The agenda and the discussions that occurred at a recent Oakland Township Republican Leadership meeting gives some insight into the thinking and ideology of our Oakland Township leaders.  One of the agenda items answers the question raised in the title of this post. They clearly set themselves apart from the ‘establishment’ Republican Party. If you like what is going on in the Republican Caucus in Washington you will love our Township leadership.

On January 20th, an Oakland Township Republican meeting was chaired by Oakland Township’s Lead Precinct captain, John Reilly, the husband of Oakland Township’s Clerk – Karen Reilly.  There were approximately 20 people there including Supervisor Gonser, Township Clerk Reilly, our Township Treasurer’s husband Joe Langlois, at least two of our Township’s Republican Precinct Captains, four of our Parks Commissioners (one left after listening to State Representative Tom McMillin) , one of our Zoning Board of Appeals members, our State Representative Tom McMillin (for a portion of the meeting) and other citizens.  The meeting was held at the Woodland Estates trailer park clubhouse.

Here is the published agenda for that meeting:

1. Oakland township updates,  Supervisor Gonser (7:00-7:20)
2. 2014 state and local races, John Reilly (7:20:7:35)
3. State issues, State Representative Tom McMillin (7:35-8:00)
4. The Republican establishment’s “war” on tea party and libertarians at both the national and state levels (8:00-8:20)
5. Networking, socializing, brainstorming (8:20-9:00)

This website has already reported on a number of comments made by Supervisor Gonser at that meeting.  One of them being his belief that the past Township leadership and Boards were influenced by a 1992 non-binding United Nations agreement called ‘Agenda 21’.  He believes that this agreement is a Global conspiracy that has influenced our Township’s approach to paths and trails, our wetland ordinance, our nuisance ordinance and others.  See:

Gonser –  Agenda 21 is a Global Conspiracy
Gonser – Trails and Safety Paths are part of a UN Conspiracy

The remainder of this post will share some of the other items discussed at that meeting.

During the discussion of state and local races, John Reilly indicated that it was very important to have ‘conservative’ candidates run for Township Precinct delegate positions in the August Primary election.  He indicated that Precinct delegates play a key role in County Conventions in getting conservative party candidates on the ballot for State positions like the Supreme Court, Lieutenant Governor and Secretary of State. He indicated that he would bring applications for the Precinct delegate positions to the next meeting, and would submit the applications to the County.

They went on to discuss several upcoming races and who they would support.

• They were hoping that a more conservative candidate would challenge Senator Marleau.
• Regarding the McMillin seat, Gonser stated that Mike Weber is ‘not a conservative’ and supported Mark Avery as the Republican candidate.
• They indicated that many Rochester School Board members needed to be challenged because they were too close to the Unions.
• They also indicated that many Lake Orion School Board members needed to be challenged since they reversed their position on the school millage issue.

Tom McMilllin comments included;

• Several education issues that the State Legislature is dealing with.
• The Detroit Bankruptcy
• The State Budget surplus
• The use of Drones in our country
• Gas drilling and mineral rights and community use of eminent domain

The strategies that the group discussed to counter the Republican establishments “war” on tea party and libertarians included:

• Prayer
• Defunding ‘establishment’ Republican candidates, and only contribute to Republican candidates that are ‘conservative’.
• Get ‘conservative’ precinct delegate elected at local level
• Find a more ‘conservative’ candidate that would challenge Senator Marleau.
• Support Mark Avery as the Republican candidate to replace McMillin, since according to Gonser “Mike Weber is not a conservative”.
• Find more ‘conservative’ candidates for both the Rochester and Lake Orion School Boards.

Why is this important to the citizens of Oakland Township?  The definition of being a Republican in Oakland Township is changing.  Being a moderate Republican is no longer acceptable to our Township Leadership.  Our Township leadership is clearly aligned with the “Tea Party” mentality that has contributed to the gridlock in Washington.  There is a saying “All politics is local”.  The citizens of Oakland Township need to make sure that our local politicians represent our views, not those of an extremist ideology.

Richard Michalski