Matt Dole took the bait and answered the question I asked at the end of this post by saying:1. Continue raising funds (which will be harder now, but I have faith in the finance team)All of which is great advice...
2. Tweak the GOTV system to ensure it is fully operational in the proper counties for 2008.
3. Continue recruiting and grooming good candidates.
4. Enjoy the freedom of going on 'offense' for a couple years instead of constantly playing defense.
5. Build the county parties to ensure they exist beyond the fellowship of getting together once a month to discuss the latest Ann Coulter book.
And as individuals -
Find out who your township trustees are, find our who your school board members are, find out who your council members and commissioners are. They will be your next representative, senator, congressional, and statewide candidates. Help them win, help them organize politically, help them raise funds. Help them understand how blogs can be of assistance.
I know - that is a lot of pie-in-the-sky without much 'how-to.' The how-to exists, and frankly Bob Bennett and his team can help with that (I know, I just got some helpful resources yesterday from the state party).
The bottom line? Engage the system, don't think that it can be changed in one election cycle. Bob Bennett, his team at the state party, and every campaign manager, political director, and communications director I have ever met are reasonable people willing to listen and consider all options. They have very clear goals, and a solid history of success so they know what works and what doesn't. Sometimes what works stinks (supporting perceived less-than-pure conservative incumbents comes immediately to mind), but aiming for reasonable results and engaging the county and state parties can and will be successful in both the short run and the long run.
My concern though, is that nobody seems to be addressing the actual problems we experienced in the last cycle. I would push for Matt's recommendations even if we won all the elections in November.
I fear that we are not actually taking appropriate action in the face of such a huge loss at the state level. Something really bad happened and I haven't heard a peep from the political guru class just what exactly happened and what they propose to fix it. If Bennett isn't the problem, I think Ohio's Republicans deserve an answer to two questions: What was the problem? And how are we going to fix it?
On the other hand, we can't make moves simply for the sake of making moves. There may be a tendency towards overreaction on the part of conservative activists in the face of such a perfromance as the Ohio GOP delivered in November, but that doesn't neccessarily mean that we need to throw the baby out with the bathwater...but clearly, some fundamental change needs to be made.
The problem that I see is that there was a breakdown in the coalition of social conservatives and the moderates. Someone with some credibility in both camps is going to have to step up and bridge that divide...I don't know who that might be, but the party ought to be seeking that person out pronto. (Might this be a job for John Kasich?)
I will agree with Matt on one other point: the problem isn't as massive as it might have been... Congressional Republicans from Ohio did fairly well. We lost the Senate seat, but that was our only high profile loss after the Ney seat in the House. Considering the political climate, I'll take it... We still have majorities in both chambers of the Ohio Assembly. And, as Matt points out, we can now play offense for a change instead of defense. It could have been MUCH worse...and I think Bennett's team deserves some credit for that even if I don't think Bennett himself should.
