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.

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!