The Favour Factory

Jeffers Dodge December 20, 2006

The last election in California, in my opinion, was very amusing. Aside from my own sophomoric attempts at delivering the Republican message most of my constituency voted for Arnold because Angelides was a wimp. OK, I admit I was not a good candidate even though I bought in a national figure to kick off my campaign. However, I am ten times the candidate I was when I started and next time around is going to be a huge improvement. How can I say this with such confidence? Well because I learned that I cannot rely on any help from anyone. Which is OK because in my particular district it is considered a suicide race.

But what does that tell you about how this party is run? From my observation the only massively successful component of the campaign was Steve Schmidt’s modernization of the data base operations.

On both the state and national level our party suffered a sever identity crises because of the confusion of our Republican Principals. Too much spending and more importantly an ill-defined message regarding illegal immigration. This identity crises came directly from Sacramento and Washington. Steve Schmidt was preeminently involved in both campaigns.

I am a newbie (36 months) in this game and coming from the battlefields of artist development in the entertainment business I was again amused at how behind the Republican Party was in its ability to clearly deliver a message. In this cycle the Dems have aggressively, with unprincipled zeal I might add, defined the Republican Party without authoring a message of their own. Go figure…

Is an independent fund for voter registration a good idea? I want to know why there wasn’t one in the first place in California or Los Angeles County? That answer would make a great book on how not to run a business.

The arrogance of power… One of the primary principles of the Republican Party is; politics is local, government is local and the less the better. However, the last California campaign was run like an Authoritarian Regime complete with vague promises in the shape of a carrot and reckless abandonment of core principals with the slogan “I’ll do anything to win.”

Why don’t we solicit donations for the counties instead of having the counties collect money for the state?

Once a Republican always a Republican – or so it seemed until this last election cycle. People are abandoning the Party with good reason — I think about it every day. Reckless abandonment comes to mind as I observed, with further amusement, the lack of attention paid to Colleges, Universities and schools in general. My 12-year-old son wonders the same thing…. He is constantly annoyed at the lack of like-minded kids to play war games with.
You mean there hasn’t been any coordinated efforts between the Party, volunteers groups and the legislators to ensure that the Lincoln Clubs vendor program is working?

There are several major elements missing from the to-do list. As a matter of fact the most important element was missing.

If this organization was run like a corporation the CEO should have been fired and or should have resigned a log time ago.

The Product of this corporation is our Republican Principals, the salesmen are the candidates and the Party is the support team. The currency is the facts, reason and truth and success is measured by registration. We are bankrupt.

A Blue Ribbon panel to brainstorm a new idea sounds like it is part of the “Favour Factory” that permeates and undermines the party. Do not let this happen — do not subvert the illusion of progress. Think success, think motivations, agendas — who has them and who doesn’t. We should convene a panel to create the panel.

In terms of fate? Fate lies in facts, reason and the actionable story of truth it conveys. The conveyer of this story is where the perception gets its credibility and Ronald Reagan was the master.

As a national party we own the facts, reason and truth but we don’t have a good storyteller. We have lost the means of conveying the truth such as education, journalism and entertainment, which now are the solely owned subsidiaries of the Democratic Party.
Ask me and I will tell you how to win. It is premised on just one word…