I live on the People's Republic of Martha's Vineyard, an island loosely federated with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
My Dear Wife Betty is a librarian at the Vineyard Haven library, where (among other duties) she organizes evening events. A few weeks ago she decided to host a "debate watching" party at the library. She asked the town moderator, (who runs the town meetings) to lead the discussion afterwards. The moderator is of course known for being impartial, fair, and forceful in leading pubic discussion.
Martha's Vineyard is not exactly Bush territory. Last election he came in third here, behind Nader.
Now, the idea of the evening is that people will watch Bush and Kerry and then discuss what they saw. But Betty decided that it might be nice to have representatives of the Republican and Democratic parties on hand so that they could, perhaps, articulate a point or two.
Finding Democratic reps was no problem. We know people involved with the party here. But how to find a Republican?
So we went to the website for the Massachusetts Republican Party and found the email address for the two people repsonible for the "Cape and Islands" (i.e. MV and Nantucket). Betty sent a short note.
Here's the (redacted) response from the party
Hi Betty - there isn't a chairperson of the Republican Party on Martha's Vineyard per se. [. . .] candidate for state representative has been working with the Massachusetts State GOP to organize an official presence on MV and we hope to accomplish that within a few weeks. Unfortubately it won't be in time for your event but I am Cc'ing this message to him so he can contact you directly. Please let me know what happens - thank you.
Not to be deterred, Betty sent a note to a fellow we know from church -- a Republican Unitarian, if you can conceive such a thing.
Here's his response:
Dear Betty,
I am very flattered with your offer. Sadly, I have another engagement that evening, otherwise I would be happy to do it.
Let me suggest [. . .], who you may know from church. He is also a Republican and quite knowledgeable on public affairs and the party position.
Also, Midge suggests [. . .]. She works in the ER, friend of [. .. ]
Sad that the State party says that we are not organized. Actually, the 3 Republicans on the Island are a secret society which meets in the woods at midnight!
Best of luck on the affair.
The upshot is that the affair will not have "official" representatives from any party. It will be an open discussion, period. (Whichis probably a better idea anyway.)
I hope that I don't get in trouble with Dear Wife or our Republican friends for posting these correspondences, but I thought this little tale was too happy to pass up in these dark times. . .