Former tech giant Carly Fiorina, a conservative who advised Mitt Romney and Sen. John McCain's presidential campaigns, slapped the 2012 Republican campaign and get out the vote efforts as "pathetic" and in danger of keeping the GOP down for years.
"We can no longer kid ourselves," she said. "Our get-out-the-vote efforts, frankly, are really pathetic compared to what the Democrats have done in the last five years, and our use of technology is as well."
The former Hewlett-Packard Co. CEO, speaking at a recent Ripon Society conference, added in comments released Wednesday that the party also has to pick better and smarter fights to win votes.
"We must be the party of empowerment and reform. What do I mean by the party of empowerment and reform? We have to stand up and not protect the top one percent. That isn't our fight. It shouldn't be our fight," she said while pushing for action on taxes, immigration and education.
But, she said, the party must first copy President Obama's five-year effort to reach out to every supporter if it is to win the White House back.
"The most important reason why President Obama won the election -- in addition to vilifying Romney -- is because his campaign staff, through technology and through an on-the-ground effort that extended for five years, established a personal relationship with millions of voters," she told Republican congressional aides at the conference.
