I’m not sure if you’re paying attention, but the party’s gotten its butt handed to it in back-to-back election cycles. While there are legitimate points as to why the GOP’s been getting creamed, and to say straying from real conservative principles may be one reason, at some point, you have to take this wins where you can find them. In certain states, Rhode Island comes to mind, you’re not getting a Thune or a Sessions. It just isn’t happening. (The same works for the other side, too. Nelson isn’t exactly a lib’s dream, but he’s in Nebraska; they’re not getting a Schumer.)

All of this is incidental to my question as to whether or not Rubio could actually win a statewide race. Have any polls been done yet? What’s his base like in Florida? Are we that confident that no Democrats of note will run in Fla? The entry by Erick is a nice explanation of why he, personally, will be backing Rubio, but it’s short on specifics.

Coffee….meet computer screen

My friend in Florida just contacted Marco Rubio in Florida as a brand new PC and asked Marco to be the first signatory on his precinct committeeman nomination papers. Here’s how it came about and some background:

>>>>>
Hi Marco,

I live here on Brickell. I am a real conservative. I support you against Crist.

XXXXXXX (see below) is a good friend of mine — he is a CA / AZ lawyer and a West Point Grad and had considered challenging McCain in the AZ republican primary. He thoroughly understands the Precinct Committeeman urgency and how to articulate it.

We need to really ramp up this Precinct Committeeman movement in Florida to get real conservatives to outnumber the moderates.

I am going to become a Precinct Committeeman for the Brickell district if there are any vacancies.

Would you be my first signature (I believe I need 12)? I want to be involved and make a change.

I want to help you and you can count on me for a donation.

–
Sincerely,

XXXXXXXXX

———- Forwarded message ———-
From:
Date: Tue, May 12, 2009 at 4:22 PM
Subject: FW: Re: CCM Meeting – RSVP
To:
FYI, as promised.
________________________________________
From:
Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2009 12:09 PM
To:
Subject: Re: CCM Meeting – RSVP
Hi Robert,
Thanks for all your efforts with the Coalition for a Conservative Majority.
As you learned last night, I’ve been recruiting Precinct Committeemen for the Republican Party. Conservative Precinct Committeemen. Only one third of the available slots are filled in Legislative District 17, for example, and in Maricopa County, over 4,000 vacancies exist. Those numbers are extremely significant when one learns that the conservative candidate for the Maricopa County GOP chairmanship, Rob Haney, in this last internal party election defeated the moderate candidate, Jerry Brooks, by only about twenty votes and the incumbent, conservative AZ Chairman, Randy Pullen, defeated moderate candidate Lisa James by only about twenty votes and, a year ago, defeated her by only FOUR votes.

If you want to see a shock wave go through the current elected officeholders, get 4,000 conservatives to join the Maricopa County Republican Party as precinct committeemen. Indeed, I believe McCain would change his mind about running for reelection.

So, as you see, if we could get conservatives (most of whom DO know the basics of the framework of our Constitution and Bill of Rights — they are, after all, conservatives) off their collective duffs and AT LEAST join the party as precinct committeemen, we could change the Republican Party back to its Reagan Era, conservative, winning ways. While conservatives, by and large, do know the basics about the structure of our government, what I have found is that most don’t know the first thing about the importance of being an actual, functioning, voting member of the Republican Party and how essential that participation will be for getting our country back on track. Nor how to become one. And the Republican Party does a horrible job of providing that information to the public.

I realize I’m preaching to the choir, but:

If we want to change the country, we have to change the outcome of the elections.

To change the outcome of the elections, we have to change the caliber of the Republican Party candidates.

So that those candidates are not an echo of the Democrat candidate for the voter, but a real alternative. A conservative alternative.

To change the caliber of the candidates, we have to change the outcome of the Republican primary elections.

To change the outcome of the Republican primary elections, we have to have more conservative Republican precinct committeemen influencing the amount of support the conservative candidates receive and, hence, the number of votes they receive.

I’m attaching the flyer I used at the Phoenix Tea Party and which I handed out last night. I will be handing them out on Wed. at the Obama protest that will held at Tempe Marketplace. Are you aware of it?

Here is a link to a discussion of The Committeeman Project at Redstate.com. Lot’s of good people at Redstate.com, but [critical comments omitted]).

http://www.redstate.com/martin_a_knight/2009/05/05/the-committeeman-project/

And here’s a link explaining what I did at the Phoenix Tea Party with video of my sign (and my son).

http://www.redstate.com/hawksruleva/2009/04/15/after-the-tea-party-whats-next/#comment-6

Sincerely,
<<<<<

although at first I was coming to pounce on you for the title…When do we ever hear “Can the moderate win?”….never…we need to start believing in ourselves before anybody else is going to believe in us.

I wasn’t asking about Rubio’s chances strictly in terms of ideology, but whether or not he can win a statewide race against Generic Democratic Opponent.

the rumblings are that Jeb will endorse Rubio. They’re supposedly close friends.

.

nt