First Time Out

Throwing caution to the wind, several months ago the Lincoln County Republican Party decided to venture into uncharted territory – we decided to organize and host our first Reagan Day Dinner and Silent Auction. The night of Thursday, August 25 saw all the planning come to fruition as approximately 43 area Republicans gathered to honor the greatest President of the Twentieth Century, and raise money for GOP candidates for state and federal office.

As the evening began, the silent auction featured merchandise and gift certificates offered by several local businesses, and raised money that was earmarked for LINCPAC, the local party’s Political Action Committee. The dinner itself, served as the auction wound down, was catered by The Barn in Fayetteville and provided all present with a filling, and quite tasty, meal before the crowd settled in for the evening’s program.


Especially considering that the planning for the event featured our having to get “on the job training” on how to do it, all present were in agreement that, not only was the dinner a roaring success from the standpoint of providing all with an enjoyable and informative evening, it also featured more than its share of prominent candidates and officeholders. I ran into one of the candidates two days later who noted that, for meeting its size in a small, rural county, the dinner featured the most political firepower of any in the state.


Indeed, we were all pleasantly surprised by those politicos who were in attendance despite the fact that the only one we actually contacted was the speaker for the evening. I know, we should have thought to issue more formal invitations to those in attendance – as well as some others – but, hey, this was our first time out, and we were learning as we went along. If nothing else, the presence of several prominent Republicans bear witness to the effectiveness of good word-of-mouth advertising, as well as the value of making use of the Tennessee Republican Party’s website and events calendar.

As it stood, the officeholders and candidates who did attend were: State House Candidate Bill Green, U.S. House Candidate Alan Pedigo, U.S. Senate Candidate Van Hilleary, State Senators Bill Ketron, Ron Ramsey (the Majority Leader), and Jim Tracy.

After all of these – except Senator Ramsey – were given the opportunity to make brief comments to the audience. I shared some thoughts on the benefits we all enjoy as a result of Ronald Reagan having been the President of the United States when he was (see Friday’s post) before introducing the featured speaker for the evening: Senator Ramsey. Of course, I couldn’t resist noting that I should have been able to introduce him as the state’s Lieutenant Governor, and he assured me that he would have still attended even if he was Lieutenant Governor – he would just have had a driver with him.


Senator Ramsey did not disappoint as he provided the assembled gathering with a thoroughly enjoyable and informative discussion of current events in Tennessee’s government – especially with regard to TennCare and the ethics problem – as well as a “pep talk” to prepare the faithful for the upcoming electoral battles.

Following the Senator’s speech, the crowd was given one last treat as he graciously consented to use his professional auctioneer’s skills to sell a couple of items that had not received bids during the silent auction. First up was a Honda bag donated by the Fayetteville Cycle Shop. Janet Dornan, Chair of the Franklin County Republican party ended up taking it home.

Then, to see just how good an auctioneer Ron Ramsey really is, he was given a belly-dancing instructional video to collect on. After trying to start the bidding at $100, he eventually settled for selling it off for under $10 – but I won’t share the identity of the lucky auction winner.

At the end of the day, all were in agreement that the evening was time well spent and carried off – especially in view of the fact that it was the inaugural event. I would be remiss if I failed to point out – and praise – the hard work of my wife, and the local party’s Treasurer, Tanya, as well as our immediate past Chair Sarah Black. Additionally, prominent members of our local Young Republicans Organization provided valuable assistance in the cleanup of the facility.


A tiring evening to be sure. And that following an extremely stressful final week of planning. But when all is said and done it was time well spent, and is certainly the signal of more good things to come for the Republican Party and conservative movement in southern Tennessee.