Vancouver resident Ann Donnelly offers her perspective on the Clark County Republican Party’s decision not to recognize Third Congressional District candidate
Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are those of the author alone and do not reflect the editorial position of ClarkCountyToday.com
I agree with Julia Dawn Seaver’s assessment of the vote Republican PCOs took recently to deny “recognition as a Republican” to long-time noted Republican Leslie Lewallen. That vote will harm Joe Kent and the entire Republican Party. It already has done so. I hear other Republicans and Independents in our community commenting on such an unrealistic and narrow-minded move. Democrats supporting Marie Gluesenkamp Perez are crowing.
All of this dissension is reflected onto Joe Kent, who doesn’t deserve it. At least one articulate Kent supporter at the meeting disagreed with the majority vote, realizing how unfair it would be to deny recognition to someone who just a few years before had been recognized as a Republican when she ran for Camas City Council. When I had a chance to speak, I recalled hearing from Lewallen how active she had been in the Federalist Society, meeting extensively with a hero of both hers and mine – Antonin Scalia.
Some poorly informed PCOs believe such a move to deny Lewallen recognition will keep Lewallen off the ballot, which is of course absurd. If she so chooses, she has the freedom – yes, the freedom – to file for election as a Republican. She does not need the benefits of recognition very much, such as her literature in the Fair Booth and Republican HQ, and access to our mailing lists. She can duplicate those functions herself.
As a party, we Republicans believe in personal freedom and civic freedom. Yet some who voted in the majority to turn their backs on Lewallen adopted a totalitarian approach. Hero patriot Joe Kent does not deserve to be represented in that manner.
Ann Donnelly
Vancouver
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In this article we have more hand-wringing and gross misrepresentations about the strategic decision by the Clark County Republican precinct committee officers (PCOs).
In the last 3rd CD race we had the typical primary battle that left the winner bloodied, exhausted, and low on cash. That primary winner was Joe Kent and he still nearly won the general election despite massive amounts of establishment money spent against him and multiple layers of voting system issues.
The political establishment absolutely does not want reformers like Joe Kent. Therefore they have been seeking another Republican to run–with a slight hope to win, but to definately attempt to cripple the reformer Kent. Candidate Leslie Lewallen agreed — this after other candidates of higher stature passed for reasons to do with why the PCO voted as they did.
To gain control of this expected establishment corruption 83% of the Clark County Republican PCO at the last quarterly PCO meeting voted to endorse Joe Kent for this position. This was a strategic move to tell the establishment and political opportunists that the grassroots PCOs are controlling this important candidate promotion. So when candidate Lewallan came to the Clark County Republican party seeking recognition for this political position and this particular time, she was overwhelming rejected as such would have been injecting an overt risk and dilution to the strategic focus just established a few weeks earlier.
Thank you to the approximate 70% of the resolved and strategic PCOs for taking control of this situation and denying the corrupt establishment a foot hold at this time. They will be back, but this action has put them back on their heals.
I am a one of the PCOs that voted in favor of the legally protected primary process.
I believe that no candidate should ever be chastised or told to drop out. It’s sends a bad message to other candidates interested in becoming a servant of the We the People. Republican are better than that.
Removing Republican recognition from a candidate previously recognized as a Republican seems petty and childish to me, But I fully understand why this embarrassing situation did occur, and is being touted as a majority opinon of the representative body.
As a Constitutional Conservative Republican I care deeply about this party and what it traditionally stands for, this cannot be the majority opinion of this representative body.
I agree with Ann that Kent may not deserve this blow back, and I fully support the open primary process and also his Constitutional right to run again after loosing the 2022 election, but the “blow back” … that is his own “collateral damage”.
I also voted to table the endorsement of any
candidate one year prior to the 2024 primary. I pleaded for support of local Republican candidates making them the ultimate priorty in 2023.
I warned that an early endorsement would muddy the field, over shadow and comprise the races of those local candidates who were brave enough to step forward and run for office.
History tells me, that there will be more “Collateral damage” before 2024.
I hope that that doesn’t happen.
My “democrat posing as a republican/rino” detection meter just pegged out in the danger zone regarding both of the “opinions” posted by two females opposed to what CCRP has decided.
Your detection meter is spot on. The author of this letter has a long history of sabotaging endorsed Republicans.
The author of this letter has a history of going against the PCO body of the CCRP, and actively trying to sabotage Republican endorsed candidate campaigns. 83% of the PCO body voted to endorse Joe. The minority opposition spoke (and spoke loudly) but were outvoted. A large majority of the PCO body does not want a divided primary and a repeat of 2022. The author’s actions are actually helping the Dems; perhaps she is a PCO for the wrong party.
Ann Donnelly would be right IF we lived in a closed primary state. We do not and therefore it is incumbent upon the elected party leadership to start expressing the desire to see some individuals drop out and others to be endorsed publicly.
Carolyn Crain, you are spot on!
I also appreciate those who have given us more detail about the vote discussed here.