Grading the RNC Chair Candidates’ Young Voter Outreach Plans

Grading the RNC Chair Candidates’
Young Voter Outreach Plans

by Aaron Marks

With the RNC Chair election rapidly approaching, I wanted to take a look at how each candidate plans to appeal to young voters. Specifically, I will be referencing each candidate’s plans and platforms as outlined on their respective websites, along with their responses to the question regarding youth voters at the RNC Chair debate hosted by Americans for Tax Reform. Based on these past remarks and platforms, I will then grade each candidate’s overall plan for increasing the Republican Party’s appeal to young voters.

Chip Saltsman Grade: D+

At the ATR debate, Saltsman insisted that young voters are not the future of the Party, but instead the “heart and soul of the party” because “they are involved in every campaign we run.” Saltsman recalled how he was inspired by Ronald Reagan, and how Reagan inspired to people to know that “we were the shining city on the hill,” and he stated that “we need to make sure that we inspire all people across all age groups to let them know that we are a great country.”

Saltsman’s Republican Plan for Victory insists that “Republicans must also develop a new game plan to connect with younger voters” so that they don’t “become habitual Democratic supporters.” In terms of technology, he argues that “we need to rethink our online tactics and strategy,” as the 2008 election cycle taught many lessons, including “the growing political significance of self-organizing citizen activism; the speed at which viral information travels through the blogosphere and other digital media; the power of online fundraising; the extent to which younger voters rely on and demand online information and interactivity; and the peril of a strategy blind to these irreversible developments.”

My Take: Saltsman is correct that Republicans must find a way to connect with and inspire young voters. However, his plan offers virtually no substance as to how to accomplish this. After the GOP’s devastating 2-to-1 national defeat among young voters, this is simply inadequate for someone striving to be the leader of the Republican Party’s future.

Ken Blackwell Grade: D+
(This is OKGOP Chair Gary Jones pick)

At the ATR debate, Blackwell repeated his call that, “We have to bring [the College Republican National Committee] back into our structure,” and he also advocated Rebuild the Party’s “40 under 40″ strategy. He noted that he believes it is necessary to include “young folks at the policy level, the organizational level, and the service level — at every level of government.”

In his Conservative Resurgence Plan, Blackwell insists that Republicans must draw “contrasts with Democrats regarding these principles, values, and ideas.” He also argues that the RNC has been “negligent in the development of young candidates and operatives through the College Republicans and Young Republicans.” Overall, he states that, “We will work to make changes necessary to strengthen the relationship between College Republicans and the RNC, allowing us to work together electing more Republicans.” Technologically, Blackwell identifies the need to establish a CTO as senior level RNC staff. He also proposes “rolling out a social network which will serve as the foundation of a new Republican online movement.”

My Take: Blackwell’s plan strives to enhance the relationship between College/Young Republicans and the RNC. He (correctly) points out that the RNC has largely neglected developing young candidates and operatives, although he fails to propose a specific solution to this problem beyond offering RNC “funding for a national field program of well-trained College Republicans.” In the end, what he proposes may certainly solidify the RNC’s collaboration with existing young Republican voters and institutions, but it offers insufficient substance as to exactly how to accomplish this. More importantly, his plan offers little in terms of proposals for bringing new young voters into the GOP.

Katon Dawson Grade: F

Like Chip Saltsman, Dawson invoked Ronald Reagan’s name and vision in his response at the debate. He pointed out that “it didn’t matter that [Reagan] was 60-some odd years old, the youth came out everywhere and voted across lines.” Based on this, he concluded that “it’s the value of our candidates, how we recruit them, and how we energize it…it comes from the quality and the value of the people we put on the ground.”

The Dawson Plan states that, “The Republican Party was once known as the party of small business, entrepreneurship and enterprise. That mantle was lost when our leaders promoted big government, big spending, and more mandates and regulation.” It briefly touches on the problems that the GOP is encountering with young voters when Dawson writes, “Meanwhile, young voters 18 to 29 voted for Barack Obama by a margin of 2-to-1.” The plan proposes a four-pronged “Operation eGOP” to enhance the Republican Party’s use of technology. The three components are: first, creating regional eCampaign Directors to work with state and local parties; second, for the RNC to “invest in new technology to build a platform so multiple vendors can use RNC technological and information resources for candidate websites and tools”; third, for the RNC to invest in building a “robust and open” social network; and fourth, to commit to recruiting 5 million new online activists. Interestingly enough, Dawson is the only candidate who hasn’t endorsed the Rebuild the Party plan.

My Take: Dawson recognizes the importance of candidates that appeal to young voters, but neither his plan nor his debate response address what he will do as RNC Chair to ensure that these sort of candidates run and are given the resources to be elected. Not only does Dawson fail to provide any specifics as to how he would appeal to young voters, but he has not even endorsed the Rebuild the Party plan which offers a number of ideas in terms of ways to do this.

Michael Steele Grade: D-

In response to the question at the ATR debate, Steele argued that approaching the problem with young voters through a “national footprint” is not enough; instead, he spoke about “something that’s in your backyard.” Michael suggested that if Republicans “want to have a face-to-face with young people, then you need to be on the college campuses. You need to help them organize. You need to be in their neighborhoods and their communities speaking directly in their language on the issues that are important to them.” Overall, he insisted that we must “actually put them in the game and let them play the game. That’s when you’ll start to attract folks.”

None of Steele’s Blueprint for Tomorrow addresses the issue of increasing the GOP’s standing with young voters, and it is fairly vague in terms of plans for improving the Republican Party’s use of technology.

My Take: Although Steele’s response drew an astounding round of applause at the debate, I find it worrisome that he provides no specifics as to how to accomplish his goals, and even more discouraging that he does not address winning over young voters in any way in his Blueprint for Tomorrow. While his points from the debate may be accurate, they are far too vague and lack any clear direction or plan.

Mike Duncan Grade: C-

At the debate, Duncan proposed three points to increasing the GOP’s appeal to young voters. First, he stated that the GOP must “make sure we attract young people with ideas,” which he believes can be produced by his proposed Center for Republican Renewal. Second, he pointed to technology as a place to appeal to young voters, noting that the RNC must communicate with them “on the home pages, on the Facebook, with the Twittering.” Finally, he insisted that the GOP needs to have role models for younger voters, such as the newly elected Illinois Congressman Aaron Schock. He also highlighted his opposition to the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, which prevents the RNC from funding organizations like CRs and YRs.

Duncan’s Plan for the Future states that the Republican Party must improve its standing among many demographics, including young voters, “while maintaining our support among our traditional base.” Duncan argues that “we must identify those who share our principles but don’t trust our Party, [and] … gain, or re-gain, their trust by offering real solutions to issues they care about.” Finally, he insists that the RNC must persuade people that “our ideas are the path to a stronger, safer, and more prosperous America.”

My Take: Duncan’s recognition of the importance in electing new young Republicans as “role models” is excellent, but he generally fails to identify specific initiatives that could accomplish this. That said, the Center for Republican Renewal is a concrete solution that could be useful in finding new ideas to increase the Republican Party’s appeal to young voters. His statement about “the Facebook, the Twittering” suggests a possible lack of awareness of these arenas that are crucial in appealing to young voters. Finally, even though eliminating the barriers of the campaign reform act may be valuable, increasing funding to College and Young Republicans will be unlikely to convert many non-Republican young voters into Republicans, as these organizations primarily serve to appeal to existing Republicans.

Saul Anuzis Grade: B-

At the debate, Saul insisted that it is necessary for “Young Republicans, College Republicans, and Teenage Republicans to have a seat at the table.” He cited a study that suggests that “70% of the kids in high school today want to be entrepreneurs,” and argues that the GOP can appeal to this sense of entrepreneurship by re-establishing itself as “a party for free markets and free minds.”

On his website, Saul states that as RNC Chair he would “hold frequent meetings with young leaders,” such that “they will lead our outreach efforts and will have honest funding to do so effectively.” Saul has also been noted as a leader in embracing the sort of technology and openness that is crucial in appealing to young voters — indeed, he even announced his intentions to run for Chair on Twitter. In his Blueprint for a GOP Comeback, Saul writes that, “We will seek input and ideas specifically from … younger groups and leaders to help ensure we are not forfeiting a generation of voters.” In addition to endorsing Rebuild the Party, Saul also proposes a “60 under 40″ plan, in which “Only 60 individuals under the age of 40 will be chosen each year.” These individuals “will travel to Washington for leadership training, media training, and fundraising training.” Finally, Saul advocates practices such as “Best Web Ad” contests that he will aim specifically at younger Republicans “to encourage … creativity and passion.”

My Take: Saul identifies a number of concrete proposals for appealing to young voters, and his understanding of and willingness to embrace technology could help the GOP make inroads among these voters. However, his decision to limit training to 60 individuals each year is disheartening. Saul’s belief in including young voters at the table and using their guidance could be immensely valuable — but for this to be a success, these young voters must be diverse, not just “members of the choir.”

Conclusion

The lack of substantial and comprehensive plans for increasing the Republican Party’s appeal to young voters from the majority of the candidates for RNC Chair is rather frightening.

Despite the fact that the surge in the percentage of the youth vote received by Barack Obama played a huge role in his victory, most of the RNC Chair candidates seem content to preserve the status quo — working with College Republicans, Young Republicans, and other existing young Republican groups and folks while failing to outreach to new young voters.

If the Republican Party wants to win elections and be the party of the future, our next RNC Chair is going to have to do much better than that.

Anuzis favored to head RNC

Anuzis, Dawson favored to head RNC
Ralph Z. Hallow
Thursday, January 8, 2009

Incumbent Mike Duncan probably will get the most first-ballot votes for election as Republican National Committee chairman, but eventual victory likely will go to one of the other two RNC members running for the post in the election scheduled for Jan. 30.

Several members attending a first-ever special meeting of the national committee on Wednesday told The Washington Times that they expect either Michigan party Chairman Saul Anuzis or South Carolina party Chairman Katon Dawson to emerge as the party's top national official.

"I think Duncan wins the first-ballot plurality, but not the next ballots," said Maryland RNC member Joyce Lyons Tehres, who supports former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele, an accomplished public speaker, for national party chairman. She said she thought Mr. Steele continued to lead the field after the Wednesday meeting, but others saw a trend.

"I sensed it was catching on, the idea that the next chairman should be a member of the committee, not a former member," said Curly Haugland, a North Dakota rancher and committee member.

He was one of the 50 members of the 168-member Republican National Committee spending a cold, dreary day in Washington grilling their national chairman candidates on how to make the old party grand once again.

Those 168 people will vote for one of the six candidates Jan. 30, but in the likely event that nobody wins a majority on the first ballot, the committee members will keep voting until one hopeful does command a majority. The usual course of events is that candidates with no apparent chance at winning then throw their support to others and thus a majority coalition develops.

Several members who initially tagged Mr. Duncan or Mr. Steele as the front-runner changed their minds after all six candidates presented their respective cases and fielded questions on Wednesday, the end of an unprecedented three days of candidate self-advertisement.

The new view of these members is that the contest probably will go to either Mr. Anuzis, a technology-hip, motorcycle-riding son of Lithuanian immigrants, or Mr. Dawson, who has amassed a winning record for Republican candidates in his state.

"Saul showed his saviness and had the best grasp of the latest in communications tools," North Dakota Chairman Gary Eminent told The Washington Times after the RNC member-only meeting at the Capitol Hill Club.

"But on his winning record in South Carolina and articulating the national party's message, Katon looked pretty strong.

"Dawson was very folksy, very passionate -- made the case that he knows how to build a winning party," former RNC General Counsel David Norcross said.

"Saul talked about relying heavily on Republican governors."

"Duncan, Steele and [former Ohio Secretary of State Ken] Blackwell led before this [week] got started -- they had more organized commitments. But I saw lot of momentum from Dawson," Mr. Eminent said. "Whether people had been released from their past commitment in order to support him, I don't know."

Mr. Duncan, a Kentucky banker who raised record sums of money for the Republican Party in 2008, argued during the closed meeting that he has run the national committee for two years and knows best how to bring change and set the party apparatus up to win upcoming gubernatorial and congressional elections.

"Duncan argued, 'I am ready from Day One' and gave the best performance I ever heard him give," Mr. Norcross said.

Members who remained in their respective home states as well as those who journeyed to Washington said they detected sentiment building to elect one of the three fellow RNC members as the next national party chairman, rather than one of the three nonmembers also vying for the post.

While it is widely agreed that Mr. Steele would make the most telegenic party spokesman for a time that the party will not have the bully pulpit of the White House, some members said they were looking for someone with skills that go well beyond the ability to come across well on television.

"I think we need something more than a national spokesperson -- who can actually run the national party and take it technologically and organizationally to where we need to be to win elections," said Colorado Republican Party Chairman Dick Wadhams, who has been following the three days of RNC Washington meetings from his home in Denver.

None of the members interviewed were ready to bet money on the outcome - some recent RNC contests have run five or more ballots, but a general impression was emerging.

"If I had to guess, I'd say the next chairman will be new face, a member -- Katon or Saul," said Mr. Haugland.

Mike Duncan Utterly Unqualified to be RNC Chair

Since his appointment as Chairman of the Republican National Committee in 2007, Mike Duncan has led the Republican Party to the most spectacular national political defeat in Modern American History. To call the Republican National Committee campaign efforts under his leadership disastrously inept is to be charitable to him.

The party’s 2008 Presidential nominee, John McCain, was thoroughly trounced by a Democratic opposition that was agile, well organized, focused, and technologically savvy. We also lost a significant number of seats in both the Senate and the House, where we were already a minority.

Inexplicably, Mr. Duncan apparently seems to believe that his dismal performance of failed leadership in the 2008 election recommends him for another term as RNC chair. Let's face it, his DNC counterpart, the maniacally screechy Howard Dean, just knocked his block off, and Mr. Duncan apparently still fails to realize his own culpability in this debacle.

How else can you explain Mr. Duncan’s recent announcement that he is declaring himself a candidate for another term as RNC Chair, despite the fact that there are already five other candidates in the race, all of whom are eminently more qualified than him to lead the party out of its recent failures?

There are a few who defend Duncan’s leadership. They claim he is a good manager of resources. This argument sounds to me like recommending the captain of the Titanic, had he survived the tragedy, to captain the very next transatlantic passenger ship voyage on the grounds that the kitchen of the Titanic did not once run out of rolls during the entire voyage... at least, until the ship sank in the icy waters of the North Atlantic.

Immediately after the election losses, a spate of grass roots efforts grew up, literally almost overnight, to resurrect the Republican Party, this time around based on true principles of conservatism and an understanding and skill in the use of technology to communicate the conservative message. The first, and arguably the most recognized of these efforts, the Rebuild the Party movement, was launched by Patrick Ruffini, who set forward a detailed action plan for the party just days after the election loss.

Other movements, such as Smart Girl Politics, and the #dontgo movement, and the New Republicans, are also spurring the growth of grass roots movements, as well as the group of which I am the co-founder, Top Conservatives on Twitter, which at this moment has over 1,500 members and is growing fast.

There are tens of thousands of netizen warriors working to rebuild the conservative movement and Republican Party this very moment.

I personally set forward a Plan to Rebuild the Republican Party, but I am but one among thousands.

Energy abounds within the conservative grass roots movement. Our organization, which goes by the Twitter search acronym #TCOT, has already set forward a plan to reclaim Congress for Conservative Republicans in 2010.

The awful truth of the matter, which we must acknowledge plainly and honestly, is that Mike Duncan is the #1 technological laggard, and it is time for him to get out of the way so the grass roots conservative movement can now lead the Republican party back to victory.

We’ve been tracking Mr. Duncan's committment to technology here, and the truth is, he's not even making an effort, unlike his five opponents.

Therefore, this evening I am calling on Mike Duncan to immediately withdraw his candidacy for the position of Chairman of the Republican National Committee. I know that he is committed to conservative principles, and I am telling him plainly and directly that the very best thing he can do to advance the cause of conservatism and the Republican Party is to take this personally uncomfortable step right now.

I am making this call for his withdrawal as an individual grass roots conservative Republican activist, who was elected statewide as a Tennessee Delegate to the Republican National Convention in 2008. I speak only for myself, but as co-founder of #TCOT I can say with complete certainty that my views represent the vast majority of the #TCOT community. With the exception of a few of his announced supporters who have recently joined our group, I would hazard to guess that my view may well be unanimously supported by the rapidly growing group of 1,500 conservative activist “netizen warriors”

The 168 members of the Republican National Committee will be voting on January 28-29, 2009 to select a Chairman for the next two years, and I am asking every member of the #TCOT organization who agrees with my views on the necessity of Mr. Duncan's withdrawal to communicate directly and through the use of their blogs with these 168 members.

You can contact these 168 members here.

In addition, you can tell me if you agree with my call for Mike Duncan to withdraw immediately from the RNC Chair Race by taking the online poll on this topic, which you can find now at the #TCOT Report.

I am publicly calling for Mr. Duncan's immediate withdrawal from the RNC race for 2 reasons:

1. The mere fact he has announced his candidacy, in light of two years of the most spectacular failure in American political history indicates how utterly disconnected he is from the real world of technology and engagement in which the rest of us live.

2. Apparently, some RNC members – among those 168 who will be able to vote for Chair Jan 28 are equally disconnected from reality and may be considering a vote for Duncan. This is hard to believe, and points to the importance of immediate corrective action.

The conservative and Republican grass roots movement are likely to ignore the RNC if Mr. Duncan is elected Chairman in January. Frankly, it will sound the death knell of irrelevancy for the RNC. The old guard at the RNC blew it big time. It's time for the failed old guard to step out of the way and let us in the grass roots movement lead now.

I note that Mr. Duncan apparently has recently and belatedly endorsed the Rebuild the Party Platform, but based on his performance of the past two years, I am convinced that he does not comprehend how to implement this platform. It looks to me like he is just checking the box.

Others in the press have recently noted that Mr. Duncan isn't up for the job. Here’s what Shawn Steel had to say in Politico yesterday:

“Duncan has been the Invisible Chairman, installed in January 2007 by Karl Rove to be unobtrusive — a mission he has carried out brilliantly. Many, if not most, Republican leaders and activists don’t know who he is. For example, when Duncan was a guest recently on the Hugh Hewitt Show, the radio host asked Duncan why this was the first time this RNC chairman had ever asked to come on the show and address millions of his fellow Republicans.

Duncan couldn’t give an answer other than he’d been busy for the past year. I suppose that’s one way to look at it. Another way is he hasn’t provided the kind of leadership the Republican National Committee needs in this day and age.

Despite his wraithlike RNC chairman, Duncan is slightly favored for reelection as chairman at the end of January. It should be cause for alarm when the chairmanship front-runner is a “Mike Who?” under who’s watch the GOP suffered its worst drubbing in decades.”

You can read the rest of the article here.

The opposition, also, apparently, is gleeful at the possibility of Mr. Duncan maintaining the Chairmanship of the RNC. Here’s what Yuna Shin recently said at the Huffington Post.

“This morning, NPR's Steve Inskeep interviewed the chairman of the Republican party, Mike Duncan, who is trying to hold on to his chairmanship despite the massive GOP loss in November. The most interesting part of the interview wasn't anything Duncan said.

Rather, it was Duncan's long silence when asked about the perception of the GOP as the party of exclusion. His silence spoke louder than anything that he had said in terms of how incapable the Republican Party still is of recognizing what it did wrong and what it needs to do in order to gain Americans' trust.”

The rest of that article can be found here.

In light of this overwhelming evidence, I humbly request that Mr. Duncan honor my suggestion that he withdraw his candidacy immediately. At #TCOT, all our actions are based on the concept of servant-leadership, a concept that is well articulated here by James Dickey, the #1 Top Conservative on Twitter.

I believe that after Mr. Duncan has read this article, and thoughtfully reflected on how he can best serve the Republican Party and the conservative movement, he will recognize it is his duty to withdraw from the race for the Chairmanship of the RNC immediately.

POSTED BY MICHAEL PATRICK LEAHY