A Proposal to “Take Back Our State” in 2010
By Fred Ward 3-23-09

We were outspent, out charisma-ed (by John Lynch), out hustled, and out of office, again.  We’ve all heard the excuses; a poor (or non-existent) message, the biased press, out-of-state money and goons, fraudulent student (& other) voting, and of course the financial meltdown. 

Funny thing about the meltdown though.  It was not the meltdown itself, but rather the strange way in which blame was assigned.  For many years prior to the event, the Wall Street Journal, President Bush and Senators McCain and Sununu had been warning about a potential meltdown, and advocating measures to avoid it.  Others, like Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and Chuck Schumer, obstructed these efforts to rein in Freddie and Fannie.  So when the meltdown came to pass, who was to blame?  You guessed it; Barney, Chris and Chuck; Barney Bush, Chris McCain and Chuck Sununu. 

This event and its influence on the election results speaks volumes about Republican incompetence.  We were handed the national election on a silver platter and we dropped it.  On the state level, the silver platter consisted of out-of-control spending, but you hardly heard who was to blame for it.  If these frustrations don’t underline the extent of our problems, what else will?  Will the press turn conservative by 2010?  Will Hollywood money support Republicans?  Will the goons stay in Massachusetts?  Will the Democrats finally stop registering corpses and out-of-state students?  Let’s stop shuffling chairs on the deck of the Titanic and admit that real change will require an effort on our part at least as substantial as that put out by the zealots on the other side.

There was another lesson in the 2008 results that we ignore at our peril.  Sununu’s loss to Shaheen should drive home to us that competence and character are of limited importance to winning an election.  Sununu was the best Senator in Washington up for reelection, not only for New Hampshire, but for the country as a whole.  And by contrast, Shaheen is close to the bottom of the barrel.  On competence, the contrast couldn’t have been more stark.  But it got John, compared to the rest of the ticket, maybe 1, 2, or 3 percentage points.  That, in stark relief, is the total electoral value of competence. 

The following are a set of actions, albeit incomplete, that we could take to change the dynamics of 2010 in our favor.  But they require a lot of work, and a substantial change in attitude on our part, beginning now.   They include serious measures to “neutralize” the biased press, to spend money much more effectively, to utilize our home-grown time and energy, to shame the illegal voters, and to prepare well ahead of time for another October surprise.  And most of all, we need to agree on a simple, consistent message.

The list below outlines the big job ahead, but I would like to get started on #3.    

We should consider “nominating” a leader at the state level, to run for governor, starting very soon, a candidate who will respond to the press and speak at every possible venue

We need leaders in the Senate and House, who will work together to articulate a consistent Republican theme in the legislative branch, and provide information to the troops so that they can spread the REPUBLICAN word to the press. 

We need to develop a group of committed Republicans, spread across the state, to start    monitoring, and responding to the press (including radio and TV.  These people would monitor the press, and send regular letters, commenting on events of interest and criticizing the press and the "Spendocrats".  The grass roots will need the professional assistance of our legislative leaders, to track important bills, to attach catchy (pejorative) names to the bills, and add meat to the bones of our letters. 

We need to develop contacts within the press.  There are a few real journalists, even at the worst    outlets, and we need to know who they are, and feed them stories.  We need a list of reliable (and maybe other) contacts in the press and elsewhere, so we don’t waste valuable time when a fast response to events is needed.

We need to develop our own “stories” (legislative leaders again) that can be fed to the press to underline our theme(s) and our candidates.

We need a list of speaking venues for our “governor” and our legislative leaders.  We need lookouts” in all the cities and towns to track events, and schedule our candidates at them.

We need to develop, and have readily available, a list of outside experts to draw upon for specialized knowledge.

We need to agree on a limited set of “values”, the big things that separate us from the Democrats.  May I suggest; Low spending/taxes, Individual rights/living free, and Strong local government.

We need a public relations type who knows how, when and where to get our message out.

 In Summary

Fred Ward
drfred@hughes.net

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