Repya to challenge Carey for GOP chairmanship

Posted at 12:31 PM on April 11, 2007 by Tom Scheck

An Eagan war veteran says the Minnesota Republican Party has had lackluster leadership in recent years so he's running to chair the party. Joe Repya says he's challenging incumbent Ron Carey to become Minnesota Republican Party Chair. Repya says he's disappointed that Republicans did poorly in the past two elections. He says he wants to boost morale among activists by building grass roots support.

"This party had two devastating losses in '04 and '06 and that trend got to be reversed. Part of that is because they have been fighting a defensive battle and not taking the offense. Not showing what the Republican Party stands for, not showing what we can do better than the opposition, the Democratic Party."

But Carey says the troubles in the last election had more to do with problems on the national level. He also says there were some GOP bright spots in November.

"There are certain things that are in your control and certain things that are not in your control. I think we look at the results nationwide and we're going to see actually, the Republicans in Minnesota in so many ways, with the reelection of Tim Pawlenty and the election of Michele Bachmann, we actually went against the tide in many ways."

Carey has the backing of Pawlenty, Bachmann and Senator Norm Coleman. The Republican State Central Committee will meet on June ninth to elect their chair.

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