Who’s Pushing the “Unity Slate”?

The Battle for the Heart and Soul of the Republican Party

The above story from Reality Check highlights the initial roll out of the so-called "Unity Slate" at the Pierce Co. Republican Convention on March 24. County conventions and district caucuses all over Washington State have seen this "Unity Slate" being promoted, designed to give Mitt Romney the lion's share of delegates to the state convention, in order to ensure he gets the most national delegates from our state. The man promoting this "Unity Slate" in the video is Alex Hays. Here's what the "Unity Slate" promoters don't want the grassroots Republicans to know about who's promoting it:

Alex Hays is the Executive Director of the Mainstream Republicans of Washington (MRW). MRW has a long history of opposing conservative movements in the Republican Party. MRW's website tells how their “movement was hatched” in 1964 in reaction to what its leaders perceived as “the hard-line ideology that permeated the ’64 National GOP Convention” which they believe “forced ruin in the General Election for Republicans throughout the country and in Washington State.” Most conservatives hold a contrary view of what the Barry Goldwater candidacy did for the conservative movement in 1964: It helped to launch what we now refer to as “the Reagan Revolution.”

Goldwater was not the only Republican campaign the MRW reacted negatively towards. In 1986, they were quite irritated that Christian conservatives "took over" at the Washington State Republican Convention. Here it would be helpful to mention that when MRW accuses a group of "taking over", this simply means that they succeeded in mobilizing a majority to the state convention. In 1988, the success of the Pat Robertson presidential campaign in Washington outraged the MRW into becoming more and more organized so that they would become a force to be reckoned with, for any conservative movement.

Additionally, MRW has become the safe haven for Republicans who don't share our Republican philosophy on a number of issues, often--but not limited to--the social issues. For instance, Republicans who have recently come out in favor of legalizing gay marriage in Washington State. MRW has been known to list their "strategic partners" on their website (though recently, it has been scrubbed of this information). These strategic partners include a handful of Republicans for Choice groups, Log Cabin Republicans and Environmentalist groups. MRW has recently sponsored a new website promoting the candidacy of Rob McKenna for Governor. The website is http://insleevsstateworkers.com/. The footer on the website proclaims MRW's sponsorship and, "Proud to be Pro-Choice...".

In recent years, the MRW has tried to "tone down" it's anti-conservative rhetoric and given their website a whole new look and removed it of embarrassing content. MRW has gone to great lengths to bring in more conservative members to give themselves legitimacy within the Republican Party. Nevertheless, when Republican politicians are opposing the platform on policy issues, you can always trace them back to the MRW. And conservative members who've joined up with MRW have become decidedly less outspoken in their conservative views.

It is no surprise that MRW's Executive Director Alex Hays, given his group's background, is supporting Mitt Romney for President. What is ironic is the claim that he and other cheerleaders of the "Unity Slate" have been spreading, designed to stir up fear throughout the grassroots of the GOP: that there is a group that wants to "take over" the party. Again, "take over" means that a group that they oppose might be successful with a majority of votes. t is also ironic that this fearful claim accuses this group of "outsiders" (implicitly and explicitly) of intent on a complete overhaul of the Republican platform. The irony is that the influence of the MRW has been for elected Republican officials to thumb their noses at the platform (written and adopted by grassroots members of the party) and reduce it to a "meaningless piece of paper" that everyone ignores. What is the point of even having a platform if our elected Republicans ignore it?

The truth is: it is the promoters of the so-called "Unity Slate" intent on handing the majority of Washington's national delegates to Mitt Romney, that are the threat to the Republican platform! Alex Hays describes himself as "adamantly pro-choice" on abortion. His Mainstream Republicans of Washington provide a safe haven and financial support for pro-abortion, gay-marriage promoting Republicans like Reagan Dunn. According to the Abortion in Washington blog: "The majority of the board members of WMR were involved in legalizing abortion in Washington and/or currently believe in continued access to legal abortion."

Comments

[juanita valdez]

Mitt Romney is the delegate.

You can vote for Mitt Romney or Barrack obama.

Choose wisely.

[michelle]

Juanita,

Apparently, you are not very familiar with the nomination process. Mitt Romney is not a delegate. He's a candidate. I am a delegate to the state convention, where I will be voting to elect delegates to the national convention.

If you meant to say that Romney is the nominee, that would also be incorrect. We do not have a nominee and we won't until the national convention in Tampa.

And I WILL choose wisely.

[Heidi]

MANY of us will choose wisely. I will vote RON PAUL. There are many, MANY more of us then you know Juanita. We will NOT be silenced.

[Peter]

See http://www.theamericanconservative.com/blog/2012/04/25/nigh-of-the-living-delegates/ for a post on Dr. Paul's delegate strategy and a recent video.