Gentry Collins heads to Washington

Friday, March 20, 2009, 8:28
Constitution Daily
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8 comments

News came out this week that political operative Gentry Collins will be the RNC’s new Political Director. As mentioned on this site, this may be a sign to the nation Iowa is keeping its first in the nation status. This is also a sign by Steele he knows talent when he sees it.

Gentry has worked on numerous campaigns, including most recently McCain’s and Romney’s. Now those two candidates would never be on my resume and usually I don’t support a move to reinstate staffers of failed candidates…especially in high positions such as RNC’s Political Director. But, Gentry is good. In every campaign he has run, the ground game has been top notch. Let’s look at Romney’s campaign as an example.

Romney had all the money and most of the great staff. He came in to Iowa early and redistributed his wealth more than any other candidate to date. Romney had masses of people (not necessarily supporters) at his events – turn out couldn’t have been better. Their message was good and their marketing was even better. All of this managed by Gentry. The problem? Romney is/was a moderate. You can’t win in Iowa with a moderate.

Now let’s look at the Gross campaign. Once again, a very well run campaign. At the time, we didn’t realize Gross was a moderate – an unabashed one now. He ran in the primary as a conservative who could win. Unfortunately most believed him. I don’t know that the Gross campaign can be considered a model of how to run all campaigns but you won’t find too many people blaming Gentry for the loss. Gross is just not the most electable Des Moines lawyer candidate.

So is Gentry a rock-ribbed conservative? Apparently not as much as I am because there is no way I’d ever work for a McCain campaign. But is he a very good political strategist? Damn right and we should all be thrilled he is the RNC Political Director.

Tags: Gentry Collins, RNC

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8 Comments on “Gentry Collins heads to Washington”

steve right wrote on 20 March, 2009, 8:37
If nothing else, we all can agree on the importance of Iowa folks in good DC political jobs. Keeping Iowa first is way too important for partisan bickering.
Anonymous wrote on 20 March, 2009, 8:54
has he ever won a race he managed?
Anonymous wrote on 20 March, 2009, 9:31
The dude lost. He managed the campaign of a guy who lost the caucuses who spent 20-1 over the guy who won the caucuses. Romney had more organization and money and should have won. I like that he is from Iowa, but I doubt the GOP will change much in getting out the vote.
Anon wrote on 20 March, 2009, 9:38
CD just went up a notch in my book. Good article about Gentry. Now let’s continue to move forward and focus on the D’s!
anon wrote on 20 March, 2009, 9:46
Congratulations to Gentry. Couldn’t have happened to a more egomaniacal and undeserving guy. This just tells me that Romney must have quite a bit of sway in what happens at the RNC, all part of his plan to have his people in place to pave the way for his next run in 2012. Michael Steele at the RNC was bad enough. This is just the icing on the cake.
anon wrote on 20 March, 2009, 9:48
Conventional wisdom is that Romney probably doesn’t like Iowa and doesn’t want to have to deal with the caucuses again since he spent so much money and lost so miserably. I actually think this does NOT bode well for Iowa staying first in the nation. Gentry’s loyalties are to Romney (i.e. the paycheck) not to the people of Iowa.
Ed Failor wrote on 21 March, 2009, 21:06
It is good for Iowa Republicans to have Gentry in hs position at the RNC. He is a smart, hard working guy. Gentry will do a great job, if given the tools for success. But I’m sure I don’t know as much as the anon cowards who have slammed Gentry.
Eric Rosenthal wrote on 21 March, 2009, 22:14
I agree with Ed. Cowards are slamming Gentry. Glad he will be in DC. One of the smartest guys in Iowa politics.