O4P NY Meets Staten Island Young Republicans

"Governor Palin galvanizes her supporters. It's only the leftists and the RINOs who find her 'polarizing', because she'll upset their little apple carts," I said at a Staten Island Young Republicans meeting held in an anteroom of Canlon's Restaurant last night. I had secured the group's invitation to speak about Organize4Palin and its New York State operations.



Young Republicans is the oldest political youth organization in the United States having been around since 1859. The 152-year-old organization is divided into state and county chapters. I was a member of the Queens chapter some 20 years ago, while working on my Journalism degree at St. John's University. My lawyer held Young Republican meetings at a local driving school in South Ozone Park. He was a delegate during the 2008 GOP Convention and was on the floor when Governor Palin delivered her electrifying VP candidacy acceptance speech.

In my remarks describing Organize4Palin's New York work, I said,

In New York State, Organize4Palin is focused on booklets and palm cards for distribution at meetings and events. Our Accomplishments booklet is written in English and Spanish. We are hanging wall flyers in supermarkets. We will be conducting a test door-to-door campaign on a small scale with palm cards. We already know that zip codes 10021 and 10022 in Manhattan were the largest donors to McCain-Palin 2008 in the entire nation. We're going to identify the top five Election Districts in those two zip codes and because it's mostly apartment houses, walking door-to-door does not work too well. There we'll do a direct mail campaign.

The members of the board nodded their heads in agreement. I continued,

We have researched New York State’s laws pertaining to signature gathering for a primary election. Our Orange and Rockland County Coordinator is able to charter buses for rallies and campaign events. While our activities are not high-profile like the early states, we are building membership and laying the groundwork to help bring victory home.

One of the board members asked me why I thought Gov. Palin is the best candidate for 2012 and how I came to support her.

Gov. Palin has nearly 20 years of executive experience in positions of increasing responsibility. None of the other candidates do. Last year, she endorsed 81 candidates and 68% of those candidates won their elections. In a subset of those - Take Back the 20 - 18 out of the 20 candidates won their elections. That's a 90% success rate. Gov. Palin is not a Neo-Con. She is a solid Reagan Conservative. She also has star power and name recognition. Remember when Saxby Chambliss had his special run-off?"

The board members nodded "yes."

All of today's candidates went down there. They were lucky to get 100 people in a room with them. Gov. Palin filled four stadiums. The fire marshals had to start turning people away or they would have had to shut her events down. Obama was also down there stumping for the other candidate. Chambliss won.

I explained that I have supported Gov. Palin since the day of her VP candidacy announcement when I heard her voice on the radio in mid-speech.

"I've been doing this for nearly three years now and when Gov. Palin endorsed Michael Grimm for Congress, I did door-to-door at something like 2,400 houses." Two members chimed in acknowledging that I was with them on the campaign. I explained how I had campaigned in Pennsylvania on two weekends for McCain-Palin 2008 with the Democrats for McCain group.



One member said he had voted for Herman Cain in Young Republicans' straw poll. Most of the people in the room did not know who Herman Cain is. The member said, his concern about Gov. Palin is that she is "polarizing." It was the same concern expressed by Debra Leible, Executive Committee Chair of the Metropolitan Republican Club, where I had presented last Thursday for the Log Cabin Republicans.

"Well, she does wear polarizing glasses, so I can see why you would say that, but all kidding aside, Gov. Palin galvanizes her supporters. It's only the leftists and the RINOs who find her 'polarizing', because she'll upset their little apple carts. Remember, Gov. Palin took on Big Oil. In Alaska, the State Constitution says that the people own the resource and are to share in the profits. Gov. Palin replaced the tax system with a new one called ACES - Alaska's Clear and Equitable Share - which brought the tax code in line with the state Constitution. She rooted out waste and fraud in both parties, including her own. Her own party - the Republican Party would not list her on their website and in promotional materials. So, when people say she is 'polarizing,' you need to understand their motives."

Literature Distributed:

Gov. Sarah Palin: Accomplishments

Logros de la Gobernadora Sarah Palin

Gov. Sarah Palin: Leadership for All

Is Gov. Palin a Quitter? Don’t Believe the Hype

Organize4Palin 4″ x 6″ Palm Cards

In addition to @us4palin, you can follow Organize4Palin NY‘s activities at @ny4palin.