In Rohrer’s rival event, messaging and field strategy intersect

As his primary opponent was celebrating an endorsement from the state Republican Party Saturday, state Representative Sam Rohrer (R-Berks) was celebrating an achievement of a different sort: his gubernatorial campaign’s increasingly central role in building, fostering—and if he has his way, harnessing—a local political movement that exists very much outside the party structure.

For months now, Rohrer and his supporters have vowed that their grassroots energy will overcome the political strength of a state GOP almost entirely unified behind Attorney General Tom Corbett. By nearly all accounts, the event Rohrer’s campaign held after the party endorsed Corbett in Harrisburg was the most visible manifestation of that effort, one which showcased his strategies for messaging and organization—and the way in which the two intersect.

Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-MN), a movement conservative if there ever was one, addressed a crowd of more than 300 activists by video. The famous Sam Wurzelbacher—better know as “Joe the Plumber”—held court, bashing none other than Sarah Palin for her support of John McCain’s reelection bid. Weaved into the rhetoric were concrete efforts to train Rohrer’s supporters on political organizing “at the precinct level,” as his chief strategist put it.

The event was both a culmination of his campaign’s efforts up to this point, and a jumping-off point for what Rohrer and his supporters hope will be an electoral effort that surprises political watchers skeptical of their abilities. New campaign Web sites are in the works, almost 20 town-hall style meetings are scheduled and a statewide Web-casted “Pizza and Policy” event is planned for next month.

“We wanted to give the public a side-by-side comparison of the campaigns,” Rohrer’s senior adviser Jeff Coleman said, “one which was regimented and closed, where essentially the establishment was declaring this game over. The level of disconnect between the grassroots and the leadership of the party was exposed this weekend, and it’s being exposed all over the country.”

Translating Rohrer’s efforts into success at the polls is a monumental challenge. Even grassroots campaigns cost money, and Rohrer has little of it. And for all the issues on which Rohrer is firmly aligned with movement conservatives, he is hardly a charismatic populist of the likes of Bachmann or Palin. Asked about the event early last week, Rohrer told pa2010.com, in his customary soft-spoken way, that “we want it to be practical.”

And practical it was, full of nitty-gritty lessons on political advocacy from within religious institutions, internet mobilizing and organizing at the local level. The divisions it exposed were noticeable enough to prompt gleeful e-mails from Democratic operatives, as well as a comment to The Inquirer by state party chairman Rob Gleason that “rebelling against our party’s decision may sound romantic, but ultimately it hurts our party.”

Gleason may be right, but with both Corbett and Senate candidate Pat Toomey both having been embraced by the party establishment, it has created an opening for Rohrer to be a chief spokesman for movement conservatives in Pennsylvania. And more than anything else, what emerged from the event was a two-tiered foundation of Rohrer’s strategy: build a low-cost army of grassroots followers, and look high-profile supporters like Bachmann to give that army credibility—forcing the mainstream media to pay attention in the process.

“There are folks like that all over the country,” Coleman said, referring to Bachmann. “But we’ve been very careful not to use them as straight-out, traditional political endorsements, because in the end, that game will always be won by the establishment.

“The purpose yesterday was the make sure that the grassroots understood that there would be air support and strategic help throughout the way,” he added. “But the strategy is at the ground level.”