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Executive Board Member Reports
Juliana McMahan, Chair
The next 12 months are going to be packed full of opportunities for caring citizens to get involved in selecting and electing our next elected officials from the President on down! Below is a short primer on how we select our Republican Presidential nominee and other candidates using the caucus & convention process here in Washington state and Kitsap County.
Step 1: Local Precinct Caucuses on Saturday, January 13, 2024 at 9:00 a.m.
Every four years Republicans across our state get together with their neighbors by precinct. This is the foundation of the Presidential election process and provides guidance to the party for the upcoming four years. In 2024 the precinct caucuses will be held on Saturday, January 13 with registration beginning at 9:00 a.m. Most caucuses will be done by noon.
At the local precinct caucus attendees will:
1. Discuss issues including our Platform and what Resolutions to support.
2. Elect delegates and alternates to the Kitsap County Convention on February 10 where we will endorse our local 2024 Republican candidates and send delegates to the State Convention on April 18-20 in Spokane where they will elect delegates to the National Convention who will select our official Republican Presidential Candidate.
Please plan to attend your local Republican precinct caucus on Saturday, January 13, 2024 at 9:00 a.m., especially if you are interested in being a delegate to the county, state, and/or national conventions. If you would like to be a delegate, but cannot attend your precinct caucus, please email KCRP at caucus@kitsaprepublicans.com and ask for your name to be submitted as a possible county convention delegate during your caucus election. Delegates do not need to be present in order to be elected, but all county convention delegates must be elected during their precinct caucus on January 13.
Step 2: Kitsap County Convention on Saturday, February 10, 2024 at 9:00 a.m.
Delegates elected at the precinct caucuses will then attend our Kitsap County Convention on Saturday, February 10, 2024 at the Kitsap County Fairgrounds. Delegates need to register by the deadline and pay their registration fee of $50. Alternates and guests may attend for $35. The registration fee includes a box lunch. Delegates can ONLY be elected during their precinct caucus on January 13, 2024, although they do not need to be present in order to be elected.
Delegates to the Kitsap County Convention will:
1. Endorse our local 2024 Republican candidates.
2. Discuss and pass our KCRP Platform and Resolutions.
3. Elect delegates and alternates to the Washington State Convention.
Step 3: Washington State Convention on April 18-20, 2024 in Spokane
Delegates elected at the Kitsap County Convention will then attend the Washington State Convention on April 18-20, 2024 at the Spokane Convention Center. Delegates need to register by the deadline of March 18, 2024 and pay their registration fee (approx. $100). It is not too early to make your hotel reservations if you are interested in attending this exciting event! More information can be found online at https://wsrp.org/convention.
Delegates to the Washington State Convention will:
1. Endorse state and federal 2024 Republican candidates.
2. Discuss and pass the WSRP Platform and Resolutions.
3. Elect delegates and alternates to the National Republican Convention.
Step 4: National Republican Convention on July 15-18, 2024 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Delegates and alternates elected at the Washington State Convention will then attend the National Republican Convention on July 15-18, 2024 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. During this huge and exciting event, delegates and alternates will hear from great speakers, candidates, and select our official Republican Presidential candidate.
Although attendance for alternates is optional for the county and state conventions, attendance for alternates is mandatory for the national convention as the delegate/alternate process is different than that of the county and state conventions. All delegates and alternates to the national convention are required to pay their registration fees immediately after they are elected (approx. $1,500 which covers hotel) and are responsible for all of their own travel costs.
Please consider which combination of these four great events you want to attend in 2024 and make plans accordingly.
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Please continue gathering signatures for the Let's Go Washington initiatives! Please write the code "CNT-KTSP" in the box on the lower-right hand corner of the pages to help us get credit for the signatures we gather. If we reach 1,000 for all six initiatives, we will receive a $1,000 donation to help our party!
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KCRP is looking to hire a full-time employee who will help execute our strategic plan of turning Kitsap County red! If you know if someone who might be interested, please email chair@kitsaprepublicans.com for a job description.
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John M. Cameron, Vice-Chair
As PCO Committee Chair, I organized our meeting last month which was held at the KCRP office with Red Dialer training. Red Dialer is the Washington State Republican Party software that auto-dials voters.
The PCO Committee named Shelly McKinley-Olson, the KCRP Treasurer, as PCO of the Month. She has not only worked diligently with our books, but successfully led the Lincoln Day Dinner Committee with amazing success.
We had a record nine PCOs recruited in October. Special thanks to David Gonzales who stepped up as our new PCO Onboarding Coordinator to create an onboarding handout. We are recruiting heavily and focusing on coordinated strategy to facilitate KCRP committee placement.
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Keith Houk, State Committeeman
As State Committeeman my job is to represent the party on the county and state levels. As such I have had the distinct pleasure of supporting three very fine candidates for the South Kitsap School District Board positions. I helped these hopefuls by going to community gatherings, fund-raisers, door-knocking, and by phone banking. I have seen many aspects of the community that are to be proud of and others that are quite puzzling. On the whole though, community responses have been positive and people are actually grateful for our efforts.
I often feel we are fighting 'upstream' so-to-speak as we couldn't even get our letters to the local editors printed in support of the candidates. There were plenty of letters in support of the opposition though! I personally wrote about our three endorsed candidates and how they were in support of parental rights, fiscal accountability, and academic performance.
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Linda Popp, Secretary
Thankfulness, that’s what’s on my mind. I’m thankful for the hardworking individuals here in Kitsap County who’ve been fighting the good fight. I’m thankful that, in spite of losses at the ballot boxes, I see hope and an invigoration of spirit to do more. Thank God for that, as my husband and I aren’t moving.
I’ve been busy during the last month with meetings, observing ballot processing, zoom meetings, candidate forums, etc. But what I wanted to share in this newsletter with you is my thoughts on the General Election that we’ve just gone through.
I observed the ballot processing at the Auditor's office and I want to provide my observations concerning the SKSD Director races. With the three candidates for SKSD Director, I'd see ballots where someone would vote for one of the three candidates. Then I'd see ballots where someone would vote for two of the three. And certainly, there'd be a ballot that selected all three of the candidates. This tells me that voters were confused as to who the conservative candidates were. We need to fix this issue! If each ballot that had at least one vote for our conservative candidates, actually had voted for all three of them, they would have won!
The voter's pamphlet guide: Just as KCRP wants to hire someone to talk to voters about issues, the candidates must put in the voter's guide what they stand for and what they will work to fix. I believe most people only look at the voter's guide. This means most are not doing independent research or even looking at candidates' pages on Facebook.
It's very clear that many Republicans and swing voters didn't bother to vote. We need their votes in 2024! I challenge you to come up with a plan on how to contact these folks and convince them to vote. Send your ideas to the KCRP Board: board@kitsaprepublicans.com.
During the community events in the summer (Kitsap County Fair, Bremerton Bridge Blast, Whaling Days, Bainbridge Island 4th of July, Crosby Days, etc.) there were so many people who are sick of what's going on. I believe that we just need to get the word out. We need more people to help! John Cameron is always saying, “Recruit, recruit, recruit”. I have another challenge for each of us: Bring a friend to the December 4 KCRP Potluck Christmas Party!
I hope you had a blessed Thanksgiving everyone! May your tables be overflowing with family and love.
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Francis Doyle, South Kitsap
Here is what has been going on in South Kitsap. During the three weeks before the election our volunteers were banner waiving against the South Kitsap School Bond Initiative and in support for our three great school district candidate's, Rhonda Edwards, John Sehmel, and Jamie Cross. Unfortunately our collective efforts were not good enough to get them elected. Our ballot observers monitored the ballot counting process for the entire election. One thing that really stood out in the school board director races was the amount of "under-votes" recorded (ballots where the voter didn't vote for any of the candidates). We need to find a way to reach these voters and let them know the names of our conservative candidates.
On November 14 the South Kitsap School Board met again and went over the election results. They stated their commitment to working with parents and the community in trying to move forward. They have posted a post-election "Bond Survey" on Facebook asking for community input on this initiative. We have had good representation at these meetings and have expressed our opinions and concerns on certain topics. There was no update given on the SKSD Budget or the Student Academic Progress.
I also attended multiple WSRP Election Integrity meetings chaired by Mr. Bill Bruch. Other counties face the same challenges we face (low voter turnout, tactics employed by Democrats to harvest ballots, and ethics complaints). In a recent meeting it was mentioned that the Secretary of State may be forming a group to investigate complaints coming into his office about misrepresenting people, COVID, and other topics. This could turn into another restriction on "Free Speech" (funded by taxpayer dollars), and create another way for the democrats to complain about what they don't like!
KCRP Executive Board Contact Info: https://www.kitsaprepublicans.com/board
City Council and School Board Notes
City Council
Video archives of city council meetings from all over Kitsap County can be found at:
https://bremerton.vod.castus.tv/vod/?live=ch1&nav=recent
At the October 18 Bremerton City Council meeting, two online speakers took their time to rant about the current conflict in the Middle East (specifically Gaza/Israel) and their speech was ugly, psychotic, and antisemitic. More caution was taken with regards to online speakers after these two "spammer" events. The point being, hate speech should not be tolerated. Our government is about respectful debate. Do not let "bomb throwers" affect you in hot-button discussions. Know your facts and figures, and keep it civil and respectful.
Bainbridge Island School District
School board website: https://www.bisd303.org/domain/44
Bremerton Bremerton School District
School board website: https://www.bremertonschools.org/SchoolBoard
Documents link: https://go.boarddocs.com/wa/wabrsd/Board.nsf/Public
Central Kitsap School District
School board website: https://www.ckschools.org/administration/c_k_s_d_school_board/school_board
North Kitsap School District
School board website: https://www.nkschools.org/about-us/school-board
Advisory board website: https://www.nkschools.org/get-involved/advisory-committees
South Kitsap School District
School board website: https://www.skschools.org/school-board
Board meetings recap: https://www.smore.com/gp6t2
Many parents in the South Kitsap district have found the "Parent Square" app/link to be very helpful in "being connected" with their district. See www.skschools.org for more information.
Thoughts and stray input
Bremerton Homelessness
The Oyster Bay homeless shelter is now open and various "street camps" around town have been removed (though they missed the camp in the camper next to the Sylvan Way library). As it so happened the date for this move (November 1) was a miserable, stormy day. The move was made in a torrential downpour, and was described as "utter chaos" by one participant. Homeless citizens have been sited roaming Bremerton clutching their few belongings. This new shelter is projected to again "close for the season" come April 2024. New locations for the homeless next spring have not been mentioned yet. At the City Council meeting on November 1, over 20 people spoke at open mike, and none were happy. You may address your concerns (in Bremerton) to city.council@cl.bremerton.wa.us.
Please contact Republicans Mike Simpson at electmikesimpson2023@gmail.com AND Adrian Wright at adrian4bremerton@gmail.com for any homelessness issues in our county.
Homeless Resources:
VA homelessness hotline: Dial 877-424-3838 and Press 1
Narcotics Anonymous: https://www.kitsapgov.com/pubdef/Pages/AA-and-NA-Meeting-info.aspx
NA help line: 360-215-2616
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Precinct Voter's Guide
Jeremy Blanchard suggested that we create a voter's guide that explains why voters might want to vote for something or someone that he can send to his local precinct voters. He also believes we should follow and report on the school districts. He says it is important to educate parents on critical race theory, transgender seduction, activist seduction, and manipulative abortion.
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Abortion
In this editor's opinion, Republicans should continue to keep this issue in our sight as a party. It is important to stay well informed on the science, and bring it up at the caucus for debate, for it will be used against us in the upcoming presidential election. We should also look at "teen pregnancy" and focus on laws holding DNA-confirmed fathers accountable.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1121955
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Critical Race Theory (CRT)
In 2021, one local teacher encountered CRT in professional training and observed that most staff members, while utterly kind and supportive to all their racially and culturally diverse students, were giving CRT "lip service." There was a feeling of "Why are my professional skills being insulted with this?"
All Washington State teacher certification programs are quite robust in their training when it comes to diversity and equity. In general, CRT seems to be a rehashing of federal laws and directives put in place during the Civil Rights movement of the '50s and '60s. Statistics in school testing 30 years ago did show a bias toward white/Asian students scoring higher than those of color: this is the origin of the term "Critical Race Theory." Test developers are documented as having eliminated that design bias in the years since. Data is incomplete for this theory; those inspired to activism with CRT should be encouraged to produce clinical data to support their concerns. School psychologists rather than news outlets should be consulted in these matters.
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Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) in the Classroom
One of our local teachers reported that they believe their SEM/SEL lessons are utterly harmless. The lessons taught feelings, encouraged empathy, and how to deal peacefully/kindly with others, rather than striking out with anger, or screaming when unhappy. SEM/SEL is not new, the terminology simply changed, it used to be called "social skills." The same teacher claims that many of the lessons considered "woke" are being given "lip service" by a large percentage of teachers who move on rapidly to core subjects like reading, writing, and math. In all districts of Kitsap, principals and teachers encourage concerned parents to be proactive, stay in contact with teachers, and review the curriculum (especially DEI/SEM/SEL/health/sex-ed lesson plans).
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Informational Email List
Our local Republican, Chuck DeCosta, is a ready and constant source of articles and information regarding 2024 presidential election, school failings nation-wide, and the evils of vaccinations (COVID). He is passionate about our Republican cause on a national level. If you would like to be added to his email list, please contact him at rondochuck@gmail.com. We most assuredly have a long uphill battle for the coming year's federal elections. Stay informed everyone! And be certain of your sources.
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Don't Follow the Example of High School Football Players
Recently, Bremerton High School had an incident in which the opposing team used ethnic slurs on the field during play. While most of us agree, there is NO excuse for bigotry and racism, the reality of sports is, "trash talk" is pretty common with our younger male population. This can also be an "old pro trick," to say something to the opposition in the line-up which will outrage them enough to cause an off-sides penalty.
The point is, there are many things in our society which are outrageous, and there are stories in the media which are expertly framed to make us "see red" when we hear them. Consider what pulls you into the off-sides trap in life, especially in politics!
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We hope everyone has a lovely holiday season, and enjoy your family and The Turkey!!!
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Contact other conservative groups in our area: https://www.kitsaprepublicans.com/local-groups
Contact Newsletter Editor: josiec5150@gmail.com
YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
Do you have 1-2 hours a week or month to volunteer in person, at home, or virtually? KCRP needs volunteers in many areas for any skill level.
Volunteer Now!
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