Jeff Frederick, Bob McDonnell, and the Grassroots

In a podcast interview yesterday on Bearing Drift, Jim Hoeft asked Bob McDonnel what he thought about the effort by state central to remove Jeff Frederick as chairman. Before arguing for more effective leadership as we go forward in 2009, Bob McDonnell said, "I can say that I am aware of the grassroots initiated effort by the state central committee leaders to seek new leadership at RPV." (quote begins at 3:48 on the podcast)

This comment begs the question, does Bob McDonnell understand what the grassroots is? Traditionally the grassroots has been understood to be a,

"A grassroots movement (often referenced in the context of a political movement)
is one driven by the constituents of a community. The term implies that the creation of the movement and the group supporting it is natural and spontaneous, highlighting the differences between this and a movement that is orchestrated by traditional power structures. Often, grassroots movements are at the local level, as many volunteers in the community give their time to support the local party, which can lead to helping the national party."

According to this definition, the attempt to remove Jeff Frederick from the chairmanship of the RPV has been anything but a grassroots movement. This has been an effort lead and orchestrated by the state central committee, and has only been revealed to the public by anonymous sources on blogs. Just like the state central meeting during the Republican Advance, this has been a highly secretive affair. There is little evidence that the overwhelming number of regular activists, the people that voted for Frederick at last year's state convention, want him removed. No petition with 2,000 Republican volunteers was ever filed. There was never a massive call for state central to do this by unit chairs around the state.

Last year Jeff Frederick won based on an overwhelming amount of support from party activists at the convention. The grassroots made their voice heard last year and said Virginia Republicans reject the chairman state central forced on us, and want a true fiscal and social conservative who wins elections. I hope state central considers the view of the grassroots when they make their decision in a month, or we will overturn them at the convention again, and if Bob McDonnell doesn't understand what the grassroots really is he may have a difficult time winning the governorship in November.