Party needs a continuous campaign

By Jonathan Miller

Our state party should be about putting our ideas into action.We should do this by operating a continuous campaign.

The goal of this continuous campaign is to get Republicans elected to targeted races.  We don’t need to fill the ballot; we just need to get good candidates in areas where we can win.  Most of our resources need to be channeled to those races.The state party should be about nuts and bolts, not glitz and glam.  The state party should be visible to the public, but it must focus most of its time on campaign operations.  It should see itself as a continuous campaign supplement to our key candidates who can win. 

Our only chance of becoming the majority is through the election process.  That's why our state party needs to be as strong of a campaign organization as possible.  The stronger it is in the nuts and bolts of campaign operations, the more help that can be afforded to those key candidates running in key districts resulting in more Republicans in office. Operating any other way just isn't effective. Here are 4 points for making this continuous campaign work:

1) Expand our donor base.  We have too few donors both large and small.  Most importantly, though, we need to involve the grassroots.  A majority of our fund raising should come in the form of small donations from the rank and file Republicans.

2) Develop a statewide message.  A statewide message doesn't mean that we operate only a statewide campaign.  We must be a statewide entity that focuses its resources in key areas.  It just means that this message is a message that resonates with voters across WV.  It will have broad appeal and illustrate how our party's ideas and principles can help the average WV.  This will make the Republican Party more influential and relevant. 

3) Use technology to involve the grassroots more.  Use the internet to involve the faithful and others sympathetic to Republicans in idea generation, message crafting, candidate recruitment, and party and campaign activities.  The grassroots can be very helpful in recruiting good candidates in important districts.  With the grassroots having donated money, helped with message and idea crafting, recruited candidates, and taken part in key party activities, they will feel ownership of the party and be energized to help our candidates win at election time.  Plus, using the internet to build up this network will make it easy to quickly generate volunteers for a campaign activity, fund raiser, or get-out-the-vote operation.

4) Strengthen candidate recruitment.  We can win many races in WV if we could find those key candidates.  They are all across WV.  We just need to spend the time, energy, and money to find them. 

Doing these things now until the next election and beyond will make our party more influential, more effective, and more relevant in WV.

Jonathan Miller is a member of the House of Delegates from the 53rd District.