Candidate for RIGOP Chair: Mark Smiley

On Thursday evening, the RIGOP will choose a new Chair. Mr. Smiley is the second of two candidates. Check out both Mr. Smiley and Dr. Harrop on this week's Newsmakers on WPRI 12.

Let me introduce myself, I'm Mark Smiley and I'm running for Chair of the RI Republican Party.

I've been the Warren Republican Town Committee Chair for 4 years and I am the immediate past President of the RI Republican Chair's Caucus. I served as the Chair to the RI Republican Candidate Recruiting Committee and I revived the Vetting Committee. I was also a member of the By Laws and Platform Committees.

We've often heard that our opposition is a "machine". We must become a machine also. What I've learned is that every part of our machine must improve. Some parts can only improve when the others improve. Giving a candidate the Education, Technology, Volunteer Support, and Financial Support will improve our Candidate Recruitment, as it shows them the commitment of our Party to them. Candidate Recruitment and Vetting will improve our brand and make it easier for voters to elect our candidates. Fundraising will improve as the quality of our candidates and messaging improves. Also, laying the foundation for the future by opening the resources of the RIGOP to the City's and Town's will allow the "Farm Team" to develop, an imperative to our success in the future.

Our messaging is a big concern. RIGOP messaging has been so bad that the media has been left wondering what we are about and the opposition has been more than happy to tell them. We must stop this and start speaking with one voice. We must define the issues we want to talk about. We must do the research. We then must vet them with the voters through phone surveying so that we stop guessing how the voters will react to them. Then we begin talking about our issues all at once. The media will be able to hear us, understand us, and all the voters of the State will begin to listen.

For more on each of these issues, please visit http://gopwarren.org/MarkSmiley/default.html

Or feel free to contact me directly via e-mail: mark.smiley@gopwarren.org