The Case for Change at the Mass GOP

Recently, the Boston Herald featured an article entitled "State GOP Chief Pleads to Keep Her Job". 

You can read it yourself - http://bostonherald.com/news/politics/view.bg?articleid=1305784&format=comments#CommentsArea

In this article, Jennifer Nassour cites reasons as to why she should remain head of the Massachusetts GOP.  One reason Ms. Nassour cited is that the House delegation has doubled in this last election cycle.   While Ms. Nassour takes full credit for the State Rep victories, she neglects to admit that the State GOP had very little to NOTHING to do with those victories.  The money given to those campaigns was just about nil, with even less resources directed to those in House and Senate races.

Here is a quote from Ms. Nassour about the Governors race  “I think it’s unfair for them to blame anyone but the candidate and their campaign staff (for the losses),” Nassour said. “The party chair has nothing to do with the candidate’s loss.”  Yet, Ms. Nassour directed almost ALL of the State GOP's resources at the Governors race.  Why?  A job in the Baker administration perhaps?  Only she can answer that question.

The point is that Ms. Nassour has taken full credit for races in which she did NOT recruit candidates for, and is trying to distance herself from the ONLY race that she threw ALL of the party's resources behind.

The EXPECTATION this election cycle, regardless of the spin out of Boston,  was Republican victories for Governor, Lt. Governor, Auditor, and Treasurer, a Congressional seat, and many more than 16 House seats.  So let's not change history to erase the failure of the State GOP.  And while the Baker campaign is truley responsible for its own colossal failure, the Mass GOP's fingerprints are all over the State GOP's failure this election cycle.

Many of the winners in the House races actually ran two years ago, before Ms. Nassour took the helm of the State Party.  Their success in this election cycle came from hard work two years earlier during the 2008 elections and a continued campaign over that period, to keep them relevant and electable this cycle.  Nothing of which the State GOP can claim credit for.

The Herald article demonstrates clearly why the Mass GOP needs to get rid of Ms. Nassour and bring in a leader who really knows how to run a campaign and what it takes to get elected and how to include a CONSERVATIVE base in the State platform.  The Mass GOP also needs a leader who is more concerned about the candidates and their success and less concerned about their own self promotion. 

During one of the most dynamic election cycles in the last fifty years, the messages generated by the Mass GOP featured Ms. Nassour in her red dress with her title and Esq. abbreviation following it, and NOTHING about the men and women running for office at the GRASS ROOTS level.  Shameful self promotion.  Wouldn't a weekly or daily email featuring the candidates running for House, Senate, Sheriff, and Governors Council races have been what a real grass roots leader have done?

Now, with some resistance and calls for her resignation, Ms. Nassour wants to lead a "grass roots" effort to rebuild the State GOP.  The problem with this is that Ms, NAssour has made it very clear by her ACTIONS that she has no interest in building a grass roots organization.  Everything that Ms. Nassour has done in her first term illustrates that she has no interest in a grass roots GOP.  It's just not in her.

Ms. Nassour also cites as a reason to keep her at the helm of the State Party as
“It’s a really important time to have someone who is already a strong party chairman,” Nassour said of the inside power plays as lawmakers redraw voting districts across the state. “I’m the perfect person to be that watchdog.”  Folks, a strong leader doesn't have to tell you they are a strong leader.  And we don't need a watch dog, we need a junk yard dog that is willing to get into the fight and never stop fighting and doesn't care how they look as long as they get people elected.

Don't be fooled by any upcoming grass roots symposium sponsored by the Mass GOP.  A tiger can't change their stripes and neither can the Chair of the Mass GOP.

Time for change!

P.S.  I don't expect the State Committee to make the change at the top, so we're going to have to change the State Committee from the bottom up!

Watertown RTC Calls For Resignation

The Watertown RTC has called for the resignation of MASS GOP Chair, Jen Nassour, and even went as far as drafting and voting a resolution!

Following is the resolution.  The Watertown GOP is calling on their State Committeemen and women to support this resolution or thwy will seek candidates to challenge them.

Here it is:

RESOLUTION

December 7, 2010

It is the opinion of the duly elected members of the Watertown Republican Town Committee, that:

Whereas;

• During Ms. Jennifer Nassour’s 2-year tenure as State Chair, enrollment in the MA GOP has declined to an all-time low of 11.34 %. Yet during these same 2 years, renewed interest in conservative, constitutional principles has re-invigorated the Republican Party nationwide.

• As newly elected Chair, Ms. Nassour, arbitrarily and without a vote or consensus of the State Committee, announced in an interview granted to a radical left-wing publication that our Party would pursue new a policy, which abandoned important core GOP principles. Subsequently, under Ms. Nassour’s leadership and with her approval, the GOP State platform was altered, striking references to deep-seated Republican values, which are non-negotiable planks of our national platform.

• Despite Ms. Nassour’s bizarre pronouncement and abysmal performance, Scott Brown managed an amazing upset victory in January 2010, with the assistance of the Tea Party and the conservative Republican base. Rather than building on the incredible momentum and enthusiasm of this coalition, Ms. Nassour adopted an irrational strategy of appealing to the ultra-radical elements of the Democrat party, alienating the Republican Party’s conservative base.

• Ms. Nassour continued the failed strategy of past election cycles, diverting the vast majority of resources to a marginally Republican Gubernatorial candidate. She virtually ignored congressional, statewide, and local races. The end result: While Republicans were swept into office nationwide in 2010, Massachusetts Republicans sustained unacceptably poor election results, including but not limited to, defeats in every statewide constitutional office race, as well as every congressional race.

• Ms. Nassour neglected to give a reasonable explanation for her failed strategy or adequately address any of the above issues, at the November 17^th 2010 State Committee meeting. There also, Ms. Nassour failed to make available detailed accounting of expenses and contributions made to individual candidates by the MA GOP.  However, Ms. Nassour incredulously took unmerited credit for GOP gains in the State Legislature. Truth be told; these victories by conservative candidates came about with little if any assistance from the State GOP. Moreover, most if not all of these candidates ran as true conservatives. This was in stark contrast to the Gubernatorial candidate who adopted Ms. Nassour’s strategy of appealing to the ultra-liberal element of the opposition.

• As presiding officer of the same meeting, Ms. Nassour was caustic, condescending, and combative towards any Republican in the audience, whether member or non-member, who attempted to voice his or her displeasure with the election results. In addition, in order to stifle dissent and to prevent any discussion that might expose committee members honest concerns, Ms. Nassour employed arcane, undemocratic, and slick parliamentary maneuvers.

• Finally, in a move that is symbolic of everything that is wrong with the MA GOP, Our State Committee squandered monies for an exaggerated festivity at a lavish hotel to hold a meeting that could well have been held in a less ostentatious setting; all the while two Republican candidates were in dire need of funds to help with recounts.

Since it is the opinion of the Watertown RTC that the poor election results were due in great part to the feckless leadership and failed strategy of the State GOP spearheaded by Ms. Jennifer Nassour, it is the consensus of the duly elected members of Watertown Republican Town Committee that Ms. Jennifer Nassour is not competent to fulfill the duties of the office she now holds, and that her unabashed public belligerence towards the party’s conservative base makes her continued service as Chair untenable; 

Therefore, be it resolved:

1.      That on this the seventh day of December in the year of our Lord 2010, the Watertown Republican Town Committee does hereby express a vote of “No Confidence” in the Chair, Ms. Jennifer Nassour, and calls upon her to immediately resign her position.

2.      That the Watertown Republican Town Committee hereby asks the State Committee Persons who represent the Second Suffolk & Middlesex State Senate District, Ms. Elizabeth Mahoney and Mr. Robert Semonian, to pledge their vote for a party chair who supports the entire national GOP platform and who can heal the wounds incurred over the past several years, and consequently bring a now ‘fractured’ Republican Party together for a common purpose.

3.      That should either or both of our State Committee Representatives fail to make this pledge and follow through on it, it will be the stated policy of this committee to actively seek and support candidates to run against them in the 2012 primary.

4.      That until new leadership is in place, this Committee will make no contribution, financial or otherwise, to the Mass GOP, and will discourage any and all individuals, whether member or non-member, Republican or Independent, from any direct contribution to the Mass GOP.

5.      That this resolution be immediately released to the various media outlets upon passage and that a copy be sent to the following:

            Ms. Jennifer Nassour, MA GOP State Chairperson

            Mr. Ron Kaufman, MA GOP RNC Member

             Mr. Michael Steele, RNC Chairman

           Signed this Seventh Day of December 2010

           

_____________________________

            Steven W. Aylward

            Chairman

            Watertown Republican Town Committee

            Watertown, MA 02472