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!”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

We’ve had a platform from Revolutionize since January, and now we have one from Red State Rising, it’s time to look at both, look at the candidates, and decide who you think will be the best leaders to take CCR into the first year of the Obama administration and the 2010 election cycle.

The Revolutionize CCR platform is here, at RevolutionizeCCR.com. The Red State Rising platform is here, in PDF. (We’ve heard the RSR website should be up by the end of the week.)

College Republicans Candidate for Chairman Michael Antonopoulos, who contributed to Fox&Hounds last year, hosted what most agree was the most popular hospitality suite of the weekend, packed wall to wall throughout the night; several GOP electeds and party officials dropped by to vocalize their support of his plan to expand youth outreach throughout California.

As someone who attended the hospitality suite I have to agree that it was a huge hit. The suite was full, as Chandra Sharma writes above in the Fox & Hounds Daily, from the time the party began and late into the night. Not only CR’s attended the event, California Republican leaders were also in attendance, there were speeches by Assemblyman Chuck DeVore who co-hosted the event, Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher, Assemblywoman Diane Harkey, San Diego City Councilman Carl DeMaio, and CRP Vice-Chair Tom Del Beccaro (don’t think I’m missing anyone). DeMaio, Fletcher, Harkey and Del Beccaro endorsed Michael Antonopoulos for CCR Chair, and all vocalized support for his consistent and determined leadership as a CR. Here’s a picture of the event released by Revolutionize CCR:

(From left to right) Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher, Current CCR Executive Director Matthew Dobler, Current CCR Co-Chair Leigh Wolf, Candidate for CCR Co-Chair Falicia Mandel, Campaign Manager Matt Donnellan, Candidate for CCR Chair Michael Antonopoulos

There will be more to re-cap come from CRP tomorrow, especially the CCR meeting which was also a tremendous success, with over 175 in attendance and a great speakers line-up.

A Press Release from USC College Republicans:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 28, 2009

USC College Republicans’ Statement on Chairman’s Resignation

“At our chapter meeting yesterday, Chairman Ben Myers resigned his position with the USC College Republicans, saying a change in leadership was necessary for our organization to move forward and repair the damage caused by a series of mistakes he made while acting on behalf of the organization. Several of his actions were made unilaterally, reflected poorly on our organization, and were conducted without the consent or authorization of the USC College Republicans Executive Board. He is welcome to remain a member of the group, but is not authorized to speak on behalf of the organization.

“Our group serves a purpose that is greater than a single member, event or chapter leader. While we are working toward college degrees, the Democratic Congress has proposed a federal spending spree that threatens to burden our generation with trillions of dollars in debt and higher taxes. Even worse, their spending plans won’t create the jobs they promise, nor stimulate our nation’s crippled economy.

“The Republican ideals of low taxes, strong national defense and more responsible governance are a winning message for our generation’s future. USC College Republicans are committed to spreading that important message across this campus. Empowered by the enthusiasm of our members, we’re looking forward to an active slate of campus events, state conferences and chapter meetings throughout the upcoming semester.”

NOTES:

- Consistent with the chapter’s Constitution, Vice Chairman Steve Hagemann assumed the duties of Acting Chairman upon Ben Myers’ resignation last night. At present, no special election has been scheduled prior to our annual chapter elections at the end of the spring semester. All other officer positions remain the same.

# # #

Positions confirmed by our sources:

Adam Ellison, Pacific – Chairman
Ben Myers, USC – Co-Chair
Wade Holden, Pacific – Admin Vice-Chair
Misty Tienken, Grossmont – Treasurer
Alvaro Day, UCLA – Secretary
Nick Pagnucci, SFSU – Bay Area Regional Vice-Chair
Brenna Miller, UCI – Southern Regional Vice-Chair

Unconfirmed positions:

Ryan McNicholas, UCSB – Executive Director
Marshall Roe, PCC – LA Regional Vice-Chair

Changes from the last published slate: Ben Myers is now co-chair, Sidney Hilario is no longer on the slate (as far as we know), and Matthew Schenk is no longer listed for an elected position.

Developing…

UPDATE: CR Nation: Press Release Announcing Ellison’s candidacy. CR Nation is calling Ellison the third candidate in the race, but TDR sources confirm that there is not a new ticket. Ellison is running for chair on the previously announced second slate. Also, the press release says RedStateRising.org will not be up until early February.

You can find the updated platform at RevolutionizeCCR.com

Revolutionize CCR Slate Retreat in South Lake Tahoe

Ben Myers, Chair
Matthew Schenk, Co-Chair
Alvaro Day, Admin vice-chair
Misty Tienken, Treasurer
Ryan McNicholas, Executive Director
Sydney Hilario, Secretary
Marshall Roe, LA Regional Vice Chair
Brenna Miller, Southern Regional Vice Chair

Developing…

UPDATE: Late Night Jan. 18, TruthCaucus: CCR Fight, Fight, Fight

Jan. 19, CRNation: Rumor: 2nd Ticket Forming in CA

Jan. 19, CRNation Update: Blog: Second Ticket Set to Announce in CA

UPDATE: Jan. 21, Slate updated here Adam Ellison as Chair, Ben Myers Co-chair.

Under the tag line, Revolutionize CCR, their platform calls for an active grassroots movement using, new media, a local focus, and high-tech communication, to win elections for Republicans across the Golden State.

The Dana Report is proud to endorse Revolutionize CCR. We look forward to the revolution!

Revolutionize CCR Website

Facebook Group

UPDATE: Press Release: Antonopoulos Announces Candidacy for CR Chairman, from CRNation