What went right, wrong & what's next?

OK, I know! Where the heck have I been?

When I started this blog in January, I was committed to doing an update at least weekly, and was doing a pretty decent job of meeting that recurrence up until about mid-September. Then...life got a bit hectic. Now, I'm not going to blame any particular change, whether it was the birth of my 2nd child, Violet, some urgent matters at work that took me away from California, or just a simple burn-out of issues. Now that the results are in, we should be able to look back at some things that went right, things that went wrong, and what we should be looking at now.

Despite the defeat of our presidential nominee, Senator John McCain, we had may efforts succeed that we can take pride in. To start, we defeated an attempt by the Democrats to remove one of our stalwart warriors, Congressmember Dana Rohrabacher. Many of you contributed many hours to making phone calls, walking your neighborhood, and getting the word out about Dana, and you should feel proud of your success. This was achieved despite a 2% decrease in Republican voter registration in the L.A. portion of the 46th CD. Your efforts ensured that the registration decrease was countered by a higher voter turnout. This turnout was also a key factor in the passage of Propositions 8 and 11.

As many of you know, the opponents of Proposition 8 have been less than accepting of their defeat, despite the wide spectrum of support it had. They are trying to label it a "racist" measure, but how do you do this with a 70% support among African-American voters & over 55% support from Hispanic voters. I have my own theories regarding why these two groups supported Proposition 8, but the focus here is on the efforts many of you made to ensure it's passage.

Proposition 11 should be seen as a covert victory for the California Republican Party. We will know for sure after the 2010 census when the districts are re-established under the requirements of this measure. But with the districts gerry-mandered as they are now, I think it's safe to say that we in Los Angeles County have no where to go but up. My only caution for those ecstatic about Proposition 11 passing and "can't wait for the new districts" should step aside while the rest of us try to work on improving the party in this environment. The earliest we'll see improvements is 2012, and even then, the Democrats will already be working to mitigate those effects. We need to work now to ensure that the effects of Proposition 11 are both improvements and are long-lasting.

These are not all of the things that were successes, but I want to make an observation about what I believe is a fundamental operational problem with the Republican Party. I state this as a holder of a Certification in Marketing Communications, among other degrees, when I say that the Democrats are far better at marketing their messages to voters than Republicans. This is true not just locally or in California, but across the nation. The Democratic message that resonated among voters this year was actually begun in 2005, and Republicans not only did not counter it quickly and strongly, but did not even see what destruction it was doing to our party. We saw a glimpse of it in 2006 when we lost both Houses of Congress, but by then the slide was in full force. I also have a more detailed theory about this, but I'll focus on the point - Republicans need to get better at delivering a message that the average voter can quickly absorb. We teach Dale Carnegie students that the initial message has to be a complete, powerful statement that takes seven (7) seconds or less; otherwise the audience will likely tune out for the rest of the discussion. Democratic campaign managers know this well, as well as another important fact - the brain takes much more convincing than the heart. (Ever hear of "Knowledge at First Sight"? Me neither!)

Take an example - Proposition 2 passing. The Democratic message behind Proposition 2 was simple - Fight Animal Cruelty! If you vote against Prop 2, you hate animals! What was the "logical, conservative" response? Draw a 30-second connection between the financial effects of the measure with the eventual increase in meat & poultry products from Mexico, and hence an increase in salmonella. The problem with this tactic - most viewers of the ads had already tuned out. The initial message needed to be quick, sustaining - how about a "Kentucky Fried Tofu" billboard, just to lure the audience in, and then quickly state that this is the agenda of the Prop 2 supporters? Voters like animals, but they also like their KFC, McDonald's, and Taco Bell.

So what's next? How do we take what we learned this year and in 2006 and start the road to improvement? The primary thing we do is we keep the momentum, the passion, and the desire to see tings through. How do we do that? We get involved. This past week, I was extremely impressed with the enthusiasm and interest at two key meetings. The first was the local Central Committee meeting in San Pedro, in which the newest members of your local Republican Party got together to talk about many of the things I mentioned above, as well as strategies to start building back our foundation. The second, even more inspiring, was the tremendous turnout at the Beach Cities Republican Club event in Torrance on Thursday. I've never seen the level of turnout, over 120 people, who all wanted to learn more about what they can do. Club President, Pete Kesterson, and Southern California Republican Coalition Chairman, James Crean, both laid out opportunities for these motivated individuals to get more involved in taking action. My recommendation to all of you, if you were not at the Thursday meeting and did not sign up, is to join one of these great Republican Clubs. We will all be working together to rebuild, strengthen, and take back both what was lost and what should rightfully be done.

Please take a look at the list of clubs and their associated links in the left column. Please send me an email at stammiam@yahoo.com if you need some recommendations on which club(s) you should check out. Regardless of which you get involved with, you'll learn more about what you can do to be a part of the Republican revival! I hope to see you at these meetings soon!