State Rep. Donald Wong, who was elected to the Republican State Committee earlier this week, says that he wants to focus on unifying the party.
Wong, who represents parts of Saugus, Lynn, and Wakefield in the state House of Representatives, ran unopposed in the race to become a state committeeman. He said that one of his priorities is to ensure that the party’s members across the state are working together with common goals.
“First of all, we’ve got to all get on the same boat and row the same way,” Wong said. “There’s too many different groups, instead of being one group. We’ve got to unite.”
He said that while serving on the committee, he also wants to help people who want to run for the first time or be re-elected.
In the past, he said, the committee has not done enough to help people who want to be elected as Republicans.
“We’ve got to get qualified people that really want to help the party, and not help themselves,” Wong said. “That’s the main thing.”
Wong said that he ran for the committee because he wanted to help people who are running as Republicans and need support.
Once the party unifies around common goals that its members all share, Wong said that its members can negotiate their individual priorities and fine-tune their proposals.
“Let’s do the common things that we as Republicans want to push for,” Wong said.
He said that one of those common issues is immigration. Wong said that there is relatively little the state can do on the issue, and that it is up to the federal government to “do the right thing.”
Wong said that people should be applying in their own countries to emigrate to the United States. When they get approved, he said, they should have a medical check to ensure that they are healthy.
“Right now, measles is coming back, polio is coming back,” Wong said. “When my grandparents came, they had Ellis Island. They couldn’t leave that island until they had a good, healthy checkup.”
He said that the state Republican Party has to work to get the federal government to provide help on the issue.
“And because it started there, the feds should be giving the states and towns and cities money to do the right thing,” Wong said. “And they’re not.”
Wong also said that the state party should focus on its financial situation. He said that the previous chair, Jim Lyons, put the party $600,000 in debt, which made people less interested in donating to it.
He said the current chair, Amy Carnevale, has been doing an effective job raising money to reduce the debt.
Wong said that he wants to work closely with Carnevale, and that he will do whatever it takes to help the party.
“I want to build up the Republican town and city committees,” Wong said. “There’s some towns that don’t have a Republican committee, because there’s not that many Republicans there. But I think every town and city should have a committee.”
He said that the grassroots of political parties, exemplified by organizations such as Republican committees in high schools, are very important.
Wong has served in the House since 2011. Before that, he served as the chairman of the Saugus Board of Selectmen. He and his family own Kowloon Restaurant.
