Building a Voter Coalition

Building a voter coalition between the Republican Party and the voter can be a very simplistic process, however it seems that the party including precinct chairs have failed to turn out the vote for Republican candidates. So you might ask how do we turn out the vote in every precinct for our candidates. As of this writing I am remembering that I have lived in this area since 1989, and I have never heard from a precinct chair in any of the precincts I have lived. One of the main goals and responsibilities of the precinct chair is to get the word out about the party and candidates thru periodical reports. After reading a speech given by Edwin Meese III of the Heritage Foundation about "How to Rebuild the Reagan Coalition", I realized that this is the exact reason we do not have a voter turnout above 30% in non-presidential elections. One of the main pillars of rebuilding the coalition is Communication of a vision. Meese states " ...the ability to take a vision and then communicate that vision to the American people in terms that they understand so that people can see how it affects them and their families personally." He then goes on to say that "Too often conservatives think in terms of policies, and too often our liberal friends on the other side talk in terms of people." This is exactly how why I think that we are missing the voter and not connecting them to build a coalition with them. We lack communication with the voters.


How do we re-build this coalition with the voters?


1. We must upgrade our communication process and include a hybrid of technology, and old fashion communication such as phone calling, canvassing, etc. The technological communications today should include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Rebuild the Party, and many other blogs, wiki's, etc. One of the most effective communication tools that can be used in written form is the mailing of a Precinct Newsletter. Newsletters are a great way to express many different ideas and could be a forum to communicate the required periodic reports that a precinct chair must perform as one of the responsibilities.

2. We must recruit a strong precinct team to effectively canvass the precinct with proper communications about the candidates, including local and school board elections. According to the Harris County Republican Party Precinct Chairman's Handbook "the #1 reason people don't volunteer is because no one ever asked them." The handbook also refers to the fact that "you will be surprised at the number of people who want to help, but they just don't know how to get started." The reason they do not know how to get involved is because the current precinct chairs are not communicating with their voters. As I have stated in previous blog postings people will volunteer to work the precinct, but they need to be informed and aware of the opportunities in which they can be involved.

As you can see the two above objectives will provide adequate communication to the voter and provide a personal touch in which will give the voter information as to how issues within the party and precinct will affect them in their life just the same as Meese suggests. If we achieve the two above objectives as it relates to communication a new coalition between the voter and party will emerge and we will see a new crop of Republican candidates emerge to public service.

Please join me in this effort and support me for Precinct Chair 682 in the upcoming March 2, 2010 election. With the voters help we will make Precinct 682 the best in Harris County.

Thanks

Eric A. Dumatrait