Today… we endorse. I’ve really never sat down and done one of these endorsements here. So it will be completely random (as you expect). While this will be no surprise to anyone, QCI is endorsing Matt Strawn to be our next Chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa. “Whoah G$, this is earth shattering!” Yea, yea… keep it coming. “Real good Grant, endorse your boss.” That’s all you got? “Of course G$, you want a job at RPI!” Nah, good try… I work for the best organization… ever, do you have your season tickets yet? “This is just a Jeff Lamberti conspiracy!” Nope, if you want the exclusive… Jeff ain’t running for Gov. Anything else? “Oh… alright… let’s hear it G$... why Matt Strawn?” OK… you got it. While I have no illusion that many of you reading will take this seriously… let’s tell a story and why.JASPER COUNTY GOP PHONE BANK – Since I have been in involved for the past 10 or so years… I have had a ton of mutual friends who knew Matt. I had heard about him… knew he was a rising star… but I didn’t meet him until final push in 2004… in Iowa. I had Central Iowa for BC ’04… and had to drop off more materials in Jasper County. “Hi, I’m Matt Strawn,” he said after finishing a call in the phone bank area. I’m thinking why is this high powered Hill guy who raises big dollars for the NRCC in Newton, Iowa a month before the general? Chatted a bit and got my answer. “Hey, I asked where I could be the most helpful. They said Iowa, and Jasper County. If help running a phone bank in Newton is what needs to be done, I’m not going to question it.” Or something to that matter… I was impressed and over time… we became great friends.
THE COMMUNICATION CHAIRMAN – I can vouch for his communication skills having worked with him directly with the team… but you don’t need to look further on his communication skills than what he has demonstrated during this race. While people were arguing, “Just because you have Facebook, YouTube and Twitter doesn’t mean you should be the chair…” Matt actually showed why technology matters and has effectively proven he can not only use these tools to get out a message, but how efficient it is… that’s real leadership and real communication. If we are to make a rebound and march our way back to the majority, we’re going to need a chair who can capitalize on the entire communication department. As Chair, I think the County Leadership will find that with Matt Strawn you are going to find good communication between the State and counties… something we have lacked for a while.
A GLIMPSE OF WHAT KIND OF CHAIR HE WOULD BE – Enter the Pizza and Politics Tour. If you want to be the leader of the party, you’re going to have to hit the road and sell it. He did just that. Never before has there been a race for chair where the Grassroots Activists have had a chance to provide their input… emails, websites and blogs… all candidates have been accessible, but Matt is the leader in this regard. With all of the distrust of RPI, Matt has proven his campaign to be accessible to all who are interested in rebuilding the party… from active bloggers to poll watchers, from donors to County Central Committee members… Matt has run a transparent campaign and shows what kind of chair he would be. He’s practicing how he’ll play the game…
A NEW FACE FOR THE PARTY – Way back when I was chiming in on what I thought was needed to rebuild the party… I mentioned someone who can unite all factions and faces of the party. Someone who is comfortable in their own skin and can communicate. I didn’t realize it until I thought about it later… this is totally Matt. He’s a guy who can effectively spread our message at a local county party meeting… the women’s clubs who meet in church basements… the young professional group at a chamber event… the guys from the 3rd shift at Firestone… a group of moms at a PTA meeting… to the average right leaning people who voted for Obama because they felt our Republican leaders failed them… the message is the same every time. Ours is a party of personal responsibility, individual freedom, being able to raise families with our values and tell the government to get out of our way.
LET’S START THE IOWA COMEBACK - I’m confident that with Matt Strawn as Chairman, he will make the necessary decisions to rebuild our party… and start winning again. This means bringing together a team that will put the cause before themselves… evaluate and revamp efforts in the operations of the party… communicate and listen to the grassroots suggestions… putting together a solid plan (his 100 day plan is a good indicator)… raising the funds needed to implement the plan… recruiting the candidates… unifying our messengers… the long and heavy laudry list of tasks that need to be done in our party. Knowing Matt personally, I can tell you that he is in this race with no other agenda or axes to grind… he wants to be a part of the solution to rebuild the party and start winning again. Which I find refreshing with all of the egos, cliques, venom being spewed on the blogs… he has the single focus. Nothing else.
If any of this made sense to you… and you agree. Make sure you let your voice be heard and contact the State Central Committee. Tell them, while we have a GREAT field of candidates for Chair… there is one clear choice… Matt Strawn.
