If elected as State Vice Chair, I promise you that I will never just sit there and accept the status quo. It is always easier to just let things play out or go along to get along. I promise that if I am elected, that I will make sure every decision’s impact on the 6th and our BPOUs is fully considered. As a blogger and BPOU Chair, I have a very strong track record of speaking up and being heard. That being said, my intent is to work WITH the entire Executive Committee, Party Leaders, elected officials, and candidates to make the party better and stronger.
Both on the 6th District and State Executive Committees, I will raise OUR concerns and push for discussion on major decisions and plans. All I want is for our party to be better. I believe in order to do that, we have to have our Leadership work with the committees and members, not dictate to them. I will be the 6th District’s advocate to the State Leadership, and a strong voice for you in the 6th. On top of providing my ideas, I promise to listen to yours, and share them with both Committees. My virtual door will always be open.
My Goals as 6th District Republican State Vice Chair
√ - Ensure the Republican Party doesn’t focus entirely on negative attacks and insist that the Party also
offers voters with a positive Republican vision
• I want to make sure that we don’t forget to offer voters a vision of why TO vote FOR Republicans, and not get bogged down with the attack ads. We have to do more than just attack DFLers. We have to get Minnesotans to trust us, to think like us and vote FOR us. I will make sure that we also provide voters with OUR vision for Minnesota and the Nation.
How else will they know what we stand for, if we don’t stand for it?
√ - Focus energy and resources strategically to BPOUs, on Minnesota Legislative races, and across all 8 Congressional Districts to benefit every Republican on the ballot
• The key to winning the big races is to have great pits crews. We have long talked about helping build and support all Congressional Districts, BPOUs, and grassroots that want and need help, its high time the rubber meets the road. Just talking about grassroots, isn’t doing it any favors.
√ - Make certain that Minnesota is controlling the decisions regarding our resources for
Congressional and State races, especially those in our 6th District
• I do not like the idea that people in DC are making win or lose decisions for us in Minnesota. We need to stay focused on how WE can win as many of OUR races as possible. I fully believe in a trickle up & down theory on the ballots. If all the (R)s on the ballot are working together on the same message, it helps every one of them get more votes because we’re all working together.
√ - Guarantee that the State Party provides all the tools and training necessary for BPOUs,
Congressional Districts, endorsed candidates, and grassroots volunteers
• Our training sessions and Leadership Summits need to be useful, not just full of speeches and reports. We need a Camp Reagan run by the homegrown best and brightest inside Minnesota’s conservative movement. It is always campaign season nowadays, like it or not. We have to work election to election. We can’t wait until the State Fair to begin the work.
√ - Share my belief that Republican ideas & values can win if they are just tried
and stop us from running this party and our campaigns based on polls
• We all know what we believe. We all know what we stand for. Our ideas and values are what will drive the grassroots to fight the good fight and recruit people to join us. We can’t use polls to set our agenda. If our party doesn’t stand for what our members want it to, they won’t be our members any longer. 59% voter turnout statewide is nothing to be proud of. We can do better.
Our Republican ideas and values are superior to the DFL’s. We need to make sure we put the DFL on notice that we will fight for every single voter, in every single District, not just the ones in our database. We can’t rest on our laurels assuming if the correct number of “our” people show up, we’ll win.
We can’t run this party or win elections based on quotas. We have got to start trying to get more Minnesotans to hear why the Republican Party and our vision is better. We have got to make more Minnesotans realize that they think like Republicans. The DFL hid their real agenda and most of them that won ran as conservative Democrats in 2006. That should send a clear message to our party and officials that even the DFL knows liberalism is a losing situation.
I believe our positive Republican values are winning values and I will do everything in my power to make sure that we don’t forget about having our candidates and officials run as and legislate like the good conservative Republicans we know they are.
On the morning of November 5th, 2008, here’s what I plan to see as the headlines in the paper.
Norm Coleman Reelected!
Resoundingly beats DFL candidate
Michele Bachmann Reelected!
It Wasn’t Even Close
Republicans Reclaim Woodbury And Then some
DFL Lost Seats Won in 2006
Marty Seifert Next Speaker of the House!
Republicans win back control of Minnesota House
*** It is that bottom one that I think is as important as can be.
We shouldn’t be content with sustaining vetoes in the House. We need to be setting the agenda of the bills in the first place! Let’s lay the ground work in 2008 and take back the House, so we can make a dent in the DFL majority in the Senate in 2010, and put this party back in the hands of the grown ups.
Minnesota is not a blue state. Republicans can win. The Republican Party can be better.
It is high time we put the DFL on notice, that they do not own this state.
With your vote today, I intend to give you every ounce of my energy to be your advocate to end the DFL’s tyranny of this state!
We all know Minnesota can’t afford to pay for what the DFL is selling. Let’s give the voters a clear alternative, and build our Republican team, from Precinct Chair, to US Senate Campaign staff into the best trained and supplied grassroots team this state has ever seen.
Andy Aplikowski
