Virginia's 8th District Republican Committee

Arlington County Republican Committee Chairman Mark Kelly is running for Arlington County Board! There will be a special election on March 27th, 2012 to fill the seat vacated by Barbara Favola, who was elected to the state Senate in 2011.

“Arlington deserves an independent-minded board member who will recognize the challenges we face and who is committed to solving these problems, not another voice for the status quo,” Kelly told the Sun Gazette. Mark is a dedicated Republican and we will do all we can to help him. Check out his website here. Go Mark!

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The Fairfax County Republican Committee has tentatively set its convention for Saturday, March 24, 2012 at 10:00 am at West Springfield High School. Details TBA.

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Our links that appeared on the right side of the site have been moved to their own page and have been organized for better access. Be sure to check it out!

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The Rick Santorum for President campaign has a call-from-home program that allows you to contact voters in states with upcoming primaries from home – all you need is a phone and a computer, and you can help the campaign. To sign up or learn more, go to the Call from Home site.

Also, if you know of other volunteer opportunities with presidential campaigns, contact va8gopchairman@hotmail.com and we’ll publish them in the newsletter, and contact webmaster@vagop8cd.org and we’ll publish them here.

Several folks have asked about how redistricting will affect the process of signing up to be delegates and which convention individuals should attend. Delegates to the convention must be from their current district at the time of the convention. If, for example, you are currently in the 8th Congressional District but are moved to the 11th Congressional District prior to the 8th District Convention, you will be eligible to be a voting delegate to the 11th District Convention, not the 8th District Convention. We will keep abreast of all developments in the redistricting process and will work with folks to assist them in attending the correct convention. — Mike Ginsberg

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The Rick Santorum for President campaign has a call-from-home program that allows you to contact voters in states with upcoming primaries from home – all you need is a phone and a computer, and you can help the campaign. To sign up or learn more, go to the Call from Home site.

Also, if you know of other volunteer opportunities with presidential campaigns, contact va8gopchairman@hotmail.com and we’ll publish them in the newsletter, and contact webmaster@vagop8cd.org and we’ll publish them here.

The General Assembly will convene for the 2012 Regular Session on Wednesday, January 11, 2012, at noon at the State Capitol in Richmond. Congratulations to our newly-elected and re-elected Republicans in the General Assembly, especially our two new Republican senators, Bryce Reeves and Bill Stanley! The GOP has a 68-seat majority in the House of Delegates, the largest majority for either party in the history of the state. Republicans also control the Senate with 20 seats and Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling casting the tiebreaking vote as president of the Senate. For the first time since the Civil War, the GOP now controls both houses of the General Assembly and the governorship. Now let’s get to work!

In-person absentee voting for the presidential primary begins Friday, January 20. Click here to find where you can vote absentee in person.

Under state law, candidates for the House of Representatives must gather 1,000 valid signatures from registered voters in the 8th District, and candidates for U.S. Senate are required to gather 10,000 valid signatures of registered voters, including a minimum of 400 from each congressional district, to get on the primary ballot on June 12th. If you’re interested in getting involved with a campaign, this is a great way to help, and the campaigns need a lot of help to get the signatures.

Patrick Murray — To help, contact Shari Bolouri at shari@cardinalevents.com.

George Allen — To help, contact Tim Nussbaum at tnussbaum@georgeallen.com.

E.W. Jackson — To help, contact info@jacksonforvirginia.org or 757-802-4246.

David McCormick — To help, contact heat@davidmccormicksenate.com or 757-749-8528.

Jamie Radtke — To help, contact 804-451-5985.

The convention call posted here yesterday said that the registration fee was “$15.00 (Thirty-five dollars and zero cents)”. The fee is $15.00, and the error has been corrected in the official call.

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As you may know, 8th District State Central Representative Michael Giere resigned from his position this week because he has recently moved out of the 8th congressional district. He wrote the following open letter to the Republicans of the 8th District, and asked us to send it on his behalf, which we are happy to do. We also want to thank Mike for his dedicated and exemplary service to the 8th District and the 8th District Committee.

The open letter from Michael Giere:

Dear friends,

Four years ago I had the honor of being elected as one of your State Central Committee members to the state party (RPV) for the 8th Congressional District. I promised you then that I would uphold and reflect your conservative values and positions. I also promised to fight as hard as I knew how to do, to help save the House of Delegates that was within a few seats of flipping to a Democrat majority.

I have upheld the first promise even when I was being pressured mightily not to do so; and because of you and thousands of other conservatives across the Commonwealth, not only did we save the HOD, we elected a huge majority and elected the top three spots in our state government in 2009.

Now, due to changed circumstances in my personal life, I have moved literally into the neighboring 11th District (where Connolly is the Congressman – yikes!). Because of this change, I am resigning my seat on the SCC effective immediately (my term ends in May 2012).

I have made so many friends over these four years, and it has been such an honor to represent you; I can’t thank you enough for allowing me to serve you, and I hope that our paths cross frequently during our yearly NoVA election cycles.

May God’s rich blessings be with you, and may God continue to bless our Republic and the men and women who defend her.

Michael Giere

We now have the official call for the 2012 8th District Republican Committee Convention. The Convention will be held on Saturday, May 12, 2012 at 10:00 am at Bishop O’Connell High School in Arlington.

At the Convention we will be doing the following:

1. Electing three delegates and three alternate delegates to the Republican National Convention,
2. Nominating one elector to cast one of Virginia’s votes in the Electoral College in the general election,
3. Electing an 8th District Chairman, and
4. Electing three members to the Republican Party of Virginia State Central Committee.

More details and the full call are on the 2012 Convention page.

Download the convention call:
PDF
.doc (Microsoft Word)

Also, the 8th District Republican Committee voted last night to hold a primary for the 8th District congressional race if there are multiple candidates.

Presidential candidates need the signatures of 10,000 Virginia voters to appear on the ballot for the primary. It is the responsibility of the state party to verify that the petition requirements have been met. The Republican Party of Virginia needs volunteers to come to their headquarters in Richmond, 115 East Grace St. (map), on Friday, December 23rd to help with the process. Please read the letter below from RPV Chairman Pat Mullins (click to zoom in), and sign up to volunteer here.

There’s a lot going on at the Fairfax County Republican Committee! First, current FCRC Chairman Anthony Bedell is stepping down as he promised he would from the beginning after serving out this term, his second. Anthony has done a fantastic job of building the Fairfax County GOP, and under his chairmanship, Fairfax County went red for Bob McDonnell in 2009. Two candidates have entered the race for chairman – Jay McConville and Matt Ames. The election will be held at the Fairfax County Republican Committee Convention in the spring of 2012 (date TBD).

Second, FCRC is currently accepting applications for internships for students for 2012. Applications are being accepted for winter and spring internships. This will be a very exciting time to work for the FCRC in the heat of a presidential race and a Senate race. The internships are open to middle school, high school, and college students. See the details below.

Congratulations to the Alexandria Republican City Committee for winning the award for best unit committee in the entire state! See this message from 8th District GOP Chairman Mike Ginsberg with the recap of all award winners.

Each year, coincident with the Advance, the RPV District Committees give awards to their top units, unit chairmen, and volunteers.  This year, the 8th District had some terrific award winners.  The 2011 8th District GOP award winners were:

Best Volunteers:  Brian Pandya (Arlington), Roz Bellis (Alexandria), and Marianne Coates (Alexandria).  Brian has been the precinct operations co-chair for the Arlington GOP in the last three election cycles.  In that time, they have recruited precinct captains in nearly every precinct, and have ensured coverage at each polling place on election day for providing sample ballots and other important election day information to voters.  Roz and Marianne have co-chaired the Alexandria GOP precinct operations for the last several cycles, and they too have organized one of the deepest precinct operations networks the Alexandria GOP has had.  All three have played an essential role in the Arlington GOP’s and Alexandria GOP’s grassroots efforts over several election cycles, and for that, they are the top volunteers of the year for 2011.

Best Unit Chair:  Mark Kelly, Arlington GOP.  In August, with the 2011 election right around the corner and campaign activities beginning to move into high gear, Mark stepped up and filled the vacancy in the chairmanship of the Arlington GOP.  Although time was short and there was much work to do to prepare for the 2011 elections, Mark ensured that the Arlington GOP did not skip a beat.  The campaign headquarters was its usual bustling self around election time, and all of the committee’s activities — fundraising, precinct operations, phone banking — went off smoothly thanks to Mark’s leadership.

Best Unit: Alexandria.  The Alexandria GOP had a strong year, designing and launching a new website and fielding a candidate for local office (Chris Marston for Clerk of Court). The committee organized itself for this local race and for the several state Senate races in Alexandria.

AND IN EXCITING NEWS: In addition to being awarded the 8th District top unit, the Alexandria GOP was selected by RPV, the state party, as the top GOP unit of 2011!  This is a tremendous honor and a tribute to the hard work of the party not just this year, but over the last several cycles where success in Alexandria has meant success for many GOP candidates, including Bob McDonnell, Bill Bolling, and Ken Cuccinelli.  Congratulations to Tom Fulton and Brenda Hankins, who both served as Alexandria GOP chairman in 2011, and to all of the volunteers and members of the Alexandria GOP for this great success and honor.

December 7, 1941: