By Steve Thompson, Chairman of the Butte County Republican Party
Recently, Jack has posted some articles about troubles within both the California Republican Assembly (CRA) and the California Republican Party (CRP). Although they are two different organizations with two separate issues, I’ve had some friends ask me what the difference was. I think what is worse is a lot of people don’t realize these are two separate groups (although related and often intermixed) so I thought I’d give my quick rundown here.
The CRP is made up of official county chapters of the Republican Party. Members are elected every two years by republican voters to represent them at the county and state level. We register voters, hold campaign schools, and provide a platform for republican candidates to spread their message. We try very hard to maintain a position of neutrality in primary races between republican competitors.
The CRA was established over 75 years ago by conservatives who wanted to be able to discern between conservative and moderate republicans. Although they are ratified by the CRP, they have their own charter, bylaws, board members, etc. Ronald Reagan once called them the “conscience of the republican party.”
One of the services that the CRA provides is its Legislative Scorecard. Here you can check out the voting records of CA Legislators and the CRA’s scoring of how conservative (or not) your legislators are. It’s a valuable resource that I check every year.
Aside from the Butte County Republican Party (aka Central Committee) we are represented by two chapters of the CRA, the North and South Butte chapters. We also happen to have two Republican Women Federated chapters (Chico & Oroville), and of course the Chico State Republicans on campus. Butte is well represented.
The CRA is only as strong as it’s membership though, and all organizations suffer when recruitment is down. I encourage good conservatives to find out about their local CRA chapters, attend meetings, and join up. When good people do nothing evil thrives.
As Jack mentioned several weeks ago, the state CRA went through some tough elections and a massive upheaval. Now is the time for healing and for conservatives to start working together. 2012 will be our year, but the liberals in this country will not make it easy. For the sake of America we have to prevail.
Thanks Steve, I’m sure our readers enjoy learning more about state politics and opportunities to get involved. I will use that link!
And now with those wanting to get involved there is another option with the new Conservative Republicans of California (CRC) forming. Applications are available now and pending CRP approval it, hopefully, will be up and running soon. Here is their website and they are on Facebook too.
calconservatives.com
It was very upsetting to witness the CRA elections in Sacramento last April, all of the infighting between long standing members, the dissolving of units all over the state, members being kicked out, and even disheartening to see Jacks amendment go down to such an overwhelming defeat. It should have never happened and was an example of a circular firing squad.
Options are good in that it provides different avenues for those with different and similar points of views to join together for a common cause. We need the best leaders in leadership positions for our country to survive. Steve is absolutely right, we need to work together to get them elected.
Peggy my jury is still out on the CRC. There’s little info on their website so far. I only notice in the bylaws that it looks like they want endorsing power. That is exactly what brought infighting to CRA and what will draw every campaign, or their supporters) up and down the state into the chapters.
Unless really good planning is in place, and trusted conservatives are given oversight of chapter formation, I fear this will lead to yet another battleground for our party.
They should start with a suspension on endorsements for a couple years to give them time to grow, and a fully open membership process. Next would be a CLEAR criteria of how they define conservatism, so that not just anyone can walk away with their endorsements (or buy it).
Until I see these kinds of motions I remain skeptical.
Steve, regarding the CRC, I went ahead and joined, hoping it will be sanctioned by the CRP. What I have heard is they do meet the requirements for CRP and this includes membership numbers.
As I understand it, the CRC intends to work on behalf of the CRP just as the CRA has done in past years, the only difference will be in some of their by-laws which tend to strengthen ethical considerations and only support candidates who meet a certain litmus test. Since the CRC has not been around long enough to offend anyone, I’m hoping they will be a bridge to attract new members and other members that were kicked out of the CRA or dropped out for some reason. If the CRC wasn’t available to these voters and activists I’m afraid we would just loose them and that would be a real shame. So consider the CRC like the Foreign Legion, we don’t care about your past, we only care about your loyalty to the corps and to what it represents, conservative values and the promotion of the CRP idealism.
I also joined for the same reasons Jack gave, and because I believe CRC will add to the conservative cause and be an avenue for informing voters about candidates.
More information and options are always better.
Like I said Jack, it’s promising but I have my doubts. There were too many people at the CRA convention of 2010 trying to get CRA to endorse Meg Whitman. There’s still a lot of people in our party who will sell out their conservatism for money, and I see no guarantee that they won’t take over CRC chapters just the same.
If a CRC chapter does start up in Butte County, it had better be an open and accountable process with the chance for ALL conservatives to join.
Steve, that is my understanding and I see no reason why not. If I hear of anything coming our way I will let you know via email. But, as far as I know it’s still on hold waiting for the CRP to wave their magic wand of approval.