Here is, I think, the fundamental flaw in this new Republican strategy: The 50-state strategy worked for the Dems because we knew people liked our policies -- once they knew what they were. The more people learn about the Republican party's positions on the issues, the less they like them. And no matter what the RNC tells voters, the GOP House leadership has made it clear that they're doubling down on the same policies everyone hates.

See where I'm going with this?

Washington (CNN) – After weaknesses in its ground game were badly exposed in 2012, the Republican National Committee is taking a page straight out of the Democratic playbook and launching an ambitious “50 state strategy” that will steer party resources and staffers to every corner of the country as it works to repair its voter contact effort before the next presidential election.

The party’s short-term vision with the project is to help the GOP win key races this November and in next year’s midterm elections.

But that’s only part of a larger and more important goal for Republicans: rebuilding a broken and outdated get-out-the-vote operation that seemed dominant during the George W. Bush era, but was overtaken in 2012 by a Democratic coalition that had spent years polishing its tactics in the fields of voter contact, persuasion, data collection and statistical modeling.

Led by the re-election campaign of President Barack Obama and aided by independent liberal groups and labor outfits, Republican organizers were badly out-hustled by their Democratic counterparts in the race to get their supporters to the polls, in early voting and on Election Day.

The RNC’s 50-state project begins with putting new boots on the ground in the two states with gubernatorial elections this fall, Virginia and New Jersey, said party spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski. In both states, the RNC will be testing voter contact efforts with controlled experiments and fine-tuning their engagement efforts with African-American, Asian-American and Hispanic communities who are firmly entrenched in the Democratic camp.

In May, the RNC hired new staffers and opened offices in Virginia, which has a competitive governor’s race, and in New Jersey, the site of a less competitive gubernatorial contest and a special U.S. Senate election.