Yesterday, Saturday April 12th, the Republican Party of Los Angeles County held a candidate school we called the RPLAC Academy. We had it as a one day session where the candidates and campaign staffers who showed up would be educated on how to run various aspects of a campaign as if they were drinking water through a firehose, per the instructions of our Chairwoman Linda Boyd. And for those of us who presented, that we did.

Most of the candidates were from Los Angeles County. However, we had candidates fly in from Northern California, or drive in from other Southern California counties as well. The Academy was well attended with nearly 40 attendees (not including presenters), demographically being about even on the Female/male ratio with strong minority representation. We charged $45 for those who sent in their RSVP early, and charged $60 at the door, prescreening to make sure all those in attendence were registered Republicans. The cost included a Candidate Handbook of 99 pages stacked full of campaign information that RPLAC Chairwoman Linda Boyd and myself teamed to author, a continental breakfast, lunch, and access to leaders in the state and local party.

Chairwoman Linda Boyd emceed the event starting us off with the prayer & the pledge, followed by the singing of the Star Spangled Banner. Our first presenter was California Republican Party Chairman Ron Nehring who talked about how we as Republicans are right on the issues, but that we need to develop persuasive messages using core values and tapping into the emotions of voters, just like the Democrats currently are doing. He was followed by candidate, Accountant and RPLAC Assistant Treasurer Armineh Chelebian who talked on what schedules candidates need to file, when these documents need to be filed and what penalties will be incurred if these documents are not filed. She was folowed by noted blogger and conservative publisher Stephen Frank who talked about how to build an effective campaign organization and how to keep it functioning throughout the campaign. After him we heard from CRP Technical Director Moises Merino on the updates & improvements to Voter Vault and how to use the latest version. THe last speaker before lunch was Ravi Singh, owner of Electionmall.com, who talked on how to use the latest technology in the 2008 election, staying around afterwards to speak with individual candidates.

After a break for everyone to mingle, get lunch and take a breath, we had Joe Justin, who is the Political Director for the Assembly Republican Caucus, speak on how the State Party can work with local campaigns. Next up was CRP Communications Director Hector Barajas who talked on how to work with the press to get out the campaign's message and how the State party can help local candidates in this regard. He was followed by CRP Vice Chairman & noted blogger Tom Del Becarro and Schwartenzeggar 's Deputy Director & Community Liason Araceli Gonzalez, who talked on how to fundraise in difficult districts and how the candidates can build their investor/donor base. They were followed by State Senator George Runner who was a surprise speaker, he spoke on an initiative that he has written that will be on the November ballot soon that will make neighborhoods safer.

Next up was my mentor and Cerritos Mayor Pro-tem Bruce Barrows, who spoke on using the Candidate Statement, campaign literature and signage to creativly save money so that candidates can get out more mail. By the way in his last election he spent a little over $20,000, while 3 out of the top 4 finishers spent over $100,000, there were 9 candidates for 3 seats in that election.

The last two speakers were RPLAC Precinct Operations Chairman John Stammreich and myself. John spoke of volunteer recruitment and retension and how to use the SWOT analysis tool in a campaign. I followed with a presentation on campaign research and how to manage data collected during a campaign effectively to save money on campaign literature and phone banking as was done in Bruce Barrows last campaign, where I managed his data.

Thankfully for Linda, John, and myself, several of the candidates and campaign staffers stayed around afterwards to help us clean up and thanked us for the information the RPLAC Academy gave over the over 8 hours they spent learning and networking.