St. Charles County Young Republicans

As you are aware, the St. Charles Young Republcans July 2011 meeting was a candidate forum for the 2nd Congressional District, featuring Ambassador Ann Wagner and Ed Martin.

Like many Young Republican organizations, the St. Charles Young Republicans are fond of forums. It gives us and our guests the chance to quiz candidates on the issues, to interact with them in a relaxed environment, as well as assess the difference between them - sometimes hard to spot when you have more than one great candidate running for the same position, as we are fortunate enough to recognize here. We also like them because we meet monthly, and this allows us to cram many great speakers into our limited time slots. Also, and not inconsequentially, the YRs do not endorse candidates during primaries, and forums are designed to give all candidates a chance to make their case.

What forums are not intended to do is blindside candidates or put them in a position where they look foolish. As a club, the St. Charles Young Republicans are always open and up front about the nature of our meetings. We would NEVER intentionally do this to any Republican candidate. We exist as an organization to promote the political activism of young people, and our monthly meetings are a way to introduce young and old to their representatives in local, state and federal government and give them a chance to volunteer or donate to those they believe in provided by their friendly YRs. When we hold forums all candidates are informed as to the nature and schedule of the evening before they are ever asked to accept the invitation. If they prefer not to speak in a forum environment we always respect their wishes and try to schedule them for some other meeting. This was true for our meeting on Thurs, July 21, just like every other.

Ann Wagner was regrettably not able to join us for that evening. We had confirmed her attendence on June 15th and confirmed that twice subsequently. Once we had both candidates confirmed is when we began advertising the forum. The St. Charles Young Republicans would never advertise an event's speakers unless we had them confirmed. Due to a clerical error, Ambassador Wagner was double-booked that evening. The error was discovered too late to get the word out that the evening would only feature Ed Martin. We apologize to the attendees of our meeting that were expecting/hoping to see Ann Wagner there that evening. We are sure that she will be around St. Charles many times throughout the next year and we look forward to working with all the campaigns in the area. Our goal as a Young Republicans chapter is to provide education to the voters so they can make an informed decision. We will seek to ensure that happens. Throughout the history of campaigns, this is not the first time has been accidentally double-booked and we are certain it will not be the last!

Ann's husband Ray and several staff members were gracious enough to come all the way out to O'Fallon to personally express Ann's regret to us. The Young Republicans have a great program each and every month and other events, such as our Turn the Tide Campaign School, throughout the year as well. Please feel free to go to our contact page and request to be put on our email distribution to receive notices about future events. Since you know that our meetings are lively and informative, and that we are generally a forgiving bunch, how about checking us out next month at our meeting on Aug 18? Our meetings and most events are open to the public, whether you are chronologically young or young at heart! We look forward to seeing you there.