12 Things New RNC Chairman Reince Priebus Needs to Do Right Now
The new elected Republican National Committee (RNC) Reince Priebus holds up a gavel after winning the post during the Republican National Committee Winter Meeting, Friday, Jan. 14, 2011in Oxon Hill, Md. (AP)
The Republican
National Committee's leadership chose their
Party's new leader last week. Wisconsin state
Republican Chairman Reince Priebus will serve
for the next two years.
On January 4 I wrote a piece for Fox News
Opinion called "Steele Does Not Have The Mettle
To Remain As RNC Chair." In that piece, I
accurately predicted how the RNC chairman's race
would play out.
It took seven rounds of voting before Priebus
was able to secure the 85 votes out of 168 votes
necessary to secure the chairmanship. He led
every round of voting.
In the first round incumbent chairman Michael Steele was able to secure only 44 votes and thereafter in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th round of voting Steele's support began to fade fast and after the 4th round of voting having only secured 28 votes Steele dropped out throwing his support to GOP veteran operative Maria Cino, the candidate supported by Speaker Boehner. -- Boehner¹s support however was not enough for Cino to surge and she lost, coming in third in a field of three in the final 7th round of voting.
The other candidates Saul Anuzis the former
Michigan State Chairman and Ann Wagner a former
RNC co-chairwoman never caught fire and Wagner
dropped out after the 6th round while Anuzis
stuck it out to the end winding up with a mere
43 votes.
Who is Reince Prebus? He is a 38-year-old lawyer
who has an impressive record in Wisconsin in
leading the
Republican Party to victories this past
election cycle. He most recently was the General
Counsel of the RNC. As Wisconsin state chairman
he was able to raise money and create a battle
plan that was able to defeat democratic
incumbent U.S. Senator
Russ Feingold, return the Governorship to
the GOP and was able to pick up two House seats.
He is seen as humble, effective and a bottom-line business minded executive.
Not only that but Prebus has demonstrated that he's interested in the best results at the lowest cost. This is what he said after he was elected as chairman of the Republican National Committee:
"Together we can defeat Barack Obama in 2012 -- together, unified as a committee," he went on to state, "We're going to start by putting a solid business plan in place to operate effectively and efficiently, to begin to restore the faith of our donors."
What does the new chairman need to do? Here are
several immediate priorities I respectfully
suggest that RNC Chairman Priebus should do to
get the RNC's house in order:
1. Take a full and complete assessment of the
staff and their mission;
2. Appoint a Finance co-chairmain who is
respected and has the ability to raise the
necessary funds needed to rebuild the Party's
coffers and amass the funds needed for 2012;
3. Appoint to the level of co-chairman a
technology guru who can revolutionize the way
the RNC uses current and new technologies with
an emphasis on registration, fundraising, voter
outreach, mining, targeting and information
providing. Raising a technologically-skilled man
or woman to the level of co-chairman will signal
how important technology is to the party;
4. Hire a top executive headhunter who can build
an office within the RNC to identify talent from
around the country to run for office and be
worthy of national support. Just like sports
teams who employ talent scouts the RNC should
have a scouting office constantly looking for,
attracting and supporting political talent.
--Today's effective mayor today could be
tomorrow's next U.S. Senator. All state Party
chairmen should be involved in identifying,
fostering and supporting future leaders;
5. Undertake a full and complete audit and
assessment of the current RNC payroll and
budget;
6. Hire a well-respected and effective Chief
Operating Officer with the mission to run the
RNC like a business. The emphasis should be on
building a lean, mean and effective entity that
is results oriented in every department;
7. Create a 5-year business plan. The vision of
the new chairman must extend beyond his own 2
year tenure. For the RNC to be successful it
must be as effective between election cycles as
it is during election cycles;
8. Announce a 2012 Convention Team as soon as
possible. This will allow the best possible
planning, budgeting, fundraising and contracting
well in advance of the convention;
9. Create a close and integrated relationship
with all state party chairs with specific
attention geared toward "battleground" states;
10. Hire a first class communications team that will develop, coordinate and disseminate the RNC message;
11. Review all outside consultant contracts;
12. Get to work
now
on your 2012 battle plan. Be sure to take into
account a full assessment of what was done in
2004, 2008 and 2010. What worked? What didn't?
What needs to be done differently or better?
The new RNC Chair will be given a wide berth to
retool, restaff and reclaim the Republican
National Committee to an effective and
well-respected party organization.
Chairman Priebus must not allow himself to get
bogged down in issues that take his focus away
from the immediate tasks at hand. The RNC's
immediate problems are not in ideology they are
in operations. And, the time is now is the time
for bold, effective and respected leadership.
Bradley A. Blakeman served as deputy assistant
to President
George W. Bush from 2001-04. He is currently
a professor of Politics and Public Policy at
Georgetown University and a frequent contributor
to Fox News Opinion.