It has been exactly a year since Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus delivered a brutal post mortem on his party’s disastrous showing in the 2012 presidential election and outlined a comprehensive plan to rebrand the GOP.
In an interview on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" back then, Priebus implied that his party dropped the ball during the 2012 campaign when candidates said "a lot of idiotic things." Priebus issued a wide ranging “autopsy” of the sins of his party of “stuffy old men.” And he offered a long list of proposed fixes, including comprehensive immigration reform, addressing middle-class anxieties and condensing the presidential primary process.
Related: Obamacare Mess Defines GOP 2014 Campaign Strategy
On Tuesday, Priebus and the Democrats offered their own assessments of how well the GOP heeded Priebus’s warnings and advice. Not surprisingly, Priebus offered a glowing assessment of his party’s prospects while Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz declared the Republicans’ rebrand and outreach effort a disaster.
Today, the Republicans are no closer to immigration reform than they were a year ago. And Priebus’s call for a “big tent” effort to lure Hispanics, African Americans and other minorities into the GOP fold has gone nowhere. Yet Republicans feel they have the wind at their backs as the 2014 mid-term congressional election campaign heats up.
Priebus predicted during a breakfast with reporters that the GOP will win big this fall – seizing control of the Senate for the first time in eight years and likely increasing its majority in the House.
“I think we are in for a tsunami-type election in 2014,” Priebus said at a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. “My belief is that it is going to be a very big win — especially at the U.S. Senate level, and I think we may even add some seats in the congressional races.”
“Democrats,” he insisted, “are in the dumps.”
Wasserman Schultz dismissed Priebus’s boasts by reminding reporters at the National Press Club that Republicans also predicted that Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney would defeat President Obama right up to Election Day. “Their prediction accuracy isn’t exactly on the mark of late,” Wasserman Schultz said.
Related: GOP Anti-Obamacare Strategy Is Fixed After Florida
A year later, she insisted, no amount of outreach, staff hires or changes to their primary calendar alters the fact that the GOP’s policy and rhetoric remain out of step with the majority of American voters.
“The GOP has failed to change their actions or tone from the party that in 2012 told immigrants they should ‘self deport’ and women that they had the ability to ‘shut that whole thing down’ when raped,” she said. “In the past year, we’ve heard Republican leaders and operatives call women candidates an ‘empty dress,’ talk about women’s libidos, and – once again – try to downplay abuse.”
Wasserman Schultz, a House member from Florida, offered a detailed critique of the GOP’s failed efforts to reach out to the middle class, women, Latinos, African-Americans, gays and lesbians and young peoples.
“No matter the state, no matter the demographic, no matter the region, the GOP rebrand has failed to make any substantive change that will make them any more successful at the ballot box than they were in 2012,” she said. “What Democrats understand but Republicans still don’t get is that outreach isn’t just about deploying bodies to increase your staff, it’s about developing policies that will increase opportunity.”
Related: Meet Thad Cochran, an Endangered Senate Republican
Given recent political developments, Wasserman Schultz had a hard time today making the case that the Democrats were on the right course while the GOP continue to flounder. Republicans need to pick up a net of six seats to reclaim control of the Senate and they are counting on Obama’s historically low approval rating of just 41 percent and widespread displeasure with the Affordable Care Act to carry them to victory in November.
The Senate campaign has shifted in the Republicans favor in recent weeks, thanks in part to recruiting successes in Colorado and New Hampshire. With the recent decisions by Rep. Cory Gardner (R-CO) to enter the Colorado Senate race and former senator Scott Brown (R-MA) to challenge New Hampshire Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, at least 11 Senate seats currently held by Democrats are in play.
Related: Gibbs: This Could Be ‘Lights Out’ for the Dems
Over the weekend, Robert Gibbs, the former Obama White House Press Secretary, said that the Senate is “definitely” in danger of changing hands in the November election. Even more disconcerting for Democrats, Gibbs said on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” is the possibility that the GOP will engineer another “wave election” that could result in widespread Democratic losses in the House and Senate.
Priebus said today that the recent Republican wins in the San Diego mayoral race and the special election in Florida’s 13th congressional district do not bode well for Democrats this fall. “You had the nationalization of Barack Obama and Obamacare in both of these places,” Priebus said. “It is a poisonous issue for Democrats.”
During her meeting with reporters, Wasserman Schultz dodged a question about whether Democrats were concerned that Obama’s record low approval rating could drag them down in some key races. Later she said, “No,” she wasn’t concerned about Obama’s ratings.
“I mean, our candidates run on the issues that are important to voters,” she said in a brief interview. “When you’re drawing a contrast between where the Republicans are on jobs and the economy, health care and education and immigration reform – depending on the issues that are specific in that district – the Republicans are wrong on those issues and Democrats have an agenda that has helped make progress on the issues that are important to their constituents.”
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