Convention Season, amirite? Part Deux.

The AJC let the cat out of the bag yesterday. Governor Kemp is largely done with the Georgia Republican Party. From the article:

He told high-dollar donors at a recent luncheon that the midterm election was a sign “we can no longer rely on the traditional party infrastructure to win in the future.”

AJC, 4/24/2023

Can you blame him? Sources indicate this decision was made long ago in advance of this past weekend’s district conventions. The story breaking now is really just stating the obvious. Kemp Inc. doesn’t need or care about what the GAGOP does. That convention results this past weekend just confirmed that decision as right. Those same sources also indicate that the Kemp team literally doesn’t care who wins the chairmanship, which is really the core of the indictment. Per different sources, the Attorney General, Chris Carr, Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger and Insurance Commissioner, John King, are also electing not to attend.

Hatred is not the indifference of love. It’s indifference. That he’s indifferent to who leads the GAGOP is a damning state of affairs for the (once only) legal organ for the Republican Party.

By consequence, this means the chairman is useless. Let that sink in for a moment. Our elected officials can brush off their shoulders and go to work without any need for the party apparatus. The governor just made it explicit, but I’d venture to guess that many of the prominent leaders in both the House and Senate caucuses have that same feeling. I hope it’s true. One cannot legislate if one doesn’t win their elections, and one cannot win their elections pandering to people that don’t care about winning.

I’ve written about the undeniable ability the GRA has shown to win in a narrowing body of people. As the circles of the GOP party apparatus have become smaller, the GRA has remained roughly the same size and, therefore, winning more positions of “power.”

However, I’ve also written about their ability to win actual elections is pretty weak, at best. The GRA states on its website that they “win primaries” – that’s patently false. They definitely don’t win general elections in seats where Republicans have to compete. So, the Governor and other Republicans now look at the party as a vestigial organ of a political landscape that no longer exists because it’s run by people who see a political landscape that no longer exists.

Governor Kemp understands quite well that when 1,500 people show up to vote in Columbus, it represents about 1/10 of 1% of GOP primary voters that came out in the 2022 primaries. To put it bluntly, convention attendees are being lied to if they’re considered the “grassroots.” They’re a rounding error on a calculator with too few digits. There simply aren’t enough seeds to plant inside the party to actually grow roots. An honest candidate for Chairman would acknowledge that and set about correcting the issue.

An honest Governor already did, and they apparently refused to listen.