farm team

In Part 1, written earlier this month, I focused on the need for not only the chairman, but all members of the RNC, to develop multiple leaders in campaign operations, policy, communications, fundraising and technology.

Dear Mr. Chairman:

Congratulations on your victory today. Your ascension to the chairmanship of the GOP is not only historic in nature; it also shows that many of the members of the RNC (as well as many of us in the grassroots and netroots of the party) were yearning for something different.

As someone who cares deeply about the issues surrounding ethnicity in America, I sincerely hope that the legacy of your chairmanship is not defined by your race, but by your efforts to move this party in a new direction. May you be remembered many election cycles from now, not as the first African-American chairman, but as a chairman who led with conviction and creativity during a time of transition.

One interesting thing to note is the process that we witnessed today. It took six ballots to get yourself elected, and it was still a close vote: 91-77. Whether this shows a split within the committee when it comes to strategy or personality, there does seem to be a split. I not only encourage you to reach out to all members of the RNC; I not only encourage you to reach out to conservative grassroots leaders that work within or without their state and local parties. I encourage you to have an honest exchange of ideas with Republicans across this country, and move this party from one that feeds off of anti-intellectualism to one that encourages political innovation and entrepreneurship.

You have endorsed the Rebuild the Party plan, and I will hold you to your pledge to implement this plan. There are many components to the plan that Patrick Ruffini and Mindy Finn have built. Let me focus on three things that I feel are especially important.

Hold campaigns and local parties accountable. Patrick and Mindy give specific goals for Congressional and Senate races when it comes to raising money and recruiting online activists. Here's what I would like to see. Ask every state and local party to give specific grassroots, electoral and fundraising goals. Publish those goals online. Reward parties that exceed expectations. Hold accountable those parties that fail to meet their goals. Shame works just as well as potential victory when it comes to incentivizing hard work and smart strategy.

Time for a new fundraising model. The plan calls for our 2012 Presidential nominee to be in a position to raise over 50% of their money online. The old model relies on the assumption that you have to raise money first in order to win supporters. Wrong! The Obama campaign taught us that with a true "movement" campaign, you want to gain supporters, and then get them to donate and volunteer, not necessarily in large amounts, but in smaller amounts over and over again. Qualitative characteristics of a fundraising model should matter just as much (maybe even more) than the quantitative characteristics. Just as "online activities" should not be a separate department within any party, fundraising and "the ask" should be integrated in as many facets of a campaign as possible.

When it comes to keeping state parties accountable, don't stop at Congress. It should be obvious to us that the state legislative and city council seats must be our farm team to develop leaders that can move up politically. But there's another important reason to focus on positions like Secretary of State and smaller legislative bodies like school boards. Decisions made closest to the people are critical, yet underreported. State and local governments truly are the laboratories of democracy, and we need good conservatives to run the public policy experiments.

Mr. Steele, promise me you will do two simple things: lead and develop leaders. Provide objectives and a vision, and inspire our grassroots to find new ways to achieve those objectives. Once again, congratulations!

Sincerely,

Matt Moon

BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT: Leadership is action, not position.

Today, RedState made its endorsement in the RNC chairman's race. (I've stayed agnostic on the matter.)

"We believe strongly that should Ken Blackwell not have enough votes to be RNC Chairman on the first ballot, Mike Duncan deserves the votes on the second ballot."

The Next Right has been dedicated to promoting discussion on the future of the Republican Party. RebuildTheParty.com has done a great job in formulating a set of plans that the GOP can move forward with. The debates over messaging, policy, technology, campaign strategy, the role of the RNC, and the role of the chairman have been healthy. But the discussion over the chairman's race needs to be set in the proper context.

Some of the candidates have been discussing "decentralization plans" and the "importance of state and local parties." But the fact is that the 168 members of the RNC don't answer to the chairman they elect. On a broad scale, state party chairmen, committeemen, committeewomen, and the state executive/central committees they represent already have a sufficient amount of freedom to effectively execute their own strategy. So here's a message to the members of the Republican National Committee:

We don't need a chairman. We need operational leaders. Even if the next RNC chairman executes some or most of the RebuildTheParty.com plan, it doesn't necessarily translate into state parties benefitting from change at the top. Chip Saltsman might know the political mechanics in Tennessee. Michael Steele might know the political mechanics in Maryland. Ken Blackwell might know the political mechanics in Ohio. But state and local party officials should not depend on the limited knowledge of the next RNC chairman and his staff to assist in building a farm team. State and local parties need to recruit their own people to formulate a "Rebuild Plan" of their own, independent of the RNC, which takes into account the idiosyncrasies of their region.

We don't need a chairman. We need policy leaders. State and local governments are truly the laboratories of our democracy. State and local party officials not only need to recruit and elect candidates that can innovate within state capitols and city halls. It's necessary to strengthen the lines of communication with the state think tankosphere and issue-based grassroots organizations to assist in policy innovation, with full knowledge that vigorous debate and disagreement will exist. The more internal policy competition there is, the better policy there will be to present to voters.

We don't need a chairman. We need communications leaders. This is very simple: the more spokespeople within state and local parties, the better. Having different communications leaders for different issues and different segments of society is critical to any grassroots outreach. Unity in message is not mutually exclusive with the quantity of available messengers.

We don't need a chairman. We need fundraising leaders. The Obama campaign showed incredible creativity in their fundraising capacity and the ability to provide tools to those who wanted to raise money from the bottom up. State and local party leaders should not solely look to the national organization for fundraising assistance. Since people feel more connected to a government that's closer to them (state legislators, city councilmen, etc.), state and local parties should recruit human resources to come up with creative fundraising outlets for these organizations and candidates.

We don't need a chairman. We need technology leaders. This also goes without saying. With all of the above intact, state and local parties need folks willing to build the tools that can catalyze many facets of a party or campaign operation.

I'm not belittling the importance of the next RNC chairman; this person will hopefully provide the vision and leadership necessary for the national organization to succeed. But just as some of the decisions of the federal government don't necessarily directly affect state and local governments, the fate of state and local parties are not, and should not be, directly tied to the success (or failure) of the national organization. We need to be reminded that state and local parties have the ability to determine their own future.

This also means the members of the RNC need to be in constant communication with each other, sharing best (and worst) practices and keeping each other accountable for the goals that they set.

The future of the Republican Party is not the responsibility of one man and his staff. It depends on the cultivation of leaders at the state and local level, both inside and outside the party organizations. The position (or lack thereof) within the party does not make one a leader; it's whether or not you take the actions necessary that defines leadership. Just as RNC members should keep the national chairman accountable, so should we shift some of our attention to state and local organizations and keep their leaders accountable. The Republican Party will move in a positive direction when leaders in different states rise to the occasion.

Even though we've made fun of him for saying this, Barack Obama would say: "We are the ones we've been waiting for." So the question to the members of the RNC is this: what are you waiting for?

Sorry to interrupt the VP discussion and debate party, but on to more important things ...

I will be going to the Minneapolis a week from now as part of the Alaska delegation, and I can't be more excited for my first convention. As I think about all of the different delegations I'll be meeting, I realized that many of our counterparts inside the Beltway on other blogs have made bald assertions and claims about the differents races in different states without knowing the real details of the political environments in those states.

I have written a couple of posts on the importance of building a GOP farm team, identifying targeted issues and up-and-coming conservative leaders in each state, county, and city. Because I have received a lot of positive feedback about this subject, I have decided to contact all of the state party chairmen before the convention to get on-the-ground reports about what's going on in each state and what we should be paying attention to. Here are the questions I've asked them to answer:

• What are the 3 most important races to watch from any level? (Statewide, congressional, legislative, city council, etc.)
• Who are the up-and-coming leaders in your state that no one knows about yet?
• Are there any ballot initiatives that are important to conservatives in your state?
• Everyone knows that the issues of the day are energy, the economy, health care, Iraq, national security, etc. What are the issues that are unique to your state that John McCain should pay attention to and respond to?
• The internet and new media have developed new features and facets within many parts of a campaign organization (GOTV, fundraising, communications, etc.) Which one part of a campaign or party organization would you like to see young, Web2.0 savvy Republican develop tools for?
• Over the next two months, what demographic subgroups should pollsters and operatives pay attention to when measuring progress in presidential and statewide races?
• What are the keys to growing the GOP in your state?
• If you consider your state to be a swing state, what unique characteristics about your state might push McCain over the top, or Obama under the victory threshold?

I hope to get some answers soon. I look forward to the good discussion about different ideas that different state parties might have ... as my mother told me when I was little, "Sharing is caring."

OK, back to the party. MSNBC is reporting that Kaine and Bayh have been informed they haven't been selected ... and a police car is in Joe Biden's driveway. Patrick's dream might come true.

A piece by Reid Wilson today at RealClearPolitics attempts to demonstrate that the Democratic Party is building up membership in the center and on the right. But, if 2006 showed anything, it's that the Democratic tent is not big enough to house contrasting views. Liberal activists are still trying to drive out Joe Lieberman.

While it is disappointing to see the GOP reach into New England weakening, I don't think that the problem is mainly that the Party is becoming more conservative. Indeed, the current administration has done more to expand the size and scope of government than several of his predecessors. Take, for example, the doubling of the size of the federal Department of Education and creation of a whole new cabinet department (Homeland Security) by this administration. This does not even mention the Medicare Prescription Drug plan, or McCain Feingold. 

Rather, the problem for the GOP is two-fold: the war, and forgetting he successes of the Gingrich Revolution. On the war, John McCain has credibility and may well win the election. But, on conservative values of low spending, low taxes, free enterprise, and smaller government, the GOP may still lose even if it wins. Fortunately, as the national Democratic Party continues to outdo the GOP in expansion of government and excessive spending, any upsurge of comservative Democrats will be temporary. Even with that, however, the party needs to revive the brand and reinvigorate conservative governance. How soon the RNC figures this out, time will only tell.