You’re involved and know some of those staffers and you know the deal that relationship. Repya was so damn awful, those two had to come together or the party’s Exec Director would have been AAA.
This post did inform me that Sullivan is supporting Romney. One rich kid who got richer on daddy’s money supporting another. Big shock.
This bites. As a former MN-GOP staffer (who now lives out of state), the party chair should not be endorsing a candidate. That’s what our caucus/party convention system is for. Delegates endorse, party supports. Incumbents and candidates can certainly support whomever they want, but the party chairmanship is bigger than individuals. This was a mistake on Ron Carey’s part, and he should say so.
And for what little it’s worth, I’m actually a Huckabee supporter, so it’s not even about WHO Carey chose - it’s about THAT he chose.
One small, slightly now off topic, correction DJZ: “This post did inform me that Sullivan is supporting Romney. One rich kid who got richer on daddy’s money supporting another. Big shock.”
Actually, yeah, Sullivan comes from money, but he has earned all his coin (all the mounds of it) on his own. Daddy didn’t have that much to do with it.
I figure if I, as a GOP-er, have to be intellectually honest, everyone else needs to be, too… ;-)
I fail to see the big deal here, we must have a fundamental disagreement here. I believe that Ron Carey, as Brian Sullivan, Tony Sutton, and Evie Axdahl are all free to do whatever they choose in the way of the presidential race. Now if one of these people is using their power and influence then it is a completely different story. When things go out for Romney it has Sullivan’s title on the release.
Joe,
My sources are far better than you could ever guess. You are joke in the DFL.
GOPgal, please keep saying that Ron Carey’s lastest epic blunder doesn’t matter.
The Democrats are thrilled to have your help.
Sean - well done post. I have to agree - this was not a smart move on the Chairman’s part at all.
Gopgal - YOU of all people should know that Evie Axdahl, Tony Sutton and Brian Sullivan are ALL VOLUNTEERS and Ron Carey is a VERY WELL PAID employee of the MN GOP and the MN GOP (his employers) are made up of all of the grass roots activists, including Andy Aplikowski, Michael Brodkob, you and I! In the end, as an employee he has to answer to the majority of the MNGOP shareholders who are his employer and if the majority sees an inherent conflict of interest (which as Sean laid out is very real) well then the Chairman has a huge problem on his hands.
Personally, I don’t want to see him fired - but I would like to see him make a choice between the MNGOP and the Huckabee campaign. LL