Tom Del Beccaro, the vice chairman of the California Republican Party, thanked Amador Republican volunteers Friday night and offered comments about where he saw the "Grand Old Party" heading in the future.

Photo by: Scott Thomas Anderson

A relaxed and upbeat crowd filled the Amador County Republican Central Committee headquarters Friday night, as local volunteers were honored for helping the county achieve one of the highest voter turnouts in the state.

Tom Del Beccaro, vice chairman of the California Republican Party, spoke at length with the audience about the importance of their grassroots efforts, the highlights of their victories and defeats, and the need to define a clear future for their struggling party.

Wandering in at the start of the evening, the Republican volunteers were thanked personally by Dr. Arnold Zeiderman, Amador's chair of the McCain campaign. For Zeiderman, the contest was an exciting one, which included personally greeting Sarah Palin at the San Francisco International Airport during the height of the political drama. With the smoke clearing from the longest presidential cycle in recent memory, Zeiderman is happy that Amador's Republicans are becoming a force in state politics.

"Even though a lot of the races didn't go the way we wanted, our local volunteers can be proud that they really got the vote out and that Amador County is becoming well known in Republican circles," said Zeiderman. "I don't think there's any doubt now that we're one of the very best rural counties for having an impact."

 The chairman of Amador County Republican Central Committee, Jim Rooney, agreed. He also thanked those assembled for being a force in the 88.7 percent voter turnout. "It's the volunteers who should get most of the credit," he said. "And it made a difference. (District 10 Assemblyman-elect) Jack Sieglock was in a very tight race and we got him 2,500 more votes here than his opponent. I hope that helped. (District 4 Congressional candidate) Tom McClintock is also in a really tight race and I hope we helped him as well."

Out of the two men named - neither of whom has officially been certified a winner yet - Sieglock was present to congratulate the crowd on their achievements. "I'm cautiously optimistic," he told supporters who approached him. "If it goes the way we think it will, it was you guys who helped get me across the finish line."

The keynote speaker of the evening, Del Beccaro, is not only vice chair of his state party, but a talk radio commentator and columnist who's appeared on FOX News and ABC. He's the author of "The New Conservative Paradigm."

Referencing Barack Obama's recent victory, Del Beccaro offered some historical consolation. "There was one political mind who used to worry that democracy wouldn't work because it would always descend into a beauty contest rather than being about the real issues," he observed. "The person was Plato, 3,000 years ago. So this is a part of basic human nature."

Del Beccaro's comments set up his ultimate message of the night - that the Republican Party must learn new ways to market itself in a new world, while still hanging on to its core principles.

"People didn't have a sense for what the Republicans stood for in this election, and that's our fault for losing our definition. No one will follow you down a dark street if you don't tell them where you want to go. We have to define our message and then put it on a billboard that people can understand and see from a distance."

Del Beccaro added that the specific message he would like to see the party adopt would hearken back to Ronald Reagan. "I think we need to go back to the old mantra, 'Government can't solve our problems, government is our problem,'" he said. "When we're the party of reforming and resisting government, we do well. When we act like an imitation of the other side, the people might as well pick the real thing."