RPV communications – Will it be Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde?

For those of us engaged in trying to get information from the Republican Party of Virginia over the years, we have been on a roller-coaster.

Sometimes it’s been good and other times, not so good. Right now, the jury is out.

Personally, it began sitting in their offices early in 2006, where myself and the “Squeaky Wheel” attempted to explain how the blogosphere might serve some utility during the 2006 campaigns.

All we got was a blank stare and what effectively amounted to “don’t call us, we’ll call you.”

Low and behold, that year gave us Macaca, yet RPV had absolutely no relationship with bloggers, nor a strategy as to how to counter this wildfire spread by the left-roots. We saw what happened.

Down-ticket though, the Drake for Congress campaign, under the management of Tim Murtaugh, did a fantastic job of keeping an open-line of communication with myself and other contributors of this blog. And the dialogue paid-off. While incumbent Republicans were losing all across the country, Drake won re-election against a very strong candidate in Phil Kellam.

Over the years, members of State Central and the leadership of RPV began to realize the value of the new media. When Shaun Kenney was communications director, he not only had a solid outreach strategy to legacy newspapers, but frequently communicated with and promoted the new media.

With that established relationship, an aligned message that supported candidates heading into the ’07 November elections helped preserve the House, while the Senate, whose legislative votes had long been the target of growing hostility from the conservative-base, couldn’t be salvaged no matter who was doing the communicating.

The engagement continued under Hager, resulting in bloggers being invited to the ’08 convention. While there were some hiccups in terms of power cords, seating, and proximity to the legacy media (note: bloggers were not the ones who had an issue with this), it came off very well.

Post convention, I walked up to newly elected chairman, Jeff Frederick, whom I had interviewed prior to the election, and asked him if he could spare a few minutes to conduct a sit down interview with us.

We had already interviewed Jim Gilmore, post nomination. Had spoken with Rep. Eric Cantor after his speech. Interviewed Bob Marshall that day. And many others.

Frederick, who had already engaged legacy media, had no time for the blogs though. He claimed he was too tired, yet continued his twenty minute conversation with a supporter before heading off to his victory party.

In the 2008 cycle, in all fairness to new communications director Gerry Scimeca, who was willing to outreach to the blogs, there never seemed to be continuity of message. Not because of Gerry, but because of who he worked for.

From what I understand, Jeff Frederick micro-managed RPV and had “special place” for blogs in his heart (read: he begrudgingly would participate in new media outreach when he felt he had to).

This tied Scimeca’s hands.

And Frederick thought he also could do his own forays into social media in order to control the message.

We saw how well that worked for him.

So here we are today. What will RPV’s new media strategy be next?

At this point, signs appear good, but there is some cause for concern.

Under the leadership of Mike Thomas, Allison Coccia, Lori-Ann Miller, and the RPV New Media committee, there will be a “Bloggers Row” at the convention, which will, hopefully, ensure that the coverage coming from the convention is the best yet.

From what I understand, RPV also has a UStream account set up, they will be providing live updates on their web site, and perhaps will be live-blogging, etc. themselves.

So, both in-house and in terms of out-reach, RPV is definitely making the effort to the new media.

I have also noticed that Tim Murtaugh is on-the-scene again and is helping RPV. It’s noticeable because since his arrival, the statements coming from Chairman Mullins have been strong and direct; they’re the kind of statements that clearly motivate the base and call-out the hypocrisy of the Democrats. It’s nice to see the Democrats on defense again from an aggressive RPV.

But while they may be strong, they are not derogatory and demeaning. Dare I say, they are not “incendiary.”

Yet Mullins, himself, refuses to engage new media.

Despite frequent appeals from this blog, his campaign has unequivocally stated they will not conduct an interview before the convention.

And, they have been so direct as to say to my sources that they feel this blog is “pro-Stanley”, therefore, they will not engage with us.

Jeb Wilkinson, Mullins Campaign Manager, said that Mullins will be glad to do an interview nearly two weeks after the convention, but that it will have to be scheduled through RPV.

While I am glad that Chairman Mullins will be willing to talk about the Democratic primary – as that will be the focus of my interview with him in a couple weeks – I am disappointed that he is the only Republican candidate at this convention who has not appeared on this blog.

Bill Stanley, on the other hand, has not only conducted a podcast, but emailed that interview out to his supporters. He also purchased ad space, as you can see, on the site.

Personally, I don’t understand the unwillingness on the part of the Mullins camp to engage.

If I had to guess, they are misinterpreting my criticisms of RPV State Central for selecting him chairman on May 2nd and of my post last Saturday on his Virginia Beach comments. Neither were meant to be critical of him.

So I am a little concerned. Are blogs only valuable if they are 100% aligned under a Mullins chairmanship? Will any deviation or disagreement suddenly slam the door on access? Are we heading back to the days of 2006?

However, I take solace in that RPV, while a player, is not the key player this year: it’s Bob McDonnell, Bill Bolling, the AG candidate, and Speaker Howell.

And, thus far, blogs have a strong relationship with all their staffs.

And, most importantly, none of those staffs has a litmus test.

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