Why am I a candidate for the Pennsylvania Republican State Committee from Philadelphia?

The Republican Party in Philadelphia and in Pennsylvania badly needs an injection of new energy and an infusion of independent-minded leadership. The GOP must better confront the realities of political life in a state that has changed significantly over the past decade. This is why Philadelphia Republicans across the city ought to vote for me on May 18th for State Committee.

Philadelphia’s Republican voters can choose six men and six women from among 32 candidates this year to be their voices before the state party. The Northeast Times reported on May 5th that only one of these 32 candidates is not tethered to either the City Republican Party leadership or the State Republican Party leadership and said that “Nathan Shrader is running as an ‘independent-minded’ candidate” and is the only one unaffiliated with the City or State party bosses.

My decision to become one of these 32 candidates came after taking a look around the city, state, and country and evaluating where the Party of Teddy Roosevelt, Bob Taft, Dwight Eisenhower, and Ronald Reagan stands today. Three main reasons pushed me to become a candidate:

First, the Pennsylvania electorate has changed significantly in the past four years. Voters last went to the polls to elect a Governor and U.S. Senator in 2006 and will do so again this year. The state Republican Party has lost over 118,000 voters while the Democratic Party has added over 435,000 since 2006. This puts the GOP at a deficit of over 500,000 voters from then, a year that Democrats Ed Rendell and Bob Casey, Jr. rolled up landslide victories without this half million vote difference in play. Something clearly must be done to reverse this trend.

Second, the Philadelphia GOP’s registration figure hovers around 13.5 percent. While Republican candidates are unlikely to win in Philadelphia, Republicans must do all they can to prevent Democrats from rolling up such sizable margins of victory here. In 2008 Barack Obama won Philadelphia with 595,980 votes to John McCain’s 117,221. Massive Democratic margins in Philadelphia have helped win Pennsylvania for Democratic gubernatorial candidates in 2002 and 2006, U.S. Senator in 2006, and every presidential election since 1992.

Lastly, the Republican Party at the national and state level has become far too narrow and exclusive. A January Gallup Poll identified 40 percent of American voters generically as conservative, 35 percent moderate, and 21 percent liberal. The fact is that Republicans cannot win by securing the votes of conservatives alone. Appealing exclusively to the conservatives in the city probably amounts to 15 percent of the electorate and probably about 40 percent statewide. We have to do a better job growing the Republican Party to avoid going the way of the Whigs.

So what is the way forward for the Republican Party? Most significantly, it is time to end party endorsements at the state level and instead have open, competitive primaries allowing Pennsylvania Republicans to choose their nominees without coercion from party bosses. Party endorsements went out with powdered wigs and remain an archaic vestige of the machine politics era that alienates free-thinking, independent-minded voters. Some party leaders ought to look at the calendar and notice that the year is 2010, not 1950.

Party efforts to limit competition have failed in recent years and will continue to fail in the future. Party bosses dissuaded competition in the 2002 and 2006 gubernatorial primaries leading to Ed Rendell’s two victories. They did the same in the 2006 U.S. Senate primary leading to Rick Santorum’s crushing defeat. Conversely, competitive primaries in the 1994 Republican U.S. Senate and Gubernatorial races and in the 2004 U.S. Senate race led to victories for the GOP candidates. Republicans talk of competition for business, schools, and other policy issues and should practice what they preach when it comes to competition in party primaries.

Additionally, I believe that the GOP must rebuilding the Big Tent, inclusive Republican Party in Pennsylvania that elected U.S. Senators like John Heinz, Hugh Scott, and Dick Schweiker and Governors like Dick Thornburgh, Tom Ridge, and Bill Scranton all in the latter half of the 20th Century. Our party seems to have a bad case of ideological tunnel vision which suggests that moderation is a dirty word. Meanwhile, the party is becoming less palatable to libertarian-leaning voters thanks to the socially-charged rhetoric of Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck. Appealing to centrists and libertarians rather than rejecting them is the only way to rebuild a Big Tent party in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania.

Now is the time for Republicans to act before the situation becomes even more unsustainable.

I’m on the ballot under Republican State Committee and I’m button number 142. Please help me by casting your vote for change on Tuesday, May 18th!