Prospective RNC Chairs - Where Do They Stand?

With the race for RNC Chair and speculation surrounding it heating up, Morton Blackwell of the Leadership Institute has put together and sent out a 37 question survey to all prospective RNC Chairs.

While ATR does not necessarily endorse every question in this survey, included in it are a number of issues upon which all candidates for this important job should take a public stance. Questions found in the survey include:


Q: Democrats beat Republicans badly on the ground in 2008 by pouring vast amounts of time, talent, and money into an unprecedented, high-tech effort to identify and register supporters, communicate to those supporters, and get them to vote.

As RNC chairman, what would you do to make sure that Democrats do not have a comparable ground-game advantage in 2010?


Q: During a Republican presidency, the RNC is in many ways an appendage of the White House. Democrats now control the elected branches of our federal government.

As RNC chairman, would you speak out forcefully against White House and congressional plans to increase government spending and regulations?

Q: In addition to vigorously expanding the Republican presence on college campuses, what must be done to give the Republican Party credibility with young people as a desirable alternative to Obama and the Democratic Congress? How would you build us as a party to which young people can relate personally?


Q: Meetings of the RNC are usually scripted so that virtually every word spoken is prepared in advance and every vote unanimous. Rarely is any serious matter put before the committee and debated openly.

What would you do as national chairman to open up meetings of the RNC and allow RNC members to debate meaningful issues and actually decide some policies of the RNC?


Q: Political consultants often are the only ones who make big bucks in politics. They can be identified in three different categories.

Some work only for conservative Republican candidates. Others work for any Republican candidate who will pay them, regardless of that candidate's philosophy. Others work for any candidate who will pay them, regardless of party.

What would you do as RNC chairman to make sure that Republican candidates would know in advance which of these three categories a consultant fits into?


Q: Surveys showed a dramatic decline in recent years in the number of Americans identifying themselves as Republicans. It has frequently been said that our party "lost its brand."

What must be done to recover the more favorable opinion people recently had for the Republican Party? If it's a matter of "recovering our brand," what strategy and tactics should the party use to re-introduce itself attractively to the American people?


Click here for a copy of the entire survey.