GOP Makes Tech Advances After Autopsy but Troubles Linger
Republicans are eager to highlight the ways they have made good on the recommendations of their autopsy diagnosing their losses in the 2012 elections. Despite those gains though, the party still faces serious struggles in addressing some of the deeper issues that have festered within the GOP over the past six years.
The party has made tremendous strides in addressing the party's aged infrastructure since the self-styled blueprint to revitalization was released one year ago this week. Come 2016, Republicans may well have drawn even with Democrats in terms of access to the high-tech tools and information that are the lifeblood of the modern political campaign.
Still, a year removed from the Republican National Committee (RNC) report recommending dozens of reforms to the GOP's outreach, rhetoric and organization, the party isn't much closer to determining its overarching identity. Republicans remained locked in fights both internally and externally over how the party should move forward on social, economic and foreign policy issues.
Triumphs
The RNC's "Growth and Opportunity Project" report offered a far-reaching assessment of why Mitt Romney and many fellow Republicans lost in 2012, and how the party could best adapt growing forward. Among the biggest strides taken by Republicans in the year since the report's publication are those which fall directly within the RNC's purview.
Taking them at their word, Im sure theyve made some strides on technology and data acquisition. But that hasnt changed their issues overall as a party.
Those success stories which largely involve party organization and manpower are the ones Republicans are most eager to highlight. The party has spent millions, for instance, on building a data operation. The RNC hired Silicon Valley all-stars to head up new, separate positions in charge of technology, digital and data operations. And the committee launched "Para Bellum Labs" a self-described "tech start-up inside the RNC" as a sign of its newfound commitment to data.
I have been thoroughly impressed, but most importantly, proud of our party and our brand, said Glenn McCall, a South Carolina RNC committeeman, on a conference call on Monday highlighting the reports anniversary.
These investments are also the ones most likely to pay dividends. A Republican Party equipped with rich voter data files could replicate the kind of turnout machine the Obama campaign leveraged so effectively in 2012. In fact, the RNC points to the party's victory in a competitive special election in Florida earlier this month as a sign that their investments are beginning to pay dividends.
Taking them at their word, Im sure theyve made some strides on technology and data acquisition, said Brad Woodhouse, the president of the liberal action group Americans United for Change. But that hasnt changed their issues overall as a party.
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