In today’s WSJ, former RNC Chairman and current MS Gov. Haley Barbour draws upon his own experiences in taking over the RNC following the 1992 elections as a roadmap for the challenges facing the GOP today.
Of particular note to Iowa Republicans should be the four-point plan employed by Barbour that was instrumental in laying the groundwork for the successful 1994 midterm elections. While unintentional, my philosophy for rebuilding the Iowa GOP outlined in the December 8 Letter of Principles is strikingly similar in construct to Gov. Barbour’s then-four-point plan for rebuilding the RNC.
These four points, as applied to the Iowa GOP in my Letter of Principles, include:
1. Rebuild from the ground up, not the top down. This is precisely the point of my ongoing Pizza & Politics tour of Iowa – that our grassroots activists, county chairs, and local officials are the source of our party’s energy, ideas, and future.
2. Expand RPI’s small contributor financial base. I have frequently noted that our party has become overly reliant on a few larger donors, which is why I have identified numerous innovative fundraising programs that will involve Republicans of all means, ages and geographic locations.
3. Immediately embrace new political communication technology. I have written and demonstrated extensively during this campaign that an immediate embrace of new media would be a hallmark of my tenure as RPI Chairman.
4. Convince voters Republicans have fresh ideas -- specifically, ideas that translate conservative philosophies into policies that address contemporary problems. In my Letter of Principles, I describe this as follows: “The role of the Republican Party, along with its elected leaders, is to harness our collective talents to not only craft sound policy consistent with those core beliefs, but then to also present it to the voting public as a relevant solution to their everyday problems.”
As they say in the investing world, past performance is no guarantee of future returns; however, the four-point plan that served Barbour and the national GOP so well in 1994 is certainly a worthy roadmap to follow as Iowa Republicans rebuild and prepare for 2010.
