RPV

Today is the Virginia primary. Candidly, it is also the first time I have voted in the Republican primary since 2005. (I voted for Amit Singh, but if I lived a few blocks over, the Gerry Connolly-Leslie Byrne food fight for the Dem nod in VA-11 looks pretty tempting.)

More often than not in Virginia, the GOP primary is meaningless. Many high-profile races, like the Jim Gilmore squeaker over relative unknown Bob Marshall for the Senate, are decided by nominating conventions.

Virginia also does not have party registration. The only way they know who you are is which party's primary you voted in. Because I have availed myself of the opportunity to select the opposition's nominee and have not voted in the (meaningless) GOP primary while living at my current address, I only get Democratic mail and door knocks.

New RPV chairman Jeff Frederick is wasting no time in implementing his vision for the party. In a wide-ranging memo, Frederick outlines what essentially amounts to a youth push, plus more technology, and a whole lot of data mining.  This small section was  particularly interesting:

RPV will create a secure, proprietary “Majority Blog” accessible only by Republican legislators to keep them apprised of RPV’s 2009 statewide recruitment and opposition research efforts.

A blog is only as secure and proprietary as its users. This will either be an invaluable resource, or a sieve...which will still make it an invaluable resource, but for reporters. Plus, as some in the state GOP have as much understanding of blogs as they do of string theory, getting them to use the site ought to be an interesting cultural exercise, though certainly one that is long overdue.

On the whole, the document shows that Frederick is determined to make a difference almost immediately. In many ways, he already has, with the house cleaning already underway at party headquarters. 

Frederick's elevation to the chairmanship has been read is some quarters as the definition of a party in decline -- one that's more interested in purity than comity.  I'm not so sure. If Frederick can pull off even half of what is on his 100 day agenda, he will have set the party on the path it must take to be successful in the future.