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The 2008 Annual Report
The Trustees respectfully submit this Annual Report and account as required by law, for the Beneficiaries,all national, state, county and local committees of the Republican Party and their elected members. TheTrust administers Republican All in One Political Suite and its public portal, GOP onDemand for all
™™™
national, state, county and local Republican committees and their elected members in furtherance of protecting the First Amendment rights of all Americans to participate in the Republican Party.
The Trustees of the Republican Leadership Trust
Table of Contents
It Didn’t Have to Be So Ugly....................................................1
The Year in Politics
................................................................1The 2008 Campaign..........................................................2The Presidency..............................................................3The U.S. Congress...........................................................4The State Legislatures........................................................5Governors and Other Statewide Candidates........................................5But Had Republican All in One been Used........................................6
™
The Challenges for 2009 and Beyond
.................................................7GOP Congressional Challenges.................................................7GOP Gubernatorial Challenges..................................................7The World has Changed, the GOP Hasn’t..........................................8Doesn’t the GOP Want to Win Elections?..........................................8It’s Time to Do it Right........................................................8
The Trust Finances
................................................................9
The Trust’s Legal Matters
...........................................................9
The Trust Property
................................................................9The Commercial Competitors...................................................9Enlarging the Board of Trustees................................................10
Notice to Beneficiaries of Applicable Legal Rights
......................................11
Statement of Assets, Liabilities, Receipts and Disbursements
............................11
In Appreciation
..................................................................15
 
It Didn’t Have to Be So Ugly
2008 was an
annus horribilis
for the Grand Old Party. For a second election in a row.But as in 2006, Republicanlosses in 2008 — for theCongress and statelegislatures — did not haveto occur.Instead, GOPlosses were self-inflicted.Yes, there’s voter angst over an unpopular Presidentand the ongoing political chasms between moderateand conservatives.But the Republican Party’s steadfast refusal toembrace Internet driven grassroots politics resultedin the
voluntary forfeiture
of nine incumbent GOPCongressmen and one GOP candidate who shouldhave knocked off a scandal-plagued DemocraticCongressman; one GOP Senator, Smith of Oregon;control in five of six state legislative chambers, plusthe chance to regain one state house within GOP’sgrasp.Not since the Chicago Black Sox’s 1919World Series, has anyone pulled as many punchesas the GOP in 2008.The GOP’s refusal to recognize the political world isnow dominated by the Internet, not TV, enabled theDemocratic Presidential nominee, Barak Obama, toraise $770 million in campaign contributions or 3.6times the funds raised by the RepublicanPresidential nominee, John McCain,because $500million or 64% of donations, was raised online.Obama spent $745 million in traditional media (TV,radio, newspaper, staffing) because the Internetgave him an additional “in-kind” $301.7 millionadvantage.Put another way, the GOP would haveto spend $301.7 million in TV advertising to equalObama’s
free
Internet generated advantages.Yes, there’s a problem with the Republican “brand.“But the Democrats also know something else.The World has changed. The Republican Partyhasn’t._____________  The only way you win electionsis by getting more of your supporters to the polls than your opponents.
The Year in Politics
Politico
: About the Republicans’ post-election blues:“[they] want to jump out a window — but they’reafraid they’d screw that up, too.”
The Washington Post 
: “No other major campaignthis cycle put technology and the Internet at theheart of its operation at this scale” as did Obama’scampaign.
McCain advisor Rob Kubasko
: “The election was lostthree weeks before Election Day. What an old, oldelection model that was completely obsolete.”
MI GOP Chairman Saul Anuzis
: “The open Internetis antithetical to the hierarchical, top-down modelthat heretofore dominated American politics. TheWashington-centered model of campaigncommittees and big-money fund-raisers and mediabuys is rapidly collapsing. And the Republican Partyneeds to embrace that change.”
Politico
: “The Republican infrastructure iscrumbling.”McCain’s general counsel
Trevor Potter 
: [Obama’s30-minute infomercial was] “at that moment whenour ... outside finance people and others realizedthey were dealing with a different league here. They[asked how we will respond]? And the answer waswe weren't . . . because we didn't have it.”
The Guardian
: “Future elections must be foughtonline.Obama's masterful leveraging of web 2.0platforms marks a major eruption in electoral politics – in America and elsewhere - as campaigning shiftsfrom old-style political machines, focused oncharming those at the top of organizations, towardsthe horizontal dynamics of online social networks.”
Washington Post 
: “2008 made one thing clear: If allowed to go unchecked, the Democrats' structuraladvantages, including their use of the Internet, their more than 2-to-1 advantage with young voters, their discovery of a better grassroots model --will be asbig a threat to the future of the GOP as the toxicpolitical environment [ ] faced the last few years.”
The New York Times
: “Maybe [Republicans] like thehole their party is standing in and want to dig it evendeeper.That’s their right, but it does the country nogood.”
This just in.
Los Angeles Times
: Obama to spend $75 million
ayear 
to keep his 2008 grassroots network in placeuntil 2010, with full-time staff in every Congressionaldistrict.Code-named Barak Obama 2.0, everyonein the know says this is unprecedented. 1
 
The 2008 Campaign
 According press accounts, FEC and IRS filings thecomparing online success of Barak Obama/Democrats to John McCain/ GOP is as follows:
O
Obama had 3.1 million donors who made 6.5million online donations raising over $500 million.McCain 258,000 online contributors for $51 million.
O
Obama had over 13 million email addresses,McCain approximately 300,000. (Kerry’s 2004campaign had 3 million email addresses).
O
Obama sent out more than 1 billion emails.
O
2 million profiles created on Obama’s socialnetwork, MyBarakObama.com (MyBO), on top of 5million supporters on independent social networksi.e., Facebook and My Space.
O
MyBO volunteers staged 200,000 offline events,organized 35,000 volunteer groups, wrote 400,000blog posts, and made 3 million GOTV phone calls. According to Pew Research, McCain wasn’t fullyfunctional until September.
O
Over 1 million people signed up for Obama'stext-messaging, getting 20 messages per month.
O
On Facebook, over 3.2 million signed up asObama supporters. Facebook's Election 2008 page,which listed an 800 number to call for votingproblems, had more than 5.4 million users clickedthe “I Voted” button. McCain had only 600,000Facebook supporters. Obama had more than112,000 Twitter supporters; McCain, 4,600 followers.
O
Online viewers watched 14.5 million hours of Obama’s official online videos, which would cost$47 million if purchased as TV ads.
O
Obama supporters uploaded over1,800 videos onBarackObama.com channel, with over 115,000subscribers, and 97 million views, 18 million visits.McCain only 330 videos uploaded, 28,000subscribers, 2 million visits and 25 million views.
O
In September, Obama raised over 65% of funds,$100 million of $150 million online, Obama’s mostsuccessful fund-raising month, attracting 632,000new donors. Obama’s prior record: $66 million in August with 500,000 first time donors.
O
Obama topped Ron Paul’s online one-day $5million record by raising $10 million in 24 hours after Palin’s Sept. 3, 2008 acceptance speech.
O
Obama had grassroots finance committeesmirroring Democrats’ national finance committeehigh-dollar bundlers. In self-generated MyBO fund-raising pages, 70,000 people raised $30 million.
O
Yet, Obama’s Internet costs were marginal, $7.97million in online advertising, which $3.5 million wasspent on Google, $467,000 for Facebook.
O
In the end, Obama spent approximately 2¢ toraise $1.00 in online campaign contributions; or 4%of what McCain to raise funds via direct mail.
O
Because of online fund-raising, Obama outspentMcCain 5.5 to 1 in the final 2 ½ weeks, $146.6million to $26.5 million.2
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