GOP: Real leaders unite the party

I feel that I must respond to a recent column in the Coeur d’Alene Press. On April 30 the Panhandle Pachyderm sponsored a forum at Red Lion Templins. Gov. Butch Otter was our speaker and it was a sell-out crowd. We had to turn people away. Our event was “A United Victory” and the theme was “Diversity is our Strength.”

We invited and encouraged all Republicans in North Idaho to attend. Because we do have so many different factions in the Republican Party, each claiming a conservative political philosophy, yet all function as Republicans, we wanted to do what we could to unite all. We do not expect that all parties agree on a fixed group of candidates, but hope to harness our collective energies and come to an understanding that our differences can become a force to achieve the governmental changes we all know are necessary to preserve our freedoms and independence that we all treasure.

The Kootenai County chair of the Republican Central Committee, Tina Jacobson, was quoted in The Press as saying, “We Republicans fight each other.” As chairperson of our Central Committee she should do her best to try and unite all of us. It doesn’t sound to me like she is trying to unite anyone since she held a private meeting for those on the Central Committee that she wanted in the meeting. I asked her why I was not invited and she said because it was a private meeting. She was also more than once personally invited to our forum with the governor and did not respond.

We need someone in there to really represent all of us and then perhaps we will get some “unity” in our Republican Party.

BETTY ANN HENDERSON

Central Committee Chair, Precinct 33

Post Falls