County Chairman’s Thoughts on Past and Future

“We got beat bad”. This sums up the message delivered by PBCGOP Chairman Ira Sabin at the RCPB February lunch.

Recapping the November election with a nod to the organization strengths of the Obama campaign and the shortcomings of our candidate, he listed what he saw as key reasons for the defeat of the GOP ticket.

Obama staffed his campaign 70% with tech people, many from Silicon valley and took their data operation to a new level. “We had Orca.”

They did an average of 56 polls a day in battleground states and had 16 million on their email list. Romney had 3 million and Orca.

(Note: Orca was the Romney campaign’s ill-fated voter tracking program that rolled out on election day without a stress test and promptly crashed and burned.)

Romney stood by and let him be defined as an out of touch rich guy who was waging a war on women. We let Obama’s “war on children” (eg. universal preschool, etc,) go without commment.

Although the GOP ticket picked up 4 points in the Jewish vote in PBC, we let the Hispanic and Black vote go where it did without contest. Romney captured a larger percentage of the white vote than McCain, but that is a declining advantage.

Assuming you buy this synopsis of defeat, which most in the audience did, his prescription for future success was sketchy.

He stressed expanding outreach in minority communities is a focus, but with 9% Hispanic and 13% Black voters in the county, a much smaller target than exists in Broward and Dade. Nothing was said about improving our local data operation, building precinct organizations that actually do something, or engaging the community on broader issues between elections. Facing the fact that PBC is a D+16 electorate and working within those constraints was not mentioned.

Candidate selection is a focus though, that is preventing willing candidates who aren’t viable from running. “There will be no primary in CD18″ he said. Of 8 people who wanted to run we told 7 of them NO”. “We can’t just let anyone run”.

Whether this will be sufficient to reverse our declining fortunes, we shall see.

PBCGOP Chair Ira Sabin Featured at February Meeting

FEATURED SPEAKER:

Newly-Elected Chairman of the PB Republican Party, Ira Sabin
Chairman Sabin WILL CHART THE COURSE for Palm Beach County Republicans, sharing his insight on the future of the Republican Party in general; and will propose the many opportunities that exist to make a difference for our state and our nation for 2014.

 
RSVP by February 25
via email: info@gopclubpb.org   or phone: (561) 832-0695 (leave message)
Join/Renew your membership through December 2013
Please respect Bear Lakes Club Rules: 
Cell Phones Silenced / Business Casual Attire (No Jeans Please)
 
**NOTE** CHANGE OF DATE…MONDAY MARCH 18. Mark your calendar.
Speaker: Former Senator George Lemieux

January Meeting – Economic Update

Join RCPB for an Economic Update through the Lens of the Generational Cycle

GOP Chairman Candidates offer Clear Choice

The annual Christmas lunch of the Republican Club of the Palm Beaches, which featured the beautiful voices of the King’s Academy Choir, also provided a glimpse into the views, plans and styles of the two candidates for GOP County Chairman. Moderated by RCPB President Rick Kozell, the candidate were asked four questions concerning party ideals, finding qualified candidates, developing grassroots and fundraising.

Ira Sabin has been active in Republican politics for many years, and recalls working for Richard Nixon and organizing for Ronald Reagan. A New York native with a background in financial services, he is currently the party Treasurer and says he has raised over $100,000 for the local party. Ira is very much a PBC GOP insider.

Marie Hope Davis, currently President of the Republican Club of Palm Beach, has raised the funds and sponsored the GOP Victory Center in the last few Presidential election cycles. A past manager of the Peggy Adams Animal Rescue League and a Salvation Army fundraiser, Marie has experience and influence in the community at large.

Both candidates acknowledged some party shortcomings during the 2012 election cycle, particularly in the area of miscommunication and overlap with non-party grassroots resources on the same team. It should be mentioned that many of these outside groups are now rethinking their relationship to the party, and whoever becomes the new chairman will have both an opportunity to draw strength from these groups as well a challenge to appear relevant to them. Some of the grassroots have become disgusted with the party and plan to go their own way. Others plan to join the REC and try to change it from within. It is a given that very few are happy with the status quo.

To his credit, Ira has been sighted at Boca and Wellington Tea Party meetings during the year and has maintained contacts in that community. He is very invested in the current structure and political staff though, and does not hold the view that the lack of coordination, abdication of control to the Romney campaign, and weak precinct organization was the fault of staff and current leadership. He does say that he would not relinquish control to any future campaign on his watch. His style is top-down, the buck stops here. He sees the Chairman as the decision maker and is not a fan of lots of committees and advisory panels.

Marie on the other hand, believes in collaborative leadership – that the collective wisdom of the REC and community leaders she would recruit for board positions are needed for the future of the county party. She has made a stronger pitch to the grassroots groups, even to the extent of expanding the REC scope to include 912 and other groups, and would endeavor to get all these organizations to work as a team. “All elections are local” she believes, and it takes the attention and effort of those both in the REC and in the community to win them.

Ira presents his skills, knowledge and passion as the key qualifications for the job. Marie sees herself as more well-rounded – a CEO rather than an expert. The candidates are different enough to present a clear choice to the voters on the REC.

As we close out 2012, GOP party registration is not much more than it was when George W. Bush was elected in 2000, and as a percentage has fallen from 35% to 29%. By contrast, Democrat registrations have grown 30% in numbers, and as a percentage have stayed at about 45%. The growth group is independents who are expected to exceed Republican registrations by 2014. A much higher percentage (estimated at 42%) of these independents voted for Romney than for any other Republican Presidential candidate in the last 12 years. Few of them voted for down ticket Republicans though. Fixing that problem, either by converting registrations or by appealing to the independents directly is a task for the new chairman. Who is best equipped to deal with that issue?

King’s Academy Choir at Bear Lakes

Join us for our end of year gathering.

Justin Sayfie at Bear Lakes

Join us for an election review with Justin Sayfie.

Early Voting Starts this Saturday

October Meeting Features Ballot Review

Join us at Bear Lakes for a ballot review, 10/24/12 at 11:30pm.

Dina Keever Reception

Join State Attorney candidate Republican Dina Keever for this reception / fundraiser.

Victory HQ Grand Opening

Join the PBRC for the Grand Opening of the Victory Headquarters for Romney with special guests Congressman Allen West and candidate Adam Hasner.

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