However, this isn't an article about the President and his loony-leftist agenda. No, this is an article about how Republicans can use this to get back in the game...if they are smart.
This past Tuesday was Election Day. Missed it? No matter, there were only a few races going on, as this is an off-year in the election cycle. However, there were two big gubernatorial races over on the east coast, one in Virginia, and one in New Jersey...and the Republican candidate won them both. In New Jersey, a historically blue state, Chris Christie defeated incumbent Democratic Governor John S. Corzine. Corzine, however, was wildly unpopular at this time in New Jersey, and ran a retarded campaign (preferring to focus on Christie's weight issues than actual political issues). The real victory for Republicans came in Virginia, where Republican Bob McDonnell defeated Senator Creigh Deeds by an astonishing 19 points, the largest margin of victory ever in a Virginia Governor's race since it became a two party state.
The most important part of McDonnell's victory in Virginia, however, is HOW he won the election. McDonnell didn't run against the President, or rail against Democrats. No, McDonnell ran a positive, detailed policy oriented campaign. He didn't sit around bad-mouthing Obama, or trying to take cheap shots. He simply outlined, in great detail, his ideas for how to turn around the economy in Virginia, and made clear how his ideas were different from the President's and his opponent's. Meanwhile, Sen. Deeds frequently used harsh, personal attacks in an attempt to undermine McDonnell. The voters clearly enjoyed the positive, informative campaign of McDonnell.
McDonnell showed the ability to turn conservative economic principles into actual, practical policies. Over the last year, McDonnell continuously laid out policy initiatives rooted in a commitment to lower taxes, less regulation and innovation. Then, he would take it one step further, and reminded the voters why these conservative policies were better than those being used by the opposition. McDonnell's campaign attracted crucial independent voters by focusing on the benefits of his policies: better elementary schools, more college degrees, less time stuck in traffic, more affordable gas and electricity, and most important, jobs! He didn't just say we should implement conservative principles, he said why we should. And he did so over and over again. Most Americans are fiscally conservative to one degree or another. By focusing on his conservative economic policies, and explaining why they would work, he got the voters' attention, and sounded like a man who knew what he was doing and could get the job done.
Another thing that McDonnell's campaign did to enhance his chances is he actively tried to include all voting groups, not just traditionally conservative ones. As Ed Gillespie describes in his article for The Washington Post:
When The Post reported on what is now the most famous graduate thesis in America and Democrats attacked McDonnell as "anti-working-women," a broad grass-roots network of "Women for McDonnell" was in place to respond through e-mails, Facebook postings and conversations with friends and co-workers, making sure Virginians knew the Republican nominee's record of promoting women.
Instead of indulging in the anti-immigration rhetoric of past Republican campaigns, McDonnell appealed to the growing Hispanic and Asian American enclaves of Northern Virginia, where his message of entrepreneurship,educational opportunity and strong families resonated.
As a member of the House of Delegates, McDonnell worked with community leaders to narrow the gap in sentencing between crack and powder cocaine. As attorney general, he rallied the commonwealth's law firms to donate to food banks, forging relationships in traditionally non-Republican areas. During the campaign he worked to earn the endorsement of lifelong Democrat Sheila Johnson and appealed to former
Democratic governor Douglas Wilder, who ended up withholding support for Deeds.
Women, African-Americans, Hispanics, moderate Democrats...McDonnell worked to appeal to them all. The Republicans have been branded recently as the party of exclusion, and its killing us. We need to be much more open to all groups of people, and work towards appealing to them, and drawing them into the Republican party, rather than run away from them.
Finally, and I think most importantly, Bob McDonnell ran away from the partisan bickering and mudslinging that has been infiltrating our politics for the last few decades. When President Obama was in town stumping for Deeds, instead of taking the opportunity to badmouth him, McDonnell responded that "the president of the United States is always welcome in the commonwealth." Yes, he did spend time pointing out where him and the President differed on political issues, but he also noted places where he agreed with Obama, including the president's support for charter schools. When a Republican candidate for the House of Delegates referred to the Obama administration as "domestic terrorism at its worst," McDonnell made clear that her comments were not representative of Republicans he'd been talking with and that he would not campaign for or with her. He ran a very center of the road campaign that can appeal to Republicans and Independents alike.
In contrast to the McDonnell win, the Republicans lost the congressional seat in New York's 23rd District on Tuesday because they drove out the moderate republican candidate, and nominated a super-conservative nut job instead. Sarah Palin (who I adore because she is gorgeous) came into the campaign and invigorated the Republican base, but drove away independents. People don't want candidates right now that are too far towards any wing. They want centrists who use common sense and are unburdened by trying to toe the partisan line. New York's 23rd has been held by a Republican pretty consistantly for the last 100 years. To lose it to a Democrat is embarassing. However, it could provide the added benefit of opening the Republican party's eyes to the fact that the way back to relevancy is through the center, not through the evangelical and extreme right.
The Republican Party is at a crossroads right now. It is fractured internally on which way it wants to go heading into the 2010 midterm elections. One wing of the party thinks that they need to run to the Right, draw a stark contrast between themselves and the unpopular Obama administration, and that public sentiment against Obama and his spending will be enough to sweep them back into office. And while this may work in a few districts, its a failing strategy to making widespread gains nationwide. More people than ever identify themselves as Moderates these days. And its this large voting bloc that will swing elections. Some Republicans are realizing this. This wing of the party wants to use McDonnell's campaign as a blueprint for winning big in 2010: "The center of the electorate is for limited government and tolerance on social issues," said Chris Chocola, president of the conservative Club for Growth. "If the Republicans want to grow the tent, I think they should look at limited government, and then the candidates can reflect the social views of their districts."
A-HA! This is what I've been saying for years! Most of the country is fiscally conservative and socially moderate. Thus, winning elections, especially congressional and senate elections, candidates should take a much more moderate tone! Enumerate the positives of a fiscally conservative strategy, which people will agree with, and then tailor your social message to that of the constituency you are trying to reach. I'm tired of the Republican Party being the anti-abortion, pro-religious activism, socially conservative party. Why is abortion a political issue? That should be a personal issue! Why is religion anywhere near a political issue? Leave these things out of the party platform, and focus on the things that matter, namely getting our economic house in order, and defending our interests militarily at home and abroad. The rest of that shit is just fluff!
If the Republicans want to have a chance at taking back the House, and gaining in the Senate, they need to learn from the election results of this weekend, and form a strategy around that. Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich says it best: "Everybody who wants to defeat [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi in 2010 and who wants to defeat Obama in 2012 needs to look at the positive lessons of Virginia and New Jersey -- and then has to look seriously at what are a couple of big negative lessons of New York 23." If we run positive, fiscally conservative, policy-centered campaigns; if we draw stark contrasts between our ideas and the currently unpopular policies of the Obama Administration without resorting to mudslinging; if we make a point of speaking to moderates and independents, and bringing them under our tent; then 2010 could be a banner year for the resurgence of the Republican Party.
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