Iowa GOP Flow Chart
What’s missing? Connectivity. All the stakeholders in the Republican cause have retreated into their own world and none see their peers as allies much less teammates.
It isn’t productive to revisit history and debate the reasons why we have become such a dysfunctional family. To become successful we need to totally re-evaluate the structure of the Republican Party in Iowa so we are unified and carry a common message to the electorate.
As far as the message goes, I’ll defer to Krusty who nailed this topic in his post today.
How relevant have the chair and state central committee been the last few cycles? Umm… Not very. The new chair of the Republican Party of Iowa needs to be a leader, not a figure head or placeholder.
More importantly, the new chair needs to be 100 percent dedicated to making the Republican Party of Iowa relevant once again. That does NOT include semi-annual dinners nor relinquishing control to the presidential/gubernatorial candidate of the cycle.
The divide created by the very existence of the Legislative Majority Fund must be obliterated. If RPI is not cultivating, recruiting, shaping, and supporting candidates for offices up and down the ticket, why do they exist?
Ask a sitting member of the Iowa General Assembly what RPI has done for them and most will tell you they have relieved them of some cash and that’s about it. LMF has done all the heavy lifting followed closely by Iowans for Tax Relief.
As a result of the divide, neither RPI nor LMF have any desire to cooperate. Sure LMF staff may have offices at RPI HQ but that’s where the connection ends.
Having RPI, the Legislative Majority Fund, as well as candidates with their fundraising hand out, stretches the most generous of donors to the breaking point. Without a doubt uniting RPI and LMF will positively impact the landscape.
During the recently completed election cycle, RPI was MIA. Ask a county GOP chair and 90 of 99 will say they never saw, heard from, nor depended on RPI for anything. In some districts (not all), that silence extended to State Central Committee members as well. Counties didn’t get poll watching materials or field staff support or direction or acknowledgement other than Darrell Kearney pressuring all 99 to buy a table at the fall dinner.
What’s the solution? One idea is to make a sitting state legislator in a leadership position RPI chair. We need to find someone who served on their county central committee, worked at the grassroots, and believes in the core values of limited government, lower regulation, reducing taxes, protecting life, and elevating the traditional values we all share. As soon as the Senate Republican caucus has their elections, we take a hard look at the slate and roll.
15 comments:
Bob Vander Plaats needs to rethink his run for Gov and consider becoming State Chair.
His background in turning around organizations would make him the Mitt Romney of Iowa politics!
Think about it Bob - for the Party!
RPI is a disaster that will take a great group of people to fix. I see years not months to regain our edge.
What legislator writes this blog?
I'm a lot of things but please don't ever call me a legislator.
Ok - what member of your family does
Are you kidding me 4:41???
Where there's a Bob, there's a Heine. That's not an era I want to experience at RPI!
Are you kidding me 4:41???
Where there's a Bob, there's a Heine. That's not an era I want to experience at RPI!
what the hell has Bob ever done but run for Gov. and lose? This is a time for SERIOUS LEADERSHIP not a no talent has been!
What are you talking about 8:53? Bob has never lost to a Democrat. He got beat in the Republican primary in 2002 because the moderates who had control of the party wanted to play Kingmaker and pushed him out in favor of an abysmal candidate who got his ass handed to him.
The same thing basically happened in 2006 but that time they realized they had to give Bob a seat at the table. So they put him on the ticket and then locked him in a closet. Then, the idiots running Nussle's campaign wondered why Bob's people failed to show up. Its time to tell the has-been king makers who gave us Nussle, Gross, Rants and the rest of the well-funded losers to take a walk.
Anon 7:42 - Although I believe your post is fairly accurate, we don't need that kind of talk around Republican politics. We can't afford to have anybody take a walk at this point. We need them like they need us.
We absolutely have to have good primary competition and whoever the winner is, we get behind. They must do the same.
You're right - Bob has never beat a Democrat.
That's because he has never been able to beat a Republican.
annon 7:42
If Bob is so popular why didn't he win the nomination in 2002,2006 and why wasn't he the RPI chair?? If 25% of Republicans only support him statewide then why should he ever be the a factor in any conversation
Whoever is writing this doesn't have a clue.
Anon 10:04 - care to elaborate? I'm up for all suggestions and criticism. I'm not a big fan of someone just insulting me without providing facts though.
Was he talking about the blog or the negative comments coming from both sides in the comment section?
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