What is the Purpose of RPI?

In recent weeks I have had the opportunity to discuss the future of the Republican Party of Iowa with a number of party officials.  The discussion revolved around many issues ranging from campaign strategy to potential candidates for 2010, but one topic really got me thinking. This issue was, to put it bluntly, what is the purpose of the Republican Party of Iowa. In other words, what is the Republican Party of Iowa’s job? What is it supposed to do? This line questioning also got me thinking about how many party officials even know what the purpose of RPI is.

There have been a large number of people that claim the only goal of RPI is to elect individuals that claim to be Republican to office. This is an oversimplification to put it lightly. While I agree that RPI is supposed to elect Republicans to office, this is not the main purpose for the party. The main purpose of political party’s in general and the Republican Party of Iowa in specific is to advance the Republican agenda. Now some of you may be wondering what the agenda of RPI is and where does it come from. That is a simple answer, the RPI agenda is decided upon by the grassroots at the county, district, and state conventions; and is known as the party platform. The primary goal of RPI is to advance this agenda through all the means available to the party.

There are numerous methods for the advancement of this agenda that is available to the party. The most well known method is to facilitate the election of Republican candidates that have pledged to advance the Republican agenda. Now here is where I think that RPI has gone wrong over the last several years, they have fallen into the habit of supporting candidates that say they are Republican, but they fail to advance the Republican agenda. This has to change for the sake of not just RPI, but for the sake of Iowa as well.

Another method that RPI has at its disposal is one that they have failed to utilize efficiently in the past. Hopefully the next Chairman of RPI will take advantage and exploit this method to our advantage in the future. Many newspapers around the state provide the opportunity for leaders and experts from across the state to author and submit guest commentaries for their opinion pages. The Democrats have taken full advantage of this opportunity where RPI has seemingly refused to even acknowledge that it exists. The only Republicans that one will find taking advantage of these opportunities are weak-kneed RINO’s like Joy Corning. RPI must take advantage of all media options available to them.

This idea is similar to the previous one, with one major difference. RPI must develop a way to generate positive media coverage. This could come in many forms, perhaps some of our elected officials can volunteer to help at a homeless shelter. Or how about a fundraising drive that rather than fill RPI’s campaign war chest goes to a good cause like Toys for Tots or something along those lines. Basically find some way of tying the Republican agenda to a charitable event. This would in essence exhibit the compassion that we know we have and the Democrats claim we lack.

At the end of the day the goal that RPI must accomplish is advancing the Republican agenda. The agenda was laid out by the heart and soul of the Republican Party of Iowa, the grassroots volunteers. They didn’t go to the conventions because they were getting paid or getting a free meal. They went to the conventions because they believe in the Republican Party and they believe in platform as laid out. Failure to support the platform and advance the agenda from any party official is nothing more than a slap in the face to the base of the party.