In the past two weeks since Christian Fong Twittered his intentions to run for Governor, I've been astounded at the amount of search engine traffic to "HR." This tells me there's a strong appetite to learn more about the "wunderkind" candidate.
Here's another opportunity to "see and hear" Christian and learn more.
My most recent post, which profiled Culver's new COS John Frew, should serve as a reminder to Iowa Republicans that Team Culver expects to "win at all costs." Frew has a history of dirty campaigns to his credit. My point? The GOP hopefuls need to understand that strategies that are focused exclusively on winning the primary contest may backfire in November 2010 if we're not careful about the messaging.
If the primary becomes a "purity test" for the GOP, then we spend the next months after next June defending ourselves from the Culver attack machine. This would be a huge mistake from a tactical standpoint and we need to remember there aren't enough Republicans in Iowa to take back Terrace Hill unless we successfully target Independents and even a few disaffected Democrats. Between now and our June primary, the GOP message needs to feature broad based appeal and the benefits of our Republican core values, which strongly appeals to most Iowans, especially when contrasted with Governor Culver's track record of special interest politics and out of control spending.
Here's a prediction: Culver will start his re-election campaign early this fall and implement the Culver spin machine long before the gavel falls to begin the next legislative session in January. There's no way to hide the massive budget shortfalls and next years session promises to be contentious and controversial, especially if your name is Chet Culver.
John Frew has a long a predictable history of "attack politics" so the best way to inoculate yourself from your own vulnerabilities is to attack and be relentless in your messaging.
That means the race for 2010 begins after the Labor Day weekend and we're at risk if we don't adopt new strategies to unify the GOP message and focus on the inept governance by the Culver administration.
If Republicans lose self control and play attack politics on our own for the next 11 months, we cede our leadership and pave a four lane highway for Frew to send in a never ending convoy of negative messaging which is the only option you have when you're protecting an incumbent with so many political liabilities to his credit.
This is why I appreciate the language that Christian uses, which highlights his conservative positions yet communicates these values without the need to attack the very Iowan's whom our next Governor still serves.
I truly believe that GOP unity, message discipline and collaboration will be the keys to victory in 2010 and it's time the Iowa GOP begins to implement these tactics in our efforts to keep Chet Culver out of Terrace Hill for another term.
Quite frankly, we can't afford to lose so let's play to win!
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