Late yesterday I made a short post over at The Next Right (click here to read it) focusing on a random idea I got while walking to work: have the RNC or NRCC set aside some funds to pledge to offer to campaigns as grants to assist particularly creative efforts in campaign innovation. Given all the frustration some pieces of the Republican coalition have with the national party organizations, this would allow the national parties to leverage their resources for the good of the party without inadvertently stifling innovation and smothering local efforts.

The idea is in part inspired by the stimulus funding for the Department of Education’s Race To The Top program, where states are applying for federal funding that will be awarded based on the state’s demonstrated desire to enact true innovative education reform. Though I’m certainly no fan of the stimulus as a whole, I like the idea of awarding funding in this manner if the money is going to be out there.

There’s a big problem in the GOP now where campaigns are hesitant to really take risks and do cool, innovative stuff. A large portion of campaign cash goes to established consultants who got big winning with a playbook from 1996 or 2000. Thus, huge sums get poured into TV while we have to wait for folks like @PoliticalMath to come up with neat, low-budget video productions that can really make an impact. Given a little bit of seed money, there’s a lot of neat stuff that bright Republicans can do at a local level, and there are a lot of lessons that can be brought back and spread to campaigns across America.

I’m a bit disappointed there haven’t been any comments yet at The Next Right but I also admit I picked a bad news day to talk about anything that isn’t Chris Christie, Bob McDonnell, or Doug Hoffman. Even though the idea is still rough around the edges and has a number of weaknesses, I think it makes for an interesting discussion topic.

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