A Heartfelt Letter

Amanda Carpenter | January 14, 2009 11:03 PM

There have been a lot of nice letters and endorsements tossed around over the last few weeks in the race for RNC Chairman. The latest one passed around, written by Rhode Island Chair Giovanni D. Cicione endorsing Saul Anuzis, is by far the most heartfelt.

The whole thing is up on Anuzis's blog HERE.

What I like most about it is that it seems to capture his personality--always busy, always reaching out, etc.

In it, Cicione tells the story of being a new RNC member, awkwardly trying to connect with others and was able to easily find a friend in Anuzis. It's touching and if nothing else, should serve as a model for future letter endorsements! The RI Chair wrote:

As I wandered the halls at a break between sessions and did my best to meet as many of my new RNC colleagues as possible, one member made a point of saying “Hey – make sure you go meet that guy – he’s a rock star.” ‘That guy’ looked nothing like what I would have called a GOP “rock star.” Funny goatee, too thin to have been subsisting on political chicken dinners, carrying on what looked like three separate conversations while one thumb typed on his blackberry. When I caught up to him later that day I made a point of telling him about the label, and his response – good humor with just enough modesty to let me know that he appreciated it but didn’t believe it – was such that I made a note to myself to keep in touch with him going forward. What I didn’t catch was that there was no need for me to do anything in order to stay in touch with Saul Anuzis. When I got back to Rhode Island the emails, packages, templates, suggestions, and contacts had already started flowing in. For a while I started to think that I had mistakenly been appointed to the Michigan GOP rather than the RNC. Saul was sharing. When I recently saw Saul’s Blueprint for a GOP comeback I recognized a lot of what was in there. These were strategies, philosophies, and real action items that he had been implementing in Michigan and helping folks like me implement in states that didn’t have

I am supporting Saul Anuzis because since I have been chair he has done more to support the Republican cause in my state than any other Republican outside my state. I am supporting Saul Anuzis because he has a personal passion and energy for our party that will allow us all to succeed in every state, in every city, and in every neighborhood in this great nation. I am supporting Saul Anuzis because he is a solid conservative who also knows how to talk to union workers and immigrants and other groups that need to hear our conservative message of hope and opportunity. (And yes, I am supporting Saul Anuzis because maybe it is time to have an RNC chair with a funny goatee…).