5 Quick-Tips for GOP Candidates with Primaries

Another great “Call-in Day” with Winners Circle members yesterday.  I gotta tell ya, I think I get as much out of these calls as the candidates and campaign managers do!
Here are five ideas that came up in various “brainstorming” talks with candidates facing GOP primary races this year; a couple of which also apply to candidates going straight to the general.
1.)  Read and sign the party platform.
Republican primary voters tend to be better informed and more conservative than your typical general election Republican.  That means they not only know what a party “platform” is, they’re at least somewhat familiar with what’s in it.
On the other hand, many elected Republicans not only violate the platform on a regular basis, they haven’t even read it.
So a candidate who not only campaigns on the fact that they’ve read the platform, agrees with it, will run on it, abide by…and SIGNS A WRITTEN STATEMENT to that effect…will have a big advantage over GOP primary opponents who haven’t…especially when attending GOP events, forums and debates.
Click here to see a sample with sample language at the end.
2.)  Sign the Taxpayer Protection Pledge.
Moderate, wishy-washy establishment Republicans do NOT like to make unambiguous promises not to raise taxes, preferring to keep their options open to cut deals once elected.  And they can give 1,001 reasons – none of which are legitimate – for not signing the Pledge, which was established over 25 years ago by Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform.
A candidate willing to swear off tax hikes – there are ALWAYS other alternatives – IN WRITING who is running in a GOP primary against a candidate who is unwilling to do the same will have a tremendous advantage.
Make sure you make the Pledge an issue in your campaign, carry a copy with you to all events, put a copy up on your website, refer to it in your campaign literature, and regularly challenge your opponent to sign it.
Click here for more information and to download copies.
Note: There are three different Pledges with slightly different wording: One for federal candidates, one for state legislators and one for governors.  Make sure you download and sign the correct one.
3.)  Check the phone book.
OK, I realize that a “phone book” is a quaint little relic in this Internet age; nevertheless check to see if your opponent has his phone number published or if it’s “unlisted.”  If it’s unlisted, you’ve just earned yourself a quick, easy little issue…providing YOU have YOUR phone number listed.
A candidate or elected official with an “unlisted” phone number is not accessible to the voters.  That’s important to a lot of people.
I know of a county commissioner here in my own home town whose business card actually includes his personal email address and CELL PHONE number for the public to call.  In reality, few do.  But the mere fact that they CAN has a very positive effect on voters.  Consider it.
4.)  Check your opponent’s vote history.
You’d be surprised at how many candidates for public office not only haven’t voted regularly, but, believe it or not, aren’t even registered to vote.
Contact your Election Department to check on your opponent’s voting history.  They won’t tell you HOW your opponent voted; only IF he voted.  You might find that he only votes in general elections and rarely, if ever, votes in GOP primaries.  If so…and if YOU have a stellar primary voting record…that’s an easy issue for your campaign to exploit.
5.)  Hold a raffle to get email addresses.
It is getting harder and harder to get people to give you their email address.  And even though the CAN-SPAM law doesn’t apply to political campaigns, in the eyes of the public any emails they receive that they didn’t ask for is spam.
And spammers aren’t going to win votes.
Also, just asking for people to come to your website and “Sign Up for Campaign Updates” doesn’t generate a lot of interest.  People are just too overwhelmed by the sheer amount of email out there these days.  So you need to come up with something new and different to get people to give you their email address.
Often you can “bribe” them, ethically, by giving them a free online report of some kind in exchange for their email address.  But one candidate I spoke with yesterday had another great idea: a raffle.
Folks will go the campaign website, enter their email address, fill out a very brief questionnaire, click “submit” and…will automatically be entered into a raffle for a great prize!
And it HAS to be a great prize or no one will care if they win or not…and, therefore, won’t participate.
A number of campaigns and organizations have had huge success raffling off guns.  However, you can make it even better if you have the gun stock personally AUTOGRAPHED by a celebrity or other well-known person.  We had an extremely successful fundraising raffle a couple years ago for a rifle autographed by Ted Nugent.
Just make sure holding such a raffle – especially a gun raffle – is legal where you’re running.  Different states have different laws, restrictions and requirements.