CR Nation

Well, I must apologize for the unnatural silence recently. There is really no excuse beyond a lack of especially notable CR activity during the summer months. That pattern has been broken, however, by the Wisconsin-Iowa Leadership Summit held at the Maquoketa State Park in Iowa last weekend. It was too far for me to drive, (don’t think folks outside the Midwest were invited anyway), but several tidbits have filtered in to us that provide a nice summary.

State chairs Dane (Iowa) and Lora Rae (Wisconsin) led their respective states in planning and hosting the campout/training that began Friday afternoon with the early arrival of Zach Howell and continued through a full day’s activities Saturday to Sunday morning’s gradual departure of the other attending states (including Jon Ratliff with a crew from Missouri and Lauren Fakes with an Indiana contingent). The training session lasted most of the day Saturday and included talks from Zach, Jeremy Hagen, former Iowa state chair Greg Baker, Dane, Lora and others, as well as some general discussion and Q and A time.

High points:

Food and drink was abundant. All took full advantage of the fact. All were dubbed great Americans in the spirit of conservative fellowship. This may or may not explain the midnight group who went out for a jog after the festivities Friday night, led by an Indiana gentleman said to be training for a marathon.

Saturday’s events were crowned with afternoon cave explorations in which Iowa held their own but Missouri got really dirty. (Wisconsin and Indiana exercised discretion and served more as support staff.) Mr. Hagen seemed to have some experience in spelunking and was outfitted to the teeth. The honorable national chair came less prepared but was game for most of the trek. All the appropriate Boy Scout skills were on full display around the fires both evenings, and I understand the ladies were appropriately impressed.

For more details, feel free to consult Dane’s more official report here. Kudos to these states for hosting a uniquely creative, not to mention adventurous, event. Might be a little rough for my taste, but you can’t say those Midwesterners aren’t tough!

In a bruising battle between Missouri and California, Missouri emerges victorious in our poll seeking which state College Republicans across the country thought had the best federation over the course of the next year.

Missouri was up, then California was up, then Missouri was up, then California was up, then Missouri went up one last time, only this time it was not to surrender the lead again.

When all was said and done, there were 3,137 votes cast – the most ever in a CR Nation poll. Missouri claimed 1,574 of them, comprising just over 50%. The complete final results of the poll are as follows:

Missouri, 1,574 (50%)
California, 1,338 (43%)
D.C., 103 (3%)
Michigan, 59 (2%)
Ohio, 41 (1%)
Minnesota, 21 (1%)

In 2008, the Missouri College Republicans helped ensure Missouri was the only battleground state to vote for John McCain, doing so by a margin of 3,902 votes out of several million cast.

They also, I am told, played a significant role in electing three new GOP state senators and keeping a majority in the State House, something that was initially thought to be unlikely. One of the state senators was elected in the college town of Columbia, MO, where a Republican state senator had not been seen since the early 1970s.

Lastly, the youth vote in Missouri was 7 points better than the national average, which was 66%-34%. In Missouri, people aged 18-29 voted for Obama by a margin of 59%-41%.

Congratulations to the Missouri College Republicans for a great year.