Good Morning
This past week has been a blur. So before I get into everything, an announcement: TONIGHT, is the APRIL AYR MEETING at Murphy's Irish Pub (713 King St). Our Networking Happy Hour begins at 7:00 pm, and the meeting will begin at 7:30 pm (with the speaker starting soon thereafter). Tonight's speaker is Dino Teppara. He is the Chief of Staff of Representative Joe Wilson from South Carolina. Dino is going to be talking about the growing influence of Asia among other topics. He recently gave a discussion on this at the Heritage Foundation, so it should be good.
That rest I mentioned you should take advantage of last week is OVER. A lot has started to happen and there seems to be more on the way. Last week the Alexandria Republican City Committee, met and discussed the plans in Alexandria to help insure a Republican win state wide for Sneator McCain (for President) and Gov. Gilmore (for Senate). They have some great plans and if you want to workfor a win, there are going to be some big opportunities in the near future! I believe the theme was organize, Organize and ORGANIZE. The AYRs will make sure to let you know when any opportunity comes up.
Last weekend, I went to the Young Republican Federation of Virginia Convention. This was a meeting of YRs from all over the Commonwealth. It was invigorating. These events get me excited about the up coming races and what we are doing and can do to help. It was also wonderful to speak with our leaders, including Bob McDonnell, Bill Bolling, John Hager, Chris Saxman, and numerous others, including YR leaders from Richmond, Roanoke, Virginia Beach, Fredricksburg, Prince William, Fairfax and Arlington. Okay, I talk with the last two on a regular basis, but it is nice seeing them all in a different setting! For me, the best part of the program was networking with these other YR leaders, seeing what they are doing and giving them an idea what we here in Alexandria are doing.
By the way, ALEXANDRIA IS THE LARGEST YR CLUB IN VIRGINIA! Congratulations to all our members - Yeah!
Next Monday, April 7th is our FIRST 2008 YR NIGHT AT THE MCCAIN CAMPAIGN. We are going to the McCain 2008 campaign offices to help out. Please let me know if you are interested in coming with us (just send me an email at chair@alexYRs.org).
As always, we are here to help YOU find opportunities to get involved in Republican politics. All of our schedules are busy with careers, social lives, and family. We want to make sure that when you have time there is an activity available for you. Just email me if you want to talk about anything.
Brenda Hankins
Chairman, Alexandria YRs
chair@alexYRs.org |
Recently there has been a great deal of discussion in Alexandria, even here in this newsletter, about Mayor Euille trying to put a ballot initiative on the November ballot to change Alexandria's local City elections to November, instead of it's current date in May. He is doing this after his own, hand-picked, bi-partisan commission recommended against a change.
Well, there is going to be a public hearing on the subject on April 12, 2008.
It is important that we join with all the other civic organizations and make our voices heard about this. We should let the Mayor and City Council know that we do not want the elections moved.
This isn't about anything other than entrenched politicians making sure that they never have to worry about their elections again.
Elections should be about making sure that the elected officials are accountable to the electorate!
Prior to those elections there should be a true discussion, by the local electorate and the local candidates about OUR local issues. This discussion should not take second or third place to National and State issues, candidates and information.
We should have the opportunity to hear from our LOCAL candidates about our LOCAL issues independently and clearly, not bogged down by others who are not speaking to us about OUR neighborhoods and OUR streets and OUR City. For Alexandria elections these should be the FIRST discussion during the elections. If the elections were moved to November, we would never hear from OUR Alexandria candidates. They would be relegated to the end of meetings after everything and everyone else spoke about national politics, national issues, state politics and state issues, all of which are important, but currently we get to know much more about our LOCAL candidates because they are not vying against many others for attention, they are the only ones we concentrate on during the Alexandria elections. That is how it should be!
Come out to the Rally on April 12, 2008 and lend your voice to the debate at the public hearing. |
