A guest contribution by candidate for Republican Party of Virginia Chairman, John Whitbeck.[read_more]
The Bull Elephant is pleased to provide a discussion forum for the Virginia Republican grassroots to examine the two announced candidates to replace the retiring Republican Party of Virginia Chairman Pat Mullins. In this piece, 10th District GOP Chairman John Whitbeck discusses his vision for the Party. A corresponding piece from Eric Herr may be found here.
What a great time to be a Republican! After two tough election cycles in 2012 and 2013, our Party showed last Tuesday that no incumbent Democrat is invincible. We also showed that when we are united, we can do things the experts and the pundits never thought possible.
Make no mistake about it though, we have problems in the Republican Party of Virginia that need fixing. Our fundraising is well below a sustainable level, progressives continue to beat us with technology and the infighting that we have seen the past few years is holding us back. Grassroots leaders need to emerge to fix these problems before it is too late. The next two election cycles are critical to our Party’s long-term success and we should accept nothing less than total victory. That is why I am running for Chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia.
As Chairman I will rebuild our fundraising apparatus into an independent force in Virginia politics. In Virginia we know a little something about business, and its time to start running the RPV like a business. We have to give donors a reason to “invest” in the business of winning elections for conservative candidates or we will never realize our full potential. That is why I have organized a Grassroots Strategy Meeting in Loudoun County on November 15. We have brought together Party leaders, grassroots activists, Tea Party leaders, Libertarians and social conservatives to formulate a strategic plan for the future of the RPV. It is my intent to take this Plan to donors to actually give them a reason to invest in our Party. When donors see that RPV actually has a concrete Plan to win, they will once again support us financially.
We have already done the above in the 10th District. When I took over as Chairman, we formed a Budget and Finance Committee tasked with managing our fiscal health and assisting the Chairman in fundraising. The results have been very beneficial for our candidates. For example, at the beginning of the cycle the Democrats had 25 full-time people on the ground and we had less than 10. We were not going to let that stand so we were able to raise the money to put several of our own field staff on the ground to help the Gillespie and Comstock campaigns, and I am sure the campaigns will tell you this made a difference in the overall strength of our ground game. It’s time to take this type of proactive fundraising to the state level.
One of the other things that will also help us fundraise is when we finish the work of Chairman Mullins to breach the technological divide we currently have with progressives. There is no question progressives are doing social media, online campaigning and data better than us. We are working our tails off on the ground every cycle, but they are doing it better. That has to stop now.
The RPV already has a data system up and running. Now it’s time to actually train activists on the system and deploy it statewide. It’s also time to stop our constant reliance on campaigns to generate this data for us. Campaigns and candidates are inherently temporary. They run and then they are, for all intents and purposes, gone, even if they win. When Romney, Cuccinelli and Gillespie run state-wide, the data should already be there for us to build upon and when they are not running, we should be adding to it as a Party all over the Commonwealth.
We have fixed this problem in the 10th District. We have our own database with tens of thousands of Republican voters identified by our field staff and our candidates. This data will be available to all of our 2015 candidates and they in turn will add their data to our cause. It’s time for us to do this in the RPV.
Finally, the next RPV Chairman has to bring about an end to the infighting. There is plenty of blame to go around, and I certainly am one who has been outraged by the shenanigans going on around the Commonwealth in our Party. At the end of the day though, we all want the same thing – to elect conservative Republicans at every level of government. That is the entire reason the RPV exits. We cannot and will not succeed in this goal if we continue to fight amongst ourselves.
In the 10th District we have built the relationships necessary to unite our Party. Grassroots conservatives represent us in the State Central Committee and in our local governments. Grassroots conservatives represent us in Richmond along-side business-community favorites. But most of all, we win elections in the critical swing areas of Northern Virginia. We won the 10th District for Romney, Cuccinelli and most recently for Ed Gillespie. Oh, and by the way, after getting outspent we beat the Democrat in the congressional race by more than 16 points after being told that our District was at best “lean Republican.” Sure we have our contentious primaries, but when the nominee is decided everyone comes together to help us win.
My fellow Republicans, as your Chairman I will fix our fundraising problems, I will bridge our technological divide with progressives and I will unite our Party behind our common goal of winning elections. I will give the grassroots a voice with our elected officials and I will bring the successes we have had in the 10th District to the state-level. I am excited to get to work if you will have me as your Chairman.
21 comments
I’m impressed with John’s plan. Hopefully he can take his success in the 10th district and replicate it across the state.
I’m curious to see how the RPV will balance the values of the full range of conservatives. Evangelicals and Libertarians are two such groups who might agree on a great number of things, but differ “where it counts”. Will the RPV find a way to respect and support the beliefs of the Evangelicals but stop short of the Statist’s approach of using regulation to enforce them on others? How will the GOP find away to retain political power while reducing the stranglehold of onerous regulation on businesses and citizens? (The answer is that by returning the majority of the power back to the people in the form of personal freedom, they will ‘lend’ that power back to you.)
Johns article is well said. The elected need to be accountable to the party and it’s member’s. I would like to see a committee that RPV funds to do just that. Keep Republican leaders beholding to our party creed. Our leaders have not lead but allowed our Constitution to be chipped away at. This must stop. They have been given the privilege to serve and most forget that’s not just a part of their campaign speech.
I pray the next RPV chair can grasp Johns statement and stand bold against tyranny.
Two guys have thrown their hats in the ring so far. They sound good on paper. I want to know where they stand on slating and disenfranchising fellow Republicans as disgracefully happened here in these committees & districts last winter and spring. In particular how would they/did they vote with the SCC at the Aug 16 meeting in Richmond? What steps will they take to prevent such unethical fiascoes from occurring again?
I strongly agree.
I appreciate that the points that John Whitbeck makes are not just something he envisions for a future date, but rather things that he has already implemented in the 10th District. He has been an excellent leader and I have every confidence that he would take RPV to the next level.
John’s strong collaborative approach to leadership and problem-solving can only benefit our party. He brings to the job not only an understanding of the key issues, but a record of accomplishment as chairman of Virginia’s 10th, which should not be ignored.
I don’t know where to start with this…First, the “technological infrastructure” that RPV has in place now is terrible. i360 cannot and will not ever be a true solution to our data woes-it isn’t user-friendly, doesn’t allow for data manipulation by individual campaigns, and the data it does produce is overwhelmingly outdated or mislabeled (I could go on-and-on as to the details, but that might take awhile). As for ending the “in-fighting,” that’s a tall order considering your last run at office. And this cycle/wave election had a lot less to do with the campaign infrastructure than it did turnout. 2016 is going to look a lot different in terms of demographics (more 18-35 y/o, more minority voters, and more women voters) than this year. Repeating the same playbook will not yield the same results.
WTF? Please tell me where you were in the aftermath of the Party Canvass last spring. You would have had to have been there to witness the roll out of the new capture of every voter in that canvass….and you would not be calling that a failure.
John Whitbeck has been a spectacular Chairman of the Tenth District Committee. He is diligent, focused on growing our ranks, and committed to outreach. He has operated on a fair and consistent manner. I enthusiastically endorse John Whitbeck for Chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia.
As 10th District Chair, everything John touched turned to election gold. Success all around. He is very active and, even better, has gotten great results. He will be a great RPV Chair.
Great ideas, John. That sounds like an organizational model for a strong party. We need this type of leadership if we are going to remain competitive against the liberals. I support your candidacy 100%.
Former GOP Chairman
Frederick County, VA
2003-2004
John is the perfect man for the job. He is organized, experienced, and has the right temperment and personality to bring some much needed unity to the state party. John is a principled conservative and will work hard to make sure ALL voices have a seat at the table.
John Whitbeck has the experience, decisiveness, discipline and coherence we need to lead the
Republican Party of Virginia. In my capacity as Tenth District Vice Chairman, I have had countless opportunities to witness Chairman Whitbeck as he faced challenging multifaceted situations. His diplomacy and understanding of parliamentary process and the law has lead our committee to many amicable resolutions. He is a principled leader who has run the Committee in an organized and inclusive manner. Chairman Whitbeck has steadily grown the Party, inspired involvement and raised needed funds. He understands the needs of Republicans of various backgrounds and outlooks; his dedication to the advancement of conservative principles is unparalleled. It has been an honor and privilege serving alongside John Whitbeck on the Tenth District Committee; he has my wholehearted support to be the next Chairman of the RPV!
Julie Williams, Vice Chairman
Tenth Congressional District Republican Committee
Well said, Julia.
John Whitbeck has shown extraordinary leadership as 10th District Chairman. His management of the largest party canvass which produced a conservative, electable candidate shows John’s commitment to make the party nominating process work and work well. Whitbeck’s strong commitment to conservative, Republican principles and his high level of integrity will bring dynamic leadership to the Republican Party of Virginia.
I agree wholeheartedly he would be an excellent, high energy chair for the RPV.
It would surprise me if the next Chairman’s initials are not SK.
Hahaha, I don’t think so.
Prepare to be amazed, then.
[…] The Bull Elephant is pleased to provide a discussion forum for the Virginia Republican grassroots to examine the two announced candidates to replace the retiring Republican Party of Virginia Chairman Pat Mullins. In this piece, 1st District GOP Chairman Eric Herr discusses his vision for the Party. A corresponding piece from John Whitbeck may be found here. […]