(page 3 of 3)
IBMadison.com exclusive:
Unfortunately, all that hard work was undermined by a handful of people (or kingmakers, as I learned they are called in the industry) who decided on their own who the candidate would be. How ironic that so much emphasis was placed on candidates visiting many of these remote counties to meet voters in person, only to learn that they didn’t return the favor by staying around on Sunday for a few hours in order to vote, and unfortunately demonstrating that in the end, touring those counties didn’t actually matter for the endorsement.
Keep in mind that many county delegates told me that they had never heard of Johnson, because he never toured the state to meet the core Republican constituency. In fact, one odd thing about Johnson is that he admitted on talk radio to making his decision to enter the race after ObamaCare was past (which passed the Senate on Christmas Eve), but then he deliberately chose to sit out the most difficult part of the campaign, the Lincoln Day Dinner circuit, during which he would have had the opportunity to meet thousands of voters (more on that later). So while he was home resting easy for four months, I was beating the bushes traveling the state and meeting the voters. And believe me, it wasn’t easy. I was gone at a dinner every night Thursday through Monday, plus Saturdays and Sundays every single weekend, putting in 17 hour days like the other candidates, seven days a week.
Personally, I believe that the counties that either left the convention early or voted for a candidate that did not visit their county did themselves a huge disservice. In fact, they disempowered themselves. You see, endorsing a candidate that did not participate in the Lincoln Day Dinner circuit now means that the dinner circuit is pointless. Every candidate I spoke with following the convention stated the obvious: the message to all future Republican candidates is now this – skip the Lincoln Day Dinners and instead, show up right before the convention, throw a lot of money and promises around, and buy yourself the endorsement. I would not expect future Lincoln Day Dinners to have as many candidates show up as they did this year because of this year’s process, and that’s really unfortunate for democracy.
Sadly, some people later said to me, “that’s politics” or “you should have had your own negative campaign,” implying that I too should have engaged in the same dirty tricks campaign against my opponents, but that’s not me. And how many times did I hear my fellow Republicans remind us candidates not to make negative comments against each other – only to reward a candidate whose plan included spreading lies and rumors.
I have even been told after the convention by a few delegates that they are so appalled at the “process,” that they are resigning from the party.
So, here we are today, with a dilemma, where do I go from here? How do I help get this economy turned around? How can I help all those small business owners and unemployed workers? Do I try to change the process from the inside or do I try to influence from the outside? Or do I do nothing?
The kingmakers are counting on their lies and deceit being kept quiet; much like honor among thieves. Well, I care too much about this country to remain silent. We’ve all seen enough of this kind of behavior from the other side; we don’t need it on our side. If we as a Republican Party ever want to expand our Big Tent, as Ronald Reagan described it, we need to put an end to the kingmakers and let the people decide. There’s too much at stake now.
So, why am I telling you all this? Is it sour grapes? A sore loser? No. If we, as a party, don’t admit that something seriously went wrong at our convention, then we’ll never learn our lesson, and we’ll never correct our mistakes.
I am disclosing these eye witness accounts because now that I have had time to think about my choices, I couldn’t sleep knowing that this kind of activity occurred within my own party. I would be just as guilty if I let behavior like this remain secret. (But what really set me off was being told that if I ever wanted to have a future “career in politics,” that I should remain silent. There’s only one thing that they are forgetting – I’m not interested in a career in politics!) I just wanted to fix the economy and then get out so I can go back to building buildings and creating jobs.
(Stay tuned. Wall has more to tell in next month’s more humorous edition of Up Against the Wall.)
Sign up for the free IB Update — your weekly resource for local business news, analysis, voices and the names you need to know. Click here.
