Approaches to Vetting Candidates

1. Approaches to Vetting Candidates How to work your way through the misdirection and the campaign rhetoric

2. Your Technique May Vary…. But ours works well enough for us

3. Step 1: What do you want in a Candidate? • Determine generic considerations • “We want a candidate who can get more than our share back to our district.”(If this IS a consideration for you, we ask you to please leave the meeting; you are NOT Tea Party!) • Shape the generics to your group’s stated philosophy; be sure you actually HAVE one! • Determine office-specific considerations • Legislative - executive – judicial; each level • What is coming up in their realm?

4. Forming a Vetting Committee • This stuff takes a LOT of time and you have to have the right skill sets. • The team needs to work well together and respect disagreement. • Better to make NO recommendation if too many are in disagreement. • Committee members MUST support the decisions publicly, in agreement or not; remember, nothing here is personal.

5. Universal Rules for Vetting • Principle and Policy, NOT Personal • Nearly ALL politicians are ‘nice’ • ALL politicians will tell you what they THINK you want to hear. • Always realize the well-meaning candidate today will be hearing the siren song of the ‘Powers That Be’; are they strong enough to resist? • Recuse committee members who are biased, when possible. (Family members, already in campaigns, etc.)

6. Officeholders vs First-Time Candidates • Officeholders are easy: their RECORDS ARE ALL THAT MATTER! Deeds, not words! • Applicable to ones wanting to move up, but still be careful. Lower office records are often NOT reflective of higher office- ‘Powers That Be’ start winning out. • First-time candidates can be VERY tough; need to look at political history, past associations, and associations formed for the run for office. Follow the money!

7. Officeholder Record Checks • Legislative: not just bill votes; also key amendment votes as well as committee work. Significant research involved; team effort and use the work of other good groups as a guide. • Political work; supports others and who? • Who is funding their campaigns? (especially right after a session).

8. Background Investigation • Associations prior to run: political clubs, civic organizations, even social clubs. • FOLLOW THE MONEY! Where campaign money comes from tell who WILL have influence. Did they go talk to lobbyists FIRST? • Vocation can matter a LOT! Real estate developers, lawyers, investment groups. • What campaigns have they worked themselves. • Consulting firms used; can speak volumes. • Murphy-Turner; ‘Powers That Be’ mudslingers

9. Is An Interview Even Necessary? • For many officeholders, it may not be. Their records are what matter; how will their words undo that? They can be automatic approvals; or automatically opposed. • Many other conservative groups have voting guides and ratings: Empower Texans, Heritage, Eagle Forum, Young Conservatives of Texas, Collin County Conservative Republicans

10. The Interview – Surprise is Mandatory • Mix in questions where there IS no ‘pat’ answer to. Make them THINK about the answers. • Use the candidate’s assumption about the Tea Party to probe for what they really think. • Look for code words and phrases; some they intend and some they do not. • Need specialized questions • To the candidates history, occupation, experience • To the specific office involved, possibly opponents

11. Keep in Mind Campaign Viability • Do they have the right reasons to run? Do they have resources? Do they have a plan? DO they have organization? • Your group’s name is out there with this; attaching it to a long list of lost causes does NEITHER any good. • But do NOT be afraid of attaching to a quality long shot (Ted Cruz was one) or even the occasional one that has really long odds. Sometimes just poking the ‘Powers That Be’ in the eye is worthwhile. 

12. Judicial Candidates are Different • Judicial is FAR more difficult and needs specialized expertise. • CANNOT answer questions specific enough they might apply to cases they may hear. • Judicial experience and temperament carry more weight. Only abstract area is the reach of the judiciary- and they ALL say about the same. • Having multiple, reliable inside-the-courthouse sources; ones you trust and keep their commentary confidential helps a GREAT deal.

13. Making the Decision • Tie decisions mean NO endorsement. • In our case, dual TeaApprovals have helped; doubt we’d EVER do more than two. We try to limit those. • We’ve missed on one or two (sorry, Scott Sanford) but we do the best we can. It takes LOTS of hours. • MUST STICK TOGETHER after the decision.

14. Disseminating the Decision – Cheap! • Any individual can spend $200 of personal money on campaigning as long as it is fully self-directed. And $200 can buy a LOT of printing. • Printing out voter guides. Needs to be a single sheet. • The more good groups, the better. • Key precinct distribution door-to-door. • Biggest impact: distribution at the polls. Most are down-ballot races and most voters appreciate the help. • The voter CAN take a sheet with them into the polling station.

15. How Effective is All of This? • VERY! Even last cycle, we were limited not by the number of races that wanted our input, but the number of vettors we had up and running. • This cycle will be even more so. Statewide races now SEEKING our input. Also many distant State Rep races. • We are expanding with additional teams and using technology; John is creating a secure online interface for us to record and track.

16. Additional Research Resources • www.empowertexans.com • www.heritagealliance.com/tcr/tcrhome.php • www.yct.org (Young Conservatives of Texas) • www.netarrantteaparty.com • www.legis.state.tx.us (TX Legislature Online) • www.votesmart.org (independent research site) • www.conservative.org (Amer. Conservative Union)