Keep moving forward, GOP chairman says

Terry Lathan said she wants “the bleeding to stop and the healing to begin.”

That is her assessment of the recent resignation of Alabama Governor Robert Bentley after he was booked into jail on two campaign-finance charges. “For those folks who lose the way, there is a penalty to pay.”

Lathan is chairman of the Alabama Republican Party. The former public school teacher who has served as the chair of the Alabama Republican Party since February 2015, was keynote speaker at the Dale County Republican Committee Meeting Monday, April 17.

Lathan has been a member of the Alabama Republican Executive Committee for 25 years and is the former chairman of the Mobile County Republican Executive Committee. She has recruited and trained over 300 poll watchers for the Republican Party and has attended six Republican National Conventions.

“When you have one of the biggest ‘Red’ states in the nation, it just doesn’t stop,” Lathan said. “And isn’t that a great problem to have.”

Lathan shared “some good news, some bad news, some good news and some good news” with the GOP group. “The good news is that because of us working together (in the presidential election) we didn’t dodge a bullet, we dodged a cannon ball,” Lathan said. “I believe that God did hear our prayers.”

The “good news” is that the state Republican Party won 70 percent of the political races on Nov. 8, 2016, Lathan said. “That is unbelievable. Our win record was historic.

“We now hold 59 percent of all (non partisan) offices in the state of Alabama,” Lathan said. “We spent around half a million dollars last year protecting our team,” Lathan said. “We have a product that people love and they are willing to invest in it.

But successes do not mean complacency, Lathan stressed. “Champions do not take things for granted. Champions run harder and faster so that they can keep what they have.”

“The bad news was last week. Or maybe it was good news,” Lathan said, addressing Bentley’s resignation. “We expect the utmost of our elected officials so it was not a great week, but it was the right thing to do.”

The state Republican Party did ask Bentley to resign, Lathan said. “That was something we felt very strong about. It was time for us to speak.

“Does it make it easy?” she asked rhetorically. “Was it necessary? Yes.

“If we do not draw a line and make ourselves different, if we do not draw a line because it makes us uncomfortable, then what we’re saying is that we are just all alike (politically),” Lathan said. “And I am hear to tell you there are some big differences (in the Democratic and Republican Parties) not only in policy, but we will stand up and police our own.

“The Democratic Party did not call for Bentley to resign, we did,” Lathan said. “So while the storm has passed, there is a new day and a new dawn.

“We have a new leader and we have new opportunities,” Lathan. “No matter what, don't stop, keep going forward. I am determined, as state chairman, to keep raising our bar.”