The Grassroots Revitalization of the Oregon Republican Party.

From the new book by Sam Carpenter, a chapter from Making Oregon Great Again: Guide to the Grassroots Revitalization of the Oregon Republican Party (and the Defeat of the Ruling Class).

Download the entire book for free at www.makeoregongreatagain.com/book

CHAPTER 34

I especially direct the following to Voting Members, Delegates, and Alternate Delegates so they can “vet” me. I am giving complete information here, four weeks before the election. With this, should I end up being your Chair, there will be no surprises after the election.

It’s critical that our ORP membership knows exactly what my team and I want to do before the election so we don’t have protracted, controversial struggles after the election. There are lots of details here, and some of those details WILL be misinterpreted and/or taken out of context. That’s OK. I’ll take those bullets, all the while providing further details and/or defending myself against unjust criticism or deliberate misinterpretation.

As I said, we don’t have time for bickering. Only eight months after the ORP election in mid-February, candidates for the 2020 statewide and local elections will be lining up….

This really is an existential-level decision time. There is a broad, solid line between your two options, and you must choose:

Keep things the way they are or go in a new direction.

This chapter will be, for the purposes of the upcoming leadership elections, my slate’s Strategic Objective. Also, it’s a listing of what I will need in order to effectively serve as your Chair. Yes, with this proposal I am to some degree flexible to make changes and additions between now and the elections.

Keep in mind that, with the chairmanship, I am not going to be paid.

But should I win the chairmanship in the February election, there’s this: I will only accept if it is evident we can truly turn the organization around. If my team can’t acquire adequate tools and personnel, repairing ORP will be impossible. If I do win, I will make the decision to accept the position at the same February 16th meeting, based on a variety of factors, all listed in this chapter, noted in bold print.

Here’s a critical factor that I will personally measure before taking this on: what is the level of enthusiasm for change from the majority of Voting Members and Delegates?

Presuming that sufficient support for my leadership and slate of officers exists, here’s what I think should happen.

The ORP must:

Always pursue the prime objective of winning control of the legislature, the governorship and other four executive offices by finding, cultivating, training, protecting and promoting solid candidates. We can no longer be distracted by intra-party bickering. Let’s do our job.
Ramp-up PCP participation and meet membership guidelines (by county), engaging their help in critical programs and projects
Review, update and streamline structure, goals, and Bylaws. Let’s run this organization like a business, lean and disciplined, always using our resources and time wisely.
Transform internal communications and outside marketing to incorporate the latest cutting-edge technology
Provide Point-of-Sale administrative support for county and Congressional District Republican organizations. The county and District organizations are the heart and soul of the Oregon Republican Party
Execute a thought-out, professional organizational and operational plan for GOTV (Get Out The Vote) efforts, including candidate messaging and database security
WE ARE LOSING THE GENERAL ELECTIONS IN THE PRIMARY RACES! In election cycles, via a special committee of perhaps six executive board members, publish objective and brief assessments regarding statewide and congressional district primary candidates (does the candidate support the party platform, have a clean legal record, support the Republican President, if the candidate has been in previous campaigns does he/she have a successful record of fund-raising? etc.). The single focus will be on win-ability in general elections. Then, on the ORP website, we would publish objective and brief “approval” statements regarding the candidates who meet the basic necessary qualifications to actually win the general election. There would be no approval or mention of candidates who, in the panel’s conclusion – supported by objective, tangible facts – stood no chance of winning. (It is a wasted opportunity – not to mention a waste of time and money – to nominate a candidate who can’t possibly win the general election.). Yes, of course we can’t prevent someone from running for office, but we, as an organization – The state Republican Party! – can choose whom to approve based on simple objective criteria. The specifics on this plan will be determined in the days after the organizational election in February, then presented to the Executive Board.
In order to discourage obvious vote-splitting intrusions, and/or mudslinging, take a stand via press release, email, and a powerful social media machine in order to instantly update candidate assessments.
Redesign the website, keep it up to date, communicate constantly with membership via the various social media and other communications tools, while protecting privacy, and provide an easily accessible roster of Central Committee members (perhaps, each with an ORP-domain email address). Make the ORP an easily operable “structured machine,” so the next new Executive Board will have a smooth time managing the organization.

Our positioning will follow these guidelines:
1. Must reflect a bottom-up mentality where our base, via the county membership, reigns supreme, as reflected in the ORP Platform
2. Keep the Party Platform front-and-center (pro-life, pro-2nd Amendment, pro-legal immigration, support ICE, police and Vets, no sanctuary state, etc…).
3. Publicly and without equivocation, support Republican President Trump (as 90% of Oregon Republicans already do).
4. Whole-heartedly support our nominees and current office holders

Now I will go into further detail regarding tools and personnel, and more about what my team, and I personally, will need.

As it stands today, a major mechanical problem with the ORP is that the Chairman position is not paid, is part-time, and is saddled with feeble technology and protocol. In this, the foundation of the chairmanship position is seriously flawed. How can a major activist organization be expected to function successfully when the leader is unpaid, part-time, and the communication methodologies are, compared to Democrat organizations, in the dark-ages?

My leadership team must be given the ability to lead the ORP with the most effective, cutting-edge online tools and protocols available. For example, I operated my gubernatorial primary campaign as a “business-machine,” and it’s how I came to take the lead in the race within 90 days, spending literally, 1/10th of what our main opponent Knute Buehler spent…and with 1/10th the staff.

Note that I own a world-class social media marketing business, PathwayOne (www.pathwayone.com) with three employees and a working partner. It’s based in the U.S. and in Romania. Also, I own a two-person consulting company that specializes in fixing small businesses. We’ve worked with 700+ businesses over the last eight years, with 99% success in helping them survive, with most going on to literally thrive. (see www.workthesystem.com).

Think about this not-so-anecdotal illustration: In my role as Chair, how could I reach an enormous number of Republicans instantly and at minimal cost? For one thing, and as an illustration of my thinking, it won’t be via dozens of appearances at Lincoln Day Dinners, where Diana and I would take a minimum of a day, and more likely two days, to talk to 60-100 Republicans for 20 minutes, with little one-on-one contact with those attendees. (The meetings last approximately two hours, with all of us sitting quietly listening to speakers for 95% of that time).

To ask a chairman, paid or unpaid, to devote enormous time on efforts that have minimal effect because of outdated protocol and technology, is just not smart.

The better use of that one to two-day expenditure of time and energy would be to reach tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of Republicans, online. Yes, and with this, there would be plenty of back-and-forth personal communication with any Republican who wanted it (that isn’t happening so much now…).

Today does not lie in 1965. Today resides in 2019.

Let’s use the same cutting-edge tools that Democrats use in order to multiply our positive impact by a factor of ten times over what it is now.

Chapter 13 of this book describes the basics. Not all of them, but you’ll get the idea.

Also, to get an idea of how our online appearance could be, take a look at my political Facebook page: (https://www.facebook.com/samcarpenterfororegon/) and my website (https://www.makeoregongreatagain.com/).

Note that by using the communication tools-of-today, my Facebook Page following is approaching 100,000. In my primary campaign efforts, I regularly reached hundreds of thousands of voters with minimal effort. (400,000+ per week.) (https://www.facebook.com/samcarpenterfororegon).

For more detail about how I manage an organization, read my book, Work the System: The Simple Mechanics of Making More and Working Less (www.workthesystem.com). You can download it from the website, pdf or audio, for free.

The economies of scale in what I am suggesting are enormous.

The ORP’s current archaic internal and external communication protocols are a primary reason it is failing in its mission.

I am willing to head-up this organization, but only if I can operate it as a business, a business that will not just stand on its own legs and use modern technology, but a business that will become highly successful.

I’m a CEO. It is not my job to head-up a social club. I am friends with many people, but am not the cocktail party’s center of attention. My head is almost always down, into the business of repair and creation or organizations. With the ORP, my mechanical focus will be to lead it into permanent hyper-effectiveness and this requires the creation of a simple, solid, documented structure that can be passed on so the next leaders are not faced with organizing from scratch.

I want the ORP to be lean-and-mean. To appreciate the lean business approach, we only need to look at President Trump’s accomplishments of the past two short years

I know you agree with me that the ORP is not a club, and it doesn’t exist for the satisfaction of a few. It’s an organization designed to do one thing: represent the majority of Oregon Republicans in order to win back Republican control of the legislative and executive branches of our government in Salem as well as get control of our U.S. Congressional and U.S. Senate seats. (The state judicial will eventually follow along.) Everything else the ORP may accomplish is superfluous in comparison.

And know that I will want to eliminate the superfluous.

Another requirement: There are very, very few conservative social media marketing companies. And as I’ve mentioned, I happen to be the majority owner of one. I must be able to use my company, PathwayOne, for technical assistance, marketing and web design.

And before my Ruling Class opponents pile on, know that I will employ it at no charge to the ORP. I will personally absorb and pay the cost, only asking the ORP cover its own Facebook, Twitter, etc. advertising, and some of the small overhead costs such as the hosting and database platform expenditures. The ORP will pay those organizations directly. As with me personally, PathwayOne will not receive a dime.

Something else: I must have a slate of officers with whom I can work with effectively in order to reach our goals. This is critical as I don’t have the time or the desire to cope with infighting within the party leadership. The difference in philosophy and methodology that I am offering is decidedly advanced from what is currently employed. A mix of old and new at the executive leadership level of ORP will not work for me.

My choice for Vice-Chair is Wally Hicks of Grants Pass. Secretary, Gayle Ostgard of Sherwood. Treasurer, Tracy Cheeseman of La Grande. These are the people I want on my Executive team.

If elected, will I decline the chairmanship should anyone in the above slate not be elected? Maybe, maybe not. It depends. Please don’t make this difficult for me

Here’s something else: I’m 69 years old and have a rich life outside of politics. Diana and I like to travel, and we have a vacation home in Kentucky near her family. (Yes, Bend is our primary residence. I’ve lived there for 40+ years). I am willing and able to do what is necessary to achieve the above goals, but I am also expecting to live my life as I am living it now; free to travel, free to manage my time as I want…and that means being able to operate from virtually anywhere I am physically located.

Most of the time we’ll be in Bend.

Remember I am taking this on with no salary, and in fact am willing to personally contribute my company’s marketing expertise, probably amounting up to $5,000-$10,000 per month.

What about my personal business, Centratel, in Bend, as well as my small publishing, consulting and social media marketing businesses? They operate with little input from me. Among all of them, I maybe work two hours per month. I am financially stable and have time to spend on whatever I want to spend it on, and in this proposal I am offering to donate significant personal time and money to install some serious structure and backbone, into the ORP.

With each of us recognizing that our Republican Party presence in Oregon has been steadily sliding downward over the last dozen years and is now, near extinction, we must ask, can the ORP be rescued?

As you decide how to vote on February 16th, consider carefully each side’s campaign approach. Look at the overall delivery and distinguish between personal attacks vs. the presentation of historical facts, new ideas, and possibilities for the future.

Yes. I am positive we can turn things around. So here, I formally ask for your vote in this upcoming February election.

The stars are in alignment and all of the right players are on the field together!

And to borrow a line from Donald Trump, when he spoke directly to those suffering under failed leadership: What do you have to lose?

Let’s start now, together, to create a new Oregon Republican Party!