Reynolds is Goin’ Rogue
With Sarah Palin in town, Conrad Reynolds has been inspired to go rogue on the Republican Party of Arkansas. No need to pay for those expensive $500 or $125 $175 tickets for dinner at the Palin event says Reynolds.
He will instead be hosting a “Blue Collar Republican Barbeque” just before the Palin event in the parking lot west of Verizon Arena.
“These are tough economic times, so I am holding a free barbeque tailgate party before the Sarah Palin event for those everyday folks that might not have the resources to attend the $500 per person reception or the $175 for the dinner but they want to be involved,” said Reynolds.
It might ruffle some feathers with some state party leaders but then again it might be just the same type of thing Sarah Palin would do.
Tags: 2010 Candidates
February 14th, 2010 at 1:24 am
Loved this passage in the release:
“We must provide voters with more than rhetoric and platitudes. Now is the time for twice the action and half the talk, and that’s why I am running for US Senate.”
Neglecting his own platitude that appears three words after the first sentence, surely Conrad isn’t implying with his quote that Gov. Palin is nothing but “rhetoric and platitudes” is he?
I wonder if he and his team (assuming he still has anyone on staff) will offer up anymore rhetoric and platitudes as the two sides to go with what their cooking at the rogue bbq?
February 14th, 2010 at 2:05 pm
I think it is a good idea for a candidate. However tickets to the Palin event can be purchased for $35. That isn’t too bad for a fundraiser.
February 14th, 2010 at 7:12 pm
At least the Party offered several tiers of ticket prices, all the way down to a meager $35.
I sure hope Conrad makes alot of money attacking the very Republican Party whose nomination he seeks to earn.
February 14th, 2010 at 8:00 pm
The BBQ is a smart idea. Attacking the Republican Party while seeking its nomination isn’t very smart. Conrad would be fish food in DC if he can’t control his mouth any better than this.
He started out as my first choice in this race, but has steadily been negative, failed at fundraising, and blamed others for his own failures. This event shows a flash of brilliance, but his statement shows that he is completely out of his league. I’ll repeat what I’ve said many times. This is a race between Boozman and Baker. The others are wasting their time and energy at this point. Boozman is likely to win, but Baker does have enough money to stay in the race. Nobody else does and they should get out. There are other races where some of the second and third tier candidates could be competitive. The fact that they are so ego blinded that they can’t see reality makes me seriously question their ability to lead.
February 14th, 2010 at 10:22 pm
Hey,I thought Fred Ramey was the Blue Collar candidate the whole time.I watched him on channel 7 the other morning with Scott Inman.I dont know why anyone would want to steal others themes.
February 14th, 2010 at 10:38 pm
I read the press release. And Mr. Tolbert clearly misrepresented Reynolds intent in the first paragraph and even misstated the ticket prices. But it’s his blog and he is accountable to no one but his maker. But at least he was decent enough to accurately quote Reynolds in the second paragraph albeit out of context.
Another interesting point is that nowhere in the press release does Reynolds attack or besmirch the Arkansas GOP or the GOP in general for that matter. In fact he portrays this election cycle as an opportunity to gain a Republican majority in Congress. And he’s right. The conditions of this election cycle are very much akin to the 1994 cycle when Newt Gingrich and other Republicans brought the party to victory with The Contract with America.
Brett says: $35 is not bad for a fundraiser. Well sir that’s the price for a main event ticket. The main event is not a fundraiser. Only the dinner and the reception are fund raising events. You should watch the commercial for the event at the Arkansas GOP’s website. And from what I understand the Reynolds event is just a tailgate party and everything is free according to their events page on his website. So the only people that are making money at the event are the GOP, Sarah Palin and the Verizon Arena. Not exactly what I would call going “rogue.”
http://www.arkansasgop.com
http://voteconrad.com/event.asp?artid=122
Recently a Senate candidate compared the embryos that are slated to be discarded and thus donated to scientific research labs as having the same life value as a persons of the Jewish faith.
Not many negative comments there. Interesting. You could almost hear crickets.
What does that say about the folks around here?
I think that candidate was dead wrong and very insensitive to Holocaust survivors, their families and the Jewish people as a whole. And I understand his point completely but he could have made a more accurate comparison of apples to apples. But nonetheless many of you folks gave him a pass. But here you are now all peeved about a guy giving away sandwiches to people who don’t have much money. Who’s the next target? The Salvation Army?
February 15th, 2010 at 8:04 am
Every candidate, including Boozman, is doing the Senate run without the party’s blessing. They will back whoever wins the primary, but none of them were recruited by the party for this run. The current mindset is one of rebuilding the party with a different message, and one has to go on his own to do that. The same thing is happening on a local level, with county committees, as new people are getting into the committees in hopes of changing things from within. The voters will decide the nominee and that person will become a defacto leader in the party.
February 15th, 2010 at 10:03 am
dontaskdonttell – I corrected the mistake in the ticket prices. Sorry about that.
February 15th, 2010 at 11:02 am
Looks like the rogue colonel’s operations man is on the case.
February 15th, 2010 at 12:37 pm
Actually the whole thing is a fundraiser. The $35 and $65 ticket revenue goes into the same bucket as the $175 tickets. I’m not sure I understand you’re point that the $35 isn’t part of the “fundraiser”. Obviously you will probably raise more money from the higher ticket costs (those that attend the dinner) but it all goes into the same bucket.
February 15th, 2010 at 10:35 pm
Brett’s right. All ticket sales go into the same fund. I wonder if anyone will donate money to the RPA in order to protest? That would certainly be nice of them.