Flip4.org

The new year of 2010 is upon us.  This November, all 99 seats in the Ohio House of Representatives will be up for election to a new 2-year term.

If you are tuned in this early to the race to flip 4 seats in the Ohio House, perhaps you are thinking of being a candidate yourself.  If that’s the case, the deadline for filing candidacy petitions to appear on the GOP primary ballot in May is February 18, 2010 before 4 pm Eastern time.  Feel free to garner more information from your local GOP organization or glean additional info from the website of the Ohio Secretary of State.  If you’d also like to make contact with the campaign committee of the Republican caucus of the Ohio House, you may try calling (614) 827-1250.

It appears that there will be a healthy crop of candidates in 2010, as many have already publicly declared their candidacies, but don’t let that deter you from running if you really feel the need to step forward.

For potential donors who would like to help the Republican party regain the majority in the Ohio House, but are reluctant to donate to individual candidates before the slate has firmed up, you may want to consider donating directly to the campaign committee of the Republican caucus of the Ohio House.  If that be the case, you may make your check payable to:  Ohio House Republican Organizational Committee.  You may send it to the following address:

Ohio House Republican Organizational Committee

Matt Huffman, Chairperson

4679 Winterset Drive

Columbus, Ohio  43220

Because of Ohio laws regarding political donations, I would urge that no corporate checks be sent.  Checks should be written from personal accounts or from Political Action Committees that are registered with the Ohio Secretary of State’s office.  I would also urge that donations be made with full transparency (not anonymously) to ease the campaign committee’s compliance with Ohio’s campaign finance reporting laws.  Of course (I hope it goes without saying), individual donors ought to be U.S. citizens.

The primary election date is May 4, 2010.  Absentee ballots may be cast prior to the primary, if you prefer, in which case, the early voting period is slated to begin March 30th.

This past Saturday was the annual NH State Republican Party Committee Meeting (NHGOP) that I was able to attend as a voting member.
I have been to these meeting before as a visitor and they usually look like an old tired horse going through the motions. We normally get to see a lot of bickering between the different factions of the party and no clear leadership is shown. This is not to say that our past party leadership has been bad, it just seems that we get mired down in the mundane trivialities that surround us. That all has changed with the election of former Governor and White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu.
Outgoing Chairman Fergus Cullen did a lot of work to prepare us for moving forward and has some very good ideas on how we need to present the message to the people.
One of the things pointed out is that at there will be nobody under 30 years old that has any personal memories of Ronald Reagan. He was a great president and his words will stand the test of time but we need a new way of sharing those principles he spoke of so eloquently.
We as a party need to move beyond saying “we need a smaller government”, “trust the free market”, “reduce taxes and spending”, and “we will fight to protect our rights”. These are very good principles that we absolutely have to stand by but these things have been said so much that we are viewed as the party of old people and ideas. We absolutely have to prove that we are the party of ideas and solutions. That involves identifying the key threshold issues that are at the forefront of the public’s mind and starting the conversation with positive steps to solve these problems.
Take, for instance, the issue of global warming. I for one do believe in the science that has shown global warming to exist since the beginning of time but will never believe that it is ALL MAN MADE, as presented by the left. That being said, I also believe that we need to be good stewards of our environment. This means that the steps we can take to be more environmentally friendly need to be brought forth for debate. The solutions we present must be viable and conform to our principles. We need alternative solutions to subsidies for ethanol and café standards for vehicles. Solutions need to be viable without competing against free-market businesses by using OUR tax dollars as a prop.
Most people agree that the health care system in place does not work the way it should. Universal Health Care is going to destroy what we have, but people hear “it’s free” and don’t think about how much it will cost or what restrictions will be placed on it. We, as a party have been seen as defending a broken system and we need to put forth viable free-market solutions that will change the system. We need to explain in detail why our plan will work, how it is different from what we have, who will benefit from it and, most importantly what the defects are in the alternative.
It is important to get the youth involved and one way to start getting some interest is by sponsoring our-reach into the high schools and colleges. Local organizations can do some fundraising to sponsor an essay writing contest with a scholarship at the winning prize(s). It could be as simple as asking for 500 words describing “how lower taxes increase government revenues” or as involved as asking for 1,500 words describing “the proper role of government”.
I also imagine that the responses to the essay contest would help to refine the words we use in defining our positions, plans, policies and principles. The responsibility for getting this started rests on our shoulders and we need to gather locally to organize, spread the word and make this grass-roots effort catch fire. It is important to not take on too many issues. Three or four would work well and if you are unsure as to what issues to target look no farther than your state legislature. The bills they will be taking up in the current session will identify what we are facing. Study them to see what is proposed and how it can be changed to fit our principles or, if it completely violates our principles why it is being proposed.
It is time for US to roll up our sleeves and get into the trenches to make it happen.

In every even-numbered election year, all 99 seats in the Ohio House of Representatives are up for grabs.  Yet, while the election outcomes are so highly consequential to the daily lives of ordinary Ohio citizens, voters don’t go into the polling precincts on election day with nearly enough information.  Flip4.org is one tool that can be used to chip away at the enigma of state legislative election races, and I’m only too happy to make use of this tool.

Voters know that they haven’t been happy with the state of Ohio.  They’ve been dissatisfied with state laws.  They disagree with the state government about what the legislative priorities ought to be.  They absolutely deplore the quagmired economic conditions prevalent in Ohio.  Above all, the scandals of some high-profile Ohio politicians (from both major political parties) have made voters restless and in search of change (if they havent been so soured on politics to the point of giving up and staying home).

With all the voter dissatisfaction, however, the voters still haven’t been able to do their job right when it comes to electing the right state representatives.  Boundaries of state rep districts change every 10 years, as new census figures become available.  The state population has to be divided up into 99 equally populated sections.  There are a number of voters who don’t even know what state rep district they live in.  There are a number of voters who don’t even know who their own state rep is.  If they do know who their own state rep is, they often don’t know who the challenging candidates are in the primaries or in the general elections.  Some voters don’t even know what a state rep is and what a state rep does.  If they’re deeply disappointed in the direction Ohio is headed in, they really ought to know what to do to fix it, and, at a bare minimum, they ought to know the state rep candidates on their ballots, especially how those state rep candidates stack up to each other when it comes to their views on the issues and what their legislative priorities are.

Day in and day out, state representatives vote on issues.  That’s what legislation is.  Legislation is issues.  Too many newspapers and other media outlets try to cover Ohio House races on the basis of comparing biographies or resumes.  Such comparisons are entirely appropriate for executive and judicial branch election races.  Because executive branch offices are highly visible, the newspapers often give additional coverage to candidates for executive branch offices that explores their views on the issues.  Meanwhile, the legislative branch offices, because they’re so numerous, are too low profile for the newspapers to deliver more than a brief biographical blurb about the legislative candidates.  This is backwards.  It would be much more useful to know where legislative candidates stand on issues than it would to know where executive candidates stand on issues.  With mostly biographical info available in print about legislative candidates, but not positions on issues, voters wind up with a legislature of aristocrats, not a representative body of the people who will fashion state government to be by the people and for the people.  Successful lawyers and successful businesspeople dominate the ranks of the state legislature, but do they share the same priorities that ordinary Ohioans have?  Experience suggests that they might not.  Experience even suggests that they might be more perplexed about the issues than bloggers are.

Flip4.org, though, can be a tool for drilling down to discover the most useful information, and then sharing it, so that informed choices can be made.  We can discover who’s worthy of our support.  We can discover who’s worthy of our resources.  We can let everybody else know what we’ve discovered.  Then, we can get out the vote, and retake the legislature.

Without the kind of information that will be made available on this blog, voters will continue their hit-and-miss approach to voting for state reps.  Among those hit-and-miss approaches are: 1) voting for the familiar name, whether familiar by way of incumbency or by way of publicity and advertising; 2) voting according to party affiliation in the general election, but voting totally blindly in the party primaries; 3) voting the same way in downticket races (where one doesn’t know the candidates) that one did in top-of-the-ticket races (where one does know at least something); and 4) not voting in downticket races (and letting everybody else decide the outcome).

The current Ohio House district boundaries were drawn by Republicans back in 2002.  The Democrats captured a 53-46 majority in the 2008 general election, but it will not be difficult for Republicans to recapture the Ohio House of Representatives in 2010. I’m optimistic about our chances.

Looking at the long-term, however, Republicans may have a very hard time prevailing in the state rep races beginning in 2012, depending on who is in control drawing state legislative district boundaries in response to the 2010 U.S. Census.  For a political party to gain the advantage in redistricting, that party must hold at least two of these three elected seats in the state’s executive branch:  Ohio Governor, Ohio Auditor, and Ohio Secretary of State.  Currently, Republicans only occupy the Ohio Auditor’s office.  All three of those statewide positions will be up for election in 2010.  Can Republicans hold on to the Auditor’s office and capture one of the remaining two in 2010?  That will be the key if the GOP wants to maintain an edge in state rep races through the next decade.

So, what happened that allowed the Democrats to capture the Ohio House of Representatives in districts drawn by Republicans?  Did the coattails of Barack Obama have something to do with it?  Did internal strife within the GOP have something to do with it?  Did the GOP have the wrong leadership in the Ohio House of Representatives?  Yes, coattails had something to do with it, but Obama won’t be on the 2010 ballot.  Yes, internal strife within the GOP had something to do with it, and that strife continues with the upcoming retirement of the GOP’s state executive chairman, and lots of heated debate among righty bloggers, as well as lots of soul-searching among the party faithful (hopefully, we’ll get a few wrinkles ironed out soon).  Yes, the GOP had the wrong leadership in the Ohio House of Representatives, but the leadership has changed hands, and I’m very upbeat about William Batchelder.  If we can put the GOP back into the majority in the Ohio House in 2010, I’m very happy to say that Batchelder is the kind of person we can trust with that responsibility and power.  I intend to write more about Batchelder in the future, so that blog readers can feel at least a spark of confidence in who is leading us once we manage to flip those 4 state rep seats.

Flipping four state rep seats in Ohio in 2010 is very doable.  My thanks goes out to those who created this website.  This is absolutely where Ohio Republicans need to put their focus if they want to improve our state.

More to come . . .

The Senate is 32-30, with the Republicans officially no longer in the majority. The “Gang of Three” who had the public shouting match with Senate Democratic Caucus Leader Malcolm Smith buckled and officially voted for him as Majority Leader of the Senate. Each of them were handed some powerful chairmanships or vice chairmanships in the Senate. Same-sex marriage, the issue “Gang of Three” member and Democratic State Senator Ruben Diaz actively opposes, was discussed in secret, but not publicly. Majority Leader Smith denied these discussions occurred.

2010 will be the chance for the Republicans to recapture the majority in the upper chamber. Outgoing Deputy Senate Majority Leader Thomas Libous said that his caucus is committed to recapturing the chamber in 2010. This is very important considering New York may be losing a Congressional seat in the next census and redistribution needs to be done fairly.

In related news, recently arrested Democratic Senator Hiram Monserrate may be convicted of assault after all. Officials claim to have have him on a security camera stabbing his girlfriend with the broken glass. The incident, which led to 20 stiches near her eye, is being called an “accident” according to Monserrate. According to Monserrate, the tape will exonerate him. According to local law enforcement, the recording will show Monserrate assaulting his girlfriend and dragging her around while she clings to her eye with a towel, him tossing her handbag down a garbage chute, and an instance where his girlfriend knocks on a neighbor’s door asking for help. A neighbor said that she “…heard a lot of crying and then she ran down the stairs screaming and rang on my bell frantically, three times.” The neighbor found a bloody towell on the stairs when she went out into the hallway. If convicted, Monserrate will be automatically removed from office and change the Senate numbers to 31 Democrats to 30 Republicans, possibly leading to a special election to replace him and possibly changing the leadership in the Senate. If Monserrate is replaced by a Republican due to backlash from his actions, the count changes to 31 to 31 and negotiations can start all over again for Senate control. There is currently a standing motion to have Monserrate dismissed until the charges are cleared.

Welcome from the Lakes Region of New Hampshire, known as New England’s playground because of the beautiful surroundings of lakes, mountains and trees. It is said “this is what people move here for” but I have to tell you it’s more than that.

I am originally from the Phoenix, Mesa area of Arizona and I remember the conservative values of the state while growing up. Arizonans were a strong-willed people that weren’t afraid to jump into the middle of a problem and fix it. They are a very independent type that didn’t have a tremendous amount of friends, usually they were acquaintances. I always thought that the tough environment of Arizona’s desserts, mountains and plateaus built character but I was wrong. If you want to see a character building environment come to New Hampshire, especially in the winter months.

The people of New Hampshire are equally strong-willed and independent but they also have a strong sense of community. I have been to many different states throughout my life but I have yet to see politics in the most pure form than in New Hampshire. If you have attended any Town Meetings you will know what I am talking about. All of the members of the community come together in March to discuss the town budget, capital improvements, school budget, town and school staffing issues, etc… and nothing is done until a majority of the town residents in attendance vote for it. This is one of the main reasons people like me move here, you can actually have a voice in your government. (more…)

When looking at control of state legislatures, 2008 was not the abject disaster for Republicans that much else was. The Democrats did come out ahead, but not by much—flipping five state chambers, to the Republican’s four. But fully one half of the Republican’s successes came from one state—Tennessee, which took full control of a split Senate and took control of a Democratic House by flipping—as it happens–exactly four seats.

Today, the chairman of the TNGOP, Robin Smith, outlines the reasons for their success as he sees them. (Via Glenn Reynolds.)  I wanted to highlight one part of his analysis in particular, namely that Tennessee Republicans were successful because they were running on clearly stated and clearely defined issues that resonated with the electorate:

Voters elected legislators that carried the same values and principles that are held by average citizen in these districts.  Those values and principles are pretty simple.

* Taxes and spending: The government should live within its means and oppose higher tax bills to fund a bloated budget; the voters know government needs to cut spending.
* Gun Rights: Voters want commonsense carry laws making it easier for them to protect themselves and their families.
* Local economies: Families in their community know that improvements are needed by investing in transportation and education infrastructure to support existing jobs and recruit new businesses. They are tired of the powerbrokers in Nashville increasing entitlement programs instead.

Republican messages on taxes & spending and local economies are going to be similar in every state, and when stated appropriately, should have the same kind of success.  The third leg of the stool–in this case, gun rights–may vary from state to state. Whatever it is, it needs to be as simple and straighforward as these three.

There’s another key factor, though one this site will eventually be most concerned with—the quality of the candidates. Smith writes:

Candidates, who displayed the courage to challenge Democrat incumbents and in open seats were solid, qualified individuals. They were not just “known” in their communities.  They are people that truly represent the values of their communities.

You’ll note this one is a lot less specific—but in some ways, it’s a lot more important, and a lot more difficult. And that’s why it’s the main thing we’re going to be focusing on.

Since the 1964-1965 legislative session, the New York State Senate was controlled by a Republican Majority. While the remaining aspects of the state became more and more Democratic leaning, the State Senate retained it’s GOP majority. After the election upset of George Pataki in 1994, a more pro-Pataki wing took over the State Senate and in 1995, Joe Bruno became State Senate Majority Leader. He, at the time, was considered to be leading a more right-leaning wing of the party. Following the 2006 elections, the Senate Majority was 33 strong in the 62 member upper chamber. Incoming Governor Eliot Spitzer appointed incumbent Republican State Senator Michael Balboni to his cabinet in 2007, triggering a special election which the Republicans lost. 2008 saw the resignation of the incumbent Governor (Eliot Spitzer) and the incumbent State Senate Majority Leader (Joe Bruno). In the chaos, State Senator Dean Skelos became the Senate Majority Leader and acting Lieutenant Governor.

The 2008 election cycle saw the loss of enough seats that the Democrats will probably gain the majority. There are a few problems for the incumbent leader of the Democratic Senate Caucus, Malcolm Smith. There is still one undecided Senate seat. The race between incumbent Republican State Senator Frank Padavan and his Democratic challangerJames Gennaro is down to a 500 ballot margin with the incumbent currently leading. 2,000 more ballots may be counted, which could completely change the election. Three Democratic, Latino State Senators, dubbed the “Gang of Three,” have withheld their support for Smith citing their opposition to same-sex marriage and their desire to see a Latino in a high ranking position in the Senate. A deal was almost reached, but fell through at the last minute. Also causing problems was the recent arrest of Democratic Senator-elect Hiram Monserrate. He was charged with assault for reportedly stabbing his girlfriend in the face with a broken bottle. These five seats will determine the balance of the State Senate.

If Monserrate is convicted, he will automatically be removed from his post and a special election will have to be held. One of the “Gang of Three,” Pedro Espada, had run as a Republican for State Senate in the past and may have ties to the Republican caucus. Four seats could change this entire situation making this a solid, Republican State Senate. The next election cycle is 2010, State Senate terms in New York are two years.

Happy New Year, and welcome to Flip4.org!

Flip4.org started as an idea inspired by a post at The Next Right from Sean Oxendine. He challenged conservative bloggers to “really make a difference” by turning their attention to state legislative races. These are especially crucial, Sean noted, because of the redistricting that will be done by the legislatures after the 2010 census. “But we can’t help,” he wrote, “unless we know what is going on at the local level.”

And so today marks not only the beginning of a new year, but also of a new effort to change our nation’s politics from the ground up–to elect skilled, principled Republicans to key positions in state legislatures around the country. Specifically, the goal of this website is to elect four such Republicans to seats held by Democrats in each state legislature where doing so will give control of that chamber to Republicans.

Today, the first stage begins— a blog where contributors from the targeted states will keep readers informed about the key races, candidates and issues of the 2010 state legislative elections.

For the 2010 elections, we’re targeting the following legislatures, where Democrats hold a majority of seven or fewer seats, and a flip of four seats will transfer control:

• The Alaska Senate, split 10-10
• The Colorado Senate, held by the Democrats 21-14
• The Delaware House, held by the Democrats 24-17
• The Indiana House, held by the Democrats 52-47
• The Maine Senate, held by the Democrats 20-15
• The Mississippi Senate, held by the Democrats 27-25
• The Montana House, split 50-50
• The Nevada Senate, held by the Democrats 12-9
• The New Hampshire Senate, held by the Democrats 14-10
• The New York Senate, held by the Democrats 32-30(sort of)
• The Ohio House, held by the Democrats 53-46
• The Oregon Senate, held by the Democrats 18-12
• The Pennsylvania House, held by the Democrats 104-99
• The Wisconsin Senate, held by the Democrats 18-15
• The Wisconsin House, held by the Democrats 52-46

These 14 chambers provide us with the challenge of finding and electing 60 talented, principled, forward-thinking Republican candidates on November 2, 2010. The challenge begins today–join us!