Student to run for party chair position
After last week’s general election put the presidency and many long-held congressional seats firmly in the hands of Democrats, many Republicans have started to question the future of their party.
College Republicans VP declares candidacy
Student to run for party chair position
After last week’s general election put the presidency and many long-held congressional seats firmly in the hands of Democrats, many Republicans have started to question the future of their party.
COURTESY OF michael garvin
Michael Garvin, vice president of the College Republicans student group, would like to replace Allen Alley as the chair of Oregon’s Republican Party.
Michael Garvin, a Portland State biology major and vice president of the College Republicans student group, believes he may have the answer.
Garvin announced Tuesday that he will be running to replace Allen Alley as chairperson of the Oregon Republican Party in January. Alley announced his resignation on Oct. 21.
“Mr. Allen Alley has done an absolutely horrible job at getting out into the communities and talking about who the Republican Party really is,” Garvin said in an email.
Alley has helmed the Oregon GOP since January 2011, when he ran unopposed after losing the 2010 Republican primary for governor to Chris Dudley, a former NBA athlete.
Since then, Alley has faced criticism for his handling of Ron Paul’s delegates leading up to this year’s Republican National Convention, and eventually tendered his resignation after a controversial election mailer sent out by the Oregon Transportaion Project backed around 30 Democrats in Oregon elections.
But to Garvin, Alley’s problems are only a shadow of the bigger issues that now face
the party.
“The Republican Party is not the party of our parents, grandparents or even our great-grandparents any longer,” he said. “[It] has been hijacked by the elitist, older, white male population.”
Like Garvin, Republicans find themselves facing an increasingly complex electorate, one of the first to truly represent a minority-majority nation.
Julia Rabadi, president of the PSU College Republicans, believes this is one of the main reasons Republicans lost the race for the presidency.
“It’s like what Condi [Condoleezza Rice] said the other day. Republicans forgot about minorities, women and the youth vote, and seemed to only focus on white America,” Rabadi said. “She was calling for a bigger tent.”
Despite feelings of disappointment, the College Republicans are ready to put the election behind them.
“Now we will, obviously, have to focus on other things moving forward,” Rabadi said. “Primarily Israel and Iran.”
Other issues Rabadi said would become the focus of the College Republicans group centered on national issues like the growing movement to impeach President Barack Obama and the encouragement of citizen journalism—something Rabadi sees as one of the most viable solutions to combating bias in the media.
Rabadi and Garvin both stressed the importance of blocking what they feel is a growing tendency in the American public to look for “handouts.”
The push for personal fiscal responsibility is one of the major points of a press release Garvin issued announcing his candidacy for chairperson.
But aside from that, all bets are off. The battle between what Garvin calls the “old guard” and the “new blood” of the Republican Party is clearly one in which new lines are being drawn up daily.
Garvin has pledged to stand by the gay and lesbian community as they seek marriage rights, as well as affirming his support for women in their fight for authority over their voices and bodies.
Stances such as these might have stirred more controversy within the Republican Party a year ago, but to Garvin, it is the only logical step in moving forward and defeating what he sees as a discriminatory mind-set.
“Either they will conform to who the Republican Party now is or they can leave,” Garvin said. “But I am calling all of them out, be it Allen Alley, Rep. John Boehner, Sen. Mitch McConnell and Sen. Orrin Hatch.”
Perhaps an apt anaology for Garvin’s candidacy is found in the efforts of the College Republicans on a campus some see as overwhelmingly liberal.
Although Rabadi believes some student groups are hesitant to work with the College Republicans, she reiterated her desire to maintain an active role on the PSU campus and to continue to engage in civil dialogue with various student groups.
“There is such a lack of diversity of thought on this campus—if you don’t have diversity of thought, you have nothing.”
He sounds like a false candidate to divide young Republicans. Romney lost not because he is an old white male but because his policies were not substantially different from Obama’s. The Democrips and Rebloodlicans are losing votes across all demographics. “Reaching out to minorities” won’t get their votes if the wars on brown people continue.
What a grandstand for seeking power! Geeze could he be more blatant?
He’s been in the party that we know of about 15 minutes (check his voter registration).
Has no network of support even within Multnomah County let alone the 35 other counties in the state.
Has no solutions, plans of action, ideas of structuring, implementation or process to solve the “problems” in the party which he doesn’t even enumerate. He just tells us what’s wrong with Republicans. How useful.
And look at the picture. He has posed himself in the CLASSIC “I’m in control” posture usually reserved for arrogant doctors, academics and psychiatrists.
And what are going to be the main focuses of the College Republicans?….Iraq and Iran. Then they’re going to focus on NATIONAL issues. Just blow off what’s happening in your own back yard (forcibly dosing us with a known toxin in our water supply and the lightening speed evaporation of freedoms in Mult Co) and stick your nose everywhere BUT local….again.
Nothing here about unity, collation, convincing….just lots of “we’ll make ‘em do it” language.
“Either they will conform to who the Republican Party now is or they can leave,” Garvin said.
The perfect example of how “The enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend”. Just because you SAY and ACT like you support Ron Paul is no proof you actually want anyone but “the right kind of Republicans” to be free.
Renee,
I don’t know if you’re a Dem or Rep but I do know you are part of the problem. Here is a guy trying to make the GOP a more open-minded party and your response is so full of hatred, it discourages well-meaning people from taking any action or standing up for what they think is right. People like you are the reason no real change ever happens so please, take the hatred out of your ears and listen to another perspective for once.
Before you accuse him of having no support within Oregon or solutions of his own, do one thing: actually research him. Mike is not only a veteran, he is a Multnomah County PCP and is very involved in the Multnomah County Republicans. As for solutions, he’s beginning to put his plans on his youtube channel and other social media sites. Basing your accusations on one article (a school newspaper at that) is childish.
And stop saying he is after power or control. Chairman of the Oregon Republican Party is an unpaid, voluntary position and a position over a very small, minority group is hardly an opportunity to quench one’s thirst for control. You are merely saying these things out of jealousy because someone has the guts to stand up against an entire party and that is something people like you could never do.
Oh and as for the College Republicans tackling only national issues, well, that’s their choice. If you don’t like that, get off your ass, start your own group, and focus on the local events. College is a time to experiment and do what you want. That’s what they’re doing.