Meeting Minutes – April 2024

Sun Lakes Republican Club Minutes
When: Wednesday, April 10 at 6:30PM-8:30PM
Where: Sun Lakes Country Club Navajo Room
Who: Approximately 120 people

AGENDA

1. Chairman Michael Tennant greeted the guests and led us in the Pledge of Allegiance.
2. Guest Ted Johnson led us in the Invocation.
3. Chairman Michael Tennant introduced the speakers because First ViceChairman Carolyn McCorkle was absent due to illness.
4. The first speaker was Jeff Weninger a candidate for AZ State Representative for our LD13. He took Q&A at the end of his talk which was about his many years as a business owner in our area and his record as our legislative representative from 2015-2023. Before serving as a State Representative. Jeff also served on the Chandler City Council for eight years and held the position of Vice Mayor. He became known as the “common sense” councilman and created a culture that ultimately changed the way Chandler employees approached spending tax dollars. Chandler’s budget remained one of the strongest in the state during the economic downturn and without cutting needed services. Learn more about Jeff here: https://www.jeffweninger.com/
5. The second speaker was Nickie Kelley, a candidate for Maricopa County Superintendent of Schools. To read more about Nickie Kelley please use this link: https://votenickiekelley.com/
6. The next speaker was Steve Watson who is the incumbent candidate for Maricopa County Superintendent of Schools. You can read more about him at https://votewatson.com/ and https://schoolsup.org/
7. The next thing on the agenda was a “forum” where both Superintendent of Schools candidates answered questions from the attendees. This is another good reason to attend our meetings, you get to question candidates and elected officials and meet them in person.
8. Our next speaker was : Diane Ortiz-Parsons who set forth more reasons why republicans lost the last election, and ways to win the 2024 upcoming election. She has been to our meetings before to help us understand how elections work. This time she explained how to utilize a “write in” option and how NOT to. Every “write in” vote has to be “adjudicated” and this costs time, money and man power to “determine the voter’s intent”. Her advice was to:
   • “VOTE FOR THE PARTY PLATFORM NOT THE PERSONALITY REPRESENTING THE PARTY PLATFORM.”
   • ” VOTE FOR EVERY REPUBLICAN YOU ARE ALLOWED TO VOTE FOR”. For instance you need to vote for BOTH Jeff Weninger AND Julie Willoughby for the State Legislature.
   • “VOTE (by mail) WITHIN 2 WEEKS OF RECEIVING YOUR MAIL IN BALLOT”.
   • ” Do NOT take your mail in ballot to the polls and drop it off on election day”. This proved to be a disaster in the last election.
   • “If you do not vote by mail, take your name off the early ballot list (PEVL)”
     -“If you don’t vote by mail, VOTE IN PERSON on election Day!”
9. The Keynote Speaker this month was Candidate for Maricopa County Recorder, AZ State Representative Justin Heap. Arizona Representative Justin Heap currently is serving Legislative District 10, and he is Vice Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee and serves on both the Commerce and the Municipal Oversight & Elections Committees. He has a 100% voting record with the AZ Free Enterprise Club. He took Q&A after his talk. He is running to “reestablish faith in election integrity”. 10. The 50/50 Raffle winnings of $43 was donated back to the SLRC for use by the club by the winning ticket holder.

Thank you!

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