College Republican Resolution Sent to the 10th District Congressional Committee

In the last week a resolution was passed by the College Republican boards of Patrick Henry College and Christendom chapters. These are the only two CR chapters in Virginia's 10th Congressional District.

The resolution was sent via e-mail last night to the 10th District Committee using the e-mail list provided on the committee's webpage.

The resolution addresses the issue of the date of the 10th District Convention. In previous years it has been scheduled for the same date as Patrick Henry College's graduation. This coming year both PHC and Christendom have their graduations on the same date (May 15th), and the resolution requests that the convention be scheduled prior to this date so that CRs from both schools can participate.

I have been told that this may seem like a ploy to get more conservatives to go to the convention since both schools are pretty conservative. That is not what this is. As college Republicans we believe the party should be encouraging not hindering politically active young people from participating. The two boards that passed this resolution represent the most politically active college students in the district.

Some have suggested that scheduling the convention for the same day as Patrick Henry College's graduation has been intentional by Chairman Jim Rich. I am not willing to make that accusation. However, if after receiving this resolution he and the rest of the committee set the convention date for May 15th or a date after it can only be concluded that the 10th District Committee is intentionally trying to keep young people out of the process.

While none of the clubs in the district have representation on the committee, we strongly hope that Chrissi Lee (the CR rep to the committee from Virginia Tech) will take this resolution as her own and represent the college republicans in the district at the meeting on December 17th.

Details on the CRFV Volunteer Contest

Earlier I posted an announcement from Kate Maxwell about a CRFV volunteer contest. Here are the details on the competition.

CRFV Summer Volunteer Contest

The CRFV Executive Committee is proud to announce the first Summer Volunteer Contest open to all College Republicans statewide. We have teamed up with the McDonnell Campaign to offer incentives for volunteers who are able to give 10 HOURS of work (door-knocking or phone-banking at a local Victory office) between now and August 1st.

Those who complete the most hours will be given individual prizes, including the opportunity to introduce our candidates at local rallies, free access to fundraisers and ticketed events, and much more! All volunteers who meet the minimum 10 hour requirement will be eligible to attend the First Annual CRFV Fall Kick-Off with Bob McDonnell at the end of summer. Music, food, and drinks will be provided, and all guests will have the opportunity to spend time with fellow College Republicans & enjoy a meet and greet with our future governor! A complimentary photo with Bob McDonnell will also be provided.

More details to be announced soon, and we are looking forward to providing a great time and a well-earned reward for our most dedicated volunteers.

To RSVP, send an email pledging to complete the 10 hour minimum requirement to crfvcontest@gmail.com. Include your name, school, and registered voting address. You will be sent a volunteer time log to record your hours. Pledge today so that we can put together the best event possible!
Chapter Chairmen:
Please join us on our CRFV Wiki Page for updates and information about the CRFV. This tool will will enable you to communicate better with your fellow VA CRs, see what events are happening across the state, and stay informed as to the conditions of the CRFV and its chapters.

CHAPTER CHAIRMEN:
Visit www.crfv.pbwiki.com to request access

Let us know about events at your chapter!
Contact: Kate Maxwell (kate.maxwell@crfv.net)
or Cole Usry (administrator@crfv.net)

If you need a list of Victory Centers to volunteer out of, please click here.
(Originally posted at PHC College Republicans.)

Message concerning Iran from College Republican National Committee Chair Zach Howell

Back in 1981 when the tyrannical Soviet regime was cracking down on the Polish people, Ronald Reagan publicized a telephone conversation he had with the Pope that contained this line, "Our sympathies are with the people, not the government."

Right now, the Iranian people are protesting on the streets of Iran's capital, Tehran – demanding their freedo m, and yet President Barack Obama remains silent.

On the campaign trail, Obama constantly stressed the need to employ America's soft power, our moral and diplomatic clout, around the globe. If there was ever a time to expend America's reserves of soft power in the pursuit of freedom, it is now.

If our leaders will not stand up to tyranny when it stares us in the face, then we must. While the fight for the future of Iran and peace in the Middle East at large is going on inside Iran, there are things you can do to help the Iranian people.

Click here to read the five ways you can take action to help the Iranian people right now!

Last Friday when the Iranian people went to the polls to elect a new president, the election was widely seen as a choice between the radical, holocaust-denying incumbent, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the reform-minded challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi. The election was thought to be closely contested, and opinion polls leading up to election day showed Mousavi leading the vote.

So when the results were announced, mere hours after the polls closed on Friday, showing Ahmadinejad with an unbelievable two-to-one lead over Mousavi, even winning overwhelming in Mousavi’s hometown, people cried fraud.

Over the weekend, protesters took to the streets of Tehran and other cities in Iran demonstrating in the largest protests since the 1979 Iranian Revolution.

As you read this email Iranian students are risking their lives to protest in the streets, to spread their message via social networking sites like Twitter -- while the mullahs and Revolutionary Guard watch and wait, trying to decide whether to mow them down, make them disappear, or give in to their demands.

Meanwhile, the leader of the free world is AWOL. No threats of sanctions. No standing up for the people in the streets. No refusal to recognize the sham government that won via fraud. But Americans can do better. We must.

An oppressed people are yearning to breathe free and you can he lp them in their struggle: http://collegerepublicans.org/help-iranian-people

Now is the opportunity to stand with the Iranian freedom fighters.

Sincerely,

Zach Howell
National Chairman
College Republicans

(Originally posted at PHC College Republicans)

My Speech at the CRFV State Convention

On Saturday I had the great honor and privilege of being able to speak on behalf of my political hero, Ken Cuccinelli, at the College Republican Federation of Virginia State Convention.  At the start of the convention John Brownlee addressed the assembled delegates, followed by Dave Foster.  Sen. Cuccinelli was unable to attend the meeting so I spoke on his behalf, and shared why I am supporting him in this race.  

In all honesty I was fairly nervous heading into the speech, especially as I only realized what I was supposed to do the previous afternoon.  However many of my friends were praying for me, and God blessed me.  I know I could have delivered it better, but a lot of people really liked the speech.  

After the speech Mr. Brownlee came up to me and congratulated me on giving a good speech.  He also said I have a good speaking voice and should consider becoming a lawyer.  One of his staff members also took the time to compliment me about the speech as well.  I'm thankful that while we can disagree sharply in this race we can still be civil and friendly about it.

Daniel Davies, a fellow PHC student, took a video of the speech, and I will post it as soon as we can get it on You Tube.  The rest of this article is the actual text of the speech.  I hope that after you read it, you will consider supporting Senator Cuccinelli for Attorney General.  (To read about what else happened at the CRFV convention, check here.)

Why I support Sen. Cuccinelli for Attorney General

By: Willie Deutsch

My name is Willie Deutsch, I am the 1^st Vice Chair of the Patrick Henry College Republicans.  Since Ken Cuccinelli was unable to attend this meeting, I am going to share with you the reasons I am supporting Sen. Cuccinelli for Attorney General, and why I hope you will support him as well.  As I begin I want to say that over the course of this campaign I have had the opportunity of interacting with both John Brownlee and Dave Foster.  They are both good men.  I am thankful that as a party we have three fine men running in this nomination contest.  However, I believe that Senator Cuccinelli is by far the best candidate in this race.  I first met Cuccinelli when he was running for reelection in 2007.  One of the things that stood out when I first met Ken was his belief that it is more important to stand for principle than to win elections.  Sadly the political process suffers from a lack of principled people in politics.

As we look at the recent success Democrats have had in Virginia, I believe that Democrats have only won statewide when Republicans forget their principles, and/or run lousy campaigns.  This is why Bob McDonnell and Bill Bolling won in 2005 while Jerry Kilgore lost, it also explains why George Allen lost in 2006, why we lost the state senate in 2007, and why Virginia’s electoral college votes went to Obama last year.  In Cuccinelli we have the opportunity to reverse the tide of Democratic wins in Virginia by nominating a proven conservative with a record of winning elections.

Throughout his career in the VA State Senate, Ken has fought for the conservative principles that attracted me to this party: limited government, life, the family, the 2^nd amendment, and the rule of law.  Even though he is the last of a dying breed of Republicans from Fairfax Co, he isn’t afraid to be a conservative leader in the state senate.  When Ken says that he is conservative, he has the record to back it up.

Ken believes in the importance of property rights, and as a result fought to strengthen Virginia’s property rights before Kelo, and was the author of the bill that denied localities the ability to exercise eminent domain simply because a public benefit would result.

Ken believes in the importance of protecting the unborn, and has fought for the unborn at every opportunity, including drafting Virginia’s parental notification law in 2003, and leading the fight to defund planned parenthood last session.

Ken believes in the importance of the family, and as a result sponsored the Virginia Marriage Amendment in the Senate, and actively campaigned for it all over the state.

Ken believes in the 2^nd Amendment and as a result has fought to repeal the ban on carrying a concealed weapon in restaurants, eliminate duplicate local background checks, and has become the point man on gun rights in the senate courts and justice committee.

Ken believes in fiscal responsibility, and as a result has voted against every tax increase, regularly submits budget cuts, and has never submitted an earmark request without submitting a request for an  equal budget cut.

While Brownlee and Foster are good men, neither of them can give examples of how they have fought to promote such a wide array of conservative values.  Ken has proven that when he is under fire, he stays true to his conservative principles.

Not only do I support Senator Cuccinelli because he is the candidate with a proven conservative record, I also believe our party should nominate him because he has demonstrated regularly that he can win tough campaigns.  It appears that whoever wins this nomination contest will have a tough general election race against Steve Shannon who already has a war chest of about $740,000.  Running against a tough Democrat opponent in a state that seems to be trending Democrat, we need someone who has demonstrated that he knows how to win elections.  That man is Senator Cuccinelli.  Since 2002 he has won 3 state senate races on conservative issues in Fairfax Co. against opponents who had more money than him. 

In 2002 he won his first state senate race while being outspent 2.5-1

In 2003 he won reelection wile being outspent 2-1

And in 2007 he was once again underfunded, and was a top target for the Democratic Party, and still won.

These victories are testaments to Senator Cuccinelli’s ability to run frugal grassroots campaigns with impressive ID and GOTV operations. 

Over the past month and a half Cuccinelli’s Attorney General Campaign has put an impressive grassroots campaign on display.  During the petition drive that concluded n the beginning of December, Cuccinelli’s attorney general campaign turned in more original signatures than any other campaign.  Under a week later Cuccinelli won the Republican Advance straw poll, an event in which John Brownlee enjoyed home field advantage.  Ken took 47% in the poll, 9% more than Brownlee.  A week and a half ago the campaigns turned in their finance reports for the past 6 months and Cuccinelli raised more money than the Brownlee and Foster campaigns combined, and in a true demonstration of the grassroots support for his campaign he had the most donors of the three candidates, over 600 more than Brownlee.       

Senator Cuccinelli has proven that he can win tough elections on state issues, something neither of the two other candidates had to do.  He has won three times running on conservative principles in Fairfax Co. against better funded candidates.  Ken is demonstrating in this nomination contest that he has an army of grassroots supporters who are willing to work tirelessly for him, and if our party nominates Ken, he will use his campaigning abilities and grassroots army to win the Attorney General’s office for the GOP.

By this time some of you are probably thinking, I know Ken is a great guy, so why doesn’t he stay in the senate and keep leading the fight for our values their?  When weighing weather or not to run for Attorney General, Ken realized that he could do more for the idea of limited government as Attorney General than as a state senator.  As a state senator, Ken is one of forty people.  As Attorney General, he is in charge of the office.  One of the important functions of the Attorney’s Generals office is to be the general counsel for other government agencies.  Ken believes that in this position he can use his influence as Attorney General to encourage other state agencies to reduce the unconstitutional layers of regulation and wasteful projects they engage in.  As a partner at Cuccinelli and Day, Ken has served as a general counsel for small and midsized businesses.  He wants to do the same type of work in the Attorney General’s office for state agencies and use that power to reduce the size of government. 

Who occupies the Attorney General’s office became even more important on Tuesday with the inauguration of Barack Obama.  With the Democrats running D.C. we can expect that some of the liberties we hold dear in this state will come under attack.  Our pro-life laws are under attack from the Freedom of Choice Act, and our state marriage amendment, right to work status, and pro-gun laws will all almost certainly come under attack.  It is important that our next Attorney General be a man who we can trust to defend these laws in the courts.  Ken wrote some of the laws that will come under attack, and has fought for these values in the senate.  I know he will fight to defend them through the court system if he becomes Attorney General.

While Ken has accomplished a lot as a state senator, he can accomplish even more as Attorney General.  He can use his role as the legal advisor to other governmental agencies to reduce the size of government.  He is also a man we can trust to defend Virginia’s conservative laws that will almost certainly be attacked by the federal government. 

On May 30^th this party will nominate Virginia’s next Attorney General.  We have the option to nominate a proven conservative who wins tough campaigns and turn the Democratic tide in Virginia.  I hope you will join me over the coming year in pouring your time and energy into making, Ken Cuccinelli, Virginia’s next Attorney General.  

Announcing the PHC College Republicans Blog

I would like to announce the beginning of the PHC College Republicans blog. Please stop on over, check it out, and give us some feed back. This blog should keep you posted on different activities the club is involved in as well as wrapups of our events. You can also keep an eye on another aspect of my life there as I am 1st Vice Chair of the club.