Four years ago, the California Republican Party conducted a unique process to strengthen its new platform.  This 2008 – 2012 document is especially important now, since it was recommended for re-adoption by the full state committee at the next convention, bypassing the vague and ambiguous substitute that had been moved through the party’s drafting committee.

In drafting the current platform, we worked with the people at American Solutions, a 527 group founded by Newt Gingrich.  Their team conducted extensive research on issues among Republicans, Democrats and independents, the purpose of which was to identify issues which had been traditionally considered “conservative,” but actually earned the support of a majority of Democrats and independents, in addition to Republicans.

The purpose was to maximize our ability to reach voters not by diluting or blurring the party’s positions on timely issues, but to do so by identifying issues consistent with our values that, when discussed properly, earn the support of Americans from differing partisan backgrounds.  This was a unique and unprecedented process in the development of a party platform in California.

In all, a minimum of 18 planks in the CRP’s 2008-2012 platform were incorporated with language based on American Solutions’ extensive research.  The result was a stronger platform that didn’t water down our convictions, but provides a roadmap to convey many of them more effectively.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 19th, 2011 at 8:41 am and is filed under Blog Posts.