Below The Beltway

Given all the forces arrayed against him, one has to wonder what Jeff Frederick thinks he can accomplish even if he survives on April 4th:

What would a win look like?

The party rules say that his detractors need to have 75% of the vote at the smackdown to remove him.

What if they fail by one vote or a couple of votes?

Is this a win? Would he declare victory if only 74% of the Central Committee voted to remove him?

Unless every report I”ve read is seriously wrong about the likely final count, it appears that Frederick is in a “no-win” situation.

He is either booted out or he stays on after an effective vote of no confidence.

This really isn’t much of a choice.

Not to mention the fact that he would set up a phony split between the “grassroots” and the “Richmond elites” in the process, thus further damaging the RPV in a year when it can hardly afford to be damaged at all.

Also, as Jason Kenney’s notes, it’s fairly clear that Frederick isn’t in this for the “grassroots” that he keeps mentioning:

[E]ven if you want to ignore that every member of the SCC was elected by the same delegates (and then some) that went to last year’s convention and even if you believe Frederick and that this is a matter of grassroots vs. establishment, grassroots will not win this fight. Because in the last ten months what has Frederick done to reach out to the grassroots? It wasn’t RPV fighting in the trenches last year, it was assorted organizations working around RPV. 2009 looks to be the same, especially if one looks to Joe Murray’s fight in the 46th, the same district that contains the Alexandria City committee that voted almost unanimously to support Frederick’s removal.

As Jason goes on to note, this isn’t about the grassroots, this is clearly about Jeff Frederick’s ego, as this interesting anecdote makes clear:

It brought to mind a story another Georgian told me about a state convention where the chairmanship of the CRs was being contested. The representative from the University of Georgia won. That didn’t sit well with everyone:

The head of the Emory University CR’s lost and stormed out, taking his chapter with him and then went on a petty vendetta to break up the Georgia College Republicans. The guy wound up destroying the Emory CR’s through his actions.

That guy’s name? Jeff Frederick.

Is that what Frederick is planning this time around ?