Schuylkill GOP Needs New Leadership
A Nipped In The Bud Column
By Bud Angst
The results of the recent Primary Election are merely the latest indication that the Schuylkill County Republican Party is in dire need of new leadership that is centered somewhere south of Mahanoy City.
Consider the fact that the County GOP in the recent election left its own candidates for both county and party offices holding an empty bag.
For the second time in a row, the County GOP failed to nominate its own endorsee for State Representative in the 125th District of the General Assembly. And, to cap the evidence of its own disarray, the Schuylkill Republican Committee failed even to elect its own endorsed candidates for membership in the State Republican Committee. A Pottsville High School student barely old enough to vote out-polled County GOP-endorsed stalwart Barron “Boots” Hetherington.
If any further evidence of his/her party’s disarray is needed, consider the following:
1. Democrats now hold two of Schuylkill County’s three legislative seats.
2. Democrats control the County Commissioners’ office.
3. Democrats are now in charge of six of the eight Courthouse Row Offices: (Prothonotary, Controller, Wills, Courts, Sheriff, District Attorney). Only the Deeds and Treasurer’s posts remain in Republican hands.
4. Schuylkill County is represented in Congress by a Democrat who has never been defeated for any office and gives no evidence of ever becoming vulnerable.
5. There is hardly anyone still alive who can even remember when Pottsville, the “County Seat,” was governed by a Republican Mayor and a Republican City Council.
6. If polled by impartial questioners, most county Republican voters could not name the party chairman and, if they ventured a guess, would be apt to say, “Senator Rhoades.” Or “Champ” Holman,” or “Ron” Rader.
And therein, lays the problem. For the Schuylkill County Republican Party de facto Chairman is indeed Senator Rhoades and/or any member of his staff who is authorized or purports to speak for him at any given moment.
On those rare occasions when the elected party chairman – can you name him? – chooses or dares to speak, the presumption is that Rhoades or a Rhoades lackey has dictated the message.
To some extent the Party’s fortunes are guided by a mysterious group known as “The War Board” which functions totally without any formal authority and which meets at Rhoades’ call either at his office or at the Party’s unofficial headquarters, the Schoeneman Beauty Supply enclave on the Pottsville-St. Clair Highway. Included as permanent members are the Senator himself and any of his staff directed to attend, Frank Schoeneman, and former Rep. Bob Allen, both from Pottsville; Party Chairman Bob Ames (when he cannot avoid it), Rep. Dave Argall (when he deigns to show up), and anyone else chosen or summoned to a specific meeting.
Notable by their absence are most of the elected members of the County Republican Committee. Also unrepresented are the members of that large and virtually ineffective group misnamed The Executive Committee.
Like an illegitimate child (known but never acknowledged) the War Board sufficed to control the Party’s destiny back in the days when Schuylkill’s voters could be counted on to vote as they were told. But that was then, and this is now, and Schuylkill’s current voters, even those registered Republican, have been neglected for too long. Left to themselves, they have learned to think for themselves.
Given the current situation – how many elections do you need to lose before you wake up? – Schuylkill’s Republicans have floundered and the County’s Democrats steadily have been gathering strength. Lately, they have been winning elections by choosing attractive candidates and backing them with wise counsel and the well-financed and well-executed efforts of the county’s members of organized Labor.
Meanwhile, the only challenges to the GOP War Board have come from a relatively small cadre of ultra-conservative, far-right , would-be dictators who are perceived by rank-and-file Republicans as a cure worse than the disease.
So what of the future? More of the same; probably.
More of the same success for Democrats, that is, until Schuylkill’s Republicans select a chairman who truly represents the GOP’s shrinking majority voters and is capable of re-uniting the currently torn bonds between the rank-and-file and those who cling tenaciously to “the leadership.”
Furthermore, if he is to succeed in re-organizing his Party into a semblance of its former effectiveness, a new Republican County Chairman, regardless of where he resides, must recognize and deal with the following inescapable facts:
(1). The Schuylkill County Republican Party’s current major growth potential lays not in Mahanoy City and certainly not in Pottsville but, for the present, “south of the mountain.” And
(2). Today’s voters cannot, like sheep, be prodded and pushed into action but rather must be convinced and inspired to support and defend their beliefs.
Until they become convinced of these premises and act upon them, Schuylkill’s shrinking GOP majority is likely to continue to suffer more embarrassing defeats such as those earned in the past several years.
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