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RNC's Hollywood celeb plan falls flat
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — The Republican National Committee is meeting this week in the most touristy part of Tinseltown, but it's apparent the "Celebrity Task Force" recommended by last month's "autopsy" report isn't going to happen.
The proposed task force was the most mocked of 219 suggestions from a five-member committee tasked with looking into why the party fared so poorly in 2012.
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"The Party is seen as old and detached from pop culture," the group said. "Establish an RNC Celebrity Task Force of personalities in the entertainment industry to host events for the RNC and allow donors to participate in entertainment events as a way to attract younger voters."
The Doonesbury comic strip this week has been devoted entirely to parodying the Republican struggle to find A-list celebrities who might participate in such a task force, and comedian Stephen Colbert ridiculed the idea in a buzzed-about sketch.
RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said in an interview that he's focused on the mechanics of winning elections – building a ground operation, improving outreach to minorities and investing in technology.
"I don't know," he said when asked in an interview if the party will ever implement the task force. "I don't believe that I've discussed publicly or at any meeting … the Celebrity Task Force. … I decided California [as the locale for the meeting] because it's been a blue state that people think we've written off," he added. "I knew that if we came to California, we could really get a serious discussion about how to reach out to Hispanics and Asians."
There is a decided lack of star power at the committee's four-day spring meeting despite the locale. Still, the schedule nonetheless sought to capitalize on the Hollywood setting. The 168 members had a dinner reception Thursday night at the Rupert Murdoch-controlled Fox Studios. Their guest speakers were a California state assemblywoman, popular talk radio host Hugh Hewitt and former Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.).
"Oblivion," the new sci-fi film starring Tom Cruise and Morgan Freeman, premiered Wednesday at a theater adjacent to the hotel hosting the meeting.
Ripley's "Believe It Or Not" museum and the Hollywood Wax Museum are nearby, too. Multiple party leaders joked – anonymously – that those are metaphors for the state of the party.
The schedule of closed-press breakout sessions focused on issues like "working with minority media," "how to say what we mean and show that we care," as well as "taking the message to new places."
On Thursday, former Vice President Dick Cheney spoke at a private luncheon. Immediately following was a town hall meeting on "the path forward." Speakers included two minority candidates who ran losing House campaigns last year: Mia Love of Utah and Ricky Gill of California.
Courtney King, identified as an "actress" on the schedule, appeared on a panel later in the afternoon about "winning the women's vote." But it's not clear who she is or what she has appeared in.
The biggest Hollywood celebrity to come by the meeting was Julianne Hough, a two-time champion of ABC's "Dancing with the Stars." She came to see her father, Utah Republican national committeeman Bruce Hough. At least one committeeman asked her to pose for a photo with him.
"Any time Republicans want to come to California and patronize our hotel and restaurant industry, I'm all for it," said California Republican Chairman Jim Brulte.
Asked about the celebrity task force, he declined to comment: "I haven't read the report."


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In what might have been its largest margin of victory ever, the West Brunswick girls' basketball team trounced West Columbus 59-10
Nov. 20.
This season opener had a little bit of everything, from a 30-3 halftime lead to a technical foul to a spectacular block to a Viking player scoring on a layup in the wrong basket.
"I was really pleased with how we played—hard from the beginning to the end," said second-year Trojan coach Mark Jones. "We got a lot of production from a lot of girls.
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