WASHINGTON - Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus and Missouri Republican Party Chairman David Cole released the following statements today announcing Lane Koch as the RNC's Missouri Victory Director: "Republicans will win Missouri in November and I'm proud to announce that Lane Koch will be leading the charge as our Missouri Victory Director," said RNC Chairman Reince Priebus. "Missourians have had enough of President Obama's failed economic policies and I'm confident that under Lane's leadership the RNC's Victory program will deliver Missouri's electoral votes to Governor Romney in November." "Lane Koch is a seasoned Missouri political operative with extensive experience in grassroots organizing and political strategy," said David Cole, Chairman of the Missouri Republican Party. "This year, Missouri Republicans will make an unprecedented effort to defeat Barack Obama, Jay Nixon, and Claire McCaskill, and elect Republicans from the courthouse to the White House. We're excited to have her leading the Missouri Victory 2012 team." In addition to traditional on-the-ground voter turnout efforts, the RNC unveiled the new GOP Social Victory Center this week. It's the first of its kind online tool that allows you to do anything that you could do at a victory center from your own home. No other campaign or committee has developed the same technology to harness the power and reach of Facebook in this way; it is a new frontier in digital activism that will play a large part in the Missouri RNC Victory Program. Learn more and get the app here https://apps.facebook.com/social-victory BACKGROUND Koch most recently worked as Political Director for Pelopidas, LLC, a comprehensive, influence management firm that offers issue advocacy, non-profit fundraising, capital campaign development and government and public affairs consulting. While at Pelopidas, Lane helped orchestrate campaigns in support of various state-wide ballot measures pertaining to education and tax reform. In addition, she worked extensively with United for Missouri as their Grassroots Director and Fundraiser, helping grow the organization by over 15,000 members in 2011 alone. Koch was previously employed by Friends of Roy Blunt as the Deputy Political Director for Senator Roy Blunt's highly successful 2010 senate race. Koch played a key role in helping Roy Blunt win the Senate race by a landslide of fourteen points. In 2008, she was employed by the Missouri Republican Party as the Victory Regional Political Director organizing volunteer and grassroots efforts in the St. Louis region. Koch helped steer the successful team that lead to Missouri being the only targeted state that elected the McCain/Palin ticket. Koch began her political career in 2007 working for three years for Senator Christopher "Kit" Bond's St. Louis & Washington D.C. offices, focusing on constituent services and communications. ###

WASHINGTON - The Republican National Committee (RNC) released a new web video "Hype and Blame" ahead of President Obama's first 'official' campaign stops in Virginia and Ohio tomorrow. Even though he's been campaigning on the taxpayers dime for more than a year now, President Obama will bring his message of "Hype and Blame" to more battleground states. The candidate of "Hope and Change" is no more. Web video can be viewed here Download the web video here     "President Obama has no record to run on so he's out on the campaign trail resorting to the very tactics he once campaigned against," said RNC Chairman Reince Priebus. "It's sad to see the candidate of 'Hope and Change' become the president of 'Hype and Blame.'" "Barack Obama once promised to hold himself accountable, but now he's making excuses and blaming others for his failures. The 'great uniter' has resorted to dividing the American people against each other by creating animosity and scorn to win reelection. He doesn't have a record to run on, so he's painting his opponent as someone people should run from. "Mitt Romney understands the leadership this country needs to get our economy back on track. He has spent his entire career bringing people together to turn around failed situations. After four years of Barack Obama's failed promises and divisive rhetoric, America needs Mitt Romney to clean things up."   ###

WASHINGTON - Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus released the following statement on the April unemployment report: "President Obama's desperate hype-and-blame campaign will try to spin today's anemic jobs report six ways to Sunday, but the facts remain clear: too many Americans have been unemployed for far too long. For millions, the economy is simply not working," said RNC Chairman Reince Priebus. "In early 2009, President Obama's economic team promised that if we passed the massive $831 billion stimulus, the unemployment rate would be below 6 percent by this year. But just like those millions of 'shovel ready jobs,' it's yet another broken promise. "As a result, millions of American families are struggling. Those that have jobs see their paychecks shrinking, even as the cost of gas, groceries, and healthcare skyrockets. "Three years ago, President Obama vowed to fix the economy in three years and to hold himself accountable to his record. Today's numbers remind us that he has failed to live up those promises, and he has no one to blame but himself. We must change course in November to ensure our children have the prosperous future they deserve."   ###    

WASHINGTON - Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus released the following statement today announcing Mike Rusher as the RNC's North Carolina Victory Director: "North Carolina is a critical state for Republicans in this election and I'm proud to announce that Mike Rusher will be directing the RNC's Victory program in North Carolina. Mike will lead our efforts on the ground in North Carolina to register voters, sign up volunteers, and ensure that Governor Mitt Romney is victorious in November. North Carolinians have been hit hard by the Obama Economy and with an unemployment rate currently at 9.7% they're ready for Republican leadership in the White House." BACKGROUND A native of Wilmington, North Carolina, Mike Rusher is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science. In 2006 Mike began his political career working on Bill Wright's State House Campaign and has since worked for the NCGOP in two previous Victory Campaign cycles as Volunteer Coordinator in 2008 and Central North Carolina Field Director in 2010. Most recently, Mike worked for North Carolina Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger as the Director of Constituent Services providing support for the newly elected 31 member Republican Majority Caucus. The announcement of Mike Rusher as RNC's Victory Director in North Carolina follows Chairman Priebus' recent visit to North Carolina where he announced Senator Richard Burr as the RNC's Victory Chairman in North Carolina and opened a new Victory office in Charlotte. The RNC recently announced that Neri Martinez as the Victory program's Hispanic Outreach Director in North Carolina. In addition to traditional on-the-ground voter turnout efforts, the RNC unveiled the new GOP Social Victory Center this week. It's the first of its kind online tool that allows you to do anything that you could do at a victory center from your own home. No other campaign or committee has developed the same technology to harness the power and reach of Facebook in this way; it is a new frontier in digital activism that will play a large part in the North Carolina RNC Victory Program. Learn more and get the app here https://apps.facebook.com/social-victory ###

WASHINGTON - Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus released the following statement announcing the 2012 Pennsylvania Victory Director, Peter Towey: "Pennsylvania will be critical in the coming election, and I am confident Peter Towey is the perfect person to move us forward to victory this November," said RNC Chairman Reince Priebus. "The RNC is poised to run a comprehensive voter outreach and turnout operation in Pennsylvania and Peter will help ensure we make more phone calls, knock on more doors, and make more volunteer voter contacts than ever before. In the wake of three and a half years of President Obama's failed policies and broken promises, Pennsylvanians are ready for a change in Washington and Peter is the start to a team that will demonstrate the RNC's serious commitment to winning Pennsylvania and the White House this November." In addition to traditional on-the-ground voter turnout efforts, the RNC unveiled the new GOP Social Victory Center this week. It's the first of its kind online tool giving you access to many of the features of a traditional victory center from your own home. No other campaign or committee has developed the same technology to harness the power and reach of Facebook in this way; it is a new frontier in digital activism that will play a large part in the Pennsylvania RNC Victory Program. Learn more and get the app here https://apps.facebook.com/social-victory Peter Towey Biography: Peter Towey has been involved in Pennsylvania politics since 2008. His previous experience includes a 2008 congressional campaign, serving as Political Director for U.S. Senator Pat Toomey's successful 2010 campaign, and most recently as Campaign Manager for Steve Welch for U.S Senate. Peter understands that Pennsylvania Republicans are coming off a wave of success in 2010 and 2011, and he is looking to add to that success here in 2012.   ###

RNC Chairman Reince Priebus: "This week we announced state wide Victory Directors in both states: Dave Rexrode in Virginia, Mike Bir in Ohio. We also unveiled the new GOP Social Victory Center this week. It's the first of its kind online tool that allows you to do from home anything that you could do at a victory center in a battleground state. So, if you're in Utah and you want to make phone calls from your home into Nevada, another battleground state, you can do that right through that Facebook application. Exclusive content, videos, and if you want every time that you engage in some of these videos and exclusive content everyone of your own friends and followers would see a posting of the things that you do within the Social Victory Center through Facebook. It's one of a kind and it's received a lot of praise and people have found it to be exciting. "The president claims that he's kicking off his campaign in Ohio and Virginia this weekend but I think we all know that he's been campaigning on the taxpayers dime for over a year now and we have a complaint that has been filed with the...GAO here about that. If we don't hear anything, then we'll have to take more steps moving forward. And all the while he's running from his record and the reason he's doing that, he can't talk about his record because his record is full of broken promises, standards that he's made that hasn't kept and a whole lot of bad policies. He's out on the campaign trail, resorting to the very tactics that he campaigned against in 2008. "The candidate of 'hope and change' has become the president of 'hype and blame.' He once promised to hold himself accountable. He said he was going to be different. He said he was going to be transparent. Now he spends his time making excuses for all of his failures. He promised to keep unemployment under 8% with his stimulus package, now we've had 38 straight months of unemployment above 8%. So what does the president do? Well, he blames everyone and everything except the man in the mirror, from ATMs to the Japanese earthquake to Congress to oil speculators, air port kiosks. I think he even blamed bad luck at one point. Well, I think we all know that excuses don't pay the mortgage and casting blame on everyone under the sun doesn't create a single job. "Every time Barack Obama talks about something other than his record, I think he's admitting that he's failed. I think it's pretty clear that he has. Successful incumbents usually run on their record. Failed presidents run from their record. But trust me, Republicans will be running on the issues that matter on policy, on solutions, on principles. The contrast between President Obama and Governor Romney couldn't be more dramatic. One has a clear record of success in business at the Olympics and as a governor. I think Mitt Romney has the success of being a guy who's made a living on making a promise and keeping a promise. On the other hand, you look at Barack Obama who is in love with the sound of his own voice and makes one promise after the next but can't keep a single one of them. I think we all know what his record looks like. So, we're going to hold this president accountable because America deserves more than 'hype and blame' and I think that we deserve a guy like Mitt Romney who is a man of his word to lead this country. And we're going to expose his 'hype and blame' campaign over the next several months and you're going to be seeing a roll out of that over the next few days."   Republican Party of Virginia Chairman Pat Mullins: "Virginia fell for Obama in 2008 but I can tell you he is not going to win here in Virginia this time around. After all, the candidate who ran here last time is not the same man we see on the campaign trail today. He's been exposed for what he truly is a cold calculating Chicago political operator. He used to talk about uniting the country, now he's dividing us. He talked about changing Washington, now he's embraced it all. The lobbyists, the reckless spending, the pay for play politics, clearly he was just selling us a heap of phony rhetoric. Well Virginia deserves better. "We're building our economy, we're strengthening our state, but President Obama is standing in our way at every turn attempting to crush the entrepreneurial spirit. He's forcing new regulations and new taxes on our small businesses here in Virginia. He has no energy policy, resulting in high gas prices. He has waged a war on our coal industry here in Virginia and is stopping us from becoming energy independent by tapping our resources off of the Virginia coast... "He's racking up more debt than any president in history, mortgaging our children and grandchildren's futures. And of course, there's ObamaCare, which threatens our economy and our entire health system. This is the wrong direction and Virginians aren't going to put up with it any longer. "Republicans won big in Virginia in 2009, 2010 and 2011. We've seen important victories every year since President Obama has been in office, because Virginians are rejecting his agenda, his one-size fits all policies and his desperate, disastrous politics. 'Hope and change' was nothing more than empty rhetoric. His administration has been a failure to the people of Virginia and 'hype and blame' isn't going to be enough this time around. He's not good enough for Virginia. He's not good enough for America and we are going to make sure voters in Virginia know that."   Republican Party of Ohio Chairman Bob Bennett: "In Ohio, as I think President Obama is going to discover that he really has a nightmare for an opponent, and that's the 2008 candidate Obama. Everything he promised Ohio, everything he promised to do and promised to be, he has discarded. So we're excited to be working with Chairman Priebus and Governor Romney's campaign to make sure that the voters in the Buckeye State know that there is an alternative to Obama's 'hype and blame.' 2010 saw major rejection of Obama in Ohio. The Republicans swept all state offices. They picked up the Governorship, three state-wide offices, and five congressional seats. And with Senator Portman, we held on to the Senate seat. Then this past November, voters rejected ObamaCare overwhelmingly in all 88 counties in Ohio... "ObamaCare is the president's signature legislation, and Ohio overwhelmingly voted against it and I think that is a good predictor on how we'll vote in six months. Fifty five percent of Ohioans right now believe that the president is on the wrong track. This country is off on the wrong track and 53% disapprove of his handling of the economy. I think that voters have realized President Obama is out of his league and his agenda is just wrong for America. He's made our problems worse, so even with all the advantages that an incumbent president always has at his disposal, he's weak and he's running scared. That underscores how profound his failure is. 2012 will be a referendum on President Obama. If voters believe that the current state of our economy and our country is worse than what he promised in 2008, then they will vote for a new direction. So the question is simple: are you happy with the high unemployment, massive debt, expensive gas, divisive politics? Are you better off than you were 4 years ago, or is it time for a new president? Most voters can answer that without much trouble, now it's our job to ask that question." Click Here To Listen To The Full Audio: http://www.gop.com/audio/5.3.2012_OH_VA.mp3   ###

Excerpts from POLITICO   By: Chairman Reince Priebus May 3, 2012 "When an incumbent president runs for reelection, he usually runs on his record. But an unsuccessful incumbent runs from his record. It is no surprise, then, that the Obama campaign is devoid of substance -- that the 2008 candidate of 'hope and change' has become the president of hype and blame. "Last week, President Barack Obama's campaign officials announced on a conference call the first 'official' campaign stops of the 2012 race. There was, however, something notably absent from their discussion: a positive rationale for Obama's candidacy. "The omission was revealing: Obama's campaign is about nothing. "Instead of running on the issues Americans care about, the president has committed to running on an assortment of diversions. "He's tried division. With his Buffett Tax, he spent weeks - and a great deal of taxpayer money - waging class warfare, in a cynical attempt to pit groups of Americans against each other... "Again, it does not take much to figure out his motivations. College rallies hardly seem like 'official business.' Neither does 'slow jamming the news' on late night TV... "When division and distraction fail, Obama still refuses to take responsibility for the weak economy, high unemployment or massive government debt. Instead, he faults others. He has blamed his failures on a Japanese earthquake, ATMs, the Arab Spring, airport kiosks and even 'bad luck'... "To make the election about anything other than the economy is an insult to the millions of hurting families in America. To trivialize the decision we face in November with distractions and division is callously self-serving. There's no excuse for it. "Obama promised four years ago to be a transformative president-a post-partisan, selfless leader. Now he's proven to be a hyper-partisan, selfish politician. "From now till Election Day, we can expect the president's behavior to get worse. He'll demagogue the pettiest subjects, he'll pretend he was not president for the last three and a half years and he'll attack his opponents more viciously... "So with the president running a campaign about nothing, it's clear 'we are the change we've been waiting for' was not a philosophy. It was a poll-tested slogan... "We are not better off thanks to Obama. Which leaves him with zero justification for a second term." Click Here To Read The Full Op-Ed: http://politi.co/IHKsv6   ###

WASHINGTON - Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus released the following statement on Speaker Newt Gingrich's decision to suspend his campaign: "I want to congratulate Speaker Gingrich on the campaign he ran," said RNC Chairman Reince Priebus. "Speaker Gingrich has been a tireless leader in our party for decades, and I know he will continue to be an outspoken advocate for conservative policies and Republican principles--not only in this election, but also for years to come. "I look forward to working with him over the coming months to make Barack Obama a one-term president and to ensure Republican victories across the country. "We have important work ahead of us--standing against President Obama's politics of division and distraction and bringing a new direction to our country."     ###

RNC Political Director Rick Wiley:   "Everyone knows the importance of Ohio. It is a classic swing state. It usually predicts who will wins the presidency and I think this year will be no different. If you look at Obama headed to Ohio on Saturday, going to Ohio State University for what is technically his first campaign rally, which is sort of a joke considering that he has flown around and landed in every swing state but it's always 'official' events but for the first time the taxpayers money won't be fully on the hook for this one. It signifies how important Ohio is. There have been dozens of visits to the state by the president, which tells me and tells us here at the RNC that he has a problem there. Obviously the poll numbers do not look great for him and so he has to try to shore up the base. "You look at what's happened in Ohio too and like many Midwestern states, many states across the country quite frankly, we swept all the statewide offices in Ohio in 2010, we picked up the Governor obviously, we held our US Senate seat, we picked up 3 statewide offices, the Secretary of State, the AG, and the treasurer, and we picked up 5 US House seats. That is about as good a year that you can have in a state that is that important to the presidency. You know you have 55% of Ohioans believe the president has the country going on the wrong track, 53% disapprove of his handling of the economy, and everyone knows this race will be about jobs and the economy. The other thing that often gets overlooked, there was a collective bargaining issue on the ballot in of November of '11, but what was also on the ballot was ObamaCare, the signature piece of legislation of the 3 ½ years of this president. When Ohioans were able to go to the voting booth and vote on ObamaCare, it was voted down in all 88 counties. So, while Democrat strategists, you know the Ed Shultz of the world, they will tell you that this election in Ohio and Wisconsin will be about collective bargaining, this is going to be about jobs and the economy and ObamaCare and the excessive spending that this president has had. I feel good about Ohio. "We're using part of this call to announce that we've hired our Victory Director, a guy name Mike Bir. He works at the Ohio party. He is going to join the RNC. He has extensive experience running voter contact and get out the vote efforts in Ohio. I believe he is the best person for the job. We're excited to welcome him on board and get our ground game moving in Ohio. It's going to be important. We're going to open offices across the state, and start with the voter identification. One of the things that has changed this year at the RNC is...we used to do the brick and mortar. We'd have victory centers across the state....There are 35 states out there that are really red or really blue and those activists they can't engage in the process. We wanted to figure out a way to harness the internet, social media, all of those things to make sure that we had a tool available not only to activists in Ohio, and other battleground states, but to non-battleground states...We came up with something called the Social Victory Center."   Andrew Abdel-Malik, RNC Digital Team: "We built the platform entirely on Facebook. It's really tapped into a lot of the social offerings from Facebook; one of those being something called open graph. That means everything that you read, watch, RSVP for on the application, whether that's a phone bank event or a door canvassing event, all that automatically gets shared to your friends. So on average there are 261 friends, so we're amplifying our message and our events every time someone simply takes an action within the application. We're happy about that and its ability to tap into social and really spread our message. "A couple of things I did want to point out, as Wiley said is there are opportunities within here, filling out AB [Absentee Ballot] applications...a couple of the other highlights in here. "We have a really strong events section, you can locate events near you, whether that's phone banking, live streaming, they could be virtual events, everything is really located within this, and we're also encouraging people to create their own events. So it has a very low barrier of entry but we want people to organize, to have those meet-ups, to get together in their local communities and spread the word. One additional thing to that in our volunteer section, is our phone from home capabilities... "One of the final things I do want to point out is that some of our downloadable content. This is an opportunity where people can collect information, cool info graphics, talking points, things of the like, and really share them within their community and within the local level." Click Here To Listen To The Full Audio: http://www.gop.com/audio/5.2.2012_Ohio.mp3   ###

Excerpts from Red State By: RNC Digital Director Tyler Brown May 2, 2012 "Online digital technology will be essential to a winning 2012 campaign. For the Republican National Committee, it is not enough simply to imitate the standard practices of the day. We want to raise the bar-identifying and developing new technology to compete in the digital sphere. "That entrepreneurial spirit led us to create the GOP Social Victory Center, a first of its kind online application that revolutionizes the way volunteers and activists take part in elections. The SVC, which launched yesterday, puts all the important tools in one place, breaks down geographic barriers, and instantly connects users with our grassroots network across the country. And it's all right on Facebook. "No other campaign or committee-neither the Obama campaign nor the DNC--has done what we have: leveraged the popularity of Facebook to empower Americans to be directly involved in the political process... "After logging into the Social Victory Center...users find political news and videos that are customized to their interests and location. They can engage and organize with voters across the country through discussions and event planning features, and they can find ways to volunteer-in their communities or from home... "We have worked hard to encourage and support the important conversation and bottom-up activism that the Internet allows. With the SVC, we hope to facilitate more of those conversations and create more connections and relationships. "The RNC will, of course, continue with our successful online advertising, our web videos, and our news-driving Twitter campaigns. We unrelentingly hold President Obama accountable to his record and his words, and when news breaks we make sure it breaks through the noise to reach the average voter... "Social media has dramatically changed politics in recent years, giving more power to the individual voter and disseminating information at record speed. Now, with the GOP Social Victory Center, Republicans will use this resource to its fullest potential. And that's certainly something to 'like.'" Click Here To Read The Full Post: http://bit.ly/IvLRSb   ###