| Dear , The time has come for Fairfax County Republicans to adopt a new model for pursuing Republican election wins in the county. While successful when the GOP was the county’s majority party, the current “Status Quo Model” has contributed to mostly losing Republican performance over the past ten years as the party has solidified it minority status. See the table of representative election results at the end of this article.
Clearly, the FCRC’s “Status Quo Model” featuring the following elements is NOT WORKING. - A part-time, volunteer chairman who is overstretched and conflicted with both professional and FCRC workloads
- A hard-working but way understaffed volunteer work force that continues to dwindle as individual workloads increase
- Deferral of messaging about key county issues to individual campaigns that must overcome ignorance of what Republicans “stand for” in relative short time
- Sporadic and inconsistent “reach-out” to formal and informal organizations in the county who have “Republicans who don’t know they’re Republicans”
- Inconsistent, ineffectual fundraising for the FCRC in one of the most prosperous and most politically aware counties in all of America
- Non-businesslike management processes and systems that hinder understanding of FCRC strengths and weaknesses and “command and control” of the volunteer workforce
FCRC must replace this underperforming “Status Quo Model” with a “Professional Management Model” that recognizes that maximizing voter turnout for Republicans in an area with 650,000 voters against an aroused, outside-funded, and aggressively led Democrat Party will require sustained implementation of a comprehensive, integrated plan for completing the following critical tasks: - Development and updates of FCRC strategies and implementing plans
- Continuous gathering and assessment of local political and opposition information
- Identification of key local issues and development of winning Republican positions to address them
- Aggressive, year-round, multi-media messaging of Republican positions on local issues, including orchestrating community commentary at Board of Supervisor and School Board public hearings (see “Shaping the Political Battlefield” newsletter)
- Daily, year-round, recruiting of volunteers; assignment of them to FCRC, district, and precinct positions suitable for their skills, interests, and time availability; and tracking of FCRC volunteer strengths and weaknesses via an integrated business management system (more on this in a future newsletter)
- Procurement and updating of a voter data management system that will strengthen relationships with potential Republican voters
- Year-round recruiting and training of talented and politically viable candidates for both near-and long-term elections
- Active engagement with formal and informal ethnic, religious, veterans, special interest, Republican, and other groups whose members might welcome Republican solutions to their issues (more on this in a future newsletter)
- Organization of FCRC events, including monthly meetings, that inform, entertain, and excite FCRC members (more on this in a future newsletter)
- Active, year-round recruiting of election officers and poll watchers to help protect the integrity of county elections
- Aggressive, year-round FCRC fund-raising based on cultivation of relationships with large and small donors and special fund drives for specific purposes (more on this in a future newsletter)
- Reinvigorated recruiting of members for the under-sized FCRC, which will help fund-raising, community engagement, and voter turnout
- Extensive, wide-ranging support of Republican campaigns, including messaging, campaign literature handouts, sign distribution and installation, door knocking, phone calling, etc., across all 9 districts and 244 precincts
- Systematic, monthly performance measurement and reporting based on performance metrics designed for each major FCRC task, each district, and each precinct (more on this in a future newsletter)
- Analysis of key FCRC and election performance risks and design, implementation, and progress reporting of risk mitigations (more on this in a future newsletter)
An FCRC that adopts the “Professional Management Model” and completes the major tasks listed above will see significant upswings in Republican election performance. To paraphrase Dr. Einstein, an FCRC that stays with the “Status Quo Model” should not expect different results.
The time has come for Fairfax County Republicans to confront today’s political reality; resolve to take the necessary transformational steps necessary to fix strategy, messaging, and organizational shortcomings; adopt a “Professional Management Model” to implement that resolution; and start winning again.
Don’t miss the next article in this series to learn why the needed “Professional Management Model” described above requires a full-time manager.
| Fairfax County Election Results | | President | 2008 | 2012 | 2016 | | John McCain (R) – 38.9% | Mitt Romney (R) – 39.0% | Donald Trump (R) – 28.6% | | Barack Obama (D) – 60.1% | Barack Obama (D) – 59.4% | Hillary Clinton (D) – 64.4% | | Governor | 2009 | 2013 | 2017 | | Robert McDonnell (R) – 50.7% | Ken Cuccinelli (R) – 36.1% | Ed Gillespie (R) – 31.2% | | Creigh Deeds (D) – 49.1% | Terry McAuliffe (D) – 58.3% | Ralph Northam (D) – 67.9% | Congressional Districts
(Fx County) | 2012 | 2014 | 2016 | 8th: Patrick Murray (R) – 33.1%
Jim Moran (D) – 62.9% | 8th: Micah Edmond (R) – 36.5%
Don Beyer (D) – 59.0% | 8th: Charles Hernick (R) – 29.8%
Don Beyer (D) – 65.1% | 10th: Frank Wolf (R) – 63.6%
Kristin Cabral (D) – 39.2% | 10th: Barbara Comstock (R) – 54.0%
John Foust (D) – 43.6% | 10th: Barbara Comstock (R) – 50.1%
Luann Bennett (D) – 48.8% | 11th: Chris Perkins (R) – 37.0%
Gerry Connolly (D) – 59.3% | 11th: Suzanne Scholte (R) – 41.1%
Gerry Connolly (D) – 56.0% | 11th: None (R) – 0.0%
Gerry Connolly (D) – 86.8% | | State Senators (Fx County) | 2007 | 2011 | 2015 | | 1 R, 8 D | 0 R, 9 D | 0 R, 9 D | State Delegates
(Fx County) | 2013 | 2015 | 2017 | | 5 R, 12 D | 3 R, 14 D | 1 R, 16 D | | Local Representatives | 2007 | 2011 | 2015 | Board of Supervisors:
2 R, 8 D | Board of Supervisors:
3 R, 7 D | Board of Supervisors:
2 R, 8 D | School Board:
2 R, 11 D | School Board:
2 R, 11 D | School Board:
3 R, 10 D |
I look forward to seeing you, , at the FCRC Chairman Candidate Forum (St. Albans Church) and the Hannigan for Chairman reception (Magill's Restaurant) on the 10th ... Kind regards, |
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