NEVADA GOP CHIEF USHERS IN EXCITING NEW ERA
Over
the past year Michael McDonald has cemented himself as perhaps the most
consequential Nevada Republican Party chairman since John Mason rode herd over
the party faithful in the mid-1990s. I
should know; I was Chairman Mason’s first executive director in 1995.
This
is no mean feat. Under Mason’s
leadership Republicans in Nevada became the majority party for the first time
since Reconstruction, hosted the most financially successful Western States
Republican Leadership Conference (WSRLC) in the regional event’s history,
oversaw the election of a Republican governor in 1998 and a Republican U.S.
senator in 2000.
Big
shoes to fill. But here are three big
developments under McDonald’s watch that come close to rivaling Mason’s
accomplishments.
1.) Republican National Convention
The
idea of Las Vegas hosting the GOP’s national convention grew out of the success
of the 1995 WSRLC at the MGM Grand. It
was a great idea that just never caught fire.
Indeed,
it was a great idea that laid dormant until the April 2013 Republican National
Committee (RNC) meeting in Beverly Hills, California where McDonald resurrected
and began promoting it, not just within the RNC, but among Nevadans as well.
By
August, McDonald’s spark of an idea began spreading like a brushfire. Since the Nevada GOP, by law, is unable to
serve as the organizing committee, a separate non-profit group, Las Vegas 2016,
was established and has since done a fantastic job in positioning Vegas as a
finalist for hosting this extremely prestigious event.
The
final decision will be made by the RNC this summer. If Vegas wins, baby, thank Chairman McDonald.
But even if we miss out on 2016, it’s
now more likely than unlikely that a future national convention will come to
Sin City.
2.) Primary endorsements
I,
along with many others, have long advocated pre-primary endorsements. But even under Chairman Mason we were never
able to persuade enough other members of the Central Committee to abandon its
position of neutrality in primaries and take a more active leadership role.
But
at the 2014 Nevada Republican Party convention under McDonald’s leadership and
direction, elected delegates ratified for the first time a pre-primary
endorsement policy and issued its first seals of approval. And because of it, the GOP’s official
top-of-the-ticket this election cycle consists of a Hispanic, Gov. Brian
Sandoval, and a woman, former state Sen. Sue Lowden.
For
a party that has faced challenges with both of those demographics, this is a
hugely symbolic accomplishment. It also
brings some philosophical balance, with conservative Lowden pushing the ticket
rightward from Sandoval’s middle-of-the-road record.
3.) Party Platform
For
many, many years now, many Republicans have complained that an over-emphasis on
certain hot-button social issues – particularly abortion and gay marriage –
have hurt the party with independent voters in general elections.
Whether
that’s true or not will continue to be hotly debated for years to come, I’m
sure. But rightly or wrongly, for better
or worse, the Nevada Republican Party at its convention this year became, I
believe, the first state party in the nation to adopt a platform that is silent
on both the abortion and gay marriage issues.
Now,
contrary to some of the hysterics I’ve read from some social conservatives who
are extremely unhappy with this decision, it doesn’t mean the Nevada Republican
Party is now pro-abortion and anti-marriage.
What it means is that convention delegates recognized that there are a
lot of good Republicans who take opposing views on these two issues for a
variety of reasons and, therefore, the party is taking a neutral position on
them and letting the candidates and voters address them as they see fit.
And
while this decision could certainly backfire and both issues could be added
back into the platform in 2016, my guess is they won’t – and that a growing
number of other state GOP parties will follow Nevada’s lead in the future.
Maybe
even in the national platform adopted at the 2016 Republican National
Convention in Las Vegas where the Nevada GOP’s endorsed candidate for president
will be crowned!
FIRST FRIDAY HAPPY HOUR
Julia Schliesing, crowned
Miss Minneapolis in January, will be competing for Miss Minnesota in June and
if successful will represent the Gopher State in the Miss America Pageant in
the fall. Julia is a self-described
libertarian-leaning conservative who has been active on the campus carry issue
at the University of Minnesota and hopes to one day run for public office. And she’ll be our First Friday Happy Hour VIP
guest-of-honor tomorrow night. Click
here for details
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
“Deloitte
Consulting expressed little confidence in the (Silver State Exchange) website
builder, Xerox, and found plenty wrong with the health link’s rollout, which
began Oct. 1. About 30 pages of the consultant’s 99-page report listed website
or procedural flaws in areas ranging from project management to technology.” – Las Vegas
Review-Journal on the ObamaCare exchange imposed on Nevadans by Gov. Brian
Sandoval and his valet, Sen. Mark Hutchison
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