The Republican National Committee was planning on an unprecedented ground game for 2016.
According to Steve Peoples and Julie Bykowicz of the Associated Press, though, the Party is falling behind.
“We’ve moved on to thousands and thousands of employees,” Republican Party Chairman Reince Priebus stated last March. “We are covering districts across this country in ways that we’ve never had before.”
The AP’s state-by-state review, however, found that the GOP is behind their goals in Pennsylvania and several other key states. They learned of totals that the RNC laid out in May and compared them to their own recent interviews with local Republican leaders.
“Some examples of Republican shortfalls: Ohio Republicans thought they were going to see 220 paid staffers by May; in reality there are about 50,” they write. “Plans for Pennsylvania called for 190 paid staffers; there are about 60. Iowa’s planned ground force of 66 by May actually numbers between 25 and 30. In Colorado, recent staff departures have left about two dozen employees, far short of the 80 that were to have been in place.”
These numbers are particularly troublesome because there is more reliance on the RNC than usual as the Trump campaign strategy has been to focus more on earned media.
From the 1980’s through 2004, Republicans were generally thought of as the side with the better ground game. The Obama campaign’s digital outreach, though, swung the pendulum the other way. Over the past few years, Hillary Clinton has made a concerted effort to bring in Obama veterans.
“We’re not unveiling our strategy, but we have field staff on the ground building relationships with voters since January 2015,” PA GOP Communications Director Megan Sweeney told PoliticsPA.
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11 Responses
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Simply put, if the support reported here for Libertarian Presidential Candidate Gary Johnson are correct (they show him garnering 9% – 10% of the vote), Trump does not stand a chance of winning PA. Even if only 4% of the Republican vote goes to Johnson, Trump loses. My guess is that is why the judge reduced the number of signatures needed for a presidential candidate from 10,000 to 5,000.
It’s getting later and building a strong GOTV effort takes a long time to establish. If they don’t get their act together, it will be interesting to see the effects, particularly from a political science perspective. My money is on it underscoring just how important GOTV is in the lead-up and day-of.
Correct Jeff. There are tons of delusional Rs here. They are pitiful – like Trump and Toomey.
“The RNC/PA GOP staff would’ve been unstoppable in PA (particularly compared to the subpar PA Dems infrastructure) if anyone but Trump were the nominee.”
Yeah just like they were last year for the State Supreme Court? Bottom line is whether you put up an unpopular, unqualified, conman like Trump or unknowns with no money like Covey, George, and Olson the Democrats will win PA quite easily.
Yes, but they are successful in the rural areas getting village idiots to run for county and legislative offices spewing the same BS – 2nd amendment, pro-life and cuttin’ taxes on them job creators. Meanwhile, school taxes increase and they raise revenue by allowing online gambling (whose pocketbook does that money come from?).
The RNC/PA GOP staff would’ve been unstoppable in PA (particularly compared to the subpar PA Dems infrastructure) if anyone but Trump were the nominee. They have an awesome staffers. But now no one wants to work for that joke of a nominee so the non-crazy staffers are fleeing.
Maybe Trump can hire the Phillie Phanatic for one of his fund-raisers? Oh wait ….
“We are covering districts across this country in ways that we’ve never had before.”
Apparently, with empty chairs.
they know hillary and katie are going to roll. con-man trump and garden gnome toomey are toast.
So the GOP is telling lies; nothing new.