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A FULL-TIME office on Wilkes-Barre’s Public Square, a paid executive director and a county chairman who talks with excitement about the future. What is going on inside the new Republican Party of Luzerne County?
Few noticed when Terry Casey took over as chair of the county Republicans in June 2008. Throughout the summer he stitched together a group of party stalwarts who were frustrated by years of Republican losses but nevertheless willing to give success another try.
Casey’s energy took root in the fall and flew in the face of a rapidly approaching cliff off which national Republicans were intent to drive. At one of the national party’s lowest moments, county Republicans were getting more votes for their congressional candidate than Democrats and opened an office on the Square to remain competitive even after November. Open year-round? Yes, Renita understands there’s always another election just around the corner. Renita?
Casey’s biggest coup was luring former Times Leader City Editor, columnist and experienced reporter Renita Fennick away from journalism to become the executive director of the Luzerne County Republican Party. If you doubt Casey’s determination, imagine what it took to convince Fennick, the mother of two grown children, to give up her successful career and respected senior status in journalism to take on such a difficult challenge.
Fennick finally accepted Casey’s offer and refers to it as her “dream job.” The public knows Fennick, 49, of Wilkes-Barre Township, as an outstanding reporter, city editor and, when expressing her personal opinion, a strong conservative columnist. However her passion is politics, the Republican kind.
Fennick grew up in a Republican household where political discussions and analysis were everyday conversations. Her maternal grandfather, Michael Hendricks, was a longtime Republican township commissioner. Her father, Adolph Fennick, was a Republican committeeman for years. Young Renita, a 1981 graduate of King’s College with a degree in mass communication, listened and learned at the knee of two experts. Now she is responsible for the day-to-day organization of the county Republican Party. She is its first, full-time, paid, executive director and I suspect her dad and grandfather, both deceased, are very proud.
“Renita’s job is to organize the day-to-day affairs of the party, to open lines of communication and bring together the Republican candidates, stalwarts, committee people, contributors and volunteers into one cohesive team,” said Casey.
For the first time in many years Republicans are attracting a pool of talented candidates with a downtown headquarters that is at their disposal. Candidate petitions are due March 10. On March 11 Casey will meet with his executive committee and director to call a countywide Republican convention on Thursday, March 19, for the purpose of endorsing a united team of county candidates. With the sad and shameful events swirling around the county courthouse, Democrats had better pay attention to another possible electoral cliff looming off on the horizon.
Fennick also has former Bush presidential adviser Karl Rove committed to appear at the Genetti Hotel and Conference Center in downtown Wilkes-Barre sometime in April. Rove, aka “The Architect” of both George W. Bush presidential victories, will fill the house and rally the base to get out the vote.
When Rove departs Genetti’s ballroom, the man they call “The Architect” would do well to carry back to his national party a set of blueprints drawn by the newest firm in town – Casey and Fennick.