Michigan Young Republicans Are Back…Now What?

A little over a week ago the Michigan Federation of Young Republicans had its biannual convention, where one of the first decisions was to adopt a new constitution that contained a new name the Michigan Young Republicans. Right after that we decided to triple the counties we have chartered, expanding from Macomb and Oakland to now include Wayne, Washtenaw, Ingham, and Kalamazoo Counties. We also elected our 6 officers for their two-year terms. I am happy to have been elected National Committeeman, where I will be one of three people, including Chairman Stuart Foster and National Committeewoman Victoria Czapski, who represent Michigan to the Young Republican National Federation. Right after the convention the Fall YRNF Meeting took place, which unfortunately I had to miss due to financial restraints. Michigan is back from a bad last two years thanks to the admitted sex offender that was the last chairman and the havoc he wrought.

The question we have before us now is what is next. Getting the charter back and building a viable statewide organization was what we pushed for since the admitted sex offender resigned his post. We have had meetings and discussions, and the current crop of three people who now represent Michigan to the YRNF are there because we are the ones who pushed the most for this organization to get back on its feet. We are the ones who went to the national convention in July in Florida to get our charter back, and we apparently made an impression because I was told people were asking where I was over the weekend at the quarterly meeting, which made me chuckle a bit. I mean I know I make an impression, but I didn’t realize I made such a one that they were wondering why I didn’t come to the very next gathering, kind of flattering.

We of course did have other people helping with this effort, people like Alicia Ping, who got pushed into the leadership of the group when the chair resigned and the rest of the e-board were just names the former chair made up, people like Dave Krall who wrote our new constitution and is the leader of our largest chapter in Oakland County. We also had input from our new Treasurer and Secretary John Knowles and Angelique Rea. These are the people who put in the work last winter and all spring and summer before we went to Florida. We also had the support of the Youth Chair of the MRP Matt Hall, and other people within the party structure. After we got the charter back we were pleased to see new people want to be part of it, like the group in Kalamazoo that includes Matt, like the group in Washtenaw County that produced our new Vice Chairman Vinnie Vernuccio. We actually also had another interested group, but they tried to set up a group that was against our constitutional restrictions so they were encouraged to fall in line with what is required for a chapter and come back at a later date. This thrills me, because it shows that we have interest in the group, and our goal of a county chapter in all 83 of Michigan’s counties is a goal we can achieve.

In my opinion however the most important part of this new direction is the new vision that the new e-board brings to the table. We have seen the divisive nature of intra-party politics for the past 10 years; we have seen the insanity that has become the CR state organization. We look at ourselves as the next generation of the Michigan Republican Party, and it is our goal to put the old arguments to rest, and not allow them to continue with our generation, and also to tell the CR’s who are graduating and joining our ranks that we are a more mature group and that the petty squabbling has to be left at the door. This organization will not be for the glory of one man, that’s what it was before and it put the organization on life support. It will not be about intra-party fights. By the declared preference and where I think the undeclared people lean I have a count of 1 Romney, 2 McCain, 2 Rudy, and 1 Thompson on our e-board, that is a good balance, and shows that we are not about Presidential politics as a group, one of the reasons why the new constitution says that the state organization will not endorse candidates in a primary race, which keeps us as a neutral place for all to come.

We hope to become the premier social and networking group in this state and for our county chapters to become the same in their counties. We love politics, and some of us have further political aspirations, but at the most basic level Young Republicans is for political junkies and non-junkies, it is a place for those 18-40 who have a shared viewpoint to gather together to enjoy each other as friends, and no matter what that is a vision I hope we never lose.