By Ron Fitzwater

The Ashe County Republican Party met for their annual convention Saturday, Mar. 7, at the Ashe County

Courthouse with the sting of last November's national defeat still hurting. The mascot for this year's gathering, a wounded elephant donated by Tom Graybiel from Log Cabin Motors in Warrensville, truly symbolized the state of the party, according to Chairman John Wheeler.

"That's the state of our party right now. We have been wounded and are down, but we have the ability to come back and be better than ever. But there is a lot of work to be done," he said.

That work was on the minds of nearly everyone at the gathering, along with a good deal of concern over what the next four years could bring to the party and the nation as a whole.

Following modestly attended precinct meetings, party members gathered in the rotunda of the courthouse for lunch, fellowship and a good old-fashioned bake sale.

After lunch, party members gathered in the large third floor courtroom to conduct the business of the party and hear from special guests.

First to speak was Fifth District Congresswoman Virginia Foxx fresh from attending the Watauga County Convention that morning who was there to rally the faithful and encourage them to keep in good contact with their elected officials because now more than ever with fewer members of the right in office, the opinions of the people were extremely important to let be known.

"Republicans get criticized a lot by the Democrats and the media they say we 'don't have any new ideas, just the same old stuff.' Well folks, the principals that we stand on don't need much improvement in my opinion. They are the right ideas; so don't let anyone say to you that we don't have new ideas. The old ideas are the tried and true ideas," she said.

Next to speak was the days keynote speaker, North Carolina Secretary of Agriculture Steve Troxler, who spoke to the group on state-related issues and the conduct of his department on the $70 billion state industry.

"We touch every one of you in many ways every day of the year in one way or the other and right now the number one concern folks come to us over is food safety."

Troxler explained that the recent peanut problem affected the Kellogg's plant in Cary that could have, had they not been checked by Troxler's people, distributed three billion packs of tainted crackers.

"So we have had to be in that plant since about the ninth day of January trying to sanitize the facility and get it back up and running, and to ensure that the public is safe.

"What we have discovered about food safety is that it is an agriculture issue, reason being when the public hears there is a problem with peanut butter, as last time, all peanut butter sales are affected, and that impacts peanut farmers. We had one of the best peanut harvests last year that we have ever had, and you can't sell a peanut anywhere. Last year it happened with jalapeño peppers, tomatoes and spinach and each time it does the impact on farming is significant."

As far as the future of the party, Troxler said that Republicans need to work harder than ever to get some control back from the Democrats.

"The 2010 election is going to be very important with redistricting coming up. We have to reelect Richard Burr and we have to get started now. We are going to have to work on new strategies and ways of reaching new voters.

Following the speakers'' addresses, the party members ratified several resolutions from the party to be forwarded on to the state legislature for consideration.

Among the resolutions from the party were ones to withdraw from participation in the North American Free Trade Agreement, to honor the 10th Amendment against what the party calls "a number of proposals from previous administrations and some now pending from the present administration and from Congress" that violate the constitution, and another resolution to preserve the constitution from government attempts to change or interpret the text therein in a manner disagreeable to the founders' intent. Resolutions in support of the Second Amendment, to make marriage legal only between a man and a woman and the right to life were also approved.

The party also elected officers to serve for the next two years: John Wheeler was reelected as Party Chair, Jonathan Jordan and Jim Hartley were elected as co-Vice-Chairmen, Cloyie Dolinger was elected Secretary and Mary Desautels was elected Treasurer. At large members elected were Jack Moncrief, Louis Bare, Kershaw Getty, Deloris Miller and Lonnie Gambert, and all party members in elected positions in the county.