Lincoln Day Dinner, February 6, 2015 with Lars Larson and Rich Wyatt

Join your fellow Republicans for a delicious dinner at the TapRock Event Center on Friday, February 6, 2015. This is Ronald Reagan’s birthday, so the theme this year will be Reagan Ranch western. Arrive at 6:00 to socialize, greet old friends, and meet new ones. Dinner begins at 7:00.

Our guest speakers will be talk show host Lars Larson and Rich Wyatt, star of the reality TV show American Guns.

There will be a fun auction to benefit the Josephine County Republican Central Committee, with lots of great deals on all kinds of things you know you need (or at least want)!

There is limited seating for the 2015 Lincoln Day Dinner. Please call Keith Trahern (479-7179) or Nancy Trahern (660-1600) to find out about current availability. As always, thank you for your support!

2014 Jo Co GOP Election Guide

The Josephine County Republican Party 2014 Election Guide is now available online. Please feel free to print these, fold them, and distribute them to friends and neighbors.

         

We will also have some printed and available at our Republican Campaign Headquarters soon.

Need Volunteers for Campaign Headquarters

The Josephine County Republican Campaign Headquarters is up and running, and we need your help! Current hours are from 12:00 – 5:00 PM, Monday through Friday.

In order to keep the doors open, we need people who can spend some time at the headquarters on a regular (or semi-regular) basis. No special skills are required. Just be friendly and welcoming and hand out campaign literature to people who stop in.

Later, we’ll be needing volunteers with cell phones to help with the Get Out The Vote campaign.

Vivien Kirkpatrick-Pilger is coordinating our volunteers this year so, if you can volunteer, either as a campaign headquarters staffer or as a GOTV caller, please e-mail Vivian at vivkirk@yahoo.com, or call her at Campaign Headquarters, 507-1467.

If you plan to stop by headquarters, please call first. Vivian’s office is in the back and she can’t see who’s coming in, so she’s keeping the door locked until we have more volunteers to staff the front.

Thank you!

$250 Scholarship & Lincoln Day Dinner Tickets for Student Essay Contest Winner

A Josephine County High School Senior can win a $250 scholarship and three tickets to the Annual Lincoln Day Dinner by entering the first Josephine County Republican Party “High School Lincoln Essay Competition”.

Featuring keynote speaker David Rufful of the Young Cons, the dinner will be held Friday Night, February 7th, 2014 at the Taprock Event Center in Grants Pass, Oregon.

Interested students may submit essays of 1,000 or fewer words about political leadership, inspired by the theme: “Abraham Lincoln chose to do what was right, rather than what was expedient.” Essays will be judged on writing quality, persuasiveness, historical accuracy and an understanding of the political courage of Abraham Lincoln.

Our goal is to inspire and empower the next generation of Republican leaders by facilitating critical thinking about political issues, contributing to their education and inviting them to take part in one of Josephine County Republican Party’s most cherished traditions.

All essayists must be enrolled in public or private school, or home schooled, and must be residents of Josephine County. Essays must be submitted via e-mail attachment to Keith Trahern at keith@traherns.com by Friday, January 10th, 2014 at 5 p.m. or mailed to Josephine County Republican Party, 1867 Williams Hwy, Suite 258, Grants Pass, OR 97527, and postmarked by January 10th.

Others interested in attending our Lincoln Day Dinner event can purchase a seat for $50 or a be a table sponsor of 8 for $450. Click here for more information.

Victory!

The referendum on the four ordinances succeeded! The voters have spoken. All four measures were resoundingly defeated.

Measure	Ordinance		No Votes		Yes Votes
17.53	Solid Waste & Nuisance Ordinance		76.48%		23.52%
17.54	Code Enforcement Officer Ordinance		79.24%		10.76%
17.55	Hearings Officer Ordinance		80.15%		19.85%
17.56	Environmental Health Ordinance		77.47%		22.53%

The Josephine County Republican Central Committee voted to pass a resolution opposing these measures last June. Since then, we have received letters of support from the Republican Central Committees in 20 other Oregon counties, as well as from the Oregon Republican Party. These ordinances were badly written and overreaching, and we are very glad that they were defeated at the ballot box.

Voter turnout was high for an off year election. According to County Clerk, Art Harvey, voter turnout usually runs about 40% in off year elections. We had a 49.9% turnout to defeat these ordinances.

This is a big win for Jospehine County!

Why You Should Vote NO on the Ordinance Ballot Measures

At the Weekly Business Session of the Board of County Commissioners on October 2, Margaret Goodwin presented the case against the four ordinances that were referred to the voters on the November ballot. You can watch a video here. The presentation begins at 32:45 on the video.

Here is a printout of the slides she presented, along with footnotes that reference each section in each ordinance addressed by each bullet point in the slides. <BCC Presentation with footnotes>

You can use the footnotes on each page to look up the referenced sections in the ordinances, which are posted on the County Web site here, and verify the accuracy of every statement.

These are very bad ordinances. The Josephine County Republican Party urges you to vote NO on all four of them.

New Exectutive Committee

The Republican Central Committee met on Wednesday to elect our new Executive Committee and delegates to the state Central Committee, and to vote on a resolution to approve a proposal for the federal government to sell the O&C lands to the counties in which they’re located. The resolution passed.

Please join us in congratulating our new Executive Committee and Delegates!

Executive Committee
Chair	Keith Trahern
Vice Chair	Eric Schaafsma
Treasurer	Kathy Kelly
Secretary	Alan Keobrick

Delegates to the State Central Committee
Chair	Keith Trahern		Alternate #1	Ron Ruby
Vice Chair	Eric Schaafsma		Alternate #2	David Scott
Delegate	Ron Glynn		Alternate #3	Clinton Chard

 

According to our bylaws, all subcommittees expire on the election of a new Executive Committee. The Executive committee will convene the second Tuesday in December to determine what subcommittees to establish or continue, and appoint new chairs.

Election Update

The ballots are almost all counted, and the results for County Commissioner Position #3 are indicating there’s likely to be an automatic recount. Oregon state law requires an automatic recount if the difference between the two candidates is 0.2% (one fifth of a percentage point) or less. Currently, the difference is 0.19%, with Bob Just trailing Cherryl Walker by only 66 votes.

Here’s the current status:

County Commissioner, Position 3

Cherryl Walker		17,123		49.83%
Bob Just		17,057		49.64%
WRITE-IN		181		0.53%
Total		34,361
Over Votes		17
Under Votes		6,202

Young Republican Organizational Meeting

The initial meeting of the Young Repulbicans in Josephine County will be at 6:00 PM Thursday, September 20 at our Republican Campaign Headquarters, 326 SW 6th St in Grants Pass.

If you’re a Republican under 40, this meeting is for you! We’re looking for new ideas and the vitality of youth to keep our party energized and focused on the issues that are important to you. It’s your future. It’s your party!

Please invite your friends, neighbors, kids, and anybody else who shares the Republican values and the patriotic spirit of our founding fathers

Oktoberfest 2012

Please join your fellow Republicans for Oktoberfest 2012 on September 30, from 2:00 – 5:00 PM at Tom Pearce Park, 3700 Pearce Park Rd. We’ll be in the pavillion next to the playground.

The Josephine County Republican party will provide wieners and brats; you provide a pot luck side or dessert. Bring your own soda, beer, etc., — and some to share.

This is a family fun event; it is not a meeting, so bring the kids! Get to know your fellow Republicans, meet candidates 1:1 (no speeches), and relax and enjoy good food, casual conversation, and fun and games for all.

This event is Free, but the park charges a parking fee if you don’t have an annual pass.

See you there!