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Charlie Crist Appointee Joe Gruters – Establishment Republican, Personified? *UPDATE* – Gruters’ Camp Responds
December 29, 2010
39 Responses to “Charlie Crist Appointee Joe Gruters – Establishment Republican, Personified? *UPDATE* – Gruters’ Camp Responds”
Interesting that all of this is coming out right after the truth of Cox has been published in the papers.
Perhaps some doctored up youtube videos will next be in line.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by EL SHARKO and EL SHARKO, EL SHARKO. EL SHARKO said: Crist Appointee Gruters a RINO? http://shark-tank.net/?p=9176 #sayfie #tcot #rpof #flgop #joegruters [...]
The difference between Joe Gruters & the rest of the field is very evident. He has put on over 6,000 miles driving in Florida over the past few weeks. Joe is traveling to all 67 counties in the State of Florida to personally visit with the Chairman, Committeewoman, & Committeeman of all the Republican Executive Committees. His primary reason is to ask each of them about their thoughts on the state of the RPOF & what they want to see from the next Chairman. Of course this face to face contact will allow Joe to present his qualifications for the job. This personal interaction with all the voters presents the best opportunity for the voters to ask direct questions of Joe.
His book of knowledge on electioneering is a very strong suit in his portfolio. Just the effort to meet everyone is almost beyond the capabilities of many of the other candidates. His background for a man in his 30′s includes a broad spectrum of political races where he has earned his stripes.
Being a native Floridian gives Joe a good perspective of what he has witnessed & participated in the political world of our state. Youth does have its advantages for the party as it does provide the energy to accomplish things. Joe has been personally involved in a number of campaigns, & many of them have included an emphasis on modern technology. He is well aware that people still make the decisions & his expertise lies in reaching them & having their votes cast for Republican candidates.
Joe has publicly stated that win or lose, the RPOF must coalesce behind the winner & move the party forward to win the races in 2012. His strategizing with all of the members of the RPOF Executive Committee members is invaluable. All of the voters in this race come from Florida’s 67 counties & they are carrying the wishes of their counties REC to the RPOF. The reality of the political playing field is that the old top down method is being revamped to include much more bottom up input. Joe is all about reaching out to ALL of the Republican voters in Florida. He has reached out to the many varied ‘Tea Party” groups & visited with many of their leaders & attended their events. The leaders of the Sarasota, Charlotte & Manatee County area “Tea Parties” have all publicly endorsed Joe in his bid for the Chairmanship of the RPOF.
His area of financial expertise will benefit the RPOF greatly as an organization. His plan includes the transparency needed to give Florida Republicans the confidence they need to contribute to the party & believe their money is being put to work as they request. He already has over $550,000 in pledges & the vote is not until January 15th.
Folks should look at the entire field of candidates & come to their own conclusion.
I believe in Joe for all the right reasons.
Happy New Year to everyone.
I believe the author is incorrect. Joe had a policy of not taking sides in a republican primary, but once Charlie left the party, I seem to remember a radio interview with Rick Swier of Redcounty saying that the Sarasota Republican party, including himself was fully behind Rubio.
I also remember Marco coming to town multiple times ANC receiving emails from Joe to come show support, which I of course did.
I have followed the Shark Tank almost from its very begining, aggreeing with 90% of its contents – especially in Broward. I have known JoeGruters for about 15 years. While of late he has capitalized on his opportunites, he has always been a solid Republican and is no RINO.
Don’t confuse personal ambition with lack of Sincerity. Joe is a solid, admiditaly ambishish, Republican. His candidacy is no jepordy to the party or the conservative movement.
Crist has always been eyeing the next job, back to the Connie Mack days. His supporters link to him mostly for opportunities, but some actually like him ( why, I have no idea). Don’t let the idea of people supporting the wrong candidate cloud your judgement of who they are as a Republican.
In this case the Shark Tank seems to be in the shallows. I’m hardly a party insider, never voted for Crist, and supported Marco when he was still in the legislature, i.e. before he became a money-train and fame-maker for bloggers and pundits seeking the limelight.
It’s obvious that Joe Gruters was slow to jump on the Rubio bandwagon, that’s ancient history. Conventional wisdom during the nascent stage of Rubio’s campaign gave him zero chance. Luckily the people of Florida knew what to do and elected Marco to represent them.
We get it Javier, you’re a Marco dude, but this hit piece on Gruters is simply below the belt for anyone who wishes to be responsible in their blogging. Is there a single candidate for RPOF chairman out there who understands social media and who could help the party connect with a new demographic other than Gruters? All I see is a stable of insider out of touch operatives who are looking to further themselves, NOT their party, NOT their ideology, and who seem to have learned nothing about the reasons for the success of the Scott and Rubio campaigns.
I’ve never met Joe Gruters, having missed attending one of his Orlando-area events because of work commitments , but having looked at all the candidates impartially I’m going to urge my county representatives to vote for Gruters. I’ll follow-up on my commitment for Gruters with my vote and my wallet if they listen to me, and happily sit on the sidelines if they’d rather support an out of touch insider.
I do appreciate reading this hit-piece though, it speaks volumes about where this blog and site is headed.
I am a member of the Sarasota REC and I know that Joe is NO- RINO. I consider myself a Ron Paul Republican and I can say that Joe treated my fellow RPers fair and square and not like the RINO predecessors. I think this is just a last minute smear job. Joe is a straight shooter and we will be fortunate to get him as our parties leader
Rich Angley.
I do not see this post as a smear job, it only highlights Gruters’ past support of Charlie. The Sharktank is not attacking Joe in anyway here. I too belive Joe is a straight shooter, however his bandwagon jumping on Rubio is highly suspect, even though many, many others did the same.
Joe Gruters is the only choice for RPOF Chairman. He was being a fair broker in the primary period until Charlie Crist dropped out of the Republican Senate primary.
Do you want to make your own decision on major Republican candidates or let the party elites lead you to a candidate? Joe is a leader for grassroots Republicans.
Support Joe Gruters for the RPOF Chairmanship for the vital 2012 elections. Help him send Obama and Nelson home like he did Fitzgerald.
Charlie Crist Appointee Joe Gruters – Establishment Republican ……
Here at World Spinner we are debating the same thing……
I see Joe and his supporters are posting on the Shark Tank. Trust me… Joe is a RINO!!!
I have been in the Sarasota Rep club for almost a year… and this does not sound like the Joe Gruters I saw. First, our group decided we would not endorse any primary candidates, then… after the primary, we immediately supported those Republicans who won the primary. We had Rubio & Scott here on several occasions. I don’t know where this author got his information, but that is not the way I recall Joe’s actions… and I was there. Joe was always fair. He unified our Republican party in Sarasota county. He practices the idea that you never speak ill of another Republican. I support him.
Pat Wayman
Venice 912 group
Joe is a Republican that stands by the party and its true ideals. I don’t understand this use of the word “RINO”. I know what it means but I don’t understand why we Republicans have to bash each other and why we even have an official word to do it with. I don’t know of the Democrats doing this. I have never heard the term DINO. Any Republican that uses the term RINO is only hurting their party.
Chairwoman Debbie Cox-Roush is the real Conservative here. Joe is the kind of guy that will reach too far across the isle if you know what I mean!
Debbie=Conservative. Joe=RINO! Nuff said…
Word is that Chairman Richard DeNapoli is trying to help Joe Gruters get elected so they can run the whole party. We must STOP these RINOS!!! Richard DeNapoli was a Democrat for years and they will support Moderate candidates and punish Conservative members of the party in any way they feel fit. Elected officials like Marco Rubio, Rick Scott, Allen West and Pam Bondi can’t stand Chairman DeNapoli and try to stay far away from him if they can. DeNapoli never got a personal invitation to the Governors ball. Now what does that tell you?
OMG! Joe Gruters is running for Chairman for the RPOF? This guy would be a disaster for the “GRASSROOTS” and Obama would win this state! Anybody but Joe!
“I think he has done a good job as our Republican governor. Charlie always put the people first, -Joe Gruters. Really Joe!? Like when Charlie stole our Republican donations and flipped as a Republican to run as an Independent and never returned it to us Republican donors. Is that the Governor you say put the people first? Dude, get lost. We don’t need Rinos like you running our party.
So Joe Gruters supports the Obama communist agenda, just like his buddy Crist did, nice! Joe Gruters supports the cigarette tax his buddy Crist signed off on, ha! And as far as I can remember, Crist supported some sort of Obamacare last year, Gruters supports this as well? He is joke, all of you idiots posting that he is a conservative are just trying to cover for him because you reallzed that he has been called out and this post has damaged him.
If you believe any of the trash on this blog, I’ve got a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn.
That response by Gruters campaign manager Bryan Graam is lame.
Of course every Republican leader supported Crist “at some point,” but the point the author of this post made clearly is that Gruters supported Crist until the very day he switched parties.
The reason Crist was losing to Rubio and made the decision to switch parties was because he had done many many things against Republican values that, obviously pissed off Republicans. These include, literally and figuratively embracing Obama and his stimulus, appointing liberal judges, vetoing SB6, letting felons vote, and standing by Greer until the very end among lots of other things.
Republicans were rightfully angry and abandoned Crist after he did all those things. No real Republican would continue supporting someone like that, but Gruters did. Instead of staying completely neutral he was doing things as chairman and giving statements to the press as chairman that only helped Crist and even at one point attacked Rubio when he questioned his conservativism.
For a guy like Gruters whose campaigning on being a real Republican who will stay out of primaries, his record screams the opposite.
I just read all of this and a few things are very clear. This blogger is obviously “in the TANK” for one of the other candidates besides this guy Gruters. It seems strange to me that no one who actually knows this Joe Gruters has said anything negative about him. The wisest thing I have read here is the comment from Martalaura regarding the derogatory term “rino”. I can see a room full of fat democrats slapping their knees at the sight of Republicans ripping big holes in that tent. This crap has to stop! The Republican Party of Florida needs the same big dose of unification that the National party needs. Soon. Real soon.
Wow, this bring new light to this election. Supporting a known R.I.N.O. right up to the time the guy changes party and is losing in a the polls is not a good thing. Maybe the rest of the state chairs that vote in the state need to see this article.
I wounder if he’ll send out an email explaining these very hard evidence articles.
All I can say is that Joe Gruters must have a pretty substantial lead in commitments judging from all the venom I’m reading lately. It appears he’s the only one taking some pretty nasty hits. I know Joe, I’ve worked with Joe and I support Joe. Perhaps those of you who don’t can come up with good reasons to support another candidate. That might give you a little credibility.
The term Republican has been so watered down that it is essentially meaningless. Years of electing moralless moderates like Olympia Snow have taken their toll, which culminated in the disastrous support of Dede Scozzafava in NY-30. Y’all do remember that travesty, right? That’s why brand is critical, and to preserve the brand, you have to identify what passes muster as allowable for the Republican Party.
Therefore, it is ESSENTIAL that we keep using the term “RINO” and we drive out all weak-kneed, establishment, “moderate” candidates with a holy scourge. Let the Democrats laugh — they have the albatross of Obamacare around their necks. It’s up to conservatives and the Tea Party to take back the Republican party — and save the republic.
About Gruters, I find the evidence against him troubling, but not rising to the point of indictable. Sure, he supported Crist far past the point when it was popular and that was bad judgement. Yes, he should have stayed neutral in his role. Again, that’s not cool, but as I’m not a precinct representative, my opinion hardly matters.
Poster Well’s above has it right. Stop eating our young. And that goes for Gruters supporters also, as they were apparently responsible for the trashing of Hillsborogh Chair Debbie Cox-Roush. Don’t whine about getting your glass broken after you started throwing the rocks.
Electing Joe or Tony would be like bringing back the days of GREER and Deception to the RPOF and the purging of conservatives from the party on a state wide basis. Madam Chair Debra Cox helped even those candidates that could not afford a meeting place, donating time and facilities to our candidates. She has supported and encouraged all Patriot groups to join her REC making it the largest in the state and brining in the 2012 Republican Convention to Tampa. A person like this in charge would enhance and expand the party state wide. I support her 100%
The Republican victories in Florida in 2010 were achieved in spite of the disgustingly corrupt state of the top figures in the party from Greer on down. The best recommendation for new party officials is distance from the old crew. No sane person could be comfortable contributing to an outfit run in the fashion that the Republican Party was during the Crist administration.
OK, You got me interested, so I did an in-depth search of Joe Gruters’ history, experience and qualifications. The name calling on here (RINO) is downright laughable. This guy led the Florida Right to Life group! I am a “Center-Right” lifelong Republican who believes government has no place in legislating morality, personal choice, bedroom activity or other matters of conscience. This guy is so conservative he makes me look off the chart left! I have often bemoaned the Party’s shortcomings when it comes to alienating independents. All one has to do is look at the numbers in order to see that ANY election has to be won by the independent vote. Reagan was right about the big tent. The division in the Party caused by the far right who fail to see the big picture and reject anyone who does not agree with 100% of the ideology they term “conservative” could be the death knell of the future. Stop it! Think unification. Stop the negativity.
I WILL NEVER again give one dime to any REC, nor any FLORIDA GOP org. They are all career opportunists like Charlie Crist.
Again, again, and again, it is necessary to define what the Republican brand is. It cannot be any longer the party of Dede and Olympia and Crist. Those days of winning for the sake of holding on to power are gone; let the cowards who support such liberals go vote socialist.
The big tent cowards and lickspittles never want to define the edge of the tent, because they are never interested in achieving anything, except perhaps on a sunny day, slowing the slide of America into utter statism.
The time is now at hand to reverse the slide into the statist abyss, and the RINOs are not interested in doing so. The Founding Fathers needed no MSM-inspired “big tent” and nor do we.
I am a member of REC when Joe was first elected, and have known him longer than that. Joe is not a RINO and it is hard for anyone to come to that conclusion. He made it a point NOT to endorse anyone until they won the primary. He never supported Crist after he left the party. We had many fund raisers for Rubio
and it is hard to believe people believe everything they read without knowing the facts. It is so sad to see our own GOP members eating their own.
THE NAME “COWARD” IS BEST DEFINED BY THOSE WHO HIDE BEHIND A PHONEY POSTER NAME TO ATTACK AND CALL GOOD MEN STUPID NAMES.
[...] But Gruters’ path is getting a little messier. A Republican blogger has gone after Gruters for being too supportive of former Gov. Charlie Crist. J… [...]
I have been a member of the Sarasota REC for 10 years. Joe Gruters has been one of our very best Chairman..
On November 2nd, in Sarasota County, Republicans won every elected office and even ousted the one Democrat representative in the State House…thanks to Joe’s leadership skills and his ability to bring UNITY to the RPOS.
Prior to the Primary, Joe stayed neurtral, unlike some former RPOS Chairman who openly supported and raised money for Charlie Crist…..even after he left the GOP when it became obvious that the grassroots was solidly behind Marco Rubio.
Joe is no RINO….He has been a Conservative Republican in speech and action.
This blogger’s attempt to smear Joe is a disgrace……What happened to following Ronald Reagan’s 11th commandment?
Joe has my support because he is the best choice for RPOF Chaiman! We need him to bring UNITY to the FLORIDA GOP so we can achieve VICTORY in 2012!
@Brooklyn Bridge
I am guessing you’re either part of the Lynch Mob or the Lowry Mob. Either way, you guys have yet to prove Sharkie’s points about L&L as being untrue. Pathetic bunch of whiners y’all are… MAN UP !!!
Statement by Joe Gruters on recent negative articles, allegations, and attacks in the campaign to become the next Chairman of the Republican Party of Florida:
In almost every campaign, tensions rise as the election gets closer and the race tightens up. The campaign for Chairman of the Republican Party of Florida is no different. This has recently led to some Republicans attacking other Republican candidates for Chairman. This is unacceptable behavior and you will not see it from my campaign.
The Obama machine will be difficult to defeat in 2012. In order to give our state the best possible chance to deliver a victory for the Republican nominee & secure the presidency for our country, we must ensure that the Republican Party of Florida does not fracture and damage during the campaign for Chairman.
Keep this in mind during the Chairman campaign: While Republicans may have some disagreements from time to time, the difference between a Republican and a Democrat is like night and day. We MUST stick together and focus on our shared end goal, Republican victory.
For this reason, I ask that when confronted with negative information & campaigning, you take a step back and remember Reagan’s 11th Commandment:
“Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican”
-Joe Gruters
Mr. Gruters-
With all due respect, I am getting a bit tired of Republicans who invoke Reagan’s 11th commandment as some sort talisman that somehow should protect them from legitimate criticism for their own questionable statements and/or actions. It’s one thing to speak ill of another Republican, it’s quite another thing to merely quote someone’s own words back to them for purposes of holding them accountable. Either you were misquoted in this article or those were actually your own words. If they are your words, you can’t rightly complain about “negative articles and allegations” – that’s part of the vetting process.
[...] to drop out of Florida’s Republican Primary for US Senate. This is the same Joe Gruters who all but endorsed Charlie Crist against Marco Rubio in 2010, so it’s no surprise he tacitly begrudged [...]