Retakeourgov's Wes Nakagiri challenging Brian Calley

I caught this in an email this morning. Retakeourgov is based in my county, and I've known Wes since 2009 or 2010.

Hartland, MI - Wes Nakagiri, a TEA Party leader from Hartland, Michigan, announced today that he will be seeking the Republican nomination for Lieutenant Governor in 2014.  The founder of RetakeOurGov, Nakagiri has submitted his Statement of Organization to the Bureau of Elections, the first step in forming his campaign committee.
“I am running to bring a conservative voice to the current Lansing administration.  Having a grassroots conservative on the 2014 ticket will energize the base of the GOP to come out and work hard on its behalf.  This energy and enthusiasm will pay dividends up and down the ballot,” said Nakagiri.
It is widely known that a majority in the Republican Party are at odds with major policy initiatives being pushed by the current administration.  “TEA Party Republicans, conservative Republicans, traditional Republicans, and libertarian-leaning Republicans are strongly opposed to the proposed expansion of Medicaid and proposed increase in the gasoline tax,” Nakagiri noted.  “The sentiment among many segments of the GOP is having a conservative, freedom-minded individual in Lansing would be beneficial from both a policy and a political point of view,” continued Nakagiri. 
Nakagiri went on to say, “The expansion of Medicaid is a particular sore spot with many Republicans.  There is no doubt that the expansion of Medicaid is a key component of Obamacare.  Indeed, this expansion is directly at odds with the Republican Party platform.  Many in the party are disillusioned that our executive leadership is going against a key plank in our platform.”
Building on this point Nakagiri added, “Violating the platform is analogous to breaking a contract with the Republican voter.  Our word should be our bond.  When I’m elected as Lieutenant Governor I will not sit passively by when Republican Party leadership promotes legislation that does not coincide with the party’s stated vision.  I will be an outspoken advocate for following the United States Constitution, the Michigan Constitution, and the Republican Platform.”
Nakagiri will be in Lansing this week to urge Senators to vote against the expansion of Medicaid.  A close vote is expected, perhaps even a 19-19 tie.  In the case of a tie the Lieutenant Governor would cast the tie-breaking vote.  To this Nakagiri said, “I can guarantee that if I were the Lieutenant Governor I would be voting against expansion.  It is mind-boggling to many that we as a society would even think about piling more debt on the backs of future generations.  We really need to focus on expanding freedom, not government.”

More information about Wes Nakagiri is available at his campaign website, www.WesYes.com.

  

This is a little bit less conventional than challenging Snyder in a primary. Traditionally, Lt was just chosen by the governor, and was usually a state senator, as the Lt Gov is president of the senate and a tiebreaking vote. 

I'm reading three things from this.  

1. Wes is trying to put pressure on the legislature to stop Medicaid expansion. That's his big issue.  There are others as well, but that's generated a lot of heat. He would not have announced this now if the issue isn't a major one with grassroots. 

2. Wes wants the tie-breaking vote if applicable. Is that a big deal? It can be. The pension tax was a tiebreaking vote.

3. Wes wants the tea party to have more party influence. Wes will accomplish this just by running. 

Most people don't know how the Lt Governor is elected. It's usually a formality. The governor has his person, and the state delegates confirm it. Can Wes beat Calley? Yes. There's a way he can do it.  

How is this done?

It starts before May next year. People file and run for precinct delegate. What Wes will be doing is to recruit people to run for precinct delegate in the 2014 primary. Historically, precinct delegate positions have been unopposed in Livingston County. That will likely not be the case next year.  In Oakland, there's been contests in most areas for years. 

In August, we will be voting for precinct delegates in the primary along with many major partisan races like Governor, Senator, State Senate, State House, and County Commissioners. 

The precinct delegate candidates who win will be invited to a county convention soon afterward where delegates to state convention will vote on the nominees for Lt Governor (Calley, Wes, or someone else), Attorney General, Secretary of State, Supreme Court (although not other courts), and university trustees. 

After that is the general election, but there's another important election after the major elections - the party leadership elections. There will first be a county party leadership election for executive committee and the officers. There will then be another county convention that elects delegates to state convention where district and state party leadership is elected. 

Are the precinct delegate positions important? Absolutely, since that is where the voter pool comes from for these offices. I expect them to get a lot more attention in more areas than they are used to getting. Some of us might have to run an actual campaign now.  

 

Pick your battles - is it worth it?

There's a lot of inside baseball dust ups and gamesmanship going on right now with RNC convention away from the speeches. There's plenty of blame that could be spread around, and a lot of it could be avoided with common sense.

I preface this by saying the following. I voted for Ron Paul in 2008 and Rick Santorum in 2012 during the primaries. I held my nose and voted for McCain in 08 and will be holding my nose and voting for Romney this year to get rid of Obama, Eric Holder, and the rest of his cabinet. I don't consider myself a "Paulite" and don't follow his supporters 100%  I don't consider myself one that always sides with - or against - "leadership." I call things as I see them. I don't like coronations on any side. Pushing a coronation on me is a good way to get my opposition. That was one of the reasons I did not support Romney - or Paul - in this year's primary. Coronation tactics and takeover tactics. Make your case and I'll make my own decision. That's why we have primaries.

Many conservatives, and almost all the Ron Paul supporters went apeshit at this vote at the RNC convention. Now I support the first part of the rule 16 (primary binding), but not the second part with disavowing if the candidate and state party does not support them. I would support the disavowing for the presidential vote at the convention, but not the other votes with the other committees.

I have three problems with the rule.

1. HOW it was enacted. That's shown at the video posted at Right Michigan Bus games, and an Obama style script from a teleprompter wasn't needed.

2. Would the disavowing delegate occur for the presidential vote only, or for the rules committees and other stuff as well?

3. It wasn't needed. Mitt already won and had the votes. This was probably about avoiding future floor fights from the camera. Now I don't like airing stuff in front of cameras or even in public meetings. If I have a problem with a leadership decision, I'll usually give my gripes in private behind the scenes. It's more effective that way. On the same note, in the era of youtube, that's impossible to do no matter what if something is taped.

But in reality, this doesn't do that much, except potentially protecting themselves from laziness. It wasn't needed and Mitt had the votes. This is a much different era of primaries in 2012 than it was in 1976 with the rise of the internet, cable news, talk radio, and everything else. People harken back to the brokered convention in 76. That was 36 years ago. I wasn't born yet. I've seen a lot of changes in primary elections just in the years I've followed politics.

If you want a "tea party" or "liberty candidate" as the video says - to win, you plan this long before the convention.

This wasn't nearly as bad as the extra delegate which cost Saul Anuzis his position as RNC committeeman. That wasn't needed either and in the end didn't make a difference, but could have potentially been a much bigger problem. I like Saul and he's a good guy who's done a lot for grassroots that is overlooked, but that was a bad decision. We all make them at some point.

What both of those things where -  was equivalent to Terrell Owens celebrating on the Dallas Star at Cowboy's stadium in an infamous football game. 

This was stupid. It wasn't needed. It didn't do much of anything except rub it in the faces of people the leadership do not like. It's bad tactics, just like hostile takeover attempts from the other side are also bad tactics. It's short term thinking that is a long run failure.

I'm repeating myself with this one phrase. "It wasn't needed." Certain people in leadership didn't need to pick the battle. No good was going to come from it. There's other battles that didn't need to be picked. That's not limited to one side either. Some of the Ron Paul folks wanted to try and get a floor fight to replace Romney as the nominee. They lost it after they lost the primaries with their candidate finishing way back in the pack. Shit happens. My candidate lost too. Take your lumps like we did. On to the general election and it's time to improve through downticket races and gaining support of voters so more parts of our platforms become enacted - long term.

Now some (not all) of the Paul supporters want Obama to win out of spite through 3rd party votes in the hopes that future candidates would beg them for support. That won't get support and will cost immensely. That would get the entire Paul movement smashed forever and destroyed by any means necessary - and most conservatives would join in the smashing because as much of a problem Romney is, Obama is that much worse. It won't be "We can control the election, you need us" like some of them want. It will be "F-you. Obama won or almost won. You helped him. Time for your movement to die." If you become viewed as poison, everything you touch - including your issues - also turns to poison because will be tied "with those people."

The most important thing in politics is relationships. While it is inevitable that bridges sometimes get burned, it's important to avoid it when it is avoidable. I've had good relationships with people in the party despite at times being in heated disagreements. We both understood the reasons for our actions, and while there was even some hard feelings at the time, it wasn't personal. They weren't my enemy, and at the end of the day they didn't help THE enemy. Helping the enemy however, is a whole other matter. That's as cardinal of a sin as backstabbing. I will never ever forget the bastards and pieces of trash who were "conservatives" or "republicans" for Obama in 08. They helped give us Obamacare, the stimulus, Eric Holder, bad SCOTUS picks, tax increases, record debt, record deficits, and a vastly increase government. The establishment can't smash those who support different primary candidates, especially those who are willing to work within the party. Those that lose - whether it be the "moderates" (by far the worst offenders), libertarians, Paul supporters, conservatives, or anyone else need to suck it up and not campaign and use threats to spite the winner.


The reality however is this. None of the gamesmanship was needed, nor effective in their goals. In reality, it didn't do much, if anything. It did not effect the outcome. If you want to elect a presidential candidate in the primary, convention is only one small portion of it. You have to win enough delegates in the primaries and caucuses in enough states. RNC rule changes only affect a small portion of this, usually with scheduling of primaries. Most of the power is done through the state level through state committee and also with the state legislature/governor.  Even a lot of the scheduling is done there. 

The way to stop the bad stuff is to make sure we have good committeemen and good state chair and state committee members, and make sure other states do the same thing. That's how bad rules get stopped.  It starts locally, but electing good precinct delegates, executive committee members, county officers, district committee and officers, and state committee members, along with RNC committee members is how it is done. It's long term, and takes a lot of organization, recruitment of good candidates for those positions, and reaching out to swing voters that make decisions. 

Also, there's statutory members automatically on those exec committees. They are your county elected officials (or nominees). Those are important people and will always some of the power regarding county officers. That county commissioner race is important. 

I've been at this 11 years. Some have been around longer. Many have not. Most don't know how to organize. Most who do know how to organize don't know how to convince the swing voters and alienate them (happens with all cliques) with takeover attempts and power grabs (or what seem like them), and airing stuff to the media that should be handled in house. There's battles to fight. There's battles not worth fighting. All or nothing is a failure. Picking the battles at the right time after paying one's dues with the party, is the correct way to handle things. 

In other words, all sides need to think long term, swallow their pride, don't celebrate like TO did, pick the right battles, and stay cool.

RINO alert (Allen Carlson) and Deadline for candidates and precinct delegate filing - May 15, 2012

May 15th - Tuesday. 4PM. Save that date. It's a big one for the August primary. All candidates who wish to run in the August primary must be ready to file on that day. The petitions must be turned in, or the payment received, depending on the office. For precinct delegates, all that is needed is a notarized affidavit turned in. I've turned mine in a long time ago, and there's notaries at the county clerk's office.

You can take a look and see who has filed for most offices on the Secretary of State's page. Here's the listing of filed congressmen, state reps, and judicial offices.  The deadline has passed already for judicial offices. Most congressional candidates have not files because they take more petition signatures. State reps can get petitions or pay $100.

In Livingston County, the clerk's office posted online those who have filed so far for County and Township races. Some people who will likely run are sandbagging to the last minute. Many have filed already. Most are republicans, although a couple of those republicans I've found are RINOS in the truest sense. Republican in Name Only. Allen Carlson in Hamburg Township, running for treasurer there as a Republican, is a gigantic RINO. Allen Carlson donated to the House Democrats fund, and is running as a republican. He also voted democrat in the 08 primary when there was a contest on both sides. He also currently has no opponent. The other RINO's I've seen so far at least have contested races in primaries. I have no respect at all for that. If you're a democrat, run as one. Annette Koeble is running as a democrat for trustee. She also voted dem in the 08 primary, as you would expect. Be who you are.

Receiving Committee Name Committee ID-Type	Sched Type	Received From Address Occupation-Employer	City State Zip	Date	Amount	Cumul

---

MI HOUSE DEMOCRATIC FUND MHDA 502755-IND

DIRECT

PATRICIA CARLSON (Address Removed)

WHITMORE LAKE MI 48189-0000

09/13/10

$30.00

$30.00

---

MI HOUSE DEMOCRATIC FUND MHDA 502755-IND

DIRECT

ALLEN CARLSON (Address Removed)

WHITMORE LAKE MI 48189-0000

02/08/06

$25.00

$25.00

---

MI HOUSE DEMOCRATIC FUND MHDA 502755-IND

DIRECT

ALLEN CARLSON (Address removed)

WHITMORE LAKE MI 48189-0000

04/12/06

$15.00

$40.00

Now if that's not good enough,Newsmeat has one more. Now Patricia Carlson isn't Allen, but since Allen donated to dems as well, this can give a clue of the type of democrat who is supported there.

Contributor	Candidate or PAC	Amount	Date	FEC Filing
CARLSON, PATRICIA M WHITMORE LAKE, MI 48189 MADONNA UNIVERSITY	STABENOW, DEBBIE (D) Senate - MI STABENOW FOR US SENATE	$300 primary	06/24/99

The dangerously incompetent one herself, Debbie Stabenow. So if you're in Hamburg and reading this, and don't like what you see - please find someone good with accounting or tax law background, and get them to run. I'd consider it, but I don't live in Hamburg.

I don't use the term RINO for liberal Republicans like Rudy Giuliani or Olympia Snowe or even glory hounds like John McCain or Lindsay Graham. When I use the term RINO, I save it for those who back democrats or are sore losers in primaries and run as "independents" or switch parties. Charlie Crist, Arlen Specter, Larry Pressler (Obama supporter), Chuck Hagel (Obama), Lisa Murkowski (primary loser), Joe Schwarz, John Steward (former state rep) and people like that. Those are the RINOs.

Oftentimes grass roots call those in the establishment RINOs. Usually they aren't RINOs, but they are very pragmatic, sometimes correctly, and sometimes to a fault. The job of establishment republicans is to elect republicans. Period. Where I have problems with establishment is when the NRSC idiots announce that they are not contesting a race when their primary pick loses. It's a stupid move that allows democrats to stop spending there. I also have a problem when NRSC endorses in primaries. There's not much that can be done about caucus committee establishments.

However, RNC, MIGOP, District GOP, and County GOP leadership is picked from precinct delegates. Either precinct delegates choose directly, as in the case of county party, or they send delegates to state. The delegates sent to state convention caucus in district and pick their district party. They then vote on state party leadership - as well as some partisan offices at different conventions. At the next convention, we pick our RNC committeeman.

So if you are a grass roots republican and want to have some control in party politics, there's your chance. Run for precinct delegate in the August primary. If you win, you then get to vote on who goes to state conventions, as well as directly vote for county party executive committees. If you want my support however, you'd have to do more than just show up at conventions. Show up at the county meetings as minimum. I tend to reward those who do work and not just complain.

This Tuesday, we'll know officially who is in and who is out. Stay tuned.

The Republican Party - Grass Roots vs Establishment? It's more complicated than that.

You don't have to look far to know that there's a rift in the Republican Party right now. A lot, although not all, of the grass roots do not like Mitt Romney. A lot, although not all, of the establishment in the party support Romney. There's still hard feelings, and if SCOTUS and Eric Holder weren't going to be big issues, I'd be voting Libertarian for President this year. I'll probably hold my nose and take one for the team, but I'm going to be concentrating my actual campaign efforts on downticket and non partisan races this year. Our Senate nominee, 8th District stuff, judges, and county.

With the Romney campaign and their allies on Fox News getting their way, a lot of people are railing against "the establishment." There's actually multiple establishments. I'll admit that I sometimes use the term the establishment, but there is always one thing we need to keep in mind when it comes to actual GOP establishments. If there is a bad GOP establishment, in most cases who is to blame? Republican VOTERS. The establishment is there because voters allow it to be there. Most GOP establishment with the exception of caucus is either directly or indirectly elected.

There's nothing we can do about the decisions made by caucus except to give our reps an earful. Caucus is NRSC, NRCC, and their state equivalents. The only thing we can do there is not donate. I've long said that NRSC especially shouldn't receive a dime, especially after the same clowns who run it were reappointed. I generally limit my donations to individual candidates or to accounts which I have control or at least veto power either officially, or unofficially. 

Anyone who is complaining about the establishment needs to step up to the plate or they need to shut up. Marco Rubio said it best in 2010 when the establishment pushed RINO Charlie Crist. “If you are unhappy with the Republican establishment, then let’s get a new establishment.”  Some think because the Tea Party was a big deal in 2010 that they automatically get what they want. It doesn't work that way. The Republican Party has a 160 year history. 3 years is a footnote in that history. 2 years is one election cycle. I've seen a lot of leaders come and go, and I've been involved in party politics as long as I've been a republican. 11 years active. State Party has had five chairs in that short amount of time. Livingston County GOP has had six chairs in that time. 8th District has had at least four that I know of.

This is how things work.

May - Filing deadline. Precinct Delegate candidates file to run for their position.

August - Primary elections. Precinct Delegate candidates run in the primary election. They are often, but not always unopposed.

What do precinct delegates do? A lot of people will say different things about a precinct delegate's responsibilities, but in reality there are two jobs for precinct delegates.

1. Pick the delegates to state conventions at your county conventions. 

2. After November, select your county executive committee, which picks its officers. 

That's it. There's a lot of other things precinct delegates SHOULD be doing, but those are the main responsibilities.

Different things happen at different state conventions. The next one elects RNC Committeeman/Committewoman (full convention) for and delegates (by district) for the National Convention that formally nominates Romney. I was not a Romney supporter in the primary, and he won the 8th district, so there's no chance I'd win even if I was running for that.

A future convention after August and before November nominates candidates for Supreme Court and the university trustees.

After the November election, we have county conventions for party leadership, as then a state convention for state party and district leadership.

The bottom is that here in Michigan, if we like, or dislike (or in some cases both) what state party, district party, or county party is doing, something can be done about it. If you don't like what I'm doing on 8th district and you're a district resident, you can and try and toss me off the committee. If you like what I'm doing, you can keep me on there. I'm biased, but I'm supporting incumbents for the 8th District if they choose to run again. I think we've come a long ways from what we started before the current leadership. We still have a ways to go to get to my standards, but it's moving in the right direction.

It takes organization, campaign ability, patience, and effort to get positions on committees and to do a good job on those committees. Those that don't have that and like to just sit around and bitch shouldn't be in charge or on committees anyway.

Folks that I support for delegates or committee positions are those who do the work, first and foremost. I don't vote based on your consultant ties, or even your presidential decision. While ideology is an issue to some degree, competence is a bigger one with me. Those who show up at meetings and more importantly do things are those who get my support. I actively vote against Johnny come lately types who because they have a title of some sort, think we should bow down to them because they think they are important.

The bottom line though is that most of the "establishment" is picked, indirectly, by Michigan Republican Primary voters. If you want to make changes to the party,  it starts in May with filings, and  August with elections. It's put up or shut up time for critics.