Thoughts on Mike Biundo's "The NH GOP desperately needs an all-of-the-above strategy" - Granite Grok

Thoughts on Mike Biundo’s “The NH GOP desperately needs an all-of-the-above strategy”

MIchael BiundoI’ve known Mike now for almost a decade – certainly far less than others, more than some.  In that time, I come to respect him – deep seated values, a great work ethic, an ability to see the long ball, and best of all, he tolerates me and some of my “outbursts”.  He had an Op-Ed in the UL on the 11th and of course, I cannot resist – a fisking.  But given who did it, I’ve toned it down (Merry Christmas, Mike!)

 The NH GOP desperately needs an all-of-the-above strategy

CALL IT a Republican wave election; call it a Republican tsunami; call it a day of reckoning for Democrats all across our country. However, if you are a New Hampshire Republican, you would be fooling yourself to call the 2014 election results anything more favorable than a mixed bag.

And here is where I part company with Mike – but for a different reason.  Actually, as a Conservative TEA Party and a Liberty & Freedom kind of guy, I think it went REAL well.  At the national level Harry Reid has been deposed, the Senate has flipped to the Republicans, the House has added to its Majority – not bad at all.   +2.

At the States level, there are MORE state legislatures and Governors that are Republican than practically forever – 66% of the legislative seats are Rs.  More Republican ideas will be implemented and a lot of them may well return power from higher levels of Govt back to local communities and to Citizens – where it RIGHTLY should belong.  +2

And in NH, Hassan is hamstrung by a majority of R Executive Councilors (and with those that WILL vote with Republican ideals at the ready). +1 I CAN say that the NH Senate has more Rs than last year with an infusion of more Conservatives than last year but I still look at it with jaded eyes – it was, after all, the NH Senate Republicans that bought into Obama’s way of expanding socialized medicine with Expanded Medicaid.  I have great trepidations for the next two years with these Republican Progressives running the Senate  -4.  Hope Jeb Bradley is ready to fork out that extra $100 million out of his own pocket… a Zero.

And while many folks out here were ecstatic over the new Republican majority in the NH House, seeing that Shawn J’ass’per consorted with the Democrats to yank a Doug Scammon out of his arse, many of us aren’t enthusiastic with a Democrat appointed Speaker of the NH House.

OK, Mike, mixed bag.  It could have effectively been better but you know, I remain cautiously optimistic but ONLY if Republicans actually ACT like Republicans on paper – and implement Republican ideals ONLY and not the seemingly infinite “get along to go along / scratch me, scratch you”.

I just think Mike is a bit more sanguine than I about “Winning is merely a precursor; it is what you do AFTERWARDS is what is important“.  To me and many activists, it is that latter clause what makes us stand apart from those merely Establishmentarians that may say that they agree with us but their actions tell us grassroots the second part rarely ma

 Listen up, my fellow Republicans. I want you to do something for me. No, do it for yourself. Repeat after me: “We live in a purple state; we live in a purple state; we live in a…” I know, I know, you get it. However, getting it and actually acting on it are two entirely different things.

I truly believe that if the GOP is going to be successful in New Hampshire, we need to change course and immediately implement an “All-of-the-Above Victory Strategy.” That means we need to include all factions of our party in the rebuilding efforts, treat fellow Republicans with respect, and be willing to make some serious changes to our party’s structure to ensure we can build our grassroots and win elections.

Some of that “include all factions of our party in the rebuilding efforts” happened before the election.  And in one case, really with extremely dismal results and we were treated to the Establishment folks agreeing to support something even as they were actively doing the opposite – they screwed us over knowingly.  They professed solidarity, they agreed to an equalness, Trust was starting to build up, and then you can imagine how we felt when we read what kind of legislation had just been announced from the absolute double-cross they just did to us.  They threw that TRUST out the door and out the window – and laughed.  They made it CLEAR that Trust was only shared among themselves – once again, the grassroots were shown again that we were considered to be “lesser Republicans” – let us Elites make all the major decisions and the power thereof.

NO, Mike – simply doing a “faux show” of inclusiveness ain’t gonna make it anymore.  Up close and VERY personal, we were shown and  told “No, you are not included”.  We approached it very cautiously but slightly optimistically.  Boy, did we get burnt.  And yes, unlike some of our reports, I was personally involved.

I would agree with you, Mike, on building the grassroots but why would I want to do that just to support THEM???

First, I want to be clear, including all factions in the rebuilding of our party does not mean I am asking you to stop believing in the values you hold dear or to stop standing up against things you disagree with. The willingness to allow for a public discussion of the issues is something that sets us apart from the modern Democratic Party, which has become so homogenous that there are almost no competitive primaries or debates on the issues. However, I am suggesting that when you passionately advocate your viewpoints, you treat your fellow Republicans who might disagree with you with the same respect you would expect in return.

In this, I agree with you, Mike – I will not stop believing in our foundational values nor will I stop standing up (in fact, it is ONLY because of a promise I made that I will not release the details of the above until I am released from my promise otherwise *I* would be guilty of the same thing I accuse those Establishmentarian / Progressive Repubs of.  And yes, I AM showing the SAME level of “respect” for them that I (and a goodly number of others) were shown.

Which is to say, in the end, pretty much none at all.  There can be NO discussion because they have already shown that even if that a conclusion is made and an agreement is completed, well, I can’t believe they would carry out that agreement.  I’d always be wondering “Are their fingers crossed behind their backs – permanently”?

 Former Gov. Hugh Gregg was one of the first people to mentor me in the political process. He did so with no agenda or expectation of payback. As a matter of fact, we were typically on opposite sides of many issue and candidate battles during primaries. However, I remember some advice he gave me that I still apply today. He said (and I’m slightly paraphrasing), “Always remember, just because you are working on opposite sides of an issue or campaign of someone today, doesn’t mean you won’t be fighting hand-in-hand with them tomorrow. Try to conduct yourself in a manner that reflects that reality.”

When Republicans treat me the same as Democrats, call people like me in the grassroots the same things that the Democrats do, and act against us like the Democrats, I smell an agenda – you, Mike?  And why would I want to work on ANYTHING with them, no matter the importance, when I would NEVER know if the double-cross was going to happen again?

Fool me once for gaining my Trust, fool me twice and…….er nope, not gonna happen.

And until, Mike, you solve THAT problem, I have no intention of standing anywhere near them.  I may have been used once before – it will not happen again.

We can all use that advice.

As a political operative and strategist, I think you have your hands full with this one.  WE, the grassroots, have too many times offered that Trust only to see it kicked to the curb.  This Party is no closer to being unified than it has been (all happy talk by Jennifer Horn and the others aside).  Oh, that happy talk?  Either they are completely delusional, misguided, or know that they are outright lying.  And yes, I could bring a boatload of folks to THAT discussion!

But Mike, I challenge you with your own words – I know that a while ago you did try a bunch of meetings.  Without malice or snark, how’d that work out, given that you believed you had to write this Op-Ed?  Not so well, I guess.  I would place you as one of the very few here in NH that would have attempted it and perhaps succeeded.  The fact that reality shows that it did not speaks loudly, not of a failure, but of the immense difficulty in doing.  That is, if there is any measure of success at all – one of which I am quite dubious simply because of one thing:

There is no unifying principle or foundation among the “factions”.  None what so ever.  Can’t be when one side is driven by Principles and the other strictly by the acquisition and retention of Power and the Greed to be able to control others.  There is no happy medium, no meeting place, no sidebar – nothing.  And that chasm only grows wider and deeper.

Try.  Try again.  You, I Trust.  But you’d be taking on a heckova challenge.  You up to it?  I’ll be honest in that I’m going to use your own words against you – go ahead, Lead.

While treating each other with respect and allowing for Republicans of varying views to have a seat at the table is important, if we do not begin to make serious changes to our state party’s structure and grassroots investment, we will continue to lose.

Winning is only a precursor; what you do AFTERWARDS is what is important” – there is NO agreement as to what that AFTERWARDS should contain – and I hate to keep harping on it, but there was an agreement as to what an AFTERWARDS was supposed to be and EVEN AS WE WERE TALKING, they were undermining it and headed themselves 180 degrees in the opposite direction.

HOW would you fix that, Mike?  HOW would you keep that from happening again?  Is there any “umpire” in NH that could say “Nope, don’t do that”?  I don’t think so – you?

The first major change must be to move the date of our state primary election. Only three other states in the nation have a state primary as late as ours. Legislation has already been filed, and it is time to come together and move the state primary from September to May or June. The late primary takes the healthy intra-Republican Party debate of ideas and extends it into the general election season. While candidates throughout the rest of the country have moved on to their respective general election opponents, New Hampshire candidates are still fighting against members of their own party.

No, Mike, it is not.  That is merely rearranging the deck chairs just before the stern plunges in.  In fact, while you do have other things below in which I believe you are right, UNTIL YOU FIX THE TRUST FACTOR, all of this remains “much smaller ball” items.  The above and the rest below requires cooperation – there can be nothing accomplished of serious nature without it but that cannot be accomplished until TRUST is built, established, verified, and becomes a long term norm.

And right now, in this environment, that ain’t happening.

That said, I do believe you are right in this must be done.  Sure, “partly” to heal the wounds that can be healed but mostly for the candidates to actually concentrate on their General Election foe.

It is equally important that we begin paying the party chairman, or at the very least come up for a way to infuse some continuity into our party’s operation. Because the New Hampshire GOP’s chief official is a volunteer, New Hampshire Republicans have had absolutely no consistency, which has led to there being little institutional knowledge in the Concord office. Party chairmen come and go every two years. Each new chairman brings in a new set of staff.

While we certainly have had some good executive directors and some good chairmen, their time with us is almost always minimal. If we do not figure out a way to infuse some long-term professionalism and consistency, we are going to continue to struggle.

It is true to a point: we have failed to take our own joke to heart: the eternal campaign.  Problem is, we joke about it but the Dems do it.  “Consistency breeds Trust yields Votes“; the converse also holds true as well.  While I am not in favor of a permanent professional staff, I DO agree that the “here then gone” staff turnover is a substantial problem and some attention should be paid to making longer term offers and situations to the staff that come in – and more out in the field permanently.

But that’s not the only key.

 Once we achieve the goals I outlined above, we can focus on the important task of building a deep grassroots network. We must train homegrown staff and cultivate a strong bench of potential candidates. We need to begin to build long-term relationships with existing donors and start bringing in new ones. By investing early and building up the party’s infrastructure, we would save significant amounts of money on the other end of a campaign cycle when saturation dollars on TV commercials are often wasted.

The real key is this – you’re right, we don’t grow farm teams.  THe NH GOP spends NO time or effort in seeking out good people to run for the town, especially the small villages, to run as Republicans.  One stumbling block was the move to “non-partisan” elections – there is no difference drawn between the ideological differences between the Parties. There are good Republicans that run but they become all but invisible to the Party – and I certainly know of some that say “hey, you don’t care, I don’t either”.  Let’s be truthful – unless you are running in a big city for a local race, you don’t matter.  And maybe not even then.

he flip side is that it is too easy to sneak in as something one is not.  The NH GOP is all too willing to just throw some warm body for the sake of having a body in a race and they must scramble simply because no one is ready so step up.  Why does the Republican Party countenance someone that runs on both sides of the aisle (like Alida Milham did for years (and she pulled Doug Scammons in the County Delegation as well)?  No red flags raised – and endorsing Dems in the General even as Republicans as well and Alan Glassman was going to let that pass until I said something?

It shows that only bodies count – and not what they do AFTERWARDS.

Which leads to the another point – when people can run as something they are not (e.g. we’ve heard of a number of cases of Democrats reregistering as Republicans with a nod of the head and the wink of the eye).  There is no vetting and there is no vouching; worse, there is little discipline in demanding any kind of fealty to Republican ideals at pretty much anytime.  Frankly, I’m not all that happy in seeing Republicans voting more in line with Dems and the Party goes “We’re helpless!”.

While it is a difficult pill to swallow, and even harder for me to say, our party in New Hampshire seems to be playing a short game that lasts from cycle to cycle while the Democrats are thinking many elections ahead. Their strategic planning allows them to see the whole field, build their grassroots, and implement a better operation to suit their goals.

It shouldn’t be hard to say at all – it really rather obvious to those that are willing to walk around with eyes wide open and not just being “Republican Republicans for the sake of the Republican Party” and saying “our crap don’t stink” at any time.

You know, like Jake Wagner, the former Chair of the College Republicans – “Republican FOREVER” – until he suddenly switched to being a Democrat.

To be blunt, while we Republicans might offer better ideas,

We do – but we seem to do more talking than actually implementing. Medicaid Expansion, anyone?  Gas Tax anyone?  Silencing political speech anyone?

the New Hampshire Democratic Party is far more advanced with its consistent infrastructure and superior grassroots investments.

Yep

The Republican ground game has gotten better over the years, and I give a lot of credit to the current team in Concord, but there is much more room for improvement.

Our mutual friend once said that it was the small groups within NH that oft would hold the power going forward.  Mike, remember that in 2010, he turned out to be prescient?  And again in 2014, we saw it again in outcomes that may NOT have please the “we’re only interested in winning” Republicans.  In a number of cases, they were much more intense, much more motivated, and plain outworked the Rs.  Yes, those candidates made huge mistakes that alienated the voters that those candidates believed they didn’t need.

They chose poorly.

In this, the NH GOP had better learn to play nicer with those outside the Party that would be naturally aligned with Party.  But given the out right disdain and chauvinism shown to them, instead of being helpful, they sit on their hands (at best).  In districts that victories can be mere handfuls of votes, once again we see the NH GOP propensity to ALWAYS be in charge and, at that, only a few within the NH GOP being in charge.

Winning won’t be easy in a purple state, but it is very doable and is going to take the willingness to embrace an “All-of-the-Above Victory Strategy.” I truly believe the New Hampshire Republican Party has the ideas, talent and effort to be successful, but we must make structural changes to see the results at the ballot box.

Mike Biundo of Manchester, co-founder of RightOn Strategies, was national campaign manager for Rick Santorum’s 2012 presidential campaign. He is chief New England strategist for RANDPAC, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul’s political action committee.

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