For Committee Members

Committee Members Are the Face of the Republican Party

A GOP committee member is the face of the Republican Party to grassroots voters. Consequently, a committee member is often in a position to help constituents. For example, if someone has a problem or complaint or needs information, make it a point to find out how you and the Republican Party can be helpful. People will remember your helpfulness. After you have helped a voter, don’t be afraid to ask that voter for help or a vote when you need it. The nature of our work is to be involved and to interact with members of our community. Keep abreast of the issues and concerns of your community and be sure that the candidates and officials are aware of them. Also, be sure that your community understands the concerns of the GOP candidates and officials as well. We must be model citizens.

Staying Informed About Local Issues

A local Republican committee can be most effective if the members stay informed about local township and school district issues. This can be accomplished by sending representatives from the Republican committee to the council and school board meetings on a regular basis and then asking them to give a short report at the committee meeting.Periodically, local elected Republican officials should be invited to speak to the committee about current issues and to answer questions. Since many people cannot attend council and school board meetings on a regular basis, this provides an enticement for people to attend your local committee meeting as well as a means to inform the members about local issues. It also sends the message to the local officials that the Republican committee members are knowledgeable and informed.

-Woody Dunstan, Edgeworth Republican Committee

Writing Letters to the Editor

Grassroots workers can help our GOP candidates by writing letters to the editor of local newspapers. Here are some helpful hints to increase your chances of getting published:

1. Keep it short, there is a 250-word limit in the Post-Gazette and a 200-word in the Tribune-Review.
2. Don’t be overly partisan or read like a candidate’s press release.
3. Cover just one or two points. Don’t make it too complicated. Make it easy to read.
4. Humor is good, but don’t be overly sarcastic or sharp.
5. Write a response to a previous article, editorial, letter, or opinion piece in the same publication. Editors just love this!
6. Back up your argument with reasons rather than just expressing your feelings. Instead of “Rendell is a sleazy liar,” say “Gov Rendell signed last year’s illegal pay raise instead of vetoing it and therefore is just as accountable as the state legislators.”
7. Send your letter via email rather than by snail mail to letters@post-gazette.com and opinion@tribweb.com.
8. Be sure to include your name, address, phone number, and municipality.
9. Be sure to reply to the confirmation call. They will not print your letter until your give them permission by phone.
10. Send letters to local community weekly publications. There is a greater chance of being published and lots of people read them too.

Dave Majernik, RCAC Vice Chair

Identifying Potential Candidates for Local Office

The elected officials who most affect our lives are our local township, borough, city commissioners/council members and school board members, because they have the unrestricted power to tax us. Therefore, one can easily make the case that they are the most important officials we vote for, despite the fact that those races are not on the radar screens of most voters. It is imperative that the Republican Party recruit good candidates for the local races. Committee members can do this by identifying potential Republican candidates by their voting history, their knowledge of the local issues, and their willingness to serve. Always, check their party registration first. Check the voting records to identify voters in your area who vote in every election, even Primaries. These are residents who are committed to good governance and civic duty. Talk to them about running for a local office. They will hesitate at first, but at least, plant the seed. We all know neighbors and acquaintances who follow the current issues, read the newspapers, and write letters to the editor. When you talk with them, they are knowledgeable about local issues and want to discuss them with you. They are concerned about rising taxes and the overly generous benefits given to public employees and teachers, the size of government, or the way their government is run. These are good potential candidates. Another good way to identify potential candidates is to look at those citizens serving on local boards. For example, planning boards, zoning boards, PTA groups, athletic associations, school curriculum committees, etc.

The only way to find a good Republican candidate is to talk with him about the local issues and suggest that he considering running for office.

Setting Local Committee Goals for the New Year

Management and leadership experts recommend writing down goals to insure that people consistently make progress. There is something magical about putting our goals on paper which helps us to focus and triggers our brain to action. Written goals can also help a group such as a local Republican committee to concentrate on their goals. Although committee goals remain similar from year to year, it is still helpful to write them down each year in order to reflect upon the job that needs to be done during the upcoming year. You can tweak your goals to meet the current needs. Then, at the first or second committee meeting of the year, the drafted goals could be voted upon, revised, and approved by the entire group. While most of the listed goals would be what the committee would have done anyway, people become more focused and energized when they reflect upon, write down, and publicly pledge to achieve their goals. Goals should also be as specific as possible. Here is a suggested list of goals for a local Republican committee. Feel free to tweak them for your own specific needs:1. Circulate nominating petitions for 2007 candidates from the second Tuesday of February to the first Tuesday in March.2. Hold at least one fund-raiser. 3. Register new voters throughout the year4. Recruit candidates to run for local council and school board.5. Attend RCAC events such as the Lincoln Dinner, Annual Picnic, and volunteer to work at these events and to work at the office downtown.6. Recruit new committee members – this can start by inviting people to attend committee meetings.7. Circulate campaign literature to voters before the Primary and General Elections8. Identify those needing absentee ballots and deliver applications to them prior to Primary and General Elections.9. Schedule poll coverage for Primary Election on May 15.10. Hold a family picnic during the summer.11. Schedule poll coverage for the General Election on Nov 6.12. Hold a holiday party in December.

Recruiting Volunteers

To be an effective committee person, you need volunteers. If you recruit a few good “assistants,” your job can be primarily one of coordinating the efforts of your volunteers. You can find volunteers in many places: faithful Republican Primary voters, Young Republicans, College Republicans, Council of Republican Women, donors and supporters of past Republican candidates, civic activists, etc. You can also put an appeal for GOP volunteers in your local community newspaper. As you find volunteers, be sure to give them something to do. More volunteers are lost because of simple boredom than for any other reason. Some important tasks that volunteers can do include door-to-door canvassing, telephone calls before elections, circulating nominating petitions, preparing lists of unregistered voters by comparing the voter rolls to a list of households, looking up the phone numbers of voters in the district.

After a project has been completed, you must do two things: give your volunteers something new to do and make sure that the volunteers know that their efforts are appreciated.

Committee Building

There are many ways to recruit new committee members and volunteers and to organize a new local Republican committee, here are a few ideas to consider:

1. You can advertise in the local community newspaper for volunteers and invite them to your next meeting. Just send a press release to your local community weekly newspaper stating that your committee is seeking registered Republican volunteers and that anyone interested should call the local chair at his phone number. Local publications love this kind of announcment and will print it for free. Some believe that it is demeaning to ask for new members so publicly but if all of your committee positions are not filled, then it is something worth considering. And this method has proven very successful for some local committees.

2. Recruit volunteers who want to help a specific candidate win an election. Some people get excited about a certain candidate and volunteer to get that candidate elected. When you meet such individuals who are good workers, get their name and contact information and later invite them to help with future elections. Eventually, they will feel comfortable working with the local committee and can then be asked to become permanent commitee members.

3. Find an important issue that resonates in your community and excites the voters. This could be an issue such as keeping school spending under control or opposing corrupt public officials. For example, in Dormont, it was revealed that local government officials are planning a shady deal to turn over the Dormont Pool to private developers who are Democratic Party contributors. Most of the citizens are outraged by this idea. So, this is a perfect opportunity for the Republican Party to emerge as the “white knight” to stop this from happening. Usually people will come forward to volunteer to help in the fight. These volunteers can later be recruited to be committee members. Sometimes, when asked to become committee members, people will refuse because they are busy and don’t want to add another meeting and extra duties to their schedule. But, if they are passionate about a certain issue, then they will not find volunteering to be such a hardship.

4. Candidates can also help with committee building. Local GOP committees are an important resource for candidates running for public office at all levels. Therefore it is the duty of Republican candidates to seek good volunteers from among their supporters and encourage them to become committee members. Candidates can also support local committees with finanical contributions and by attending Republican committee events.

5. Local committees can send a direct mail solicitation to all Republicans in their community and ask them for a donation and if they are interested in volunteering to help. Make sure that your letter is well-written and includes a questionaire asking for the voter’s opinion on issues. You would be surprised at the positive results that you get from a mailing campaign.

Community Involvement

Your local Republican committee should be an integral part of your community. Here are some ways that a local GOP committee can participate in community activities:1. Send press releases to local newspapers to announcement meetings, fund-raisers, and accomplishments of committee members. For example, if one of your committee members receives the “Spirit of Lincoln Award” from RCAC, you should send out a press release to your local newspaper about the awardee.

2. Participate in Community Festivals by sponsoring a booth or setting up a Voter Registration table. You can also walk with Republican candidates during the festival and introduce candidates to friends and neighbors.

3. Make civic contributions to your community such as donating conservative books to the local library. And don’t forget to send out a press release when you do so. Other examples are the Bethel Park Republican Committee plants flowers in a public plaza near the municipal building and the Port Vue GOP committee sponsors the Young Patriot program in their school district.

4. Write letters to the editor about current issues or in support of Republican candidates, or criticizing the policies of the opposition.

5. Pass resolutions at local committee meetings and send a press release to the local newspaper about the results.

Three Ways We Can Help Candidates

All committee members can do 3 simple things right now to help our Republican candidates get elected:

1. Display car stickers prominently. If you don’t want to put them on the bumper, then tape them to the inside of the driver’s side back window or near the top or bottom of the rear window, making sure you do not obstruct your view.

2. Wear a candidate’s badge when you are in public. This will increase name recognition and remind voters about the upcoming election.

3. Be familiar with the current issues so that when you talk to your friends and neighbors you can provide them with several, simple reasons why they should vote for the Republican candidates. For example, remind voters that we need Rick Santorum in the Senate to get Federal Judges confirmed. Without the Senate majority and Rick’s leadership, Pres. Bush will be blocked in the nominee process.

What We Can Do After An Election Loss

The results of some elections can be disappointing for Republicans. The best reaction to a setback is to figure and what went wrong and fix it. We must think outside the box and come up with new approaches to promote our principles and motivate our base. Finger-pointing and playing the blame game is usually not productive and certainly can be destructive.

Here are a few suggestions for positive action that Republicans can do:

1. Pass resolutions at local committee meetings to advocate for popular issues that we can all agree upon such as lower taxes, smaller government, reduction in the size of the state legislature, cutting back on perks for state legislators, and voter ID. But don’t stop with that. Send a presss release to your local newspapers and other media describing your resolution, Also, send your resolution to the elected and appointed officials in the government level that the resolution addresses

2. Voter ID is a great issue for Republicans to rally around. Last year the state legislature passed a bill requiring that all voters must produce some form of identification when coming to vote. Governor Rendell vetoed this bill saying it would put an unfair burden on seniors and the poor. Of course, this is alot of baloney because everyone including seniors must show ID to cash checks and purchase prescription drugs. Rendell’s real intention for vetoing this bill was to allow the practice of voter fraud to continue. Fraud occurs when another person votes in place of the real voter, who might be deceased or re-located but still on the voting rolls. And voter fraud due to lack of the voter ID requirement might have contributed to the defeat of some Republicans in the past election. Some might say that since Gov Rendell was re-elected that there is no chance of getting the Voter ID bill passed into law. But we Republicans must learn from the Democrats in Congress who were able to advance their agenda despite GOP majorities in both houses and a Republican President. If Republicans work through their local committees, state GOP committees, state legislators, radio talk shows, and other media, we can create a consensus of fair-minded voters who demand honest elections and shame Gov Rendell into signing the Voter ID bill on the second time around as he did with the gambling reform bill which he had previously vetoed and then later signed just prior to the election because of the public outcry against some of the corrupt practices that were allowed.

[Please feel free to share your nuggets of grassroots wisdom with the rest of us in future weeks by sending your tip to browand@adelphia.net]

Year-round Grassroots Goals

Being a Republican committee member is a year-round job. Here is a checklist of the most important goals of an effective grassroots worker throughout the year:

January & February
-Register Republican voters
-Get to know the Republican candidates who will be running this year
-Circulate Nominating Petitions

March
-Circulate Nominating Petitions
-Register Republican voters

April
-Distribute literature for candidates
-Register Republican voters
-Distribute Absentee Ballots

May
-Distribute Absentee Ballots
-Make phone calls before the Primary Election
-Work at the polls on Primary Election Day

June, July & August
-Distribute literature at community festivals
-Help the candidates meet voters
-Distribute Absentee Ballots
-Register Republican voters
-Go door-to-door with candidates

September
-Register Republican voters
-Recruit volunteers and put them to work
-Go door-to-door with candidates

October
-Canvass your district
-Distribute Absentee Ballots
-Recruit poll watchers and greeters

November
-Distribute campaign literature on weekends before General Election
-Make Get Out the Vote phone calls
-Work at the polls on General Election Day
-Oversee your poll watchers and greeters
-Thank your volunteers
-Recruit new candidates after the Election

December
-Recruit new candidates
-Register Republican voters

Absentee Ballots for College Students

Provide Absentee Ballot Applications to all college-bound Republican voters in your district now before they leave for college. Urge them to send the completed forms to the County Bureau of Elections now. Keep a list of those voters and follow-up with their parents in September/October to remind their kids to send them in if they have not done so. Make it as easy as possible for the college students and you can pick up more Republican votes in your district.

-Beatrice Browand, Upper St. Clair