Mitch Perry
As the race for Republican Party of Florida chair heads into its final days, Blaise Ingoglia and Christian Ziegler are proposing new plans to try to persuade fellow executive members to vote for them this Saturday.
Ziegler is the 34-year-old Sarasota County Committeeman challenging Ingoglia’s re-election bid. He introduced a new website called The GOPExchange, a place Ziegler says where County Republican Party leaders can securely browse and download previously developed resources and used by other county parties to help support their efforts to fundraise, communicate, get out the vote and promote elected officials after they’ve taken office.
Ziegler says if elected to lead the party, he’ll lead a team of individuals who can field custom design requests from counties and help execute these materials to fit their individual county best.
“The goal of this cost-cutting and time-saving resource isn’t just to help strengthen our county parties, but to also free up our County Party Leaders by taking them away from the computer and putting them in the most valuable place they can be — in their community,” he wrote in an email statement to committee members Tuesday.
Last week Ziegler announced that, as chair, he would institute the Florida GOP “Republican Party Platform Educational Series” during its Quarterly Meetings to help educate and “give us the tools necessary to become experts on the official principles & policies of the Republican Party.”
Ziegler says that he would welcome guests from conservative think tanks like the Heritage Foundation, the CATO Institute, the American Enterprise Institute and others to take a deep dive into issues regarding the constitution, immigration, education, health care, national security and other matters.
“The goal would be to read through the platform, listen to an expert explain the importance of that portion of the platform, host a Q/A & debate session at the end of the class and leave that session with a deep understanding and talking points about a portion of the platform,” he writes.
Meanwhile, Ingoglia has offered up his own series of proposals and proposed four different programs Wednesday. They are:
1 — Trump Republican Clubs — Noting how many new voters who jumped on the “Trump Train” and registered as Republican back in the spring, Ingoglia says the job of the RPOF is to keep them involved with the party by forming these clubs. “If we can keep these new voters engaged and voting each election cycle, we will be an unstoppable force,” he says.
2 — Florida GOP University — Ingoglia says that while he’s expanded training over the past two years, there are some Republicans who can’t attend the quarterly meetings where they’ve taken place. That’s why he’s proposing what he calls “Florida GOP University” to bring that training to local Republican Executive Committee members in their individual counties.
3 — RPOF Enhanced Training — Ingoglia says he’ll have at least 7 training seminars planned for the RPOF’s first quarterly meeting.
4 — Republican Business Council — This is a plan to get more small business people involved with local REC’s. “The RPOF will encourage and help local parties set up “Republican Business Councils” in your counties under a club charter,” Ingoglia writes. “These “luncheon clubs” will be a good resource for future local fundraising,” he writes in bold italics.
The two men will face each other in the election slated for this Saturday at the Rosen Centre in Orlando.
