As Massachusetts Republicans suffered another loss in the recent U.S. Senate Special Election, now is the time to try new campaign strategies and marketing techniques crucial to turning the tide. In the last one hundred and two statewide elections, Massachusetts Republicans have only won two of those contests.
Why is this happening? Simply put, Massachusetts Republican candidates have failed to garner enough votes in cities where a larger percentage of the state’s registered, likely voters reside. For example, Mr. Markey’s best performances were in cities that consisted of more than 20,000 likely voters; whereas, Mr. Gomez’s best performances were only in communities with a few hundred or thousand voters.
All hope is not lost. Republicans in other states have provided a model for success that can be adopted by our candidates. Some have taken advantage of reaching out to different voters who reside in large, urban areas. In New Jersey, Republican Governor Chris Christie has opened a bilingual office in the City of Paterson, in which Democrats have a 9-1 voter registration advantage over Republicans, in a serious attempt to attract more Hispanic voters.
Furthermore, Christie has established the “Hispanics for Christie” Coalition. Prior to that, the Governor received several high-level endorsements from leading Bishop Reginald Jackson, along with a dozen African-American clergymen, in addition to the Latino Leadership PAC, who generally endorses Democratic candidates. Christie made this possible by focusing on a hallmark issue that is at the heart of concerns for minority and younger voters: education. Through spearheading school-choice options and policies, Governor Christie has motivated African-American and Hispanic voters to vote for a Republican statewide candidate.
In California, Andy Vidak, a Republican candidate for State Senate, won a recent Special Election in which Democrats have a whopping 22-1 voter registration advantage over Republicans. Moreover, 60% of the residents in this district are Hispanic. Nevertheless, Mr. Vidak defeated his Democratic opponent, Leticia Perez, 54%-46%. How did this happen? Mr. Vidak focused on bread-and-butter issues that are crucial to voters: taxes, spending, state government's fraud and inefficiency. Vidak's campaign also focused on GOTV with special emphasis on registering college voters and getting them to the polls in-district.
These examples suggest that our candidates here can develop a set of policy issues and initiatives that are critical for urban, college and minority voters. Furthermore, Christie and Vidak demonstrate that success is possible by Massachusetts conservatives not ignoring major urban areas. We suggest growing the playing field in an attempt to minimize losses in our cities, or better yet, identifying NEW sub-groups of voters necessary for our state party to grow and boost our registration levels for the 2014 election cycle and beyond.
Lastly, by focusing on grassroots campaigning; crafting an appealing platform for urban and minority voters based on conservative principles; and opening more field offices in heavily populated settings, our candidates will be able to orchestrate viable, and arguably successful candidacies for both local and statewide offices in many more geographic areas of our Commonwealth.
Lastly, by focusing on grassroots campaigning; crafting an appealing platform for urban and minority voters based on conservative principles; and opening more field offices in heavily populated settings, our candidates will be able to orchestrate viable, and arguably successful candidacies for both local and statewide offices in many more geographic areas of our Commonwealth.
Dean Cavaretta
Michael Gorecki
Clay Evans
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