Posted on 12/01/2006 9:56:14 PM PST by primeval patriot
Miami, FL – RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman addressed the Republican Governors Association this morning in Miami, Florida. The following is a transcript of his remarks as prepared for delivery.
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Thank you, Governor Romney, for that kind introduction.
And thank you all for inviting me here today to talk with you about the last month … and more importantly, about the next two years. Let me start by talking a little bit about November 7, and what it means for our party. Obviously, no one in this room is pleased with the election results.
We knew going into 2006 that we were trying to buck history. The sixth year itch is real.
Since the 1860s, the party of the incumbent President has lost an average of 45 House seats and five Senate seats during the second midterm. In the years since World War II, typical sixth-year losses have averaged almost 20 House seats and seven Senate seats.
And we cannot ignore the reality of a wartime election. In the five wartime congressional elections last century, the President’s party lost an average of more than 30 House seats and nearly five Senate seats. No one can doubt the difficulty of the Iraq War, which -- like the Korean War -- is a new and different kind of conflict.
I truly believe that this is an ideological struggle in which we must prevail, and that history will record the importance of this battle to American security. That does not, however, change the fact that the Iraq war does make today’s politics difficult – just as Korea did for the Democrats in 1950.
Finally, we cannot dismiss the fact that 12 seats the GOP lost this year were touched by personal scandal or ethical issues unique to those candidates. Each of these factors combined to create an environment that was, to put it mildly, unfavorable for Republicans.
But that wasn’t the only reason we lost. And it cannot be an excuse.
If we shrug our shoulders and say “it was just a fluke, a perfect storm of factors out of our control” … then we will lose again in 2008. We cannot write this election off as pre-ordained, as the natural order of things, to be automatically rectified in two years.
If that is the approach we take, then we are destined to spend far more than one term in the minority … and we as a party will deserve it. Which is why we need to carefully analyze what happened on November 7 … and then recommit ourselves to come back better and stronger in 2008 and beyond.
Let me start at the ground level.
With every passing year, the mechanics of grassroots campaigning becomes more and more advanced … and the importance of grassroots campaigning becomes more and more apparent. The RGA, NRCC, NRSC, state parties, key campaigns, the White House, and the RNC worked together to build an impressive ground game in 2006. The RGA faced one of the most difficult election maps in recent history, and dedicated historic resources to protecting Republican governors across the country, limiting our losses to only six statehouses.
The President, Vice President, and First Lady combined to headline 258 events for Republican candidates … raising a quarter of a billion dollars.
We at the RNC spent more than $70 million on TV and turnout in competitive midterm elections in 2006, made more than 35 million voter contacts, and registered more than 70,000 new Republicans. I have absolutely no doubt that without this effort from every quarter, our losses would have been far greater than they were.
Think about this: 22 races on November 7 were decided by two percentage points or fewer, with combined margins of 85,100.
We won 13 of those close elections. Eighteen races were decided by fewer than 5,000 votes.
So far, we have won 10 of those definitively and are ahead in two others that are still being recounted. We won races in Florida, in New Mexico and in Wyoming by less than two thousand votes each.
Our grassroots effort was undoubtedly a major factor in those races. That said, there also can be no doubt that there is room for improvement in our ground operations.
I am proud of much of what we accomplished, but nobody – including the RNC – should be exempt from careful self-examination and constructive criticism. Because if we want to win the presidency and gain back the House, the Senate, and a majority of statehouses in 2008, we will need a ground game better than anything we saw in 2006, 2004, or ever before.
We will need dedication to the mechanics of campaigning. We will need those armies of volunteers who, by calling their neighbors and friends, are so much more effective than out-of town, paid grassroots workers. We will need those new technologies that allow us to reach out to Republicans, independents and discerning Democrats in just the right ways to make them understand what our Party and our candidates have to offer. We will need to expand and perfect what we did well, and identify and correct what we didn’t.
Because that ground game is how we win close races in a 50-50 country.
But that is not all we will need in 2008. If 2006 taught us anything, it is that a good ground game alone cannot be depended upon to push us over the top.
We need to remember … all of us … that it is good policy that makes good politics.
For Republicans, this must be a time for self-examination. It must be a time for growing and learning. We must do better … and we must be better.
We can start by recommitting ourselves to be the party of reform. I believe our nation is stronger and better when Republicans are the Party running the government.
But our Party should never, never be the Party of government … of Washington, D.C. … of earmarks … of bureaucracy. Ronald Reagan reinvented the Republican Party in the 1980s as the party that would change government, not sustain it.
Newt Gingrich and the Class of 94 swept to power in Congress for the first time in 40 years on the coattails of the Contract with America: a detailed list of congressional and governmental reforms that took power away from the smoke-filled rooms and returned it to the people.
In response to 9/11, President George W. Bush reorganized our entire security system, creating the Department of Homeland Security, breaking down the barriers between intelligence agencies, and giving our law enforcement officers new tools to protect us.
Those are all examples of our Party at its best: while each is different in substance and form, each is also an example of Republicans reforming government to face new challenges, while staying true to our longstanding ideals: limited government, individual freedom, and a strong national defense.
Now, we need to rekindle that spirit of reform in Washington. But even more so, we need you to rekindle it in the states. Look at the Republican Party’s greatest reform efforts over the last 20 years.
Where did they start? They started in the states. They started with governors like you, Republicans who understand that your job is to deliver for the people time and time again.
You’re the greatest and most innovative think tank in politics. You’re the front line.
And now more than ever, our party and our nation need you to do what you do best … to innovate, to rethink … to change government for changing times.
On issue after issue, we need those ideas.
Through health savings accounts, we have made great strides in making health care more affordable, more portable, and more efficient all at once, and all without government making the decisions … but we need to do more. Through IRAs, 401k plans, and pension portability, we have taken the first steps toward helping Americans own their own retirement, just as they own their own homes … but we need to do more.
Every year George W. Bush has been our President, we have cut taxes for all Americans so they can make their own choices about how to invest their hard-earned money … but we need to do more.
By doubling the size of the border patrol and ending catch-and-release, we have started to exert more control over our own borders … but we need to do more.
Many of you have already been leaders in these areas.
Governor Romney, for example, has Massachusetts on its way to complete health care coverage … without raising taxes, without employer mandates, and without government control of health care. That is the kind of innovation we need at the state level, and in Washington. And it’s not going to come from the Democrats.
We live in a world where more people derive income off of Ebay than make their living in the steel industry. We live in a world where it’s just as easy to create a job in Lima, Peru as it is in Lima, Ohio … where people will change jobs an average of seven times throughout their lives … where workers and capital and ideas themselves are constantly on the move.
It’s a world where our message of individual ownership, of power in the people’s hands instead of Washington’s, makes more sense than ever before. Because it’s a world where people are starting to understand the power of the ownership society. Of owning their own retirements … owning their own health care … of having the power to make their own decisions about their future.
It’s a very different world from the one we knew just 10 or 20 years ago. Which is why it must be our party that faces the new challenges of the 21st century head on. It must be our party that recommits itself to being the party of change. It must be Republicans who are the Party of reform on every issue, from health care to job creation to the War on Terror.
And that’s not all.
Reform must be our watchword in another area as well, one that is crucial not just to our party’s success in 2008, but to our long-term viability.
The Republican Party must – must – hold its elected officials … its candidates … its staff … everyone … to the absolute highest ethical standards.
Always, no exceptions. Public service is a sacred trust. And we cannot allow it to be sullied by anyone … Republican or Democrat.
As Republican chairman, I am proud of my party and loyal to our members. But if Republicans are guilty of illegal or inappropriate behavior, they should pay the price and suffer the consequences.
If there are Republicans for whom influence or power or money have become more important than serving the public and the nation, then let me make it perfectly clear: we don’t want you. The public trust must be more important than party, and we – every single person in this room and in this party – must be absolute and uncompromising in seeking out those who have done wrong, without regard to party or ideology.
And then, once again, our party has to adopt the mantle of reform. We must pass ethics reform to restore public trust in government.
But we need to do more than that. We need to reform the nature of our assumptions about government.
Corruption will always be a temptation … that is human nature. But the scope and size of the federal government today increase that temptation many times over.
After all, thieves go where the money is. Scoundrels follow the power. And there is far too much money and power in Washington D.C. today.Any government that is as big as ours, as powerful as ours, that controls so much of our lives, will always be susceptible to corruption. Because power does corrupt.
But we can reduce the temptation by taking power out of Washington and putting it back into the hands of the American people. It has to be us. It has to be our Party. Because the Democrat Party sure won’t do it. They’re the party of government. They believe it has the answer to every question, the solution to every problem.
We Republicans don’t believe that … but sometimes, over the last few years, we’ve behaved as if we do.
What does that lead to?
It leads to defeat, and it leads to temptation, and it leads to a government that is bigger and more intrusive than any of us would like.
So let us recommit ourselves to the Republican vision of the power of the individual, of a compassionate government that can lend a hand-up, but is not in the business of offering hand-outs.
Let’s reform earmarks, and let’s give the President the same line-item veto power that 43 governors have, so a Bridge to Nowhere can never even get off the drawing board.
Let’s redouble our efforts to cut taxes … streamline regulations … and reduce the number of frivolous lawsuits. My friends, let’s get the government out of the way of the most hard-working, innovative, driven people in the world. The American Dream isn’t a bureaucrat running your life.
The American Dream is the dream of the limitless opportunities that freedom has in store for all of us. And our Party should always be the Party of that American Dream.
Our party also needs to be a growing party. Every Republican in this room, and across America, should be concerned that we now have one – one! – Republican member of the House of Representatives from New England.
The northeast was once a Republican stronghold. Now we are in danger of losing it altogether.
Let’s be honest – New England Republicans are not always going to agree on every issue with deep South Republicans, just as Midwest Republicans will not always agree with Mountain State Republicans.
And sometimes that’s hard for us to deal with. Most of you know me – I’m a pro-flat tax, pro-life, pro-missile defense, Ronald Reagan conservative.
Many Republicans disagree with me on those issues. But I believe deeply that we are richer as a party for having those diverse beliefs, and that it does not help us as a political force, as a policy force, or as a nation, to see our party shrink its big tent.
Just a few years ago, it was the Democrats who were in danger of being a permanent minority because they’d given up on the South, the mountain states and the plains states.
Now they’re surging in two of those three areas … and we’re in trouble in New England. Maybe we’d be a more homogenous party if we follow that path to its logical conclusion.
Maybe we’d have less internal disagreements. We’d be able to march in lockstep. But it would be the march of a minority party, one that could never win an election, much less govern a great and diverse nation. Our party needs to be growing, not shrinking. We need to welcome new faces and new voices. The people in this room understand this as well as anyone.
People like Governor Schwarzenegger … like Governor-elect Crist … like Lieutenant Governor Steele in Maryland … who have done so much to expand the horizons of this great party. They’ve shown once again that reaching out is good policy … and good politics. One in four African Americans in Maryland voted for Michael Steele. Almost two out of every five Hispanics voted to re-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger in California.
And fully half of Hispanic voters in Florida pulled the lever for Charlie Crist. This isn’t a fluke. Those men worked hard for those votes … and we should all learn from their examples.
I have spent the last two years working to do so on a national level. I have flown from coast to coast, meeting with hundreds – thousands – of people in the African American community, the Hispanic community, in every community where we as a party haven’t done as much as we should in the past to reach out.
I’m not talking about pandering. I’m not talking about changing our deepest-held beliefs. On the contrary, I’m talking about applying those beliefs, our most cherished principles, to the people who need it the most. I’m talking about spreading the ownership society beyond the people in this room to those who need it more than any of us here ever could … millions of people for whom day to day life is a struggle, who feel as if they control nothing. I’m talking about expanding the role of faith in the public square for people who need not just a hot meal, but sustenance for the soul.
I’m talking about making the party of Lincoln whole again, about spreading our message of compassion, of ownership, of individual freedom to every city, every neighborhood, every street, every person, in this nation.
And I’m also talking about making sure that we remain a party that understands, as Ronald Reagan did, that America must always remain the “shining city on the hill” to the world. A year ago, I came before you in California and told you that I believe America is better off economically, culturally, militarily, in every way, because we are a nation of immigrants.
Today, a year later, I believe that more than ever. We must control our borders, both for our own security and for the sake of fairness to those who come here legally. But we must never dim the beacons of Ronald Reagan’s shining city whose doors are “open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here.”
That is why we need a comprehensive immigration reform plan, one that honors the law of the land as well as the laws of supply and demand … one that does not offer amnesty, but nor does it close off that gateway to the American Dream.
That dream is just as real to those who look at this nation from afar and seek to come here as it is to us. And I hope it is real to us, to every one of us in this room.
Because that is why we’re here. It is why we do what we do. We don’t fight elections for bragging rights. We don’t seek office for the perks. We are here for a reason, for a cause.
And now is the time to look to the future.
Ronald Reagan once said that “in America, every day is a new beginning, and every sunset is merely the latest milestone in a voyage that never ends. For this is the land that has never become, but it always becoming.”
The 2006 election is over.
And today we need to face a future of challenges and opportunities both for our party and for our nation.
Which means today is the time …
To rededicate ourselves to our principles.
To recommit ourselves to reform.
To remember that we work for the people, and the only interest we have is their interest.
Today is the time to look forward.
2008 is just around the corner … and we’ve got a lot to prove and a lot to do.
So let’s get to work.
Thank you all.
What a bunch of empty promises.
Ping
Invite Ken to FR.
Office of the Chairman
Ken Mehlman, Chairman
Phone: 202-863-8700
Fax: 202-863-8820
Email: Chairman@gop.com
Office of the Co-Chairman
Jo Ann Davidson, Co-Chairman
Phone: 202-863-8545
Fax: 202-863-8631
Email: Info@gop.com
using the examples of romney and schwarzenegger as shining examples of what the party should perhaps strive to do more of and actually strive for is a bit much, more socialism is all it is, imo, no matter how you sugar coat.
Buh Bye, Ken.
DLTDHYOTWO
Not surprised the way the elections turned out. I was underwhelmed and uninspired going into the elections and after I am just flat out mad at the opportunity that was wasted because we had no consistent message except fear of electing Dims and that certainly did not work.
You have to give people a reason to vote for your candidates, and I think that RNC, NRSC, and NRCC did a horrible job and certainly hope they learned their lesson. Dole at NRSC probably did the worst job although the others were not far behind.
Ken is busy packing his office up.
I can't wait to see what Mel Martinez has in store for the RNC.
*snicker*
Think clowns, and balloons, lots of balloons
An even bigger population explosion of illegal immigrants every year from now on. Laws? We don't need any "stinking" laws!
Gee whiz Ken, you've stated the obvious, now how are the Republicans going to capture those voters?
Corruption will always be a temptation … that is human nature. But the scope and size of the federal government today increase that temptation many times over.After all, thieves go where the money is. Scoundrels follow the power. And there is far too much money and power in Washington D.C. today. Any government that is as big as ours, as powerful as ours, that controls so much of our lives, will always be susceptible to corruption. Because power does corrupt.
How about reducing the size and power of government you dope?
They had better get used to being a permanent minority if this is what passes for the RNC's brain trust.
Ken Mehlman, carrying water for the OBL to the last.
Yes, that line was a keeper.
Yeah yeah yeah yeah. Action speaks louder than words. Six years to take action and now you believe that in two years without control of Congress, the GOP will change it's method of operation. Yeah yeah yeah. I hear ya, but I ain't believing. You went in knowing you were going to lose and you think the GOP did a good job. Your job needed to be done in the Senate and the House and you didn't do it. Keeping people like Specter and McCain calling the shots and you will continue to lose.
Yep.
Bud Melman from the old Letterman Show was more inspirational than this guy ;-(
Very well said,Melman = no spine.
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