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How the GOP could get its groove back [UPDATE, Turk responds]

Posted by David on May 1st, 2007

Smith had this interesting item yesterday regarding the GOP v. the Internet which I missed since my typical Politico hangout is Martin:

A former director of the Republican National Committee’s Internet operations said thinks the party’s commitment to the Web has slipped since the departure of former RNC chairman Ken Mehlman.

“Since [Mehlman] left, the RNC has moved dramatically backward,” said Mike Turk, a former eCampaign director for the Republican National Committee who complained that his division has lost its prominent place within the RNC’s internal structure. “They’ve seen [the Internet] make a difference in terms of losing candidates more than they’ve seen it make a difference in terms of winning candidates.”

Turk spoke after the RNC brushed off a letter from a group of Internet luminaries, including Turk, asking that the party lobby television networks to free debate video from copyright restrictions. The Democratic Party, by contrast, reacted warmly to the letter. Keep reading…

As a general proponent of transparency and more citizen involvement in the political process, I agree with this letter and would urge its acceptance by all parties. However, in defense of the RNC, I need to dig in to discuss the logistics of this coalition’s letter and Mike Turk’s response.

First and foremost, most, if not all, of the signatures on Mr. Lessig’s letter are not Republicans. And though that’s not what the letter is about, it’s worth noting as a logistical reason why the letter may not have been welcomed with open arms.

In fact, of the list, I maybe spot a few individuals (one? two? three?) that actually consider themselves card-carrying “Republicans”. All others are either Democrats, liberals/progressives, Libertarians, or conservatives. And some would even argue that some of those on the Right worked just as hard against Republican candidates as those on the Left.

To achieve meaningful balance for the RNC establishment which they were trying to influence, Mr. Lessig and this coalition should have contacted the Rightroots coalition of bloggers led by John Hawkins of Right Wing News, Mary Katharine Ham, Rob Bluey, Erick Erickson, Ed Morrissey, Patrick Hynes, and Lorie Byrd. And, of course, the one blogger who backs the party through and through, Hugh Hewitt of Townhall.com. (Note: Turk helped facilitated the Rightroots Coalition through ABC PAC.)

Instead, none of those bloggers signed the letter. (And I doubt they were even asked.)

So what exactly did this coalition expect from the RNC? An immediate acceptance because unknown quantities (to the current RNC leadership) say so? Why in the world would it react “warmly” when the letter is essentially sent from those outside of its circle of trust?

I’m not suggesting adding one or two Rightroots bloggers would have changed the outcome, but it could have helped balance a lot of the red flags which jumped out immediately at me when I looked at the list.

THE BOTTOM LINE, and what I think Turk was getting to, is that this comes back to the GOP not having a top-tier staffer who “gets it.” And since the spokesman for the RNC readily (and wisely) admits in the piece that they’re missing a key element, an eCampaign Director, the RNC does not have a senior tech-type on staff who can help them better understand the importance (or the people behind) this letter.

Finding a top-tier replacement for former RNC eCampaign director Patrick Ruffini is likely not going to change until one of the front-running Presidential candidates loses in the Primary and frees up some staff willing to effectively carry that torch. I can count on one hand the individuals I think could actually do it right.

Not picking up a staffer when the pickings were ripe was the mistake of the RNC, and now they’re paying for it, which I think is what Turk meant by bringing up Mehlman. But Mehlman had the pick of the litter. He was able to assemble the strongest team because there wasn’t much demand for a well-paid online team. And Mehlman totally did “get it,” no doubt about that. I remember him talking about Gladwell’s “Tipping Point” in early 2006.

The fact is that our Party is lacking some known talent in the tech + politics sphere or that talent is already doing something else, and the RNC had a few too many balls in the air to pick up someone before they found a new home.

So instead of crying over spilled milk, here’s my suggestion for how the GOP could get its groove back. It’s not a new idea, but something which I’ve been talking about for a while.

The facts tell us that there’s likely no chance the RNC will have a senior staffer in the near future to help its online operation, therefore it should tap Michigan Republican State Party Chairman Saul Anuzis to help with its online operation. He’s well-known by the other 49 state party chairman as being the “tech guy,” and trust me, he does actually “get it.”

Saul could be appointed to a special task force and advisory committee to help answer questions just like the question Lessig posed to the RNC today (and help get other state operations up and running). As you might expect, Saul has a vast network of people he could tap in to whenever he wants to get counsel.

Further, I’m sure Saul would love the opportunity to help and he wouldn’t let the team down.

And I’m not alone in calling on Saul to help lead Republicans in the modern world. Rob Bluey has been making similar calls for quite some time.

Getting ahead online will not happen overnight, but we need to start somewhere. Turk is right that we need some new energy at some level, and I think we should start in Michigan.

UPDATE 9:10 AM: A reader informs me that Lessig’s letter is down with the following message:

Internal Server Error

The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

Please contact the server administrator, [removed] and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log.
Apache/2.2.0 (Fedora) Server at www.lessig.org Port 80

UPDATE 11:30 AM: Robert Bluey asks, “Have Republicans Regressed Online?”

UPDATE 12:02 PM: Lessig’s petition is back online.

UPDATE 2:36 PM: Turk has added a clarifying voice to the discussion and has taken blame for not reaching out to more Republicans to sign the letter.

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