CR Nation

Lora Rae Anderson, former chair of the Wisconsin College Republican Federation has been the topic of much conversation and controversy lately.

Anderson’s term as Chair ended about a month ago. No sooner had it ended than she sent out this rambling, press release.

In the release Anderson denounces the entire Republican Party, the Conservative movement, Glenn Beck, some local DA, and a few local WI party officials.

Just to make sure she had done enough damage to the organization she left behind, she went on to issue another press release to whine about the way her words were interpreted.

In the first release Anderson complains that College Republicans are more liberal than the Republican party but claims we just “stay quiet and don’t stand up to the older members of our party.”

She goes on to say, “the state of the Republican Party right now needs to improve.”

Apparently, she is blind to the irony of these statements. The same girl who is publicly bashing and leaving the Republican Party is saying that the rest of us should work to improve it? I guess she means everyone but Lora Rae should work to improve it.

As one prominent former state chair put it:

“The way she went about it was juvenile. I think her method is exactly opposite what it should be…if you don’t like the leadership and the direction of the party, get involved and change it.”

Instead Lora Rae has decided to run from discussion of the issues and instead wants to do her best to throw those she left behind under the bus.

While many CRs in the past have disagreed with their respective state parties on one issue or another, none have ever gone about it in such a public way with such intent to harm the conservative movement.

Question: Why do people issue press releases?
Answer: To get publicity.

This is exactly what Lora wanted, she wanted the maximum publicity for herself regardless of the harm it did to College Republicans, the Republican Party in general or anyone other than herself.

Now she has the audacity to parade herself around as a courageous, holier-than-thou, free thinker, when in reality she is nothing more than a cowardly self promoter who could compete with likes of Heidi and Spencer from The Hills.

The Wisconsin CRs exec board and new Chair Charlotte Evans have been very silent on this issue, trying to pretend like it didn’t happen.

We asked Charlotte for a statement and her official response was:
“The Wisconsin Federation of College Republicans’ individual members are not authorized to speak on behalf of the organization and the state executive has no comment.”

This lack of comment may be due to the fact that Charlotte’s loyalty lies with Anderson instead of the Republican Party. Charlotte was hand picked, endorsed, and propped up by Anderson to make sure that she won her contested race for Chair against Johnny Koremenos. This begs the question, since Charlotte’s loyalty lies with Lora Rae Anderson does this mean that she shares her views? Should we expect to see press releases bashing Republicans from Charlotte circling around the internet soon?

Overall, this entire fiasco has left serious doubts about Lora Rae Anderson’s personal character and that of the Wisconsin College Republicans.

We here at CR Nation hope that WICRs can get their act together and focus on winning elections in 2010.

UPDATE: May 21st, 2010

Lora Rae has now released a video announcing that she has joined the Democrat Party of Wisconsin. In the video Anderson is clearly reading Dem talking points that were prepared for her. In her “speech” she admits that she is nothing more than a selfish opportunist.

She says:

“When I graduate I want to get a decent paying job so I have enough money to pay back my student loans quickly”

I guess that decent paying job has come from the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. She then goes on to ramble about how the healthcare bill will help her because she can stay on her parents insurance until she is 26.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Lora Rae is “not looking for a government handout” she just wants us all to know that she is ENTITLED to get her life “started on the right foot” and she is ENTITLED to a “decent paying job as soon as she graduates” and she is also ENTITLED to free healthcare that “Republicans are working hard to take away.”

So Green Party, Libertarians, Constitution Party, Communist Party, if you are looking for a new member Lora Rae Anderson is willing to work for whoever can provide her with the most benefits. No need to worry about what her values, beliefs and convictions are, because she doesn’t have any.

Lora Rae is just another political attention whore, she may be another kind of whore as well, as long as you provide her with free healthcare, and a decent paying job it seems she will do anything!

UPDATE 2 (5-22-2010)

Charlotte has finally decided that she should speak out against Lora’s Party switch and issued this statement:

“On behalf of the vibrant and growing network of College Republicans, I wish my predecessor farewell and all the best as she completes her attention-seeking transition to liberalism.

“I hope the Democrats did not make this stunt a condition for paid employment.”

(Taken from http://www.wispolitics.com/index.iml?Article=197384)

Good to see that while it did take a month and a third public statement from Anderson, Charlotte has finally denounced her actions.

From the GW College Republicans blog:

The CRFV and the McDonnell campaign are excited to announce a paid summer internship available to College Republicans in targeted localities across the Commonwealth. All interns will be expected to work 21 hours per week and will be paid $10 per hour. This field internship will focus on voter contact and spreading the word through new media and traditional grassroots efforts for Victory 2009. Hours will be in the evenings and on weekends, giving students the flexibility to hold other summer jobs if they choose. Please contact Andrew Lamar at andrewtlamar@gmail.com for more information.

An advertisement produced by the RNC that won’t air on ABC because, well, our money (and message) is no good to them. The only currency (and message) ABC currently accepts is unpaid-for, deficit-increasing, bureaucratic-based, and government-run, unless of course, such is proposed by a Republican, and then ABC is automatically against it.

It’s been a long time, but Rawhide has returned! To make things a little more fun, I’ll let you guess why I was gone for so long:

a) Studied abroad in a mountain village in China.

b) School internship that prohibited political activity.

c) Falling out with the other CR Nation writers, who finally let me back on the team.

Which one was it?

While we’re on the subjects of comebacks, the Senate Republicans produced a video on comebacks that was shown at the joint Senate-House fundraising dinner.

Now if only David Ortiz could come back from his slump to help my beloved Red Sox.

There is an interesting article appearing in today’s San Francisco Chronicle which asks whether 24 year-old Meghan McCain, daughter of GOP Presidential candidate John McCain, or somone similar, is or needs to be the new face of the Republican Party.

There is also an interesting poll associated with the article, that we are going to steal and conduct ourselves. So, please vote in the poll appearing to the left as to whether Meghan McCain is where the GOP needs to go.