WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE

Fran's "Road Map" letters on the Future of our party.

1. Candidacy Announcement Letter

2. Where do we go....thoughts

3. Where do we go...part 1

4. Where do we go...part 2

1. Representative Fran Wendelboe

238 Lower Oxbow Road

New Hampton, N.H. 03256

Dear Convention Delegate : 11/17/06

As many of you have heard, I am running for Chair of the State Republican Party.

In my five terms in the house I have enjoyed serving in our citizen legislature. I’ve worked hard to become the best legislator possible. My House seat is in a district that is usually a very safe seat but November 7^th proved that no Republican seat is “safe” anymore.

You are getting this letter because you were either an elected delegate to the convention or a nominee of the party from the September primary. I am sure many of you will be selected at your county caucus in December to continue as committee members who will then be eligible to vote in late January for state party officers. I believe you will be critical to the rebuilding of our party.

While everyone was quick to point out that the war and federal politics is what tanked our races and lost us the majority in the NH House and the Senate, I believe it was a combination of many things. For months now we have lacked anyone talking about Message. There still was no developed strong public relations message coming out of the State Party Headquarters after the March special election. This mostly continued silence has allowed Kathy Sullivan and the Media to continue to define what Republicans stand for in NH. It also allowed them to co-opt our message of no income or sales tax. It allowed the Governor to get away with claims of solving non existent multi hundred million dollar deficits and with passage of legislation like the child predators act—which was a Republican initiative that the Governor jumped on late in the stage. This MUST stop. It is time for SOMEONE to start talking about Republican principles and accomplishments. This message can’t be just a press release, it must be a shout sent out to GOP activists. Our State Reps, county and town chairs, and members of the State committee all must hear it. This will enable a wider network to spread the word. Why don’t we have an electronic newsletter? How large is our email database?

As the next chair I will make sure that the message of less government, lower taxes, personal responsibility, and economic growth through opportunity is a consistent and frequent message. How do we convince the largest party in our state, “the undeclareds”, to vote Republican or to become Republican if we don’t talk about what we stand for and what we have accomplished? We need to make it crystal clear to the undeclared voters that they are more like REPUBLICANS than they are like Democrats. And we have to expose the Democrats when their “new found” tax policy of no income or sales tax goes by the wayside.

THE LOSS OF THE NOVEMBER ELECTIONS IS UNACCEPTABLE. I believe lots of effort was “thrown” at the election. It is not enough to just do phone banking, leaflet dropping, sign holding and so on. Those are TACTICS. However, you must decide which tactics to use based on the STRATEGY of how to win the race: Why you are doing a newspaper ad instead of radio. Why you are lit dropping in THIS neighborhood instead of THAT neighborhood. Who do you target in phone calling? How do you analyze the best message to send to registered republicans versus the message you send to the undeclareds? As the next chair, I will form a Rapid Response Team that will come in and co-ordinate the various aspects of our strategy and tactics tailored to the needs of each individual race when we have special elections. A winning campaign plan really is NOT one size fits all. GOTV efforts are great except when you don’t have a message they want to vote for.

My focus as State Chair will be to strengthen and structure the State Party’s election emphasis to be primarily on Legislative and County races. For too long the State Party hierarchy has based its emphasis on the congressional and gubernatorial races. The top of the ticket races have paid staff, consultants, PR firms and a separate fundraising effort to support their election efforts---they are not totally dependent on grassroots effort. Not so with our local races. The town and county committees need to have more effort placed on helping them recruit and train candidates and how to develop winning strategies and tactics tailored to the needs of their individual districts.

I believe turnout is increased by a bottom up grass roots effort. This turnout by State House and Senate efforts in 424 districts across the state then flows UPWARD to the top of all ticket races. It is critical that we elect a chair who understands, respects, and supports the fact that the almost 500 races of legislative districts, executive council seats, and county races MUST become the number one priority of the State Party.

The 464 voting committee members---those selected at the party caucus in our county meetings—should be encouraged to vote for the candidate that they believe is the best qualified. When I ran for chair in the special election this past March there was a clear movement against THE STATUS QUO—business as usual---losing 7 of 8 special house races---- top down theory. I think it is now crystal clear that this status quo mentality is NOT what Republican activists want anymore, especially after the losses in the 06 general election. The State Party Chair needs strengths and skills in many areas. An in-depth knowledge and understanding of state issues, and the ability to articulate Republican principles in the media is critical. A long history of grassroots, in the trenches experience, and a deep commitment to supporting and defending the Republican platform is also vital. My ten years serving in the NH House has given me all of the skill sets I just described.

No one knows better my commitment and hard work for the Party and platform than my colleagues in the House. I ask that you go to the December county caucus and run to be elected as a state party committee member. This will give you the opportunity to vote on our new officers in January. I ASK FOR YOUR VOTE. I will be in Concord every day for legislative business and will be able to spend time in the State Party Office every day. I believe someone in the State Party office on a daily basis—with frequent trips into the field—is critical.

We have a massive job ahead of us. I pledge that I will make sure we have the best candidate recruitment effort possible and will take candidate training and election assistance into the field for the 2008 voting period. I will make sure that the backbone of the party—the grassroots activists—will not only be motivated but APPRECIATED. Commitment to the “grassroots” will not just be lip service.

I realize that many of you are concerned about the financial difficulties the State Party faces. As Chair I will direct the Finance Committee to establish a separate fund raising effort that will be designated and protected, to be used only for the election of Republicans in 2008. We were fortunate in this election cycle that separate House and Senate PACS organized by individuals provided much needed campaign funding, but in the future the state party needs to be of greater financial assistance to NH House and Senate races. While the court case goes to trial on December 4^th it may be a moot point except for dealing with any results, but I can assure you if it is not, I will be aggressive to come up with a resolution in the best interest of the future of our party.

For those of you who will not be voting members of the committee, I ask you to urge those in your communities who are voting members to let this be a fair election. (there are more delegates and nominees than committee member slots) This election deserves to be decided based on who is the most qualified and who is prepared to give the time commitment necessary on a daily basis. I have had many many activists, candidates, and even lobbyists contact me since the election urging me to run for State Chair. They believe it is time for a change in leadership and organization and I strongly agree.

Thank you for your attention and reading this very long letter. Please call me if you have any questions or comments--- any input you would like to give right now is certainly welcome. I have outlined a list of “where do we go from here” that should be instituted as soon as possible and are low cost initiatives. If you email me your email contact information, I will email you a copy of it.

Warmest Personal Regards,

Fran Wendelboe

mattwenfran@verizon.net

968-7988

Where do we go from here?

These are some initial thoughts I would like to share as to what our first steps need to be as we go forward from our losses on November 7^th. Most are very low cost, and of a true grassroots organizational nature. Shockingly, fewer than 3,400 votes is the margin that we lost the majority in the house. Had we turned out just a little over 1.5 % more Republicans or convinced less than 1% of Republicans who voted democrat to vote for their own party instead, we would not have lost the House. I will address how we could have found those voters later in this list.

1. First off we need to assess exactly where we stand as to who actually voted. Only then can we get a handle not only “who” voted but it will give us help to answer the following questions:

How many Republicans voted, how many Democrats voted, how many Undeclareds voted? How large was the democratic turnout? Did Republicans stay home? Can we trend how many Republicans voted Democrat? Once we have this data, it will assist us in crafting the 08 plan to recoup our losses and move forward.

2. Since part of this effort will be getting the data from each town on who voted in the 06 general, that should be entered into the data base so that we have the most up to date list for 08. I will set up a series of trainings to show activists how to do this. We can not rely on voter vault. I and many others found voter vault very inaccurate. With a little bit of effort on the part of our recent candidates, we can have the best data base around. This will also be a tool for raising much needed funds for the party as Presidential candidates are encouraged to purchase it for their campaigns….

3. The party needs to have a coalition liaison to actively work with Republican leaning special interest groups to maximize the effect of THEIR turn out efforts. For example, the pro life groups really did not engage in this election—no house race surveys or score cards. Our platform is pro life and the great majority of those voters are Republicans. While they may not have voted for pro choice Republicans when they turned out, they would have voted Republican in races that don’t face that issue...like county attorney, registers of probate and deeds and so on. The NFIB sent out endorsement letters a week before the election. Had we had a party liaison to these groups they could have been encouraged to do this earlier and there could have been a strategy and guidance on how republicans could have used this to their advantage. How effective were the gun groups in turnout? Could they have been encouraged to have dropped shipped cards to their membership if candidates had provided them with stamped literature? Those 3,400 votes may easily have been turned out with a little bit of effort targeted at these groups.

4. We need more effective training for candidates and activists and it is not too early to start now while the fire is still hot and the embers are glowing.

5. There needs to be a much stronger message from Party Headquarters to the media to continue to emphasize how we differ from the dems and how disingenuous they are in their “new found” fiscal positions. Silver lining…we’ve got Dems running like Republicans...they are becoming more like us. I think we will find this will be very short lived and we need to be prepared to take advantage of that...

6. we need to have a grassroots activist retreat in the spring similar to the one we held in Freedom a number of years ago. Bring as many people to the table, provide effective training and motivating speakers would be worth its weight in gold. Perhaps a Presidential candidate would be willing to underwrite the cost of this?

7. We need a better co-coordinated relationship and message with the minority leaders (OUCH) in the House and Senate.

8. We need to SAVE all the dems campaign literature for ammunition.

9. We need to greatly expand our email list as well as develop a GOP newsletter

10. We should have links to all candidate websites/campaign information

This is just a start on some the issues I outlined to Chairman Semprini earlier today. I am confident our party is up to this challenge and relish the victory I know we can accomplish in 2008.

Fran Wendelboe (Nov 14, 2007)

968-7988

mattwenfran@verizon.net

Where does the New Hampshire Republican Party go from here? (part one)

Since my last letter to you just over three weeks ago there have been a number of events affecting our party. The settlement of the phone jamming case was welcome news and allows us to put that behind us and move forward. As I sit here on this first day of snow covering the ground here in the Lakes Region, we are half way through the county/city committee caucus process. Every single caucus held so far has had a large turnout and more people wanting to become committee members than slots available. Congratulations to those who did win those slots and to those who did not----- don’t go away---the party still needs you in many other capacities. I’m sure many of you have heard that Chairman Semprini has decided for medical reasons to not seek re-election. His hip replacement surgery from last spring needs to be redone and will take him out of circulation for at least a couple of months. I wish him well and a speedy recovery.

At this point, I am the only candidate running for Chair of the Party (as of 6am Friday) but that could change. I am running on my qualifications and my vision and the “road map” that I believe is right for the party. I am not running “against” whoever may get in the race.

So that brings us to my opening question of where does the NH Republican Party go from here?

First off, we should be moving forward in several areas RIGHT NOW and not waiting in limbo until a new chair and new executive committee members are elected. I firmly believe in a refocus of effort to the 500 races at the local and county level and not the five races at the top. I outline below some of the first steps that need to be set into place.

ORGANIZATION

1. The town chair and town committee system needs to be updated desperately. This is the backbone of holding the town caucuses as required under the by laws. All listed town chairs need to be contacted to see if they want to continue and any open slots need to be filled. The town chair/committee handbook needs to be simplified and a series of training needs to be established and taken on the road to cover areas like town committee member recruitment, finding candidates for office, local fund raising, and how to plan a local campaign strategy.

I have spoken to an activist group that is willing to take this on as a project if given the go ahead.

2. We need to update the checklists to reflect who voted on November 7^th. This data will help us better understand the turnout and identify towns that need more attention than others as to motivating turnout. Voter Vault was a help but I found it very inaccurate. The edge we need for 08 will be to develop our own local data bases which could also bring us much needed revenue if we get “donations” from Presidential candidates for using our data base.

3. I propose we plan an all day “summit” retreat in the spring or fall of 07 for delegates and activists to come together in a round table format for planning and training in preparation for the 08 strategy for taking back our majority. (this is similar to the retreat in Freedom a number of years ago)

Communications

1. Our party website needs to be freshened and updated, all press releases need to be promptly placed on it so that Republicans are the FIRST to know the news and not get the information as “filtered” by the media and Kathy Sullivan.

2. Our party should have an electronic newsletter sent out twice a month to update our activists on what is happening in the Party. This should include guest editorials as well as training points.

3. We need to be aggressive in responding to whatever the Democrats dream up. We’ve let Kathy Sullivan, John Lynch and the media define what Republicans stand for and that must stop.

Fund Raising

1. We need to establish and reach out a fundraising effort to a very broad based list of potential donors, asking for modest amounts on a continuing basis in support of the day to day operating expenses of the party. Big money donors are needed and appreciated but we all must help support the activities of the Party. I have several ideas of how to do this.

2. We need to immediately begin plans for a gala State Party dinner with a big name. (I have three new faces in mind as keynote) This should be in the late spring and a second one planned for fall. The Spring event needs to be in the works as soon as possible.

3. Our commitment on the phone jamming settlement should be paid in full as soon as possible. I will propose a separate fundraising effort to do so---having Kathy Sullivan or Ray Buckley waiving the bill and payment every year for five years should be avoided if possible.

I thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts. I would like to stay in touch with you frequently and ask that those of you with email send me an email with your email information.

(that way I can respond to you at all hours of the night since I tend to be a night owl) Please feel free to call me any time. I welcome your thoughts and input.

Sincerely,

Fran Wendelboe

238 Lower OxBow Road

New Hampton, NH 03256

mattwenfran@verizon.net

968-7988

Where we go from here, part two……

In my last letter I highlighted three areas we Republicans need to focus on—organization, communications, and fund raising. This letter will further “flesh out” those areas and highlight another important focus: “Outreach”. We can and will succeed only if we unite and work together to reorganize and rejuvenate our party. I don’t have all the answers and especially not all the ideas. A team approach is the way we “retake in 08” our losses of November 7^th. Now that the committee members have all been elected, it is important that we reach out to those Convention delegates who did not become committee members. We need the delegates to stay engaged and be part of the teamwork needed for our party to succeed.

We’ll start with the newest:

OUTREACH

1. We can no longer win elections JUST with Republican votes. The Undeclared registrations FAR exceed the Republican OR Democrat numbers. We must send a message to the Undeclared voters that will help them realize that they are more like us on the issues than they are like the Democrats. We must bear in mind that these voters are turned off by partisan rhetoric. We must be clear in our message and it can’t be “vote for me because I’m a Republican”.

2. We must attract and involve the future of our party--- young voters. This is especially important considering that many of our youth first register as undeclared voters. We all need to focus on assisting the YR’s (Young Republicans) and the college campus Republicans in growing their numbers. Our Republican State Representatives and other elected officials should be encouraged to approach high schools and colleges about being a guest lecturer on our political process and state government. We must begin to “speak” in ways that our youth understand. Part of our technology/communication effort should include pod casts and text messaging.

3.   Our party should have a liaison to work with voter turnout efforts with Republican leaning platform and policy oriented groups such as business groups, (like the NFIB), second amendment groups, veterans, faith based organizations and our Republican women’s organizations. I am proud to have been on the Board of Governors of the Vesta Roy Program since its inception.

ORGANIZATION

1. There should be a formal by-laws committee appointed for each annual meeting of the state committee just as we have a formal platform committee for the convention meeting.

Our bylaws are in need of revision and current policy is just for committee members to send suggestions to the executive committee.

2. Once the town chairs are recruited and trained (from where we go, part 1) we need to encourage county wide meetings of town chairs at least twice a year so that they can share ideas of what they are doing in their respective towns with the other towns in their county. This will perhaps facilitate the joining of forces in joint efforts if two small towns have a hard time doing events on their own.

3. As we update our town checklists with voting history, we can then identify Republicans who always vote in the PRIMARY. This will give a great beginning start on who to contact to get involved in the town committee, especially those who turned out to vote when we had such poor primary turn outs recently—this will clearly show who are dedicated Republican voters.

COMMUNICATIONS

1. I have put together an internet chat group solely for the use of state committee members to have an efficient format in which to share ideas and suggestions. If I have an email address for you, there will be an invitational email sent to you with instructions on how to log in and join the list. Only committee members will have access to this list and no one will be put on the yahoo group chat list without their permission via email. This interactive chat group will be up and running by the end of the week. If you don’t get an invitation, email me your contact information.

2. One of the workshop meetings we should hold (perhaps at the activist retreat I mentioned in Part 1) is how a county committee can develop a simple website and how town committees could benefit from having a simple website as well.

3. Each county and town chair should be provided with an up to date media contact list—especially for the papers and radio stations in their areas. Frequent talking points about state and federal issues should be sent to county and town chairs on a regular basis.

4. Cable and community TV shows are becoming increasingly common and accessible to every day activists. Part of our communications training should be a segment on how county and city committees can use community TV as a tool to get our message out. (another workshop at the retreat?)

FUND RAISING

1. It is critical that we develop a broad based donor list of small contributors. I understand we have an email list of 32,000. We should send out an email drive to that list asking for a very small monthly pledge to go toward supporting the everyday operation costs of the State Party. The focus should be if we all send in a modest monthly amount, we can assure that the staff and the lights stay shining. (perhaps just $2 a month?)

2. While fundraising is important, on the local level, we should do more dinners that are not fund raisers but are social party builders. Pot lucks or inexpensive spaghetti suppers or cook outs provide the opportunity to just mix and mingle and share ideas and are worth their weight in gold of a different kind of currency called political capital.

I thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts. As I stated in my last letter, I would like to stay in touch with you frequently and ask those of you with email to send me an email with your information. Every letter I mail to the group costs a couple of hundred dollars and as a truly fiscal conservative, if I can reach you through email rather than snail mail, we all save either in time or money.   Please feel free to call me at any time. I welcome your input.

Sincerely,

Fran Wendelboe

238 Lower OxBow Road   New Hampton, NH 03256      mattwenfran@verizon.net 968-7988