California College Republican Chairman Michael Antonopoulos writes about President Obama’s recognition of San Francisco DA Kamela Harris’ “successful” anti-gang programs, which he notes have been a total failure, on the front page of The Flash Report. Mr. Antonopoulos gives a re-cap of Harris’ shameful record and her campaign for California Attorney General.
Tag Archives | ccr
Video: California College Republican Tea Party in San Francisco
Over 400 College Republicans from nearly 30 CA universities took to the streets of San Francisco last weekend at the Caliornia College Republicans convention. CRs, led by CCR Co-Chair Leigh Wolf and CR veteran Chandra Sharma, marched from Fisherman’s Wharf to Pier 39, protesting new taxes, the increased weight of the government on our generation, and Barack Obama’s socialist policies.
With all their San Fracisco class, liberals met the CRs with cries of “fascist” and “racists,” opting to wave the middle finger instead of the classic hippy peace sign. CRs were chanting slogans including “hey hey, ho ho, Barack Obama’s gotta go!,” and “say no to the Dems, we are not your ATMs!”
CCR Convention: The Fun Stuff, It Was an Awesome Weekend
Some people are talking about the 15 minutes of drama at the California College Republican convention, but everyone else is talking about how much fun it was. Here’s a little re-cap:
Friday, after most everyone checked-in and started getting to know each other, we got to listen to a great line up of speakers including CRP Vice Chairman Tom Del Beccaro, and Mason Weaver, a conservative activist and the author of It’s OK to Leave The Plantation.
Mason Weaver with CA College Republicans
Friday night was the CCR party, held at a nearby Irish pub called Fielder’s Green. It was a great party, everyone showed up, drank, danced and mingled regardless of who they supported for the election.
Saturday was the first full convention day. There were training sessions run by CR veterans, speeches from Gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman, CRP Chaiman Ron Nehring, activist and author David Horowitz.
CCR "Godfather" and resident "Old Guy" Chandra Sharma Giving a Training Session
David Horowitz at CCR Convention
CA College Republicans With Gov. Candidate Meg Witman
Then there was the Anti-Tax rally, a Tea Party after Tax Day. Hundreds of College Republicans took to the streets in San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf, protesting the Obama Administration’s bankrupting of our country, and the government’s theft from our generation. Republican’s held signs reading, among many slogans, “Spread my work ethic, not my wealth,” and “You keep the Hope, I’ll keep my Change.”
CA College Republicans Rally Against Obama's Socialist Policies
CA College Republicans Rally Against Obama's Socialist Policies
The CCR Convention banquet took place Saturday night, it included awards (The Dana Report got one! no picture but I’ll scan the award in soon) and a line-up of great speakers including CA Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher, Gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner, the favorite speaker Greg Gutfeld from Fox News’ Red Eye, and the most important speaker Bush OLC Attorney and law professor John Yoo. Poizner won over the crowd at the beginning of his speech with a text message poll asking who your least favorite CA Democrat was (Pelosi by 81%), among other questions. Gutfeld was fantastic, the crowd laughed uncontrollably and enjoyed his humorous and …interesting anecdotes, one saying that “Liberalism is like herpes, it’s incurable, and it comes and it goes. Conservatism is like Valtrex, it can’t cure the disease, but it can suppress it.”
Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher at CCR Banquet
Gov. Candidate Steve Poizner at CCR Banquet
Red Eye's Greg Gutfeld at CCR Banquet
CA College Republicans With John Yoo
The night ended (really, it started) with the convention’s slate parties. The Red State Rising party was held in a ballroom the Hyatt Fisherman’s Wharf, where CRs partied to the music of an awesome live band. The Revolutionize CCR party was held at a bar a few blocks from the hotel, hundreds of CRs were there dancing and singing to Karaoke all night, with an open bar for the first few hours until the tab ran out.
Live Band at Red State Rising Party
Red State Rising Party at CCR Convention
Revolutionize CCR Party at CCR Convention
Greg Gutfeld With Some CRs at Revolutionize CCR Party
Sunday brought the elections, which are covered in an earlier post, with election results in an even earlier post. The weekend was amazing; can you think of anything more fun than hundreds of College Republicans in the heart of the Soviet Union, err, San Francisco? Thank you to the convention organizers and all of the CRs and speakers that made last weekend so great!
Congratulations to Michael Antonopoulos and the Revolutionize CCR team, we hope to see great things from CCR in the next year! We also hope to see Adam Ellison and the Red State Rising team help bring success to both CCR and CA Republicans over the next year, a loss is difficult but we’re all working for the same cause… Thank you all!
h/t to Tierney Burke, Lauren Korbatov and Megan Rodriguez for many of the pictures (stole ‘em off of Facebook). If you have more pictures send them over.
After the CCR Election: Some CRs Want The Drama to Continue
I had the pleasure of attending the California College Republican convention this weekend. It was organized to a “T,” by Convention Director Michael Antonopoulos and was a great chance for CRs from across the state to meet, interact, and obviously party. We heard speeches from Steve Poizner, Meg Whitman, Ron Nehring, Tom Del Beccaro, Shawn and Michelle Steel, David Horowitz, John Yoo, Greg Gutfeld, and although this list is long, many more fantastic speakers. There were training sessions, parties, an anti-Tax rally, and a run-in with Bay Area anti-war nut-jobs. After all the fun it’s disappointing that I’ll have to write about the good stuff tomorrow, tonight I’m writing about CR drama that for some reason still continues after the election.
Michael Antonopoulos of Saint Mary’s College won the California College Republican election with a landslide vote of 416 to 18 against Adam Ellison of University of the Pacific. All of Antonopoulos’ Revolutionize CCR slate was elected, while Ellison’s Red State Rising slate failed to win a significant number of votes for any single position. The drama and infighting in CCR built up until the convention, which ended today. Apparently some CRs, on the losing side, still can’t get over the loss.
Adam Brickley, who’s not a College Republican and has been covering the infighting with a one-sided and deeply angry perspective on his blog “The Brickyard”, posted some news today that is both misinformed and misleading.
Election rules state that only registered delegates have a voice on the voting floor, because of this, “UCSD College Republicans” and “UCLA College Republicans” and “UC Berkeley College Republicans” were not allowed on the floor and sat in the viewing gallery at the back of the room. During the time allotted for motions and business, Marshall Roe from Pasadena City College, who received an extension himself to complete his chartering documents at the Friday night Ex-Comm meeting, motioned to charter UCLA. The UCLA CRs had more than 30 days to submit chartering documents, and three extensions were allowed for all CCR chapters; UCLA failed to submit their documentation by the Friday night deadline, arriving two hours late. The Chairwoman called for a voice-vote on UCLA’s chartering and it was defeated. Video will show that the “nays” definitively won the vote. The entire UCLA chapter walked out of the room, along with the UC Irvine College Republicans. Adam Ellison attempted to motion for a roll call vote, but UCLA had already stormed out of the room and a motion never made it to the floor.
Roe then moved to charter the “UCSD College Republicans,” who did submit documentation but were not chartered following a 6-1 Ex-Comm vote in favor of the “Triton College Republicans” last month. Again a voice vote was held and chartering was resoundingly denied by a majority of the delegates. CRs agreed UCSD was not disenfranchised, they were never franchised, Triton CRs was. This again prompted a walk-out of almost all of the delegates that supported the non-chartered chapters.
UC Irvine and Saddleback College voluntarily withdrew their charters, disenfranchising themselves.
The vote tallies leave the disgruntled chapters with little defense; their criticisms sound serious, but are unjustified, what is more fair than a vote of the entire state organization? UCSD CRs claim to have been “disenfranchised” or “overthrown” by the “corrupt establishment,” however, all of UCSD could have voted if they had resolved their internal problems, instead they decided to embarrass themselves and the entire organization. Either way, their votes would have had no significant effect on the outcome of the election; this fact leaves them with little more than a conspiracy theory. CRs is about a bigger picture, a cause that involves millions of Americans, it’s just not all about you.
College Republicans know about and are involved electoral politics–when the votes come in, the winner wins and the loser loses–that’s it; grievance mongering only damages the reputation of the organization. It’s time to move on.
Note: Brickley discusses the alleged withdrawal of $500 from the UCSD CRs bank account, an issue that I have not covered on this blog; it’s troubling, but, it’s being dealt with by the parties involved and I hope they’ll come to a satisfactory agreement.
“Controversy” at CCR Convention
The California College Republicans got some media attention at the convention this weekend after one of America’s greatest legal minds, distinguished attorney and professor John Yoo, was invited to speak. Here’s a video of the protest and the reaction from CRs from KTVU – “Protesters Confront Berkeley Prof. Over Torture Docs.”
The video says there were dozens of protesters, there were really about a dozen at most.
Blogger and USC CRs Chairman Joshua Sharp covered Mr. Yoo’s speech and the protest on AOL’s Politics Daily.
CCR Election: More Drama, This Time It’s at Pacific
In a previous entry about the Red State Rising website, I posted some corrections including one that stated that Wade Holden was no longer the Chair of University of the Pacific College Republicans. That correction was made after Maria Klingenfuss was elected Chair, made a new website, and announced it on Twitter, where I picked up the news. No comment was made about the new PCR website which included a reference to Maria’s election.
When Maria, her executive board, and members of PCR decided to pull their endorsement of RSR, and announce one in favor of Revolutionize CCR, things changed. Adam Ellison, who is at the helm of RSR, posted a comment saying that Wade Holden was still the Chair at Pacific, and that the endorsement of RSR stood.
Something fishy was clearly going on at Pacific.
This video, accusing Revolutionize CCR and the current leaders of CCR of corruption, was posted by Wade Holden on Facebook, yesterday:
Beyond the creepy music, the video lacks in hard evidence against anyone on the Rev slate let alone the CCR E-Board. So, Maria and her Vice-Chair are friends with the Rev candidates, is that not allowed?
This video was released by PCR Vice-Chair elect Justine Speegle and her board:
From what I can see on the documentation from Pacific and PCR’s meeting minutes from 5 March, Adam Ellison presided over the meeting where Maria and her team were duly elected. Wade and Adam were rightfully angry when they found that their own club, and even their hand-picked successors pulled their endorsement citing poor leadership. They pulled a power-play, and according to the RSR video and Pacific Student Orgs., it looks like Wade is the Chair until Summer. What of it?
What’s the point of spreading this inane and endless drama and bickering–accusing friends and collegues of corruption and dirty tricks? It looks terrible. CRs are still going to work together after this weekend. Regardless of who the Chair is or, who rightfully gets the endorsement, CRs should vote for the candidates that will best lead CCR over the next year. Then, move on and get back to work spreading conservatism on campus and electing Republicans to office.
Note: Is blogging for Townhall so unbearably boring that Matt Lewis has nothing better to do than this: “California College Republicans Persecuted by Their Own Leadership“? “I’m not there, so maybe I’m missing something, but this looks really bad from where I sit,” says Lewis. Yeah, you missed half the story Matt.
CRP Vice-Chair Del Beccaro and State Senator Strickland Endorse Revolutionize CCR
A press release from Revolutionize CCR:
San Francisco, CA – Thomas Del Beccaro, the Vice Chairman of the California Republican Party, and State Senator Tony Strickland (SD-19) announced this week their endorsement of the Revolutionize CCR team to be the next leaders of the California College Republicans.
CRP Vice Chairman Del Beccaro is one of California’s premier conservative activists, publisher of PoliticalVanguard.com, author of The New Conservative Paradigm, and frequent guest commentator on radio and television. State Senator Tony Strickland, the Assistant Minority Leader, is on the front lines of the ongoing battle to protect California’s tax payers from tax and spend Democrats.
CRP Vice Chair Del Baccaro and State Senator Tony Strickland join Revolutionize CCR’s growing list of supporters, including party leaders, elected officials, conservative activists, and College Republicans. For more information on Revolutionize CCR visit www.RevolutionizeCCR.com
UCSD CR Chair Threatened Legal Action Against CCR Co-Chair
From Leigh Wolf, Co-Chair of California College Republicans:
I wasn’t going to release this e-mail but after seeing recent blog posts regarding the UCSD situation I was left with no choice. At the College Republicans meeting during the California Republican Party convention we welcomed some of the biggest names from around the state. These speakers included gubernatorial candidates Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner as well as the Chair and Vice-Chair of the state party.
Also present were countless elected officials from around the state. Inez Feltscher and the rest of the students accusing the CCR ExComm of corruption, decided to hand out a “press release” that detailed the extensive in-fighting at UCSD. There was no contact info on this “press release,” it was basically a hit piece. CCR does everything in it’s power to maintain and professional image. I was not happy because the entire state leadership was watching a CR club air their dirty laundry to the entire delegation. These actions served no purpose other than to make CCR look childish and petty.
I called over one of the students handing out the “press release” and told him to leave. I then told him if he pulled something like this again I would publicly embarrass him and make him famous to all of CCR. This was deemed an illegal “threat” by Inez Feltscher. She sent me this e-mail (see attached) warning me that i could be facing a lawsuit if I continued to threaten them with public humiliation. Inez Feltscher and her ilk are loose canons and shameless opportunists.
They are playing CCR politics with their clubs in-fighting to benefit one slate. The idea that a CR would threaten to sue the CCR ExComm for threatening to embarrass them for acting like children is both laughable and foolish.
You can see the e-mail from Inez Feltscher here. A statement from Ryan McNicholas, CCR Central Coast Vice-Chair, and the 1 vote for UCSD chartering is up on CR Nation.
Shake up: Pacific CRs Pull Red State Rising Endorsement
In a blog post entitled “Pacific College Republicans Oppose Adam Ellison and the ‘Red State Rising’ Slate,” the Pacific CRs announced that they have withdrawn their endorsement of their own former Chair in his bid for the Chairmanship of the California College Republicans.
The Pacific CRs wrote a scathing rebuke of both Ellison and Wade Holden, a Pacific student who is also running on RSR. From the Pacific CR website:
Dear Fellow College Republicans:
Since the beginning of our involvement with the University of the Pacific College Republicans, we have witnessed Adam Ellison and Wade Holden run our organization into the ground. Rather than confront them and create conflict in our own club, we have simply tried to ignore them and have carried on trying desperately to rebuild our club’s credibility. Adam Ellison graduated in May of 2008, took the fall 2008 academic semester off, and came back during the spring 2009 academic semester to take only one class so he could run for CCR State chair. Since the beginning of Adam’s campaign for CCR state chair he has only sporadically attended club functions and has only come when it benefitted his campaign. Both Adam and Wade have made and broken promises to local officials, political candidates, University of the Pacific officials, Pacific Student Government and club advisors, which has caused tension and animosity between Adam, Wade, the Pacific College Republicans and the local community. As a result of Adam and Wade’s incompetence, our club is widely viewed as a laughing stock in the San Joaquin Valley. They have not only been negligent in their leadership duties, but they have made a concerted effort to block all reforms and ideas that they, themselves, did not initiate. Adam Ellison and Wade Holden are self-promoting, egotistical students who are more concerned about moving up, than helping out. In conclusion, the University of the Pacific College Republicans WILL NOT be endorsing Adam Ellison and Wade Holden in their campaign for CCR State leadership. There was never a constitutional endorsement meeting for our club, therefore any claims that PCR endorses Red State Rising are erroneous. The University of the Pacific College Republicans DO NOT endorse Adam Ellison or anyone else on the Red State Rising Slate.
Shawn Steel and Mark Wyland Endorse Revolutionize CCR
Press Release:
Los Angeles, CA – California’s Republican National Committeeman Shawn Steel and State Senator Mark Wyland (CA‐38) have announced this week their endorsement of the Revolutionize CCR team for the Executive Committee positions of the California College Republicans.
Both Committeeman Steel and Senator Wyland are driving forces for conservative activism and have long been two of the organizations strongest supporters. “Michael Antonopoulos and Revolutionize CCR have the leadership and vision necessary to take CCR to the next level” said Committeeman Steel.
RNC Committeeman Steel and Senator Wyland add to Revolutionize CCR’s growing list of supporters, including party leaders, elected officials, conservative activists, and College Republicans. For more information on Revolutionize CCR check out www.RevolutionizeCCR.com
