Setting Up a Town Committee
1. Holding the Organizing Caucus
The organization of a town committee is the key to starting out successfully and maintaining success for all future endeavors. If you have been appointed as an acting town chairperson, either by your county chair, or by state headquarters, the following information will be helpful. If you are an elected chair, this should be a good rev
iew and should clarify any questions that you may have about the town committee election process. According to the Republican bylaws, a committee must have a caucus every two years, which is to be held in January. To call your organization’s meeting, you must disclose a public notice at least ten days in advance of your meeting. This can be done through an ad in your local newspapers and/or a posting at your town office. In order to have a quorum, at least ten registered Republicans must be present. This is best accomplished with a well-advertised speaker. Call State Headquarters to find out more about the Republican Speaker's Bureau, which is an excellent source for finding guest speakers. Have people sign in with their names and addresses, and then appoint someone as the temporary clerk whose duty will be to keep simple minutes. After calling the meeting to order (with someone appointed as temporary chairperson), officers for the committee must be elected. The most important elected officers are the Chairperson, the Treasurer (to handle dues and/or fundraising), and the Team Victory Coordinator. Electing an Assistant Chairperson and a Secretary is optional, because many towns will not have large enough memberships to necessitate filling these positions. In many towns, the Chairperson also serves as the Team Victory Coordinator; this position need not be separate. After electing officers, you must then adopt bylaws. A sample set is presented in Appendix B. It is strongly suggested that you use these as a guideline. Local Republican officers are encouraged to become involved in primaries and are usually not prohibited from involvement with the campaign or the candidates of their choice. It is for each committee, however, to decide policy on this. These bylaws do not need to be rewritten for every term, yet they must be readopted at every biennial caucus. Once the caucus has been held and officers have been elected, this information should be sent to the local newspaper for publication (see Appendix A), just as was done to announce the caucus. This information must also be given to the Republican State Committee Headquarters in Concord, so that the information is properly filed.
2. Holding Meetings
Once your committee is in place and functional, you may hold meetings as often as you like. It is only necessary, however, to hold two meetings during the course of a year. The first of these will be the caucus that was discussed earlier. The second meeting can be a simple social event. This can be an event such as a barbecue, family picnic, or even a dinner. You may also want to look into hosting a speaker or a special guest, either someone known locally or on the state level (the Speaker's Bureau is a great resource). Social events are useful because they attract a more diverse group of people. The event's purpose is to get local Republicans together in a relaxed atmosphere. It is also a great tool for recruiting new members and increasing the visibility of the organization. Additional meetings can be used to discuss issues, set up your voter registration drives, recruit candidates, and make campaign and Election Day plans. Section B. The Role of the Town Committee
1. Voter Identification Project
It is important for Town Committees to participate in the Voter Identification Project, which consists mainly of volunteer phone banks. Volunteers will call independent voters and identify their positions on certain issues. This will be further explained under the Victory Plan portion of this manual.
2. New Voter Registration - "Welcome to the Neighborhood"
As part of its "Welcome to the Neighborhood" program, the New Hampshire Republican State Committee sends a letter to people who have recently moved into the state, welcoming them and encouraging them to register to vote as Republicans. The list will be provided to Committees for follow-up. This program is explained in detail on page 9 of the manual.
3. Assistance with the Voter Checklist Project
In order to ensure that lists of voters are current, it is necessary for committees to collect voter histories and voter file updates after elections. Once collected from the town halls (either by mail or in person), the State Committee will compile the data to update the lists. It is important to co-ordinate this collection process with the State Committee and local committees to avoid duplication of efforts. Checklists are available on paper or on disk and cost no more than $25.00 per voting ward or town. There may be an additional charge for voter history. Once updated, the voter file will be made available to County Committees through Voter Vault, an online program
4. Rapid Response Team
Early on, identify ten people who will help you deliver the Republican message upon short notice. Read the "Letters to the Editor" section of the newspaper in your area. Become familiar with the kinds of letters that are likely to be printed and the maximum length of the letters that they will accept. Make note of the editor's name and address. Make a list of every call-in radio talk show in your area and keep the phone numbers for those programs with you at all times. Notify the Republican State Committee immediately of any pertinent letters or radio shows so that we can assist with your preparation. Mail them to 10 Water Street, Concord, NH 03301, fax them to (603) 225-7498 or email [email protected]
5. Monitoring the Opposition
It is always wise to monitor the Democratic Party's activities (and other parties). Try to keep up-to-date on their activities in your area. Fax or send press clippings from local newspapers regarding prominent elected Democrats to the above-mentioned address.
6. Supporting Our Republican Elected Officials
It is crucial for Committees to help elected Republican officials and to serve as a resource for them. Committees should help Republican candidates during the campaign cycle as well as helping with on-going tasks such as letters to the editor and town hall meetings.
7. Primary Election Activity
Town committees do not have an extensive official role during the primary campaigns. This time, however, can be well spent by preparing work for the Republican ticket during the general election. Recruiting volunteers is one of the ways to prepare the committee, as they are an invaluable resource to all campaigns. It is also an excellent time to begin coordinating with the State Committee's Team Victory strategies and activities for the post primary campaign era. As noted earlier, officers may become involved individually with a certain campaign, but the town committee should never endorse a particular candidate when there is more than one Republican running. It is important to remember that after the primary, the Party must unite behind its candidate.
8. General Election Activity - Team Victory
The town committee plays its most important role during the general election campaign and the committees are organized for this very purpose. You may want to hold numerous meetings during this time. The second section of this guide will offer ideas on what can be done to elect more Republicans. Your group will be working with the County and State Committees during this period. Section C. Legal Requirements of Town Committees
1. Filing with the Secretary of State
Town Committees that raise or spend five hundred dollars or more during a calendar year are required to send documentation of donations and expenditures to the Secretary of State. This report must include the name and address of anyone who contributes more than one hundred dollars. This must also include an itemized report of all expenditures. For report filing dates, inquire at the Secretary of State's office. (www.nh.gov/sos)
2. Filing with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC)
According to the FEC regulations, a town committee must file if it meets the following criteria:
a. Receives contributions or has expenditures (or any combination thereof) of over one thousand dollars per year to federal candidates. Spends over five thousand dollars per year for exempt Party activities which influence federal elections that are exempt from the definition of contribution expenditures. Receives over five thousand dollars per year in contributions - funds given for the purpose of influencing a federal election. Within ten days of exceeding any one of the above thresholds, a local committee must file a registration form. There are substantial penalties for not filing or not filing correctly. If your town committee raises and spends more than one thousand dollars, please contact the State Committee so that we can help determine whether or not filing is necessary.
3. Registering with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
Many town committees in the past have used the social security number of their treasurer when opening their bank accounts. This should not be done. Each town committee should register with the IRS as a political organization and apply for an employer identification number for banking purposes. Part II --GOING THE EXTRA MILE
Section A. Local Chairperson's Checklist
If you have recently been elected as chairperson of your local party, you may feel it is time to reassess your organization. You also may want to gauge your organization’s effectiveness. In either case, the following list of questions will help you to evaluate your local party, its organization, and its effectiveness. Please take the time to go through each question. Answer each question with an open mind; be honest with yourself and remain committed to achieving excellence for your organization. After you assess the status of your party operation, the remaining chapters in this manual will help improve the programs or functions requiring your attention. First, you must make the commitment to do better. After all, the goal of all local party organizations is to elect more Republicans to office. It takes a lot of dedication, improvement and hard work, but it can be done…and there is no better time to start than now. Here is the checklist:
• If you have just been elected, have you notified the Republican State Committee in writing?
• How much money does your committee have in the bank?
• Who actually signs the checks?
• How are spending decisions made?
• How much money was raised last year?
• Were any fundraising events held? If yes: Were ticket prices for the events high enough to justify the work in selling the tickets?
• Was any fundraising direct mail sent out last year? If yes: How often? Was it successful?
• Does your organization have any major donor clubs? If yes: Have they been successful?
• Was a fundraising telemarketing program tried?
• Are enough people involved in your fundraising effort? Whether yes or no: Are the right people involved in your fundraising effort?
• Are there clear rules governing the agenda and the rules under which these meetings must be run?
• Are you a parliamentarian, familiar with the rules of order governing these meetings?
• How often does the party committee meet? Is it enough?
• How do the local media view the local party? Opinion leaders? Voting public?
• Is there a regular newsletter to party workers and volunteers?
• Do you have a good relationship with members of the local working press?
• Have you ever made a public statement on local, state or national policy?
• Have you ever issued a public statement pointing out where the Democrats have made a mistake-either as officeholders or during a campaign?
• Which programs will the state party execute this year? What is the local party's role in them?
• How will the state party program change what the local party can or should be doing?
• Who is responsible for writing the Team Victory campaign plan for the local party?
• Who is responsible for writing the Election Day plan for the local party?
• Who approves the plan for the local party?
• Who is responsible for executing the plan?
• What part of last year's plan needs to be changed?
• What part of last year's plan should be left alone?
• What part of last year's plan was well intentioned but poorly executed?
• How can future plans be improved?
• How are the party's bylaws adopted? Planning for Victory - Team Victory Plan
1. Why Have a Team Victory Plan? Writing and adopting a Team Victory plan is always a good idea. Planning helps to avoid wasted time and money. Once your committee has a clear plan of action, less effort is wasted on non-essential projects. A plan tells you what not to do. Equally as important in clarifying what needs to be accomplished, a plan also stops you from becoming overwhelmed with the mundane. A plan forces you and your organization to agree upon goals. Because you have to write your goals down for approval, your operation can see what you are doing and you can forge agreement on the Party's direction. Although painful at the time, this arbitration and consensus building will pay dividends in increased enthusiasm and responsibility. If everyone understands the direction of the party, there will be less need for constant supervision. A plan gives you a means to handle dissention. Because the leaders of your operation have to sign off on the plan, they will have a greater stake in seeing that the plan succeeds. If parts of your organization attempt to stray off in other directions, you can remind them that they are obliged to stick with the program. Finally, a plan allows you to measure progress. You can see what you have tried to accomplish, how much you have done, and what else remains unfinished. The plan assists you in setting deadlines and forcing people to meet them. It is a very valuable management tool.
2. Writing a Team Victory Plan
When should you write it? The best time to write your plan is the year prior to the election. If you do not have a Campaign and Election Day plan, start writing one immediately. Every organization should have clearly defined goals and objectives as well as a plan by which they will be reached. Successful organizations have a plan or strategy. A Victory Plan will also help you to evaluate your committee’s progress from year to year and will help you keep track of what works and what does not. If you are in the middle of a crisis or the election is next month, adopt an interim plan to carry you through this period. Arrange to map out a permanent plan when the activity decreases and you can concentrate on your project.
3. The Components of a Team Victory Plan
A Team Victory plan can and should be broken down into smaller components. It can be short – one or two pages. An ideal plan should contain the following items: a. A Local Profile: Why do you need this? You and your Republican activists are familiar with your area and ought to know what is politically significant. There is often much information about local politics, but very little agreement about what is significant. Writing the local profile forces you and your committee to reach agreement on these points. It also helps the County and State Committees understand what is going on in your town. The local profile should be a summary of the demographic, political, and economic characteristics of your area. What is the voter breakdown between parties? What percentage of each party voted in the last election? What were the major local issues that defined the elections? Party Goals: The second step in developing a Team Victory plan is to establish goals. In its most basic form, a political plan is simply a statement of goals and how you hope to achieve them. You need to establish goals that reflect the resources available to you. While it is important to be ambitious, it is also important to be realistic. It will be a major frustration if the party has a great year and makes major strides forward, but you don’t reach any of your goals. At worst, unrealistic goals will discourage your workers and volunteers. Remember that progress in politics is relative. If you do better this year than the last, the GOP and America will be better off. It is vital that you define success in your goals. Success for your organization is not only a function of what you would like to become but also of what you have been. For instance, electing one additional member to the County Commission this year may not give the GOP control of that body, but it could be a major step towards future control. Finally, it is important to remember that elections are why political parties exist. All your efforts must, in the short and long term, be measured by your organization's ability to maximize the Republican vote in your area. Here again, success is relative. Your goal may be to win 40 percent of the vote in some areas, an improvement over last year. That is fine if the difference between receiving 40 percent and getting 35 percent in those precincts is the margin a Republican candidate needs to win his/her district. Voter Identification: Voter identification is the process of contacting independent voters to identify their positions on certain targeted issues. It can then be determined which independent voters may vote Republican on certain issues. New Hampshire has over 260,000 independent voters; it is important to focus on turning out the vote of likely Republican leaning voters. The State Committee can provide phone or walk lists to identify independent voters. d. New Voter Registration - "Welcome to the Neighborhood": Depending upon where you live, some 20 to 35 percent of the adults in your area are not registered to vote. With many elections decided by less than a percentage point or two, registering more Republican voters should be a priority of all local Republican Party offices. Recent studies have exploded the myth that Republicans register at a higher rate than do Democrats. The truth is that the unregistered public holds views about politics similar to registered people. Whatever the percentage, we know that there is plenty of fertile territory out there for the GOP registration efforts. There are many ways of conducting a voter registration program. A good GOP voter registration method meets these three criteria:
1. It registers more Republicans than Democrats.
2. It does not eat up resources unnecessarily.
3. It registers a significant number of new voters. According to New Hampshire law, residents must register to vote in person at their town clerk's office or on election day at the polls. Proper identification is required along with proof of residency. New Hampshire residents cannot register to vote by mail. Through the State Committee's voter registration plan, all new state residents are mailed a welcoming letter encouraging them to register to vote Republican. The Committee makes this list available to County and City Republican Committees. These Committees are encouraged to call these residents to follow up with them. No new program will work perfectly, but trying your best will ensure a successful program. The best program will register a significant number of Republicans, yet use the minimal amount of resources as possible to get the job done. Before you begin your voter registration efforts, learn the law regarding registration. Every state has different laws, and some are very restrictive. Find out what you can do, and what you cannot. A list of NH laws is provided in Appendix C. Here are some of the questions you should find answers to:
• When does registration open and close?
• What are the requirements for registering to vote?
• Who can register to vote?
• Where do people go to register to vote?
• How are the voter lists purged? Now that you understand the law and the limitations that the law sets on your voter registration program, you must find unregistered GOP-oriented people and get them registered. e. Planning for the Final 72 Hours: On Election Day, it is imperative to get as many of the identified Republicans and Independents as possible to vote. This is accomplished by having poll checkers and other get out the vote activities. The responsibility of the poll checkers is to make sure that as the voters come into the polling station, they are identified as having voted according to a targeted list given to the towns by the State Committee. A simple "X" on the list after the person has voted is enough for the party to know who has voted so we can then recognize who has not voted and get them to do so. Runners will come around at various times of the day to pick up the list so that those targeted voters can be called. Poll checking is a very important part of a winning strategy and the importance of it should not be overlooked. Poll checking is effective and should be a priority for the committee on Election Day. Get-Out-the Vote is a uniquely crucial part of your voter contact program. Republicans cannot win elections if our supporters do not vote. Conversely, Republicans have won elections many times because our supporters turned out to vote at a higher rate than Democrats did. Many elections are decided in the final 72 hours. When planning for these final 72 hours, you must first develop the list of names to be contacted and urged to vote. i. Deciding Who to Contact
Naturally, your voter canvass - either by phone or by foot - is the best source for these names. In the course of the campaign your workers will find every voter they possibly can that is favorable to your GOP candidates. These are the targets of your GOTV efforts. State headquarters can provide you with a list as well. ii. Volunteer Phone Banks
The theory behind volunteer phone banks is that a reminder call on or before Election Day will improve turnout. Various GOP groups have tested this theory and have discovered that these calls can improve GOP voter turnout by as much as 10%. Before you can begin to plan a phone bank canvass, you will have to decide on what your goals are for the phone bank. Many phone banks are set up without a clear idea of what they are trying to accomplish. With some political organizations, a phone bank has become such a common practice that no one questions its purpose or utility. You should do so. Phone banks use up valuable time and money, which are always in short supply. By their very nature, phone banks are versatile. By simply changing the script, you can change a voter identification phone bank into a Get-Out-the-Vote operation. By calling at different hours you can increase the number of calls completed. The only limit to a phone bank is the quality of your lists, the time available and the number of people making the calls. Unfortunately, time is an unrelenting enemy. If your phone bank operation is not well planned, structured, and goal oriented, you will run out of time before your work is completed. If you are going to install phones for your canvassing operations, here are some helpful hints to make your phone bank run more smoothly:
1. Always have one phone dedicated to the use of the phone bank administrator. This phone is used to follow up with volunteers and receive any incoming calls.
2. If possible, always have someone in charge of the phone bank. If you can afford it, pay someone to be there every night to make sure that the phone bank meets its goals.
3. Make sure that you tabulate the number of calls completed and the results of the calls at the end of every calling day. That way you can keep track of progress and won't panic unnecessarily.
4. Keep the scripts as simple and as natural as possible. Try them out yourself before asking your volunteers to try them. You may discover some tongue twisters.
5. Always recruit more volunteers than you need. Some always fail to show. If you have more volunteers than you need, you can rotate and give people a break periodically.
6. If you want good voter identification information, you must make sure that your questionnaire/script is as non-partisan as possible. If people know that you are calling for a specific candidate, they may just tell you that they support him.
7. Always conduct a training session for your volunteers. It will give them more confidence and improve the quality and speed of their calling.
8. Always say thank you. You should stop by the phone bank and say thanks, as should the candidates that will benefit from the program.
9. Reward your best volunteers publicly. This will keep them coming back for more. iii. Mailings
Mailings are another method of GOTV. However, be careful about postal
delivery. Even the best post offices sometimes deliver mail a day or two late. With GOTV mail, a late mailing is wasted money and possibly an election lost. iv. Door-to-Door Activities - Team Victory Squads
Team Victory squads are teams of mobile volunteers who knock on the doors of favorable voters and urge them to vote. If no one is home, they leave a door hanger. The best results are obtained when each team has a car and a driver that can take the voter to the polls. Using this method, party or campaign volunteers walk down every street, knock on every door and ask the voters a battery of questions and/or deliver a pro-Republican message. Canvassing in this manner is most productive, particularly in persuading voters to cast their ballots for our candidates. However, it is very time intensive and puts a tremendous strain on volunteer resources. National pollsters like Gallup and Harris use door-to-door methods for conducting their political surveys. This is because they can get better data by looking people in the face and insuring that they are not only talking to the right people, but that the answers are truthful. Also, people are willing to talk to a friendly person at their doorstep longer than they would to an anonymous voice over the phone. Door-to-door canvassing can also be an effective tool of voter persuasion. A neighbor asking for your vote has much more punch than someone you don't know asking for a vote over the phone. Door-to-door canvassing reinforces the good image of the Republican Party, as well as reminding people that we are a part of their community. A good door-to-door canvass represents neighbors talking to other neighbors about the values that they share. Finally, even though door-to-door canvassing is labor intensive, it does not have to be expensive. A volunteer-rich local party can conduct extensive canvassing for the cost of the materials and gasoline. v. Rides to the Polls
A traditional activity for local parties is providing transportation to the polls. This can be very effective, and even more productive if linked with the phone bank or the Team Victory squads. vi. Ensuring Ballot Integrity
After the votes are cast, there is little that you can do about election trickery. Rarely have fraudulent votes been discarded after the election. Fraud has to be prevented on Election Day in the polling place. The only people who can do that are those physically in the polling place. That is why it is so important to make sure that every polling place has its legal limit of GOP election officials (legal counsel) and poll watchers. To be effective, your ballot integrity program must operate continuously. You need to recruit enough workers so that the polling places are covered all day - from before the polls open until the votes are tabulated and certified. That usually means you will need at least two people for each position that you need to fill. f. Supporting Candidates and Candidate Recruitment:
i. Supporting Candidates
As a local party organization, your biggest, most expensive program may be the services that you plan to offer candidates running in your area. Will you actually run the campaigns, including paid media for your candidates, or will you only perform activities that will encourage Republican voters to get out and vote? The answers will lead you to decide what programs you need to implement. Here is a listing of some of the programs that you might want to consider:
a.) Forming a Recruitment Committee
b.) Fundraising Dinners for Local Candidates
c.) Forming a Finance Committee
d.) Party Slate Mailings
e.) Forming a Young Republicans Club
f.) Precinct Leaders Training Conference
g.) Candidate's Night for Primary Candidates
h.) Building a Candidate Contribution Fund
i.) Ballot Integrity
j.) Survey Research
The only limit to this list is your imagination and your organization's resources. You probably can't do everything and some tough decisions will need to be made. In politics, it is usually better to do a few things well than many things badly. A good method for making these tough decisions is to list all of the programs that your committee has performed in the past. Then list the new programs that you would like to try. The next step is to attempt to put these projects into some kind of priority order. This ensures that you have the commitment and resources to fulfill your goals. Assessing the District
The first step in the recruitment process is understanding the district. This requires doing a basic voting district analysis, understanding the demographic profile of the district, and understanding how its citizens make a living. If you have developed a political plan, you have probably already done most of the tough work. Why is it important to analyze the district first?
• One of the keys to candidate recruitment is convincing the potential candidate that he/she can win. To do this, you must demonstrate previous Republican candidates' electoral success in that particular district.
• The results of your electoral analysis frequently suggest which part of the district the ideal candidate should call home.
• Understanding the demographics of the district and how its residents make a living will help you locate attractive candidates.
• In researching the area, you will learn the names of community leaders who might possibly be good candidates. Many of these leaders will not be political people or elected officials, but people who command respect in other areas of community life. Assessing the Opponent
In recruiting a candidate to run against a Democratic incumbent, you must first attempt to demonstrate that the incumbent is vulnerable. You must show that the electorate has credible reasons to vote against the opponent. Demonstrate in clear and compelling terms the message and issues that can be powerfully asserted by a Republican candidate to beat the opponent. Survey research on the Democrat can be a powerful recruiting tool. If analyzed properly, you can use it to show which themes and messages can be used to defeat the incumbent. It is very difficult to answer a potential candidate's fundamental questions about how he/she can win the campaign without doing at least some opposition research on the opponent. For a start, look for the “six deadly sins” that good opposition and opponent research can find. Specifically, has the opponent done any of the following:
• Voted to raise taxes;
• Raised salaries for himself/herself or taken other excessive perks of the
office;
• Missed too many votes or other easy measures of non-performance;
• Recently moved into the district – “a carpetbagger” (not generally effective
against an incumbent);
• Taken no action on an important and/or an emotional issue; and
• Repeated any of the above offenses. Defining the Ideal Candidate
The term ideal candidate is a misnomer; no candidate is truly ideal. The term ideal suggests that there is only one satisfactory type of Republican candidate, which is simply not the case. As a party, our strength should be in the diversity of Republicans running for elected office. Defining the ideal candidate simply helps us focus on the most important characteristics a candidate needs to possess in order to be successful in a specific situation. The ideal candidate combines two qualities: generic skills that are helpful whenever the candidate runs, and specific skills that fit the district and this campaign. The generic skills incorporate the ability to withstand the emotional rigors of the campaign, to develop a core of support, to motivate people, to ask for money and to be solidly dedicated to winning the campaign. The ideal candidate also reflects the district and the specific campaign situation. In other words, based on candidates’ qualities, demographic characteristics, opposition research, and survey research, this candidate matches the district make-up well and/or provides a strong contrast to the opponent. A candidate whose strengths present a good contrast to the incumbent can be an ideal candidate. For instance, if the district is heavily blue collar but the incumbent is a white collar professional, you may want to look at recruiting a candidate that would resonate well with voters on blue collar issues. Encouraging Candidates to Run
Supporting candidate recruitment may mean providing a package of services which a potential candidate can use during the campaign. Many candidates have said that a reason that they decided to run was that people and resources existed to help them. The Republican Party has an obligation to marshal its people and its resources to fully support candidate recruitment efforts. It is difficult to help a candidate resolve fundamental issues about the impact of running upon his/her family and career. Here are some steps that should be followed to convince a potential candidate that he/she should run:
1. Focus on selling the candidate on the merits and importance of the office;
2. Explain what the benefits of running will have on his/her career;
3. Explain how important it is to the party - if the candidate is a party activist - that a good candidate runs for this seat;
4. Defend his/her ability to win;
5. Demonstrate the broad support in the political community for his/her candidacy. One Tip: If a candidate promises to decide by a certain date and does not, the odds of him/her running drop dramatically. After a certain point, people really don't need more time to decide if they really want to run. Create a mini campaign to help get the prospective candidate over the hump of interest to a final commitment. Stay in close touch and mobilize members of the candidate’s decision-making circle and the political community to support your efforts. Find out who the prospective candidate will consult before making the decision, and then present your positive views to as many of these people as possible. Develop a realistic and focused campaign to answer the candidate’s concerns and questions. Let the candidate’s peers sell the attributes of the office. If possible, have elected GOP officials call the potential candidate and urge him/her to run. A call from the governor or a congressman or the party chairman may tip the scales. Most people are susceptible to flattery. Many times, the primary hesitation of first time candidates is simply a feeling of being overwhelmed about getting started. What may strike the experienced political activist as fairly basic first steps in being a candidate may appear daunting for a first time candidate? The local GOP Party should consider specifically adopting a set of support services that helps make the first entry into politics as hassle-free as possible. Help the candidate by establishing the criteria for making the decision and by selecting a date by which a decision must be made. It is not helpful to leave this process open for an extended period of time. Do not forget that many state laws allow the creation of an exploratory committee prior to a final decision being made. The final frustration is your limited insight and contact with the two most critical factors in the decision: family and career. Accordingly, don’t worry if you lose candidates due to one of these factors. g. Budget: The expenditure budget should be a financial picture of the political
plan. The budget represents the cost of doing the activities that you have outlined in
your plan. Include in the budget any money that has been designated for candidate support, party building, overhead, etc. Be sure to include the cost of raising the money. When your budget is complete, prepare a cash-flow chart to guide your fundraising activities. If you know when the money must be spent, you will know the deadlines that your finance committee must meet. Again, be sure to coordinate with the state party and any other campaigns or candidate organizations to avoid duplication of efforts. There is no reason to spend money that someone else will spend for you. There may also be ways that you can use the state party's facilities or programs to save money. Obviously, the programs that you listed earlier in the plan are going to cost you money; their costs should be included in your budget. h. Fundraising Plan: Now that you've prepared the budget, you must decide how the
money will be raised. The fundraising plan should be prepared by the chairman
and any other major money people in your operation. The finance plan should be
workable, attainable and detailed. Why People Give As you develop your fundraising plan, it is important to understand why people give (and why they do not) to political organizations:
Personal Relationships: They have a personal relationship with local party leaders, local candidates, officeholders or members of the finance committee. Reward: They want to demonstrate an appreciation and support for the efforts and/or policies of the party. Habit: They regularly contribute to political causes or organizations. Access: They want to establish an opportunity for their opinion to be heard. Policy: They want to see specific policies enacted. Philosophy: They agree with the philosophy of the Republican Party. The best fundraisers are people who know lots of people in many different industries and walks of life. Person to Person Solicitation
One-on-one solicitation is the most cost-effective way to raise money. You will probably do much of it yourself, and you will help others learn to be good at it as well. It is well worth your time to practice soliciting money from people. If done correctly, one-on-one fundraising is the best method of raising fairly large sums of money quickly. Major Donors
Establishing a major donor club or several different finance clubs is an effective
method to utilize your finance committee to raise money. Be sure that requests to major donors do not overlap from various parts of the committee for the same request. Events
Events can be very beneficial and raise significantly large funds. The key to a successful fundraising event is to understand why you are holding the event. Because the purpose of a fundraising event is to raise money, you must clearly establish your priorities and set your ticket prices in accordance with this crucial purpose. Direct Mail
Direct mail fundraising is an effective way to reach a broad base of contributors. If done effectively, direct mail can raise a substantial portion of your organization's budget. Direct mail requires a great deal of planning and follow-up to ensure its success. Direct mail falls into three categories:
a.) Donors: Individuals who have contributed to the local party in the past. A substantial amount of money can be raised from repeat donors. Donor mail should be as personalized as you can afford. b.) Suspects: Donors to other candidates or political organizations. c.) Prospects: People who may give if approached correctly, but who have never given to the party before. The key to all direct mail success is the list that you use. No matter how good the letter or the signature on it, if the list isn't good, your efforts and the money that you spent on it will have been wasted. Timeline/Calendar: Put all of your activities on a calendar and, working backward
from events and deadlines, fill in the preparatory activities needed for each event. For instance, if you are hosting a fundraising dinner, write in the deadline for finding a chairman for the event, printing the tickets, renting the banquet hall, etc. If you do this for each major activity, you'll be less likely to miss deadlines. Use the calendar to see what activities should be completed by what dates. Break the plan into several smaller pieces and recruit people to manage various parts of the plan. By delegating authority and monitoring progress, you can insure that the plan is implemented on time and on budget. Some items will be a one-time charge. Others will be due each month, like the phone bill. Total up the monthly expenditures to see the minimum you'll have to raise each month. Do the same for your fundraising budget. Then compare your expenditures to your fundraising timelines to insure that you will have the money when you will need it. Your plan may not contain all of these elements, but you should consider each of the topics mentioned. Communications
1. Determining Your Communications Role
You are an important part of your community. No matter what the status of the
GOP is in your area, you present a large number of citizens with common concerns and shared values, but often no voice. You can be that voice. As an important representative of a large community of interest, what you say is news. Don’t forget that, even though local reporters might. There is a media role for a party chairman to fill. It is up to you to decide what the role is. If you are uncomfortable dealing with the local media, you may want to appoint someone on your party committee as media spokesman for your organization. Ideally the party chairman should be articulate, comfortable dealing with the working press, and usually available for comment when the media calls. If you are reliable, the press will call frequently and begin thinking of you as a steady news source. Don’t worry if you are inexperienced; working with the media is an acquired skill. Practice will ensure your perfection of this skill. You will do much better with reporters if you rehearse before a media event. With the availability of cameras, you should easily be able to acquire one for this purpose. Practicing in front of a camera will improve your appearance in front of the real media. Have a group of friends or volunteers question you like reporters would. This will also help prepare you for the media. Never go before the media without a firm idea of what you are going to say and what you want to get out of your appearance.
2. What Is Earned Media? Earned media is indicative of its name. It is the process of earning positive press coverage through events, rallies, press releases, etc. Earned media is a way to make news and gain publicity for your party organization without having a lot of money to pay for it. Unlike television and radio commercials, newspaper ads, direct mail, bumper stickers, and billboards, a successful earned media program requires little money. Earned media is not “free”; it requires aggressiveness, time, and hard work.
3. Why Is Earned Media Important? Firstly, media coverage gives you a degree of credibility and believability not obtainable from paid advertising. Studies show that the public believes what they read in the newspapers and what they hear on the news. They have less faith in advertising. Information relayed by a supposedly unbiased reporter is believed while an advertisement with the same content is dismissed as “just the usual political rhetoric”. Secondly, the cost of paid media is in many parts of the country prohibitively expensive. Few party organizations have the financial ability to do all the advertising that they would like to do. Most can afford only a little right before the election. Thirdly, the average American receives thousands of media messages every day. The only chance that you and your committee have of breaking through the clutter is through repetition and persistence. Even if your committee is buying some paid media, you will need earned media to supplement and reinforce those efforts.
4. Coordinating Your Earned Media
Where do you begin? You have to determine your media goals and develop a plan to reach them. Saying that you want publicity is not enough. You need to decide what messages you will try to convey to a target audience. Then, and only then, can you begin the process of planning your media operation. Your party committee should designate a media secretary. That person must take on the responsibility of seeing that the mechanical part of your earned media program works.
5. What to Do if You Get Bad Press
Sometimes you will think that you have been treated unfairly by the media. First, stop and consider whether this is really the case or whether you are over-reacting. What are the long-term implications of the story? Are the implications less serious than the implications of your challenging and alienating members of the press? If it is clear that you have been mistreated, consider your alternatives:
1. Call the reporter and explain. See what explanation he/she offers.
2. Write a clear and concise letter to the reporter/editor, or news editor that outlines the inaccuracy of the story, followed by a brief account of the correct facts. Avoid keeping a one-day story alive by elaborating too much or injecting emotion into your response.
3. Never demand a retraction. Instead, simply ask that a correction be made.
4. If you are responding to an editorial, request an opportunity to write or broadcast a response outlining the other side of the issue. Your effectiveness in dealing with reporters is not founded upon brilliant defenses against the media. Rather, it is measured by your ability to gain the media’s respect, as well as projecting qualities of honesty and fair-mindedness. Accomplishing those goals can reap benefits in good coverage.
6. Tools of the Trade: Make News
There are many different tools that you can use to turn an idea into news: news releases, news conferences, appearing on a public affairs program, providing footage or photography, or feeding a video or radio actuality directly to a station. Your job is to determine which tool or combination of tools will most effectively communicate a particular message. The following are some tips about the most frequently used media tools:
a. News Releases:
News releases are the workhorse of the public relations industry and the backbone of most earned media programs. They will probably be your most frequently used tool, because they are an appropriate way to announce different kinds of news. Here are some types of releases that you may find yourself using:
• Events/Schedules;
• Advance releases describing upcoming events/schedules;
• Personnel announcements; staff appointments; advisory, etc;
• Cover for more detailed materials such as issue papers;
• Comments on news items for breaking stories (quotable snippets for their use in a larger story);
• Making a charge against an opponent;
• Feature releases. Developing A Good Media List:
Before you can plan a single earned media event or issue your first press release, you need to put together a good media list so that you know with whom you are dealing. Your list should include all appropriate information for every television station, radio station and newspaper that may cover you, whether or not it is in your district or state. Letters to the Editor:
Letters to the editor are a great way to defend or promote a party position or to attack the views of the Democratic Party. Check with your newspapers to determine what format they prefer for these letters. Part III --APPENDIX
A. Sample Media Releases
Media Release
For Immediate Release Contact: YOUR NAME
Date Phone Number
"YOUR TOWN" REPUBLICAN COMMITTEE TO HOLD CAUCUS
The "YOUR TOWN" Republican Committee announced today that it will hold its next meeting on "DATE" at "TIME." The purpose of this meeting will be to elect officers for the next two years. All registered Republicans are invited to attend.
# # #
Media Release
For Immediate Release Contact: YOUR NAME
Date Phone Number
The "YOUR TOWN" Republican Committee today announced its newly elected officers. "NEW CHAIRPERSON" was elected to the committee as the Chairperson. "NEW TREASURER" was elected to the position of treasurer.
# # #
B. Sample Bylaws for Town Committees
Article I. A. Composition: The __________Republican Town Committee shall be composed of the Chairperson and such other Republicans registered in the towns as the committee shall, by the adoption of these bylaws, determine. In order to qualify for membership, a potential member must be a registered Republican, reside in the town, and must attend a meeting. The town committee shall keep a list of all its members and any registered Republican may join the committee at any time. B. Duties: In cooperation with the State Committee, the town committee shall have the duty to manage the Republican Party in the town, to direct the general policy and campaign activities of the party, and to perform all duties by law or custom required of it. C. Meetings: At least one regular meeting of the town committee shall be held each biennial election year, prior to February 1st. If the meeting is not held by the said date, it shall be the duty of the county chairperson to set the date and place for the said meeting. Meetings may be called by the chairperson of the committee on his own initiative or upon the written request of twenty-five percent of the members of the committee. Notice of all meetings shall be mailed to each member at his last known address, at least five days before the dates of the meetings. In addition, at regular meetings where officers are to be elected, notice of this meeting and its purpose shall be published in the newspaper, in town notices, and posted in four conspicuous places in the town at least five days prior to the meetings. Article II. Officers: The officers shall consist of a chairperson, treasurer, and other positions as the members see fit. Chairman: A Chairperson shall be the Chief Executive Officer. He/She will see that each district under his/her control is organized in accordance with the time schedule set forth in these bylaws and that the committee maintains complete records and up-to-date roster of all Republican committee town members. The Town Chairperson will file an annual activity report with the State Chairperson. Vice-Chairman: A Vice-Chairperson, under the direction of the chairman, shall assist the chairperson in the above-mentioned duties and, in his/her absence, shall preside over meetings. D. Finance: A finance chairperson shall maintain liaison with the state finance chairperson and shall assist him/her with programs. This individual shall also be in charge of the fundraising activities of the local committee. E. Treasurer: A treasurer shall receive all funds belonging to his/her committee, shall keep proper books of accounts of all funds received and paid out, and shall pay out funds only with a check counter-signed by the chair. F. Secretary: A secretary shall keep minutes of all the committee meetings and be custodian of the permanent books and records of the committee. G. Executive: An executive committee shall consist of the Chairperson and the other officers of the town committee. It shall have the authority to act for its full committee when necessary. The executive committee shall forward to the Republican State Committee a complete list of members by the end of the February following the biennial election. An executive committee shall establish sub-committees to assist it, as it deems necessary. H. Vacancies: The Town Chairperson shall fill any vacancies on a temporary basis within 30 days of said vacancy. Such temporary officers shall serve until the next regular meeting of the committee, when the vacancy shall be filled by election. If a vacancy is not filled within 30 days of its occurrence, the State or County Chairperson shall have the authority to fill the vacancy until an election takes place. Article III. General: The following provisions shall govern the conduct and operations of committees created by these bylaws: a. Twenty percent of the total membership of a committee shall be necessary to constitute a quorum;
b. Each member shall have one vote; c. A majority of those present and voting shall decide any question in the case of a vote with more than two candidates, in which case a majority of the vote is sufficient to elect. Primary: The town committees shall not endorse any candidate during a primary election. Officers of the town committee however, may not be restricted from working on behalf of the candidate of their choice. Election: No one can serve as an officer of the Town Committee who openly and publicly supports a candidate from another party over a Republican in a partisan election. New Hampshire Republican State Committee Contact Info. New Hampshire Republican State Committee
10 Water Street
Concord, NH 03301
Office: 603-225-9341
Fax: 603-225-7498
Website: www.nhgop.org
Email: [email protected]
Chairman: John H. Sununu
Email: [email protected]
Vice Chairman: Wayne MacDonald
Email: [email protected]
Executive Director: Mike Hamilton
Email: [email protected]
