Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

GOP discusses raising money

Members of the Nevada County Republican Party discussed how they could help GOP candidates in the 2002 elections.

However, it should be noted the party will not be looking for candidates locally, as they say there's no need in replacing people already doing a good job.

Instead, they will be working to help those seeking state and federal office in 2002.

Former Fourth Congressional District Representative Jay Dickey has been in and out of Prescott on several occasions talking with the party about his plans.

To date, Dickey has made no formal announcement of his plan. However, speculation is he will run against Mike Ross, who unseated him last year.

Delmar Tyree suggested the party wait until after Jan. 1, 2002, to start discussing fund raisers.

He said details were worked out, though, so Dickey could meet Jane Bemis, one of his supporters.

Tom Blevins and Dickey have been communicating via e-mail. Blevins is one of the supporters in what has been known as the "521 Club". This meant he was one of 521 supporters on the e-mail list.

But, he said, the list grows as more and more e-mail addresses are added, with the supporters working to build a base for Dickey.

Blevins said he's heard the rumors the local GOP will try and find people to run for office as Republicans.

"I've done my best to quell this rumor," he said. "The political tag isn't as important as the job being done, and we want to keep good people in office regardless of their party. We don't want to upset the balance."

Tal Webb, who acted as moderator, informed those present paperwork has been sent in to Little Rock to have Nevada County Republicans get their committee status at the state level. Confirmation hasn't been received yet, he said.

Tyree said any fund raiser done wouldn't just be for Dickey, but would also be to help Sen. Tim Hutchinson, who will be opposed by Arkansas Attorney General Mark Pryor.

When any GOP sponsored event is held, Tyree said, Pryor and Congressman Mike Ross are both invited to attend and answer questions.

Tyree said he could agree how Ross votes on a number of issues, but the problem is Ross says the same thing when questioned.

One of the areas Tyree agreed with Ross was on voting to get rid of partial birth abortions.

On the local level, though, Tyree said the problem is getting people to join the GOP.

Many people espouse belief in things the Republican Party stands for, but won't join the party because they have mistaken ideas of what it stands for, he said.

"People think you can't be a Republican and vote in the local election," he said. "That isn't true."

But, at one time it was. If a person had registered as a Republican, they were given a ballot with GOP candidates. The same went for Democrats.

However, on the local level, most people run as Democrats, and this prevented Republicans from being able to vote in local elections during the primary. The general election has candidates from all parties on the ballot.

During those years, if a person voted for someone in the party they weren't registered in, they were booted out of the party.

Tyree said years ago the old "Yellow Dog Democrats" were more conservative than the Republicans, but this isn't the case anymore.

He continued, saying there are three types of money in an election  hard money, soft money and dirty money. "We need to keep dirty money out."

Returning to the topic of raising money for candidates, Jake Tyree suggested possibly holding a $100 a plate dinner at the fairgrounds.

Jackie Harvey said the important thing with fundraisers is the number of people who show up.

"The truth is we're not raising money for people to run for office. The national party does that. We need to show people what we stand for and they'll find out we're not that far apart."