Rand Paul in NH to 'Grow' Republican Party

U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-KY, and Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus are in Concord to host a sold-out fundraising dinner for the NH GOP at the Grappone Conference Center tonight. Before the event, both Paul and Priebus spoke about what their main focus had been today – meeting with New Hampshire Republicans, talking strategy, and finding ways to grow the Republican Party to appeal to more Americans.

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Paul, who is a potential 2016 presidential candidate, said the party needed to become more like America – representing not just white people but everyone else – minorities, people with beards and tattoos, and liberty-minded folks.

Priebus said party officials had been meeting with activists in New Hampshire in “listening sessions” talking about “growth and opportunity,” while concentrating on three strategic focuses: having permanent organizations on the ground and not just with the traditional base, but with other communities, improving technology, and promoting the primary process.

In a short press conference before the dinner, both Priebus and Paul were asked mostly about the swirl of controversy in Washington, D.C., involving Associated Press phone records being secretly seized by the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service targeting Tea Party organizations and other GOP sympathy groups.

Priebus said that it was President Barack Obama who enlisted “an environment of guerrilla warfare” against the organizations. Paul said he suspected there could be a paper trail leading up from the tax service. Neither said though they would support a move to impeach the president, as suggested by U.S. Rep. Michelle Bachmann recently, since investigations hadn’t been completed and blame hadn’t been placed.

“I think we need to figure out the truth of what happened before we go anywhere else,” Paul said.

“There’s a few chapters before you get to the last one,” Priebus said. “It’s up to us to connect the dots first.”

Paul said he thought that while national security still needed to be protected, investigations into people needed to require a warrant from an independent judge. He added that banking records and other records between parties were protected by the 4th Amendment. Paul said there needed to be “a very high bar” when it comes when dealing with the media because journalists had 1st Amendment protections and helped “to get news out of people that are opposed to government policies … stifling that is akin to stifling dissent.” He said government employees leaking information – not journalists – should have been investigated.

“Barack Obama thinks that the Bill of Rights is a suggestion,” Priebus joked.

In turning to the 2016 primary, Paul said he liked the focus on smaller states which is why he was supporting New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary and the Iowa Caucuses. He said it would be “terrible” for someone with “a couple billion dollars, just putting on ads and winning it” that way.

“It’s a hopeful aspect to politics, meeting people one-on-one, even in a nation of 300 million,” he said. “There are candidates on every corner, meeting and shaking hands. There is a certain sorting out when meeting people.”

Priebus said he would like to tweak a few things for 2016, including figuring out a way to have the convention earlier in the year. He said the nominee was basically “a sitting duck in a pond, not able to spend money” for three months out of the race due to campaign finance laws. Priebus would also like to set up debates differently.

“I think that having 23 debates that are moderated by folks that are in the business of creating news at the expense of our party and our candidates, is a problem,” he said. “I think the party has to have a bigger role in choosing who those moderators are and being involved in the debate process more.”

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