A candidate’s personal narrative is as influential, if not more so, than their party affiliation or the nuances of their philosophy. Rudy Giuliani was elected Mayor not because his party or philosophy was closest to his fellow New Yorkers in that heavily Democratic city, but rather because his personal qualifications and narrative proved more compelling than those of his rivals. The same is true of leaders including Governors Chris Christie (NJ) and Susana Martinez (NM).

The person is important.

The kind of leader a candidate proves to be on the campaign trail can provide valuable insight to how he or she will govern. It is the candidate who ultimately sets the tone within a campaign, and sends important signals with their attitude, demeanor, whom they hire, and the kind of direction they are given.

Think of a candidate you’ve met. Now, think of some of the people who were hired by that… Read More

In that year, popular myth holds that the Republican “wave” washed across America, but stopped at the California border. For some reason, it was believed, we did something different that kept us from electing the same number of new Republicans as we did in other states.

But like so many myths, this one is wrong too.

It turns out that in 2010, in the six most populous Democratic states, we elected only one Republican statewide candidate: Mark Kirk was elected to the Senate in Illinois. Every other statewide Republican candidate in states such as New York, California, Massachusetts, Illinois, Connecticut, etc. lost. The 2010 Republican wave benefitted the entire country – except in its most Democratic strongholds.

What puts California in this category?

Republicans in the state have struggled for years looking for an answer. Some believed redistricting reforms and abolishing party primaries would solve the problem. A decade ago, some believed a more “professional”… Read More

The Democrats who run the California State Assembly have passed a bill that would take the radical step of opening jury service to citizens of other countries who legally reside in the United States. If passed by the Senate and signed by Governor Brown, AB 1401 would make jury duty open to any legal resident.

This is bad public policy and should be opposed.

My parents emigrated from Germany in 1961. For seven years they went through the naturalization process, learning English and about our system of government. Ultimately they both needed to pass English and Civics tests to earn their citizenship, which they did in 1968.

This process takes time because acclimating to America’s language, culture, and government cannot be accomplished overnight, especially when it comes to… Read More

It is for this reason that the California Republican Party needs a strong California Republican Assembly.

During my decade on the Board of the California Republican Party I saw the CRA shrink from a dominant political force within the party to a shadow of its former self. Nature abhors a vacuum, and others who are less concerned about ideas moved in and filled the void.

There are some within the party who are no doubt cheering the CRA’s diminished numbers and influence. These are the people who think the party is bogged down by conservative activists, and if it could only free itself of these troglodytes, it would ascend to power.

This is a fantasy.

Every Republican candidate depends upon volunteers to contact, persuade, and mobilize voters. And those volunteers are overwhelmingly motivated by their commitment to ideas: lower taxes, limited… Read More

The Leadership Institute, the well-respected American organization that has educated and trained conservative leaders for over 30 years, is hosting the event at Wellington College in Crowthorne. The program, now in its fifth year, brings international fundraising experts together with center-right political and organizational leaders for several days of intensive training and preparation in both the science and art of raising funds to achieve center-right objectives.

This year’s program comes at a challenging time for the global economy as countries in the Eurozone continue to grapple with the repercussions of a financial crisis while growth in the United States continues to… Read More

In a report to be released Monday, the RNC will declare that “the new political geographical center of the political infrastructure will be precinct organizations.”

Well, well, well – it’s about time.

This isn’t some minor tweak. It’s a tacit admission that the “preferred” method of voter contact, forced upon the grassroots of our party for a decade, has been a flop – a gigantic failure that has resulted in more defeats than we can calculate.

In 2004, my county party was pressured by an RNC employee to, in effect, dismantle the strong precinct organization we had built in San Diego County, and in effect turn all of our volunteers over to the RNC/Bush campaign so they could be pulled out of the precincts and herded into phone banks.

RNC staffers were being evaluated by the number – not the quality – of “voter contacts,” and a phone bank can generate a lot more contacts per hour than a precinct walk (the fact most of those contacts have zero impact on voter behavior was conveniently overlooked).

Apparently, no… Read More

State Republican committees across the country are electing new leaders and Republicans are looking for those who will lead the party to victory in 2014.

It’s helpful for interested Republicans to understand just what a party Chairman can control and influence so that expectations can be realistic and two years from now people can accurately judge whether the new Chairman has been successful.

Put another way, if you’re going to measure success, you need the right ruler.

There are many ways to judge a Chairman’s tenure, and most of the popular metrics are absolutely wrong.

A party chairman, like any other leader, can be held accountable only for performance in those areas under the chairman’s control. It’s neither fair nor accurate to gauge a chairman’s success by developments – good or bad – that he cannot directly influence.

The most common erroneous measurement of a party chairman’s success is whether he “won elections.” It’s… Read More

And strategy is important. But campaigns and organizations put themselves at a disadvantage when they fail to equally value three other facets: organization, communications, and infrastructure. These components are necessary to move a strategy from theory to practice.

Organization is the structuring and population of groups of people and resources. Organization requires management, leadership, lines of authority, accountability, people, money, improvement cycles, and more. This doesn’t sound very cool in a Fox News interview, but it’s vital for being able to harness people and money and channel these resources into action.

Infrastructure is vital to supporting the organization, and generally falls into two parts: physical infrastructure, and technological infrastructure. Physical infrastructure means headquarters, meeting facilities, equipment, and… Read More