CA: Reforming the CRP (Ca GOP)

In the late nineties some GOP leaders pushed to take over the CRP and local GOP county committees with a simple mantra: Ideology doesn't matter, what matters is the "nuts and bolts" of party building. Basically, the goods they sold said the party should focus on registering voters, GOTV etc.... Of course most were moderates (who would lose part campaigns if ideology was a factor) and their successful campaign culminated in the much-heralded CRP Parsky Commission reforms of 2001.

I never bought the complete abandonment of ideology from the party machinery. That's how we get GOP endorsements of bonds and other follies

I come to them though my 20+ years of GOP involvement in politics, my 15 on the CRP Executive committee, including six years on the CRP Board. I also come from the perspective that 2006 was not a good year for the CA GOP. The Governor won and so did Steve Poizner. McPherson, McClintock and Strickland didn't. We also lost a congressional seat. I know some have the opposite view and you can read the happy go lucky version here. Does anyone really think that Poizner would have won, if he relied on the CRP operation and not on his own resources? The current CRP leadership may be well meaning and hard working, but we have to change in order to win.

The February CRP Elections are looming. The items discussed are not ideological, but "nuts and bolts". They should address the following:

Voter Registration: The CRP has taken over total responsibility for voter registration in most areas. The change in the program from a bounty pay for performance to hourly has been disatorious. Local efforts and support have dwindled. CRP has yet to release numbers on how the new program worked. That is not a healthy sign. CALPEEK reported the Democratic operatives were stunned that the Voter registration stopped in the 34th Senate District race, that we lost by 1000 votes. Fraud is an issue. But, ongoing pay for performance programs, local control and strict oversight for fraud were effective.

Victory Program: I know supposedly there is an internal review going on of Victory 06 programs to see what was effective and what could be done better. As I look at the turnout in Southern California counties. San Diego managed to keep it higher than others. Why? San Diego complemented Victory '06 phone call operation with there old fashioned put a many bodies on the street for GOTV.

Team Play: The State Party abandoned federal candidates faster than the Governor could say he didn't know if he would vote for Dick Mountjoy. Imagine the outcry from moderates if Tom Campbell wasn't on materials when Feinstein demolished him. Again. McCain-Feingold is problem. San Diego did mange to have the federal dollars available to put federal candidates on their door hanger version. The CRP couldn't provide door hangers with Pombo and Doolittle on them. Are we really going into 2008 with a plan not to put our Presidential nominee on the door hangers?

On the state level. Could some of the advertising beating up poor Phil have been diverted in the last few days to help McPherson or McClintock? In 1994 Wilson authorized that for the 1994 nominees (except McClintock). CRP candidates need a plan on how to help the whole team.

Consultants: The reign of consultants must end. I won't rehash the CRP slate mailer issue. Conflict of interests need to be disclosed. Period. Also consultants with CRP contacts should be forbidden from organizing proxy drills that influence the way the party votes. Or is that what the CRP was paying for?

Board Structure: The regional Vice-Chair system has more disparities and factionalism than the old system. You have some regions like the southern with Orange, San Diego and Riverside Counties in them and others that that have only a few districts in them. It doesn't work. Having board elections at almost every convention is an unnecessary distraction. The structure of the CRP board needs to be re-evaluated and become more representative.

I am asking all the candidates running about these areas. Maybe, just maybe some will have the vision to change the status quo and achieve real victory.

http://capoliticalnews.com/s/spip.php?article43

A Road Map to Republican Success in CA
by Thomas G. Del Beccaro - Candidate for CRP Vice Chair

In many - but not all - respects, the Republican Party is the minority party in California. Minority parties do not just wake up one day in the minority; they become that way the old-fashioned way they earn it many times by failing to present a clear vision to voters on issues important to their every day lives.

Becoming the majority party is earned as well. Fortunately, great leaders before us have demonstrated how the Republican Party can do that and they have provided us with a Road Map to Republican Success in California.

In my upcoming book, “They Can’t Catch You, If You Stay Ahead©,” which chronicles how the Republicans became the majority party in Congress following Reagan (and how they gave it away in ’06), I focus on how Ronald Reagan’s leadership led to a national political realignment and ended 40 years of that Democrat Congressional control.

Reagan’s success was predicated, in part, on his ability (1) to develop a strong and visible identity for the Republican Party, and (2) to embrace the principles on which America was founded and to apply them to problems of the early ’80s. In California, we need to rediscover those principles and embrace his strategy.

1. The Road Map for California requires the Republican Party to Develop a Strong Identity. Prior to Reagan, the Republican Party, and its leaders, did not have an identifiable persona in many ways they were not set apart from the Democrats of their time. Remember it was Nixon who raised taxes and Nixon and Ford who took entitlement spending from 6.5 percent of GDP in 1969 to 10.6 percent in 1975. Despite Nixon’s Presidential victories, Republicans gained little ground in Congress because, as a practical matter, it was the age of "Republ-ocrats." Republicans were Democrats-lite in far too many ways.

Reagan understood that in order to lead, he had to stand apart from the Democrats on core issues he needed to give the voters a clear choice and a clear vision. He knew that: “The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can’t blow an uncertain trumpet.” The clarity of Reagan’s trumpet perhaps was never more clear then in 1994. It was then that Republican candidates for Congress across the nation, 433 of them, campaigned on a single reform platform and took back the Congress.

Unfortunately, today, the California voter does not have a clear sense of our Party’s vision. There is no single, identifiable set of issues we champion. If you ask the voter in San Diego what the Republican Assemblyman at the north end of the state believes, he or she is likely not to know. That is not because that Assemblyman does not believe in the right ideas but because, as a party, we have not developed and marketed a strong identity for voters up and down the state.

As I discuss below, that can be done and there is no time like the present to turn things around.

2. Embracing Principled Issues. At the outset of this article, I stated that California is not the minority party in California in every way. Indeed, as I wrote a year ago, in CA is More Republican Than You Think, on many issues, Californians believe in the Republican solution over Democrat rhetoric. Not coincidentally, the central themes of those issues are the issues that Reagan championed as well as the 1994 Congressional Candidates: the issues of lower taxes, government reform and law & order. Thus, whether it’s the resounding defeat of the many tax increases put before the California voter over the last 3 years, or their support for workers’ compensation reform, or immigration reform, voter ID reform or their support of Jessica’s law, the California voter wants solutions to big government and unchecked crime.

The challenge for our Republican Party is develop a practical strategy (1) to embrace those principles principles that are embraced by the California voter and, in doing so, (2) to develop the strong identity we need to succeed - at the same time that we (3) support both the top of the ticket and our down ticket candidates.

3. Some Necessary, Practical Steps for Republican Success. Given that it is not our ideas that are out-of-step, we need to develop a strategy that is in step with the modern political landscape. I believe some of those steps include the following:

a) Our candidates should run on unified principles. Each Assembly, Senate and Statewide Republican Candidate, at the very least, (1) should advocate lower taxes, and (2) promote a law & order issue. In addition to that, Assembly and Senate candidates should campaign on an important local issue that addresses the reform needs of their constituents. In this last election, largely thanks to George and Sharon Runner, Republicans stood for law and order in the form of Jessica’s law. Most candidates embraced that. Our candidates also stood for lower taxes but not in unison nor did we challenge, in unison, each Democrat candidate on those issues. In order to develop a strong identity, in each election, we need to place law and order issues on the ballot and our candidates must stand together and present a clear and unified alternative to the Democrats. If we do that, over time, our Party will once again be defined as the low tax, reform and law and order party. If the 1994 Congress could do it across a nation, we can do it across California.

b) We must realize the potential of the New Media. Simply stated, our party does not make nearly enough use of the Internet, Internet fundraising and/or talk radio. All of those tools can be essential partners in developing our brand, raising money and getting the word out. Yet, despite the passage of 3 years since Howard Dean worked Internet magic to bring his outsider campaign to the brink of success, we have not even begun to maximize the possibilities of Internet fundraising or messaging in California. I started Politicalvanguard.com in a small effort along that road. Recognizing the key role talk radio played roll in helping Republican to become the majority Party nationally, I have worked with KSFO in the San Francisco Bay Area to create awareness and momentum (which helped Contra Costa finish #1 in large County Republican turnout). I know there are many responsible talk show hosts who want to help get our message out but feel excluded from our process. In the coming years, we simply must take advantage of that huge and largely untapped resource.

c) We must foster better partnerships with our volunteers. There is, of course, no union which comes to the aid of the Republicans at election time. We rely on the grace and generosity of volunteers. There are literally tens of thousands of Republican volunteers many of them associated with volunteer groups like the Federated Republican Women, Young Republicans, the CRA, the CCRs, The Republican Hispanic Assembly and many more.* We need to include them in on the ground floor of discussions on election strategy and our Get-Out-the-Vote efforts. They are likely to invest more if they are at the table in developing our strategies and if we take the time to listen and then incorporate their successes.

We also should highlight their great community and party building work. If Republicans are supposedly not known as the compassionate party, does it make any sense why we do not trumpet the untold acts of charity of the Federated Republican Women? If we stand for law and order, should not the work of the California Republican Lawyers Association be noted? And what of the successes of our other volunteer groups?

The answer is that we must do all of the above not just because our success in dependent on their generosity to our cause but because it is the right thing to do.

Beyond that, we simply must invest in our future meaning invest in our young Republicans and college Republicans. It may be trite to say, but they are the future of the Party in many ways. Along with our Associate Member program (which should emphasize the inclusion of county party members), we should be working with all of them in a meaningful way on real party building projects. That will require some funding but will pay dividends into the future.

Finally, we must continue to build our County organizations, brick by brick. Rome was not built in a day and neither can successful local parties. If we are to be the majority Party ten years from now, if not before, strong local parties will play a vital role in ensuring that our message gets out and that our down ticket candidates are supported.

Undoubtedly the above list is not the “be all end all.” I encourage all of you to let your voice be heard as we revitalize the California Republican Party. If you have a suggestion, click here and send it to me.

For my part, I want to work on the above and that is why I am running for Vice Chair of the California Republican Party. Please join me in that effort.

* There are so many groups that have contributed to the Republican cause. I mention just a few in this article by way of example. In the past I have noted the efforts of the RJC, CWLA and others. We need all of their help in order to succeed and we must show them the respect they have earned.

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