I waited until today to write this in the hopes that one of the candidates for vice chairman of the California Republican Party would have gotten their act together enough to engage in a real campaign including a genuine effort toward getting the job.
But alas at this point none of them have.
The election is Feb. 11 at the CRP Convention in Sacramento. Campaigning for party office is very different than running for say city council or water board, even if the town or district is very small (the CRP is made up of 1600 members). However, a campaign for CRP office can be just as expensive or even more so. Smart candidates raise funds, do direct mail, have volunteers and run operations at the convention where voting takes place. Those who are well funded, hire staff. For instance, even though he is running unopposed, current CRP vice chairman Ron Nehring who is up for the job of chairman, has a paid campaign manager–the best there is, Jimmy Camp.
Candidates for CRP office have the challenge of corralling votes among a highly aware and engaged population of voters. The business of getting these votes is very much based on personal relationships. Even if the candidate does not have a personal relationship with each of the members, anyone who has been around for any length of time has a friends who have friends within the membership. If a candidate has to go through more than one other person to reach any other member they are likely too green to have any success in a party race.
The most important component of a successful campaign for party office is identifying from where your votes will come and tying them down. This can be a time consuming process but one that is not hard. Relationships rule in such a small environment. Most members are appointed by a legislator (or nominee) or county party chairman.
So it is fairly easy to effectively find the angle on every member of the CRP. For appointed members: talk to their appointer. For regular members (legislators, nominees, county party chairman, etc.) pursue whomever they rely on for internal party political advice. It’s inside baseball 101.
I have been a member of the California Republican Party for almost ten years and nearly every candidate for party office that I can remember in that time has put together an effort to reach each member in some personal way. Usually it’s just the person who has appointed me calling to get my vote for the person they are endorsing.
But to date I have only received recorded phone calls, generic broadcast emails and direct mail in some form from each of the three announced contenders: Tom Del Baccaro, Jalene Forbis and Tom Bordonaro. Not one of them has called me personally. Not one of them has had anyone I respect call me.
Here are some hints to the candidates for getting my vote. It may be too late to effectively implement such a plan, but I would go through this exercise with each of the members of the CRP–thats how you win.
Bordonaro has been endorsed by Senate GOP Leader Dick Ackerman. It is no secret that I served as Dick’s appointee to the OC Central Committee in the past and that he and I have a close political relationship. Why wouldn’t Bordonaro have had Dick call or just ask me for my support for his man any number of times we have seen each other over the last several months?
Forbis has the support of Rep. Issa staffer and political consultant Phil Paule. No doubt the kind of person who you would have on weekly campaign calls who would quickly volunteer to "get to Probolsky" among a list of members to ID and tie down. But no call has come from Phil.
Both former Assemblyman Tony Strickland and his wife current Assemblywoman Audra Strickland are big supporters of Del Beccaro. It’s not hard to figure out that I am not only a major donor to the pair but that my firm has done work for them in the past. I talk to and see Tony Strickland pretty often–usually when he is calling for money, so it would be easy for him to add a pitch for Del Beccaro.
I am at this time undecided who will get my vote for CRP vice chairman and to whom I will direct any number of proxy’s which I may control. I am just one of hundreds of members that are in the same boat.
At this point I would certainly entertain whatever personal outreach efforts the candidates chose, but more importantly, it will be with what vigor and intensity they use to demonstrate their ability to aggressively pursue a goal. Those are the kind of people i want running my party.
By contrast, FR publisher and former CRP executive director Jon Fleischman is running for vice chairman south (one of eight regional vice charmian seats). He has put together an impressive operation including calling most members personally, marshaled a large whip operation and secured Senator Tom McClintock as guest speaker for a Saturday morning breakfast immediately preceding voting at the convention next week.
The three lackluster preforming candidates for vice chairman should consider themselves lucky that Fleischman is not allowed to run for their job because the vice chairman this time must be from northern California.