Does party trump person?

[Chairman's Committee]

I have often thought that the worst Republican is always better than the best Democrat. I often thought that a third party in the American political system was a good idea, and I have apologized many, many times for voting for Ross Perot.

During the Clinton administration I started to understand the idea of coalition politics, and how the majority rules realities work within the U.S. Congress. I started listening to Mike Rosen on KOA, and quickly became a fan. Mike’s “Party trumps person“ philosophy reinforced my growing understanding of how our system works. And the “majority rules” idea took on a whole new meaning.

Now having said this some readers are probably rolling their eyes and grumbling that I might be a Dan Maes fan. And I am. Early in the campaign I had several conversations with Dan. We agreed on some of the issues that were important to me. Two of the things that liked about Dan were that he wasn’t a career politician and he wasn’t being heaved upon us by the party. Two of the things that scared me about Dan were that he wasn’t a career politician and he didn’t have the party support. Nonetheless, Dan went though the caucus and assembly process and won the Republican primary, and deserves the support of the Republican Party of Colorado, and those registered Republicans in Colorado.

If Tom Tancredo had gone though the caucus and assembly process he likely would be the Republican candidate on this gubernatorial ballot. But his prediction that Dan Maes couldn’t win became a self fulfilling prophecy the moment he entered the race as a third party candidate.

I have spent much of the last two days reading blogs, comments and emails to this website and combing through the associated email accounts and have discovered that support for Dan and Tom is split amongst the members. I support Dan Maes and I know that Fredrick Lindner did as well. As to the support and/or endorsement from the Arapahoe Tea Party I am not sure what to do.

In this case, I believe that the worst Republican beats the best John Hickenlooper.

And a vote for Tom Tancredo, gives us…the Ross Perot effect.

[James Griffin]

Hi, I agree my face is beat up. I chose that photo to show how I feel about the Feds and their effect on my person. I agree that "party trumps person". The system is flawed in the sense that one good person affiliated with one bad party, (DEMOCRATS), when elected, drags along the whole dysfunctional family into power. Folks that waste their time and vote on one personality can't be thinking deeply. I was a democrat until I realized that they had won all of the wars they fought, feminism, racism, environmentalism, etc. They are fighting the old wars. They have spun off into convoluted abstractions of these wars. They are lost and we are being pulled along. White males are one of their demons. I am a white male and never oppressed anyone. I have never met a white male oppressor! Why do males even belong to the democrat party? It is so feminized I sometimes think we are children playing boys against the girls. Anyway we are dealing with a world that is mesmerized by media. Difficult and multifaceted are our problems. As far as voting for Ronald Reagan goes, if he had been a democrat, he would have had no principals of note to teach us. Thus, he wouldn't have drawn the passion he did. He spoke the truth. As a democrat he would have been just a common politician promising us all the foolish trash we hear from Mr. Obama and company. Instead he spoke of human virtues and civic duty. Thanks, Jim

[Keith Ulmer]

The problem Mr.Chairman as I see it is the fact that a significant portion of electorate are not affliated with a party and there is a reason why that is and it probably lies there in the "Party over Person" ethic.The question we are faced with right now is serious allegations about Mr. Maes credentials have been raised and He promised that they would be cleared up by an independent reporter and nothing like that has surfaced that I am aware of. And as I see it the allegations could be resolved by very easily attainable evidence.
The question to ask here in regards to party over person is did all those who voted for President Ronald Reagan vote for the man or the Party and I believe all reasonable people can answer that truthfully very easily. The final question is the majority independent voters going to vote party or canidate, we will find out in November.

[Chairman's Committee]

I'll welcome your comments.