| The letter below is just one of numerous examples of how the State Party would not allow the Counties to help their candidates or grow. Instead of the California Republican party giving “permission” for a County to send letters to registered voters, they should be providing the information and training so the counties can do it themselves.
The counties can move quicker than the State Party and its staff. The counties priority is their county. The State GOP has targeted races and other priorities. We strengthen counties by giving the tools to win elections. We weaken counties by taking the tools away and having just one entity in charge of all 58 counties and how they communicate with voters and campaign for candidates.
From the letter, “Eventually, our Chair, found that the State did now allow us autonomy with the PDI program but they’d be happy to do the mail merge along with other tasks for us. I’m not sure if there was a cost involved. However, they would not allow any letters and/or mailings to be sent out by our individual Members without their State GOP approval for each item.
As Chair, I will change this—counties will be partners with the State, not subjects of the State.
Steve Frank
Coordination between County parties and the California Republican Party.
I’ve been a member of the XXXXX County Republican Central Committee for about a year and a half now and one of the tasks I was assigned when I was appointed was how to best utilize the PDI List. The CC had access to the List for several years but nothing had been done with it so I accepted the assignment. I immediately saw the value with its huge amount of voter data and a Google search turned up info on, of all things, Obama’s community organizing program. I know …I know ….. but it gave me an idea:))
I looked up data on each of our Central Committee Members and most belonged to separate Precincts. There are about xxx Precincts in XXXXX County and they average about xxx voters each so I printed out a Voters List for each Member’s Precinct. At the next monthly meeting, each Voting Central Committee Member immediately “and surprisingly” became a “Precinct Captain” I presented each Committee Member with a packet that contained a list of all the Voters that lived in the same Precinct that the Member resided in, along with a sample Letter they could mail to each Voter, or give directly to them if they chose to walk their Precinct. At that time we were in the process of planning the Annual BBQ, so this was the focus of the letter. The Members were excited about the program, even a bit of an applause after I presented it. I was thrilled:))
I’ve attached the sample letter I included with my initial presentation to the Members. I told them they could use it as is, or make it their own verbiage; that it should be a letter from them personally to their GOP neighbors and wanted them to be comfortable with it. The entire program was to let the Voters know there was someone on Central Committee they could come to with questions and/or concerns and to invite them to our meetings, the BBQ and other functions. Also, the BBQ was a huge success which we can trace to the efforts of the Precinct Captains roll-out.
Things went along smoothly, except there were several Members who wanted to be able to mail merge the Voters List and I wasn’t able to do this. I also wanted to be able to do a “walking list” and an email list from the PDI program but found it very difficult if not impossible. So I paid my $20 and signed up for a class specifically related to the PDI program that the State GOP was sponsoring. Problem was the class was postponed several times as I recall and eventually cancelled. They offered a refund, but all I was interested in was the training which was never received. Eventually, our Chair, found that the State did now allow us autonomy with the PDI program but they’d be happy to do the mail merge along with other tasks for us. I’m not sure if there was a cost involved. However, they would not allow any letters and/or mailings to be sent out by our individual Members without their State GOP approval for each item.
My question to you was whether this is something you could help us with if you were elected to the State GOP position or if this was a golden rule not to be messed with. I believe it’s important that the Central Committee Members, who are elected by their “neighbors” should be allowed to communicate with them without having to get approval to do so.
At the present time our little program has grown to over xxx Precinct Captains involving xxx Voters. The goal of course is to have xxx Precinct Captains but that’s pie in the sky for sure right now as we’re just trying to find our way through the maze and negativity we’re facing here in XXX County.
Thanks for reaching out and I’d appreciate your thoughts on this. I hope this information has been helpful.
Steve Frank
Candidate, Chair of the California Republican Party
To support me, go to www.frank4leadership.com. |
