UPDATE: GOP central committee ousts state chairman Jeff Frederick
ALEXA WELCH EDLUND/TIMES-DISPATCH
Jeff Frederick and his wife Amy leave a rally outside the Richmond Marriott West before the Republican state central committee met today to vote on a proposal to oust him.
Video commentary: Columnist Jeff Schapiro previews the GOP showdown
Members of the Republican Party of Virginia’s central committee have voted to remove state party chairman Jeffrey M. Frederick. The unofficial tally was 57-18 with one abstention.
The first two hours of the meeting were marked by presentations from Frederick’s opponents and by two lawyers hired to defend the 33-year-old House of Delegates member from Prince William County. Frederick did not speak on his own behalf.
Those inside the meeting described it as civil and fact-based rather than emotional, conveying the atmosphere of a trial with the presentation of evidence from both sides. Outside, non-committee members including Frederick’s wife Amy paced the halls of the hotel, speaking on cell phones and trying to gauge support for each side.
The second phase of the meeting was expected to be more contentious, with both sides being given time for rebuttal followed by a debate open to any committee member. The group is then expected to take a vote on Frederick’s fate.
Earlier in the morning before the meeting began, about 50 Frederick supporters gathered outside the hotel, held signs and chanted “elected, not selected,“ a reference to the state party convention that elected him to the post last year.
Division in the party and criticism over Frederick’s leadership brought about a call for his ouster.
Early signs of the tension between Frederick supporters and opponents was evident as the meeting began. Opponents tried to challenge the proxy vote of a Frederick supporter from Roanoke, saying the person designated to cast the vote lived outside the area that elected the committee member.
The room voted to not count the ballot, meaning opponents only need 57 votes from the 77-member central committee to dump Frederick, who needs 19 votes to remain as chairman. Moves were afoot to have the discounted proxy reconsidered by having a new proxy delivered to the meeting before the a vote is taken on Frederick’s removal.
Frederick has vowed that if he loses his job today, he will fight his ouster by running again for the job when the full party convenes for its state convention at the end of May.
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Reader Reactions
jimbo… the problem is Northern Virginia. The place is full of liberal New York City creeps and Taxachusetts refugees and they’re turning our state into the Northeast. NoVa people keep threatening to secede from Virginia and I wish they would so we can rebuild the genteel South in our state.
But the bottom line is they won’t, and a third party is just as useless here as it is in New York (I went to school at Syracuse so I do know a little about NY state). So we have to decide if Terry McAuliffe is acceptable, or, do we want another four years of Timmy. Only a crackhead would want four more years of Timmy. So you hold your nose, vote for McDonnell and try to make things better as time goes on.
james – You are right – Virginia is likely to end up with another Timmy. But don’t sell the carpetbaggers short as being Liberal. Like me, many of them came here to get away from the make-believe Republicans up north – the George Pataki and the Rudy Giuliani types. So we come down here and whadaya got? Jim Gilmore! And we are tired of voting for the lesser of two evils. Many of you native Virginians may have taken a bus ride one weekend – up to see the Statue of Liberty, and think you know what the North is all about. Next time, spend a few days driving your pickup truck thought the rural areas of New York State. Eat in the diners, walk around in the Wal-Mart—you will meet lots of REAL conservatives.
The choices currently offered by the political parties in Virginia are the same as the choices offered by McDonalds and Burger King. For candidates, the parties give us two clowns – one in his pajamas and wearing a red wig (or Timmy’s brown hair with dippity-do), and the other with a cardboard crown. It’s the Liberal Democrats vs the Liberal Republicans. We want another choice. What’s wrong with a Conservative Party of Virginia? There is a Conservative Party of New York—http://www.cpnys.org/. They generally don’t field many candidates, but right-leaning Republican candidates pray for their endorsement.
Republicans in this state had better figure out quickly that we now have so many northeastern liberal carpetbaggers here that a true conservative message no longer plays here. My view is better a moderate Republican that another Tim Kaine. It’s not ideal, but it’s also not a disaster. Any of the three Democrat candidates running now are disasters. If the conservatives don’t get their minds right and get behind McDonnell, we’re gonna wind up with another idiot running this state for four more years, and the damage they can do might be irreversible.
This is NOT the best political reporting I have ever read. Doesn’t the TD have any sources within the Republican Party? Somebody must be willing to be quoted. They are all politicians, after all.
The VA GOP better take notice. We can oust them in thier upcoming elections. It is time for A more Conservative Party in the Commonwealth. To take up issues that we stand for. The GOP in VA has become Moderate. That sickens me to think that they are swinging to the liberal side.That is what is ruing our state aswell as our Country. Take heed you traitors, we are watching and you will see at the polls.
That Frederick did not resign despite all the opposition he faced is an indication of how “off” he is. Some within the GOP are beginning to recognize that their narrow message of loyalty around social and fiscal policies just does not play in a demographically changing Va. The GOP still has its problems, especially since they are perceived as anti-infrastructure renewal and anti-education.
By no means is this over. I really believe that this decision sets up the Republican Party of Virginia to go the way of the Republicans in Kansas. Personally, as a Democrat from Fake Virginia whom Mike Huckabee and Bob McDonnell disdains, I am delighted.
Here’s my take from my blog. http://is.gd/qL8x
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