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LETTER TO THE EDITOR, HUNTINGDON DAILY NEWS
(The Tea Party Patriots of Huntingdon County share Jim's statement as our position on this issue)
On January 28th a little reported theft took place. The right of Republicans in Pennsylvania was stolen by a small group led by none other than our Governor Tom Corbett. What was stolen and who is this small group you might ask?
It is the Republican State Committee! They voted to endorse candidates before the upcoming primary election. It should be noted that many Committee people voted against endorsing, making the process even less representative of rank and file Republicans. Why is this so important? Because by endorsing candidates before the primary these few people steal your right to select the candidate of your choice. But, I can still vote for any candidate on the ballot you say. Yes you can, however by endorsing a candidate before the voters have expressed their choice; the candidates actually on the ballot are restricted to those hand selected by the State Committee.
The Republican State Committee instructs each County Chairman and the County Committee people to only support and work for the endorsed candidates. Non-endorsed candidates are not to receive any Party support, they are not invited to Party meetings or functions, they are not permitted to speak at any Party functions and County committee people are instructed not to work for any non-endorsed candidate. Of course the endorsed candidates receive the full backing of the Party, including generous contributions in the form of money and services.
So you see as a Republican you may never get to see or hear about candidates you might prefer over the ones hand selected by that small group of Committee people. Your right to choose who represents you is being infringed by that small group. Perhaps they feel they know better, perhaps they have other motives, it does not matter. What does matter is that they have used a process that restricts the voter’s choice to their hand selected candidates.
Huntingdon County had three representatives at this meeting. Randy Carper and Newton Taylor voted not to endorse any candidate and let the voters decide in the primary. Anne Layng voted to endorse candidates before the primary election takes place.
If you are a registered Republican and you do not like this process please let your County Committee Representatives know. Also contact Governor Corbett and the other State Committee people and let them know how you feel about what they did. Become more involved, get educated about how your government and politics in Pennsylvania actually works. If you want a government that is responsible and accountable to the people you must become educated, active and use your power as a voter. For the sake of our future I urge you to do so!
James E. Hyslop
State Committee Vote to Endorse Candidates for 2012
With disregard to the wishes of the voters of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett and the rest of the established Republican leadership chose the primary candidate for you...so you don't need to research who would be the best candidate. They've done that for you. And if you think they've done a great job up until now, you should take their advice. But if your short term memory doesn't escape you, just remember the name Arlen Specter. The once Republican turned Democrat was endorsed by the Republican State Committee just a few short years prior. So if you'd like to know who thinks they know better than you, here's the list of State Committee members and where they stand on endorsing. Governor Corbett told them, and they listened! See how they stand here.
