This January the 80 members of the Massachusetts Republican State Committee will have the opportunity to set a new direction by selecting a new Chairman.  This is a very critical vote.

Last spring I strongly suggested that Peter Torkildsen should have been replaced mid-term due to the 10 straight loses in special elections.  As seasoned political people know, that special elections are the GOP's best chance to pick up a win in the Commonwealth because our 13% of registered voters can actually have an impact in a 20% turnout race.

Unfortunately, my advice was ignored and our party went on to lose 3 open Republican House seats.

We cannot afford to lose any more seats.  We cannot afford to play defense any more.  We need to go on offense to start picking up seats.

The opportunity for us to make a comeback is clear and present in Massachusetts.  Just look at the corruption that is plaguing the Democratic Party.  City Councilor Chuck Turner and State Senator Diane Wilkerson are going down in a bribery scandal.  The House Speaker is under investigation along with his want-to-be replacement.  Our Governor, who has been a disaster, endorsed the felon State Senator and has shown a complete lack of leadership in cleaning up Beacon Hill.

Opportunity is knocking on our door.  Let's answer it by selecting a strong Chairman.

When voting to elect the next Chairman, members need to examine the candidate's qualifications. A suitable candidate must have one of the three following credentials:

The ability to raise $2 million
Extensive campaign experience
Experience in delivering a message in the Massachusetts media market

It is the responsibility of State Committee members to make sure that the strongest possible Chairman is elected. 

Massachusetts has a new Republican Party Chairman on the horizon. Yesterday Peter Torkildsen announced that he will not seek re-election. The announcement is good news for the Commonwealth's disappearing Republican population. Peter lost 10 special elections before losing three open Republican House seats in November. Hopefully we have hit rock bottom.

Moving forward our Republican State Committee must be very careful who they select to lead the party out of these dark times. Our past choices have gotten us into this mess!

The next Chairman should either be a very experienced campaigner and fundraiser or a person must have successfully built a business. In short, our next Chairman needs to have a list of accomplishments and credentials.

I am frightened by individuals who are running as part of an ego trip with no substantial campaign experience.

Let's recruit a tier A candidate instead of settling on a back-bencher.

Authored by: David E. Johnson, Strategic Vision, LLC and Holly Robichaud, Tuesday Associates

The Republican brand and identity among voters continues to be at its lowest level since 1932 and the height of the Great Depression. To compare the Party's standing even to the depth of Watergate or the debacle of 1964 is to mitigate the current situation of the Republican Party.  In 1974, following the resignation of Richard Nixon, while the Republican Party was demoralized and the Democrats made key gains, the voting public was angry at Richard Nixon and his subordinates and sought to punish Republicans for Nixon's misdeeds. By 1976, however Republicans and Nixon were not synonymous and the seeds for a Republican revival had been planted. In 1964, despite attempts by George Romney, Nelson Rockefeller, and William Scranton to disassociate the Republican brand from Barry Goldwater, who had been unfairly painted as an extremist by his primary competitors and Lyndon Johnson, voters equated Republicans with extremism and racism in regards to the issue of war and peace and civil rights. Yet by 1966, the Republican image had rebounded due to Democratic missteps and stray Republicans and Republican leaning voters returning to the Party. This was not the case in 2008. Voters even core Republican voters do not think that the Party has learned the lessons from 2006 and have deviated from the reformist conservative agenda that voters have embraced in the past.

The reason that Republicans suffered as badly as they did in the polls is that Republican is synonymous to George W. Bush in the eyes of many voters. The Party and Bush are one and the same. This invokes the comparison to 1932 and the midterm elections of 1934 and general election of 1936. Democrats were able to exploit the Great Depression to become the majority Party in America for the first time since the Civil War by identifying the Republican Party with Herbert Hoover in the minds and hearts of Americans. They were successfully able to equate Republicans with Hoover very much as Democrats are tying Republicans at all levels with George W. Bush. Indeed invoking Ronald Reagan, as is being done today, has echoes of Republicans in the 1930's invoking Calvin Coolidge rather than mention Herbert Hoover.  Invoking Ronald Reagan now will do more for Republicans than invoking Calvin Coolidge did Alf Landon and Republicans in 1934 and 1936. This is not to say that Republicans must run from conservative principles, rather they must re-embrace them and again to convince voters that Republicans are true conservatives. The good news is that George W. Bush is exiting the stage but just as Democrats in every election from 1932 to 1968 ran against Herbert Hoover, so now will the Democrats continue to try to run against George W. Bush.

The first step that Republicans must institute immediately is a break from George W. Bush.  Republican leadership must demonstrate that the Republican Party represents reformist conservative principles of less government, less taxes, more personal freedom, and a strong defense.  These are the principles that voters have voted for over and over again. Exit polls show that the United States is still a right of center nation.  Indeed many voters were not sure of what they were voting for and in some cases believe that Barack Obama and other Democrats are actually moderate. There was a widespread belief that under George W. Bush, the Republican Party was becoming 'Democratic-lite'. Clearly announcing the core conservative reformist principles that the Party stands for will be the first road to recovery.  Republicans cannot win by just waiting for Barack Obama and Democrats to fail, we must stand for clearly defined principles and have a positive agenda. Voters will never choose the GOP if we all we say is NO.

Voters do not understand what Republican leadership in Congress actually means.  In 2006 and 2008 to many it meant more of George W. Bush's policies. Even initial gains that had been made on the drilling issue earlier this summer were erased as the price of gas began to decline and failure to move on the issue.  Republicans must take a leaf out of the Democratic playbook and move into effective opposition to the Democratic majorities right away.  Emphasis must be on how out of mainstream the Democratic leadership and majorities are and the harm that their policies will do to everyday Americans. Polling demonstrates that most voters are unaware of what the Democratic Congress hopes to enact.

Republicans must re-embrace the middle class. Middle class voters that were the backbone of the Reagan years and the 1994 Republican Revolution no longer believe that the Party effectively represents them. This was seen by continued defections in the suburbs and even in traditional hardcore Republican areas. Republicans must demonstrate that it is their policies that will best protect and advance the interests of the middle class and small businesses.  We have to reignite the dream of our nation being the land of opportunity and that does not mean relying on government subsidies to get ahead. People need to be reminded that free lunches come with a big government backdoor tax increase.

Although this point has been stated over and over again, voters do not believe that Republicans have yet grasped this following point - 'Republicans came to Washington to clean up corruption but instead became corrupted by Washington'. This point still rings true today.  It is a primary reason for the defeat of Tom Feeney in Florida and had it been exploited more by Democrats this election cycle could have led to even worse defeats.  Voters still think Washington is corrupt but at this point do not equate corruption with the Democrats despite the Mahoney scandal. Republicans must once more emphasize and highlight its conservative credentials. Distrust and disapproval of Congress continue to be at an all time high. Among reform items that Republicans can advance that continue to have high support are limiting Congress to six-month sessions, rules reform, and full disclosure of names for every donation a campaign committee accepts. Paint Democrats as defending the status quo. Republicans must not be afraid to take the gamble to stand on principles.

The Republican leadership needs to emphasize to voters that it understands the reasons that voters have been rejecting it and apologizes for past mistakes. Congressional Republicans must pay more than lip service to the idea of change but rather demonstrate what a positive Republican change will entail even if that means advancing new leadership. It must continue to crack down on members who appear tainted with corruption to regain the good government image that voters associated with the Republican brand. There must be a zero tolerance for even the slightest hint of corruption.

Republicans must be able to hold our base. This year's elections like those in 2006 show that our base did not show up in the needed numbers because they were demoralized and felt the Party had lost its way. We must reactivate our base.

Congressional Republicans must show that they want the support of all voters and are not closed off to moderate voters. We must never again write off a region or state. The Democrats have since 2004 been very successful in running national campaigns and going on the offensive in Republican areas. In doing this they stole a page from the old Republican playbook and we allowed ourselves to fall into a defensive posture. The result has been devastating losses in the Midwest, Northeast, Southwest, and Democratic advances in the Southeast. Republicans need to remember the Reagan mantra of it is better to have someone who supports me, 80% to 90% of the time. In doing this they must abandon some of the harsher rhetoric they are using on such issues as immigration. They need to remember that being for legal immigration while against illegal immigration registers better with voters.  In reaching out to these voters, Congressional Republicans would be advised to present a national platform similar to the Contract With America. Congressional Republicans must emphasize that the Party is not out of ideas to make the country better and improve individual's daily lives. The Party has to demonstrate again that it for positive change rather than just opposed to the Democratic alternative being advanced by the Democratic Congress and Obama Administration. Yet, the message also must be of the harm that Democratic policies are doing to the nation and the economy. Two key areas that will resonate with voters even moderates are the expected assault on the fairness doctrine and doing away with the secret ballot in union elections. The latter will resonate with businesses particularly mid-size businesses where Democrats have been making slight gains.

We must embrace Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 strategies. While Republicans and conservatives led the way with talk radio which the left has never been able to compete with, so has the left led the way on Web.  From fundraising to GOTV to recruitment, the Democrats have monopolized social network websites, RSS feeds, podcasts, and text messaging. They have achieved a mastery of this not only in reaching young voters but in reaching voters 55 and over.  Indeed most 55 and older voters get the majority of information and spend more time online than any other voting demographic. Quite frankly, in the battle with technology we are still using the horse drawn carriage. This must change at once or we will fall further behind in reaching base voters and new voters to a point of irrelevancy.

Once we have re-energized our supporters and re-launched the Republican conservative brand, Congressional leaders must build a warchest for 2010. The 2008 elections proved once again that money is the mother's milk of politics. Our candidates and officials must have the financial resources to compete especially when the mainstream media no longer conceals their liberal bias.

To raise sufficient funds Republicans need to employee not only the standard strategies of direct mail, events, PACs, events, finance committees and personal solicitation, but also capitalize on the Internet, social networking, emails, text messaging, and web advertising to generate money from non traditional sources. Overall we need to be far more creative in raising dollars. Let's start to think beyond the standard membership letter for donations. 

Joe Biden has suggested that if Barack Obama is elected President of the United States, he is going to be tested within the first 6 months. Isn't that a scary thought? 

Biden further suggested that Barack's response would not seem appropriate and that we will need to "stick with them." Oooow. Really we should trust Barack with our national security? I would suggest that he is not a profile in courage but rather a profile in cowardness.

Here's why:

1. Barack did not have the good judgment to quit his church.  He was forced to 
leave to public pressure.

2. As a State Senator, he voted present 130 times.

3. As a United States Senator, he never stood up to his party. Unlike Senator McCain, he has never had the guts to break with his party.

4. As a candidate for President, he make a non-threatening choice for vice-president. Biden was an easy choice. Whereas, Hillary Clinton would have been difficult to handle, but she was the right choice.

5. Barack still does not have the courage to admit the surge in Iraq worked.

Barack Obama is not the person we should trust with our national security. Let's not have to "stick with them."

We are proud to introduce Norfolk County, Massachusetts to the Red County network. The focus of this new site will be to provide right-of-center insight and analysis of political issues in the Norfolk County area. We will also be highlighting statewide and national issues affecting the lives of people living in the Great State of Massachusetts.

Red County has selected Holly Robachaud as editor of the Norfolk County site. Holly has 20 years experience in managing campaigns at the local, state, and federal levels. In her home state of Massachusetts, she has served as Chief of Staff for the House Republican Leader's office and worked as Research Director for the State Treasurer.

Over ten years ago, Holly started her own political consulting firm specializing in strategy, direct mail fundraising, voter contact programs, and fundraising. Her firm, Tuesday Associates, has a proud winning record for races ranging from mayor to statewide ballot initiatives in 17 states. As a fund-raiser Holly has set records for statewide, Congressional and local campaigns, and Political Action Committees. Her grassroots fundraising and direct mail campaigns have received national recognition. In 1998, she was selected as a "Rising Star" by Campaigns and Elections magazine. 

Holly holds the record for winning Special Elections for Republican candidates in the state of Massachusetts. In each case her clients over came a 3 to 1 disadvantage in party registration. In the ultimate test of her skills, one client over came a 5 to 1 disadvantage.

In 1988, Holly was elected to the Massachusetts Republican State Committee, defeating a 20-year incumbent. When elected she was the youngest woman ever to hold that post.  Presently, Holly is an instructor for several campaign schools including the National Federation of Republican Women, American Medical Association, GOPAC, the Massachusetts Taxpayers PAC, and Winning Campaigns magazine. She is a frequent lecturer on politics and campaigns and has been a political analyst on FOX News, New England Cable News, WRKO, WBZ, WATD and WTKK. Currently, Holly is serving as the Republican political analyst for the Boston Herald and WRKO and is also a columnist for Winning Campaigns magazine.

Holly earned a Bachelor's degree in Biology and Chemistry at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York.

We are very excited to welcome Holly to the Red County team and we look forward to reading her outstanding insight and analysis of Norfolk County politics.