Politics & Government

2012 Election Autopsy: Voters Shunned GOP for Being 'Scary' and 'Narrow Minded'

Can the Grand Old Party become the "Growth and Opportunity Party?" Yes, a national report says, if it wants to survive.

Remember that nudge Iowa Republicans got earlier this year to relax on social issues or risk more crushing defeats at the polls?

It’s a full-fledged shove now.

A Growth & Opportunity Project “autopsy” report released this week by the Republican National Committee said defeats at the polls result from a perception on the part of some voters that the party is “scary,” “narrow-minded” and “out of touch,” and that it’s a party of “stuffy old men,” the Huffington Post reported.

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RNC Chairman Reince Priebus was in Iowa this week talking about the report after appearing Sunday on “Face the Nation,” where he said the 2012 election post-mortem exposes the party’s “lousy job of branding and marketing” its principles. In a special reporting project last month, the Iowa Patches looked at the cultural war taking place within the GOP.

Catch up here – Will Desire to Gain Voters Prompt Iowa GOP to Change Course on Gay Marriage – Or at Least Muzzle Activists?  – and here – Fight Against Gay Marriage? Not if Iowa GOP Wants Young Voters

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The stakes are so high the RNC is embarking on a $10 million national marketing and branding campaign plot out a new roadmap for the future.

Caucuses Appear Safe, But Straw Poll May Be History

The report not only bluntly said the party needs to be more inclusive, but also offered recommendations that could have a lasting effect in Iowa, a bellwether state with its first-in-the-nation caucuses.

The caucuses don’t appear to be in immediate jeopardy, according to a Des Moines Register report. The report didn’t defend Iowa’s first-in-the-nation status.

“It remains important to have an ‘onramp’ of small states that hold unique primary days before the primary season turns into a multistate process with many states voting on one day,” the report said. “The idea of a little-known candidate having a fair chance remains important.”

Some of the corrective measures outlined in the study were to shorten the primary season and have an early summer convention and limit the number debates. Although the report doesn’t mention the Ames Straw Poll, it could likely be on its way out, Iowa GOP power broker Doug Gross told the Register.

“Fewer debates and a shortened process equals bye-bye straw poll,” he said.

The Ames Straw Poll, typically held in August roughly five months before the caucuses, hasn’t produced winners recently. Michele Bachmann, who suspended her campaign after finishing dead last in the caucuses, won the 2011 Ames Straw Poll. Mike Huckabee won it in 2008 and went on to finish first in Iowa precinct caucus polling in early 2009, but his campaign quickly faltered after Iowa.

Iowa Republican stalwarts Gov. Terry Branstad and U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley both think the Straw Poll’s heydey is over, but state GOP Chairman A.J. Spiker doesn’t appear willing to budge on the issue.

A guest Tuesday on WHO Radio talk show host Jan Mickelson’s program Tuesday, Spiker said the Straw Poll is a big money-maker for the Republican Party, but it’s primary value is that it offers voters a chance to see which candidates have done the grassroots organizing work that is a hallmark of the caucuses.

“There’s either a market for it, or there isn’t,” he said. “The presidential candidates will determine these things, not the state parties.”

The fate of the Ames Straw Poll will be decided in 2015, he said.

As for the debate calendar, Spiker said he doesn’t think there are any Republicans who would argue for more debates, “but it’s very difficult to police the number of debates and forums."

Dallas County Official: Republicans Need to be More Inclusive

Spiker’s comments on the air appear to be at odds with national party bosses in other respects, illustrating the schism dividing Republicans and striking at the heart of the Growth and Opportunity Project report.

When the radio host asked Spiker to describe the “heart and soul” of the Republican Party, the state party official responded “the Christian Right and the Tea Party,” factions within the Republican Party that he said are pro life, pro family, evangelicals and strong conservatives.

He doesn’t appear to speak for all Republicans. Dallas County Recorder Chad Airhart of Waukee is part of a growing faction of the party who think members should explore “opening our minds and welcoming new people into our party,” KCCI-TV reported.

“We need to be respectful of those folks that have differing ideas and at the same time agree to disagree without vilifying people with a different opinion,” Airhart said.

Spiker did seem to agree his party needs to focus on messaging.

“I think the message in general we’ve gotten from talking to several voters is that we cannot be the party that is specifically opposed to things,” he said. “We need to talk about what we’re for and reach out to people we haven’t always reached out to.”

The party’s image may be in part due to the fact that it doesn’t think as “a collective,” the way the Democratic Party does.

“We see people as an individual and don’t have as much group identity as the Democrat party,” he said.

He said the GOP may need to reach out more not only to minority groups, who voted solidly for President Obama in 2012, but also to construction workers and laborers and in turn “support issues the American people want us to support.”

A new ABC News/Washington Post poll says 58 percent of Americans now support same-sex marriage. It has been legal in Iowa since 2009, but is a contentious issue that makes its way into legislative floor debates and judicial retention votes.

Spiker stopped short of saying the party should change its position on gay marriage.


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