When a Republican Party Turns Extreme

Published in the Lynchburg Ledger on April 29, 2011

The U.S. is the envy of the world the way we transfer political power.  In many other countries, power transfer is at the point of a gun as we see going on in Libya or with massive uprisings as we saw in Egypt.

When we have an election, the winner takes office and power is transferred in an orderly fashion.  Now we may not like the results of the election, but we in most cases go back to business as normal.  We may speak out against the winner and plan to defeat them at the polls the next time around, but as a rule, we react in an extreme manner.

We do have exceptions however, both on the left and on the right.  In Wisconsin, the voters elected a Republican governor and legislature which promised reform.  But when the reform was brought up for a vote, namely the restructuring of labor union bargaining powers, the leftists rose up and essentially took over the state house in Madison, doing $7 million in damage in the process.  They attempted to thwart the will of the electorate.

The last chapter on the Wisconsin situation has not been written.

On the right, we have situations where the losers attempt to exact revenge on those who beat them, even when they are from the same party.

This happened right here in Campbell County in last fall’s election.  You may recall, we had two candidates vying for the Republican nomination for Clerk of the Court.  One was eminently qualified but had no political experience and the other was unqualified and had plenty of political experience. 

The one with the political experience, Rick Boyer, won the nomination by approximately 30 votes.  He succeeded in turning out more people, many from his church, to support him.

The qualified candidate, Sheila Bosiger, lost the Republican nomination and ran as an independent.  Nearly all the current and former elected officials from Campbell County, both Republican and Democrat supported Sheila on the basis in qualifications. 

The Republican Party in the county recently chose Will Kirk as its chairman.  Kirk as it turns out takes advice and direction from Rick Boyer much in the same way that Barack Obama takes direction from George Soros.

Right from the very beginning, Will Kirk set out to take dictatorial control of the county Republican unit.  He ignored the bylaws usurping the duties of the secretary whose duty it was to issue the official notice of meetings (referred to as the call) to the members and to maintain the membership list.  He even went as far as prohibiting the secretary from letting members know about the meetings.

I know, because I was a member. 

The Republican Party had two candidates to support in the election.  Robert Hurt for Congress and Rick Boyer for Clerk of the Court.  

On Election Day, the Republican effort at the polls was mainly in support of Rick Boyer.  Hardly a Robert Hurt lapel sticker was in sight.  I worked three different polling places that day and personally observed how little they supported Hurt and how much they pushed Boyer.

In the end, Robert Hurt received the highest percentage vote than in any other county.  The Campbell County Republicans are now trying to take credit for what they are not responsible for.  The Republican congressional candidate always does well in the county.

One out of every two Hurt voters voted for someone other than Rick Boyer for Clerk of the Court, handing the county Republicans a humiliating defeat.  Independent Bosiger beat Boyer by a 55.3 percent to 33.4 percent margin, a landslide any way you look at it.

This is not the first time a split like this has occurred in the Republican Party. It happens every now and then.  Usually, when it is over, they all come back together and get ready for the next fight.  However, in Campbell County, revenge seemed to the order of the day.

Under the Republican State Party Plan, if a party member openly opposes a Republican candidate, they are “deemed to have resigned” from the party.  In our case, there were a number of people who supported Sheila Bosiger, including three of the four Republican members of the Board of Supervisors (which includes the current chairman), the Republican Commonwealth’s Attorney and the Republican Treasurer.  The sheriff, who was elected as a Republican, declined to rejoin the party when Will Kirk was elected chairman.

Under normal circumstances, at the next regular meeting, a motion is made to readmit all those who were “deemed to have resigned.”  However, at the first meeting, there was only one issue on the agenda, the election of five new members.  Will Kirk and Rick Boyer, who were obviously planning their revenge, probably from election night, were making sure they had enough votes to deny readmission.

At the second meeting, the motion to readmit was made.  Chairman Will Kirk once again usurped the duties of the secretary and tallied the vote personally.  Rick Boyer openly encouraged members to vote in opposition to reinstating the members.  By will Kirk’s tally, the motion to readmit lost by three votes.

This type of extreme  heavy handed tactics is something you would expect to see in a liberal labor union or in the Chicago Democrat Party. 

The Muslim faith is based on revenge where the Christian faith is based on forgiveness.  It appears that Boyer, a recent graduate from a Christian law school, has chosen revenge over forgiveness.

Sheriff Terry Gaddy and Commonwealth’s Attorney Neil Vener have announced they will be retiring and their seconds in command have announced their intention to run.  Steve Hutcheson will run for sheriff and Paul McAndrews will run for Commonwealth’s Attorney.

Both are members of the Campbell County Republican party but both have chosen to reject the Republican Party and run as Independents, at least for now.  This is significant because under its current extremist and dictatorial leadership, the Republican Party is now a liability, not an asset in Campbell County.