Justin,

The Rhode Island Republican Assembly surely deserves to have a nice big party. I mean, they did so well with their get out the vote efforts this year!

This group, like everyone associated with the RIGOP, are nothing but a bunch of "country club" clowns!

Did they support Chafee in the Senate Primary of 2006? I bet they did!

Rasputin,

Stop talking out of your rear-end, especially when you have no clue about what you're saying.

First of all, we are not the RIGOP, although RIRA is largely composed of party members. As for RIRA, we actually did better than the party this year (not that it was exactly a challenge). Unlike the party, we also gave money to individual candidates through our PAC. The only Republican RI House winner statewide was supported by us.

RIRA is a conservative Republican organization, made up of what could best be described as the Conservative portion of what remains of the RI Republican Party.

Also, we officially endorsed Laffey over Chafee, though it wasn't unanimous, because some RIRA folks weren't convinced Laffey was conservative enough.

To my knowledge, we've never met at a Country Club, not that there's anything wrong with that.

PS The party on Saturday, despite the organization putting it on, is non-political in nature.

http://ri-ra.org/christmasparty.htm

Will,

My apologies. You and your group clearly have a lot to be proud of.

RIRA has been overly successful at getting the conservative message out, as evidenced by the overwhelming number of competent, conservative candidates who stepped forward in this year's election.

All sarcasm aside, while you say you've got nothing to do with the RIGOP, I know that at least one member is part of the State Central Committee.

Also, for a group that supposed to be "conservative", the group's President is a member of the Scott Avedisian administration in Warwick. Do you consider that Mayor, and his administration conservative? (He has ardent support from the unions, which flexed their muscle to defeat his biggest conservative critic, who happened to be a Democrat!)

Also: You say,
"The only Republican RI House winner statewide was supported by us."

I'm not sure what you mean by that qoute. Rhode Island has no Republican representatives in Congress, and on a statewide level, I believe 6 "GOP" members won.

Further, I didn't call your group a bunch of "country club" Republicans because you meet at country clubs.

A country club Republican is someone who doesn't care about the beliefs or principles, but views the Party as their own little social club (you know, the Bernie Jackvones, Mike Traficantes, Patricia Morgans and on and on and on, of the world).

I noticed that everyone is invited to you Christmas Party, so have fun with all your Democrat friends!

Here's a few more clarifications:

Yes, we have "at least one" member of the state central committee in our membership; about 35 or 40 actually, but hey, who's counting. There is a lot of overlap between our membership and the RIGOP, and especially city and town committees, because we encourage our members to be actively involved in the party, instead of just whining about it. Thanks for noticing.

As for our president, it is true that Scott is Ray's boss, in so much as Scott is the current mayor of Warwick. No one, including Scott himself could legitimately describe Scott as anything even remotely approaching conservative. Ray was not hired by Scott, and is not a political appointee, nor is he an "at will" employee. He's been there a lot longer than Scott. It's pretty common knowledge at Warwick city hall that Ray and Scott don't see eye to eye on virtually anything, although though they remain civil about it, but hey, don't let the facts get in the way of a good rant, right?

I wasn't referring to Congress. I was referring to the only non-incumbent Republican to win a seat in the House of the R.I. General Assembly.

"A country club Republican is someone who doesn't care about the beliefs or principles." I absolutely agree. And we're the exact opposite of that. Our beliefs, objectives, and principles can be found right on our website.

PS Yes, "everyone is invited" .. as long as they pay us money. That sounds very Republican to me!