As someone who worked closely with Jamie Radtke for over a year, I have to weigh in on this craziness going on between her and RedState.com. I’m not looking for a fight with limited government conservatives, though. I have my hands full battling the Big-Government progressives. My purpose in this post is simply to say that what I’m reading about Jamie does not resemble the person I came to know and respect in serving on the board of RTP.
RedState is running stories, claiming she gave a drunken (though they’ve somewhat retracted that one), rambling speech at their recent gathering. Really? Well, I can’t attest to the accuracy of that because I wasn’t there. And despite living in the Youtube age, curiously not one minute of video footage has been released from anyone to verify the charges against her. And now RedState editor Eric Erickson is walking back his previous endorsement of her, saying that she isn’t fit to be a U.S. senator.
One of the reasons I was so inspired to get involved in the Tea Party, despite my total political inaction prior to 2009, was because of Jamie’s incredible leadership skills. I’ve never met someone more able to inspire people to action and make a positive impact on their country and communities. She is passionate, intelligent, and a joy to serve with. And when running the Richmond Tea Party, she always acted with the utmost integrity and competence. And, by the way, she also delivers excellent speeches.
It’s a shame that this has all gone down like this. Whether you ultimately support Jamie or not in her bid to replace Jim Webb, she does not deserve this type of treatment. And if this hurts her campaign enough to help propel George Allen into becoming Virginia’s Republican nominee, you can be certain that we’ll be sending another establishment Republican—or Democrat—to ultimately do the bidding of his party, not the country.
