Issues win campaigns

The results from the latest special congressional election are in and, like the two before it, the news is not good. We've now had three Republican seats in a row fall to the Democrats in the last few months in districts that George Bush carried easily in 2000 and 2004.

This is more evidence that the Republican "brand" is in trouble. And, quite frankly, it's in trouble because it's been sullied bya number ofour elected officials.

So how do we begin to turn this around? By focusing on issues. Specifically, our conservative agenda. National security, lower taxes, smaller government, stronger immigration policies and better border security, defending the sanctity of life, our Second Amendment rights and the traditional definition of marriage, as well as appointing judges that will respect the Constitution, not re-write it.

We didn't lose control of Congress in 2006 because we were too conservative. We lost it because too many conservatives saw too many of our elected officials as having forgot their principles. On the other hand, when we won control of Congress in 1994, we did it by focusing the American people's attention on a core set of conservative issue positions, and we won control of Congress for the first time in almost fifty years.

As the late Lee Atwater used to say, "Issues win campaigns!", and he was exactly right.

By and large, when voters are forced to choose between our issue positions or those of the Democrats', we win. Our task as a party is to work to keep the conversation focused around our conservative principles - and to pressure our candidates to do the same thing.