Now that I have had the time to ponder Grant Young's post from Friday over at QCI I felt I should offer up some of my own advice for the Republican Party of Iowa. The rebuilding effort is underway and all hands are needed to make it a success. Whether you are just someone that sits back and reads the blogs or are someone that is intimately involved in the operations at RPI, your opinions and advice should matter. Voice your opinion and ideas, there is always the chance that someone from leadership will read your words.

First and foremost, the message of the Republican Party of Iowa is just fine. You hear this Mr. Gross. There is not a thing wrong with the message of the Republican Party. The problem is the messenger. What the party needs is a leader that can effectively and enthusiastically promote the message. The general public needs to know that our messenger not only supports our message, but wholeheartedly believes the message. We need a messenger that is well spoken and articulate as well as charismatic. And this person needs to be able to clearly explain the message to the voters. We need a leader that is not afraid to get out there and get dirty with the rest of us in an effort to promote Republican candidates and Republican ideas. These are just some of the skills that the next Chairperson of the Republican Party needs to bring to the table.

Secondly we need to stick to our core principles. History has shown time after time that when Republicans begin to slide away from their core principles they get trounced at the polls. When Republicans fail to uphold their principles they get beat. This most recent legislative session is a prime example, many Republicans supported tax increases and basic property owners rights. And as a result Republicans lost more ground to the Democrats. You see when you ask people why they voted against the Republicans most often you will hear them say that they couldn't trust us or that they couldn't tell Republicans from Democrats anymore. This is something that needs to change if we are to regain control of Iowa government again.

Third, we need to be much better organized. The Democrats have us beat in that they are much better organized. This is a little something that I noticed from my time as a poll watcher on Election Day. The Democrats had a list of everyone that was registered as a Democrat where as I only had a list of unreliable voters that was not very accurate. So while the Dems were able to see which of their people hadn't been there so they could call and urge them to get out and vote, I was stuck. And it goes further than this as well. Currently my county has no GOP County Committee and for that matter neither does one of my neighboring counties. And there really hasn't been a push that I am aware of to get it going once again.

Fourth, as Grant stated, Republicans have a technological disadvantage as well. This disadvantage however is self imposed. Our party is slowly learning, but it isn't learning fast enough. RPI needs to accelerate the learning process in order to catch up with the Democrats technological prowess. Where the Dems understand the power of the internet, our party seems to discount it. RPI needs to understand that there are many avenues available through the internet that RPI can get its message out. The most basic of these is the ads that we all see on a daily basis. The most important method in my opinion is the dozens of conservative bloggers that inhabit the internet. There are dozens of Republican blogs in the state of Iowa; RPI needs to use this to their advantage. Another item that might help out with the base is for RPI to start weekly or monthly newsletters to keep the activists involved and informed of what is happening in the Republican Party of Iowa.

We also need to hold our own accountable. I know that it would be easier to sweep any scandalous dealings or events under the rug, but that is what causes the general population to lose faith in us. We have supported bad policy decisions by our elected leaders for far too long, even when we knew that they were wrong. We have the moral obligation to deal with these individuals as we see fit. If that means removing them from office, then so be it. But we need to realize that if we act before the Dems and the MSM can it will cast us in a better light. People will see this as Republicans policing themselves.

These are just a few ideas that I have had in regards to efforts to rebuild RPI. They are by no means an expert opinion, but they are an average opinion. If any of our readers have any thoughts that you would like to add to this, please leave them as comments. I would also like to suggest to RPI that as they develop plans to bring the party back to prominence that they scan the blogs, you never know where the next great idea is coming from.