The Republican advance comes to Williamsburg this weekend....

Virginia Republicans are going to extend their victory party and bring the fest to Williamsburg this weekend for the Republican advance.

For newcomers and neophytes, the GOP advance is the annual gathering where state Republicans get together for workshops and brainstorming sessions with statewide leaders and political insiders.  The partisan huddle starts Friday afternoon and runs all day on Saturday and it's called an "advance" because Republican hate the word "retreat."

This year the GOP huddle is taking place in Williamsburg with Republicans fresh off a statewide sweep by Republican Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell, Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling and Attorney General-elect Ken Cuccinelli. U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Richmond, is the keynote speaker at Saturday nights banquet.

Saturday's sessions tackle a wide array of issues including "new media training" - for folks getting used to the Internet, viral marketing and advertising and how to handle blogging and bloggers. There is also a 90-minute training session titled "handling negative information" - clearly a how-to-manual for candidates trying to weather political storms and scandals. The is also a session wholly focused on ethnic and minority outreach, one on fundraising and another on politics and the law.

Republicans have a ton to be happy about. McDonnell's huge win was an important shot in the arm for GOP candidates and loyalists who had managed to survive a string of Democratic victories. The keys to the GOP's overwhelming November victories ought to give Republican leaders and rank-and-file members much to chew on. Further, the election results are a vital ray-of-hope for GOP candidates who are considering running for office in 2010 and beyond.

Here are just a few questions that will probably be rolling around Williamsburg this weekend.

1) Was McDonnell the ideal candidate, or did Democrat Creigh Deeds simply run an awful campaign? McDonnell ran a great campaign and rarely made mistakes, but Deeds also ceded a lot of ground to the GOP and never really got Democrats excited about the campaign. How are Republicans supposed to handle the near mandatory national aspirations of recent Virginia governors?  

2) Which candidates have the best chance to knock off Democrats in the midterm 2010 elections? Plenty of Republicans are lining up to challenge Democrats who rode the Barack Obama wave to Congress - so it could end up being a battle royale for the right to get on the ballot. Expect folks to be setting up alliances and trying to build momentum early.

3) What's the best way for McDonnell to handle looming budget holes? Over the past two years Gov. Timothy M. Kaine has cut $7 billion in state spending, leaving many state agencies feeling sliced to the bone. Now McDonnell has to face more budget problems while also moving toward his priorities, where's the balance?

4) How can McDonnell start creating the jobs he stressed over and over again on the campaign trail? McDonnell talked his way into office promising to be a "jobs governor" (snicker) but as the state's top executive it's difficult to actually create jobs without expanding the state payroll - a move that would not sit well with the base. So McDonnell has to find a way to knock down unemployment rates and dirty little secret - that need inextricably links him to the success of Obama's economic plans.  

5) What's the best way to torpedo health care reform?State Democrats have little say on what will end up in the massive health care reform bill in Washington, but that doesn't mean they can't get in on the debate. So far protests and rallies have been the tool dujour, we'll have too see if any other strategies emerge.

There are plenty of other questions too, any suggestions for queries that the state GOP should consider when the brain trust meets this weekend?

Comments

[Grover Loening]

This used to be a meaningful event where grassroots members of the Party could sit down with top elected officials and have an honest exchange of idea.

Now, they use a cookie-cutter approach where the same BS seminars are scheduled year after year, and there are no informal discussions between the elected and the workers who helped get them in office.

The Republican Advance is now just a farce where the Party pretends to care about their grassroots, when every action they take demonstrates that only the big donors are all that matter to them.