April LCRP Meeting
Last night, the Lincoln County Republican Party hosted its monthly meeting in the auditorium of the Fayetteville Municipal Building.
The scheduled speaker for the evening was Bob Davis, Chairman of the Tennessee Republican Party. However, Bob had to bow out at the eleventh hour due to a family obligation that conflicted with his attendance at the meeting. Willing to come and speak in his stead was David Leaverton, Director of the Tennessee Republican Party’s 72-Hour Project. But many will remember David as the punter on the University of Tennessee’s 1998 National Championship football team.
As it turns out, David was an excellent replacement speaker for Bob. He began his remarks by commenting on the ongoing drama of the state senate seat from Memphis, pointing out how the 72-Hour Program was used to great effect in Terry Roland’s de facto victory over Ophelia Ford in the election to fill John Ford’s seat. And while Ms. Ford was declared the winner and took the seat, David predicted that she will not occupy that seat much longer, and the rightful winner will be vindicated.
He moved on to discuss the excitement in Nashville over the entry of Senator Jim Bryson into the race for Governor. While Governor Bredesen has tremendous fund-raising abilities, the state party is confident that we will have a candidate in the fall that can make a serious run at unseating a governor whose performance has been a huge disappointment, even to those who voted against him in 2002.
Moving on to speak in more detail regarding his area of expertise, David explained the 72 Hour Project to the assembly. This project involves four major actions by party activists: Voter Registration, Voter Identification, Utilization of Early Voting, and “Get Out The Vote” efforts in the final days before the election. His explanation of exactly what would be required of those who were willing to help in this project seemed to allay a lot of any intimidation over “getting involved” that many may otherwise have, and immediately following the meeting, attendees approached him to volunteer.
Opening up the floor for questions, David addressed some of the means the party has of identifying potential new Republican voters, before being asked about his football experiences at UT and the NFL. When asked about his most thrilling game while at UT, there was no hesitation as he noted that beating Florida State for the National Championship was the high point.
However, he did note that were it not for the fact that that particular game was for the championship – he otherwise bears no ill will toward FSU – then he would probably give that honor to the game in which they beat Florida that year. He noted that that was the only time while he was at UT that they beat the Gators, and it gave him great pleasure to see Steve Spurrier throwing his visor quite a bit that day. Of course, in one of the great ironic twists of fate, the very Steve Spurrier who had been his public enemy number one during his college career would later be his coach during his brief time with the Washington Redskins. Bottom line, David noted that Steve Spurrier is a Republican, so he’ll stand with him on election day. But beyond that, he will always be a Vol, and Steve Spurrier will always be the coach Vols love to - well - dislike intensely.
The scheduled speaker for the evening was Bob Davis, Chairman of the Tennessee Republican Party. However, Bob had to bow out at the eleventh hour due to a family obligation that conflicted with his attendance at the meeting. Willing to come and speak in his stead was David Leaverton, Director of the Tennessee Republican Party’s 72-Hour Project. But many will remember David as the punter on the University of Tennessee’s 1998 National Championship football team.
As it turns out, David was an excellent replacement speaker for Bob. He began his remarks by commenting on the ongoing drama of the state senate seat from Memphis, pointing out how the 72-Hour Program was used to great effect in Terry Roland’s de facto victory over Ophelia Ford in the election to fill John Ford’s seat. And while Ms. Ford was declared the winner and took the seat, David predicted that she will not occupy that seat much longer, and the rightful winner will be vindicated.He moved on to discuss the excitement in Nashville over the entry of Senator Jim Bryson into the race for Governor. While Governor Bredesen has tremendous fund-raising abilities, the state party is confident that we will have a candidate in the fall that can make a serious run at unseating a governor whose performance has been a huge disappointment, even to those who voted against him in 2002.
Moving on to speak in more detail regarding his area of expertise, David explained the 72 Hour Project to the assembly. This project involves four major actions by party activists: Voter Registration, Voter Identification, Utilization of Early Voting, and “Get Out The Vote” efforts in the final days before the election. His explanation of exactly what would be required of those who were willing to help in this project seemed to allay a lot of any intimidation over “getting involved” that many may otherwise have, and immediately following the meeting, attendees approached him to volunteer.
Opening up the floor for questions, David addressed some of the means the party has of identifying potential new Republican voters, before being asked about his football experiences at UT and the NFL. When asked about his most thrilling game while at UT, there was no hesitation as he noted that beating Florida State for the National Championship was the high point.
However, he did note that were it not for the fact that that particular game was for the championship – he otherwise bears no ill will toward FSU – then he would probably give that honor to the game in which they beat Florida that year. He noted that that was the only time while he was at UT that they beat the Gators, and it gave him great pleasure to see Steve Spurrier throwing his visor quite a bit that day. Of course, in one of the great ironic twists of fate, the very Steve Spurrier who had been his public enemy number one during his college career would later be his coach during his brief time with the Washington Redskins. Bottom line, David noted that Steve Spurrier is a Republican, so he’ll stand with him on election day. But beyond that, he will always be a Vol, and Steve Spurrier will always be the coach Vols love to - well - dislike intensely.
posted by JeffreyH | 6:38 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home