Republicans are getting out of Dodge this weekend and fleeing the capital in favor of less Democrat-heavy locales. They assure reporters and their more bipartisan friends that it’s nothing against Obama, but you know, it’s no fun to sit in traffic and watch everyone celebrating a team you voted against. So where will you find former Romney staffers and Republican Congresspeople drowning their sorrows quietly reflecting for 2014 and beyond? In warmer, sunnier climes, mostly.
- Kevin Sheridan, an executive vice-president at consultancy JDA Frontline, who most recently worked on Mitt Romney’s campaign, is headed to a “well-timed” annual work retreat at the firm’s other office in Charleston, South Carolina.
- Also in South Carolina is Matt Beynon, of Republican consulting firm Madison Strategic Ventures. He initially told the Times he planned to stay in D.C. but left anyway to help with the special election to replace freshman Senator Tim Scott’s former House seat.
- Charlie Spies, a Republican lawyer, will be in Las Vegas with his wife and 100 other GOPers — including billionaire Romney supporters and Vegas hotel owners Steve Wynn and Sheldon Adelson — for their “We still believe in America” fête.
- Ben Ginsberg, who served as national counsel for Romney’s campaign, will be on a “ski to sea” vacation — San Francisco, Sonoma, Napa, and Tahoe — with family.
- Russ Schriefer, a top Romney strategist will join his wife for “four or five days of skiing” in Davos, Switzerland, in lieu of an inauguration party because “the thrill is gone.”
- Ron Bonjean, a former Bush administration and congressional aide, is at a small work retreat in Mexico where he plans to “prepare for new challenges in 2013.”
Meanwhile, House Speaker John Boehner, House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, and House Armed Services Committee Chairman Howard McKeon don’t really have the option of skipping town, and so plan to attend an Inauguration-related ball honoring members of the military tonight. But they’re likely to join Sheridan and Beynon in South Carolina soon enough, for the RNC’s winter meeting next week.
