Hundreds of Spotsy Conservatives Tell Supervisors to "Hold The Line!" On Proposed Tax Rate

from today's Free Lance-Star

Even though they face as much as a 42 percent increase in their real-estate tax bills, Spotsylvania County business owners were largely absent from last night's public hearing on the fiscal year 2011 budget.

But some residents showed up to urge supervisors to keep taxes low.

Business owners will pay more in real-estate taxes because the 2010 assessments for commercial property increased three-tenths of a percent. With an equalized tax rate of 83 cents per $100 assessed value, a commercial property owner would pay $1,062 more for a building assessed at $500,000.

An equalized tax rate means the county will generate the same amount of revenue as it did this fiscal year.

If the rate approved is 88 cents, which is what supervisors advertised, businesses will pay 42 percent more.

Residential property assessments declined overall by 28.2 percent, and more than half of county residents will pay less or the same in real-estate taxes with an equalized rate. How much more those who did have increases in their residential assessments will pay depends on the rate supervisors approve later this month.

One man said his real-estate tax bill could increase at least $900 a year.

...[READ MORE]

Specifics from our Chairman about our Reagan Day Dinner This Coming Monday, April 12

Dear Fellow Spotsy Republicans,


As you know by now, the Spotsylvania Republican Committee, along with the Louisa GOP, is having our annual celebration of the Gipper and Honest Abe on this Monday, April 12, at 7 pm (with a 6 pm VIP reception) at the Lake Anna Winery.

This is a HUGE event for our committee and for helping Rob Wittman and Eric Cantor get re-elected- AND for helping do our part to take back Congress from the grip of Nancy Pelosi! The more we raise to help Rob and Eric, the more they can help Republican challengers beat four- yes, four- Democratic incumbents in Virginia! These are 1/10 the number of pickups needed to take back the House!

The tickets are an affordable $60 for individuals, $500 for a small table of 6, and $800 for a table of 10. Why get the tables instead of individual tickets? Because then you get invited to a special VIP reception with the special guest of the evening, Congressman Rob Wittman!

In addition to Congressman Wittman, an all-star lineup of Chris Peace, Bobby Orrock, Mark Cole, and many other local standouts in the General Assembly will be there, as well as Republican Party of Virginia Chairman Pat Mullins.

Committee member Cheryl Snyder, who has catered for the White House, will cater this event, which will include some of the best wine in Virginia! It will be an event that is truly worth your time and treasure!
So I hope you will join these guests and myself for a wonderful evening, where we get to celebrate a little- and prepare ourselves for the battle ahead in November!
Steve Thomas,
Chairman
Spotsylvania Republican Committee

You're Invited! Spotsy-Louisa Reagan Day Dinner: Monday April 12 Details and Menu

Be our Guest!

Monday April 12, 2010- for the 2nd Annual Reagan Day Dinner & GOP Fundraiser at 7:00pm [link to invitation here] at Lake Anna Winery. It's hosted jointly by the Spotsylvania Republican and Louisa Republican Committees.

Several very special guests will be in attendance that you won't want to miss. Also- a special singing performance by a nationally-known celebrity, plus rare and prestigious prizes will be given away too!

Come support your hard working local committees and enjoy a great dinner and fellowship with Americans who share your concerns about the direction our country is headed.

We are indeed fortunate to have as our caterer Cheryl Snyder. She has catered for the White House.

She has prepared an excellent menu for our enjoyment on Monday. Please get your reservations/RSVP's in immediately because we have to give Cheryl a final count. Folks who know guarantee the dinner will be worth the price.

Menu:

Hors d’oeuvres

Carved Steamship Round of Beef served with horseradish, mayonnaise, mustard, and au jus with petit rolls

Chicken Marsala with rice

Seasoned mashed potatoes topped with shredded cheese and parsley

Green beans almandine, sweet corn and carrots

Mixed green salad with assorted dressings

Rolls and butter

French Vanilla cake with Chocolate Amaretto icing garnished with whip cream and fruit

Coffee and Tea

Wine Glass and wine provided by hosts Bill and Ann Heidig

White chocolate mint squares, with Republican logo (naturally) provided by Catering with Class, LLC

Have questions? Interested in sponsorship opportunities? Need tickets? Call Spotsylvania GOP Chairman Steve Thomas: 703-819-0127

Last Chance- Come Vote for a New Spotsy GOP Chairman Tomorrow!

7:00pm sharp (or earlier) come to Riverbend High School on April 1, 2010 and vote for a successor to Chairman Bryce Reeves. A Mass Meeting is sort of like a convention except the votes are counted as one-person, one-vote rather than weighted votes. You must be present to vote, no proxies, no early voting.

You have three great choices: Scott Mellott, Steve Thomas or Claude Dunn.

Including 5 minute each speeches and vote tabulation(s) it should take between 45 minutes and 2 hours total of your attendance. The winner of the election must receive 50% +1 votes to win.

You must be a Spotsylvania registered voter and be willing to sign a Republican loyalty statement to be eligible to vote. A $5 voluntary donation is requested to cover the costs of renting the school and so on.

See you there fellow Republicans!

Spotsylvania County Republican Committee 2010 Mass Meeting April 1 at 7:00pm- Riverbend HS, Pre-Register here

Announcement!

Attend and vote* at the 2010 Republican Mass Meeting, April 1, 2010 at Riverbend High School, at 7:00p.m., by pre-registering via this form: [click here].

This meeting is open to the public, however only qualified registered voters may cast a vote. Are you interested in learning more and becoming an active participant in your county, how it's run and managed, and the Republican Party of Virginia?  Why not attend our next committee meeting?

A voluntary $5 donation is requested to cover the expenses of the Mass Meeting.

*subject to eligibility and verification by credentials committee.

Fmr. NY City Mayor Rudy Giuliani to Visit Fredericksburg Promoting Bob McDonnell's Candidacy for Governor This Coming Wednesday!

WHEN: Wednesday, October 28, 2009 8:30am

Former presidential candidate and New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani will make a campaign stop for/with Bob McDonnell at the Spotsylvania joint-GOP Headquarters located at 7 Butler Road Stafford, VA 22405 (the corner of Route 17 (aka Warrenton Road, aka Butler Road) and Route 1 just north of the Falmouth Bridge.)

Be there bright and early to cheer Bob to victory November 3rd!

Banner ads for McDonnell, Bolling, Cuccinelli, Cole, Orrock, Peace, Yakabouski, McGuire and Golfing with the GOP September 18 at Lee's Hill Golf Club

Click banner ad to visit web sites:

New Media is Here to Stay! More Great Photos from the 2009 Virginia Republican Convention

See more here: http://rappahannockred.wordpress.com/2009/05/30/more-great-pictures-from-the-2009-virginia-republican-convention-new-media-is-the-future/

GOP Convention is Completed- Winning Ticket for November Emerges! [Photos Here]

We may never know the final tally of the votes at the Virginia Republican Convention at the Richmond Coliseum on May 30, 2009—but we sure know who won by a massive margin!

Bob McDonnell - Governor
Bill Bolling - Lt. Governor
Ken Cuccinelli - Attorney General
Pat Mullins - RPV Chairman

Though the speeches were a touch long winded and some were as similar as the next, several stood out. One of which was Ken Cuccinelli's. It began with the fanfare of a U2 video release complete with light show and 100 giant waving Gadsden flags in every level of the coliseum.

11,007 delegates checked in to vote and more than 1,000 guests and observers were present to watch some great speeches and take home souvenirs of the memorable day.

I could go on about how great some of the others were as well, but frankly—if you cared to hear about it that much—you would have attended personally and voted yourself. For the interested, but still lazy, the entire program was broadcast on www.rpv.org and via Bearing Drift blog . For the rest of you, I implore you to get off your duffs and come to a county meeting and GET INVOLVED while you still have a country to help out in!

242 Spotsylvanians signed up to be delegates to this convention. 140 actually did. Decisions are made by those who SHOW UP in life—and especially in politics. Thankfully, I witnesses a whole lot of NEW faces this year, so I'm very encouraged by the renewed spirit I'm seeing in our county!

Oh, did I mention Sean Hannity was there and spoke for about 15 minutes? Yeah, he was very cool to hear from. And now the attendees all have a secret; they know the real reason Alan Colmes is no longer on the show with him!

Bravo to Fox News for having higher ratings than ALL CABLE NEWS NETWORKS COMBINED this year! In fact, Fox & Friends is #1 for it's 90th consecutive MONTH!

America is LISTENING finally! WE just need to make sure they VOTE now.

I guess the implementation of government socialism and the real threat of putting Americans in jail for freedoms the country was founded on has been a wake up call for some of us.

Now thoroughly unified and back in the swing of putting forth the truly best candidates of the party, Virginia is looking good for the Republicans this year.

We got our teeth kicked in last year, and rightfully so in many races. We were not sticking to our core values like we should have been and were infighting when we shouldn't have been.

On that note, Ideologs and principled Constitutionalists are certainly welcome to debate and challenge the status quo and should be holding our leaders accountable whenever possible—I know I do. But, on behalf of the vast majority of Virginia Republicans who may not be as smart as wise as you but still consider themselves to be more Republican than Democrat at least: please stop acting as obstructionists in the processes of electing the best candidate (directed at some who supported Stanley, Muldoon and Brownlee).

If the GOP has broken parts (and it does), by all means, HELP FIX THEM. But if your sole goal is to attend local and district meetings to disrupt them, then all I can say is: there are other parties that may work better for you and you owe it to your unwaivering, fundamental, constitutional principles to explore your political options and be happy with your lives. You don't have a right to make other people miserable. You know who you are...

The GOP is a big tent and it's not owned solely by your (very small) group(s). Note that this commentary is not necessarily directed at the candidates themselves, but rather some of their vocal and ill-intentioned supporters. Again, you know who you are. All the candidates who did not win the nomination acted very respectfully and accordingly made it very clear that they would work hard to support the winning team now and through November. That's the RIGHT way to handle yourselves.

Thank God, those days are behind us for the moment at least, and we have taken back freedom's battle cry that rightfully belongs to people who want to EARNESTLY govern and HONESTLY represent all Virginians... and YES WE CAN do it!

CHANGE is coming to Richmond in November! The drowsy giant has woken up—and he's wondering where the hell his country went!

Starting with a sweep in November for Republicans in Virginia, America may yet get back on track no matter how much Obama and his private club of baby killers and tax cheats mess things up for us in the mean time.

If you missed it in person, you missed a great time and an exciting day in Virginia history. Get your head in the game from this point forward and GET INVOLVED in your local GOP and GET ACTIVE in campaigning for November!

RPV Chairman Frederick Pledges to Fight the Many Calls for His Resignation

Despite calls for his resignation that began practically the week after he was elected chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia last year, Jeff Frederick has managed to stay out of reach of the old guard's grasp.

Chairman Frederick is blamed relentlessly by the neo-conservatives for any failure the GOP suffers right down to a local race as of late.

Some of this surely comes with the territory as Mr. Frederick is the face of the Virginia Republican Party. However, some of the criticism is unjustly heaped upon his back for things that were either well beyond his control or set in motion long before he had an opportunity to affect any change on the inevitable.

As recently as last week, yet another rash of calls for his resignation have spread throughout the blogosphere like a truckload of blank green cards left unguarded in Prince William County. (see here, here, and well commented on here.)

The City of Alexandria GOP committee passed a resolution that called for his removal. Portsmouth and other committees are bringing similar resolutions to a vote at their next meeting citing Frederick's apparent refusal to support Lt. Governor Bill Bolling, and his constant undermining activity toward Speaker Bill Howell.

The current action is that 3/4 of the State Central Committee has jointly signed a letter demanding that Mr. Frederick step down within 30 days.

Frederick is now making calls to garner the 20 or so votes he needs to defeat this.

On one hand you have to admire the guy for fighting for his position like a junkyard dog. He will have to answer to the rumored 10+ allegations that he failed miserably in his first few months of office. This won't be pretty even if he can justify his way out of all of them.

On the other, it's an unpaid position! If 3/4 of your fellow colleagues whom you claim you want to represent — want you gone — one would think it's reasonable to slam the door behind you and get on with your life even if you are proven right in the end. Stubbornness has its place, but this may not be the best time or place to show it.

After all, it's an election year. The Democrats are frothing at the mouth with the notion that they can pick up a few more seats in the House of Delegates, including Frederick's now that he's announced he won't seek re-election of that seat again.

Terry McAuliffe will dump tens of millions of dollars into his campaign, and all down-ticket Dems stand to benefit from this fact if he allows them to ride on his advertising coat tails.

We Republicans may be left full from the meal we just enjoyed 'eating our own' inside a party squabble, but we may well be forgetting that we have a job to do as GOP Party members: FIND GREAT CANDIDATES, RUN GREAT CAMPAIGNS AND WIN ELECTIONS.

If Chairman Frederick were to heed the call of his former supporters who've joined now with the majority of VA party leaders who oppose him, and step down as chairman, we could get on with the business of electing Republicans.

I don't blame him if he wants to defend his alleged failures in fundraising, election loses, and embarrassments on national TV during the last presidential election. But his continued denial of any responsibility, and refusal to step aside at least for the appearance of a fresh start, will come at a cost we voters will all bear of (better) party unity and focus on what's more important than who our party chairman is ... like who our governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general are!

If Frederick remains myopically focused on his chairman's seat and fighting the wind rather than on the best interests of the party at large, then Virginia will surely stay blue this November as no one is currently minding the state store and cash register.

Even CNN is watching this problem, and the Democrats are laughing louder each day it goes on.

Fredericksburg, VA: Obama's Bloated Attendance Report is Deflated by 100+ Actual McCain-Palin Supporters: VA IS McCAIN COUNTRY!

The Fredericksburg, VA region will not turn blue, or even a shade of purple this November as Obamamaniacs would like us to believe. This is FIRMLY Republican ground, and I've never been more convinced than today when THOUSANDS of cars honked their horns vigorously in support of today's grassroots activism display by a cooperative effort of regional McCain supporters.

This idea sprung up at a typical jam-packed nightly calling session at the regional GOP Headquarters this past Thursday night, even though we weren't certain whether Obama would cancel the MWU event to go to Washington, D.C. and put his 143 days of experience in the U.S. Senate to good use and solve the financial crisis.

You see, that's where Senator John McCain was today instead of glad-handing a bunch of ninnies like Barry Obama was.

I was proud to be part of a one-hundred-plus-strong army of McCain-Palin supporters from throughout the greater Fredericksburg region, who answered the action call of their committees to "welcome" his highness Obama to the campus of Mary Washington University today— and boy did we!

We lined a quarter-mile of Jefferson Davis Highway with patriots of Virginia who proudly held 4'x8' signs supporting John McCain and Sarah Palin. We would have gone farther, but we ran out of signs!

We let Obama know that this is McCAIN COUNTRY! Not one- repeat- NOT ONE Obama sign or supporter came out AT ALL on the road we lined for more than five hours! Not one Obama supporter or sign holder came out on any side street of the city either!

Yes, some houses have his signs in their yard like any other election, and despite more than 30 huge McCain signs being slashed and stolen the night before off of private property and front yards of houses, we managed to get them all replaced and fortified with proud McCain supporters who were happy to guard their property against these cowards and vandals and beat back the "invasion" of a few hundred Obama disciples who trickled in over the rest of the afternoon.

The press is trying to report a huge lie of seemingly insignificant information, but if this is any indication of the way they do their Sunday morning polling (when conservatives are IN CHURCH) then you too may just be a "believer" that Obama is winning too.

Who wants to decry BULLS%#T first? Here's your chance if you were there- no matter who you supported... They're saying Obama's visit to Fredericksburg, VA was greeted with "26,000 supporters." Yep- that's the official count released tonight.... in a tiny city of 21,000 total residents, on a campus of about 4,500 students that issued a permit for Obama's historic visit for 1,500 people (that's one thousand five-hundred) in a roped off area about the size of a baseball field's infield and some outfield too, they fit "26,000 people" ...reportedly. BEEE ESSS!

Watch the video news reports- you'll see quick pan shots of a crowd not more than about 25 deep in a semicircle in front of the stage...

I've never seen this kind of false propaganda get out into the news in person before except in the opposite case when the MSM (mainstream media) covers a Washington, D.C. annual Pro-Life rally and ignores the attendance volumes and plays them off as barely attended.

At least in the case of the Free Lance-Star article not written by a bonafied liberal-lover named Chelyen Davis, Kelly Hannon had the decency to mention the Pro-Lifers from multiple organizations that dutifully reminded the Obama guests that Obama supports post-birth "born alive abortions" aka, infanticide, and proudly fundraises cash for Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest taxpayer-subsidized for profit abortion chain. Not to solely pick on Obama, Hillary Clinton is close friends with Cecile Richards, the CEO of P.P., but Hillary is ollld news now, so I'll end that tangent.

Interestingly enough, both FLS writers or their editor, left out any mention in either article about the hundred-plus McCain folks outside the gates. Fortunately for our side tens of thousands saw us with their own eyes and know that they're not alone just because they're part of the so-called 'silent majority'. Election day will reveal just how silent they are. Their car horns certainly weren't silent today.

Back to the point; the press is reporting that enough people to fill HALF OF RFK STADIUM somehow squeezed into a baseball diamond. Call Guinness people- this one is for the record books!

HOGWASH! Several thousand attending— absolutely, I buy that— and why not? He's a rock star after all. Yes, several hundred- perhaps a thousand were lined up around the permitted area too and on sidewalks in the area, but it is a university for pete's sake- students are there in that volume on any given school night! I suppose you could STRETCH the numbers to hit 4,000 if you included all the students milling around too... but c'mon guys- 26,000??

While some of his drones were nice enough to give us only the thumbs down as we waved to them as they entered the campus of Mary Washington University, still other sheep gave us the middle finger and shouted "F*#@ every one of you BAS@#^&@!!" which happened at least a dozen times with the exact same quote.... one only wonders how they orchestrated this identical mantra so well when their Lord and savior (Barack Hussein Obama, a fine Christian man from the mid west the press will tell you) couldn't even get to Fredericksburg on time! He was 2 hours late getting to the stage.

Was he fashionably late or making hype build up? Maybe he just couldn't decide if he needed a tactic or a strategy to get there.

The press reported on tonight's TV news that supporters endured SIX rain storms before he got there... wow- now they rewrite the weather too! YES it poured like a monsoon from about 5:00- 5:30, and then stopped instantly. Amazingly there was even a rainbow! I figured- Obama himself MUST be on stage now... the clouds parted and a rainbow was present for heaven's sake. But no, he was practicing his speech in the car apparently.

If you listen to the same press, you'll hear how he 'won' the debate against John McCain too (though he couldn't remember the name of the soldier when he said "I have a bracelet too" to McCain in response to McCain bringing up how he wears a bracelet as a request from a mom of a fallen U.S. soldier to honor his memory.

Have YOU had enough Obama-mania? I sure have. As a local county GOP member, I'm doing something about it.

Want to get involved too? Call your local GOP committee or the Fredericksburg Regional GOP Headquarters at (202) 507-0841, located in South Stafford off exit 133b.

I'd like to extend a special thanks to the UMW Young Republicans who came out in volumes today and cheered enthusiastically for their candidate. You made all the difference in our success and filled in our ranks tremendously! Sorry, this is the only picture I snapped of you when you first started arriving- if you have a better one with all 30-40 of you, send it! (p.s. next time use permanent markers! Sorry the rain ruined all your hard work.)

Also- be sure to come to the Fredericksburg EXPO center this Thursday October 2, 2008 for a FREE event with "thousands" of your closest Republican friends: Sarah Palin debating Joe Biden live on Jumbo TV's (via satellite) See http://www.fredgop.com/ for details. You must register to attend- space is limited.

All your favorite elected officials will be there including former U.S. Senator George Allen and Congressman Rob Wittman!