RNC's Priebus calls for full review of 2012 election cycle, focus on voter outreach

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus following the results of Election Day ordered a "full analysis" of what happened during the 2012 election cycle, group spokesman Sean Spicer told Fox News on Saturday.

Spicer said Republicans did something things well including fundraising, researching, videos implementation and executing a good ground game. But the review will look at changes needed to be made regarding mechanics and messaging.

That means party officials over the next few months will poll battle ground state voters and host a series of focus groups among Hispanics, independents, women and other key constituencies.

They also will conduct a series of round tables discussions with leaders from several groups: Hispanics, Tea Party organizations, conservative/faith based groups, youth groups, moderates and the business community.

Roughly 150,000 volunteers and 600 field staffers will be asked about what resonated, what was used, the feedback they received and what did not work.

Some of the analysis will be done by independent groups that will look at the use of resources, modeling and the Republicans' digital campaign.

Spicer thinks some things can be fixed quickly but others will take "a number of years."

"There's no silver bullet, there's no one trick pony why we didn't win," he said. "We need to evaluate ... every aspect of what we did ... and say 'where can we do better and how do we do it better?' "

The early analysis appears to be Republicans failed to connect with certain demographic groups: youth, women and Latinos. And Spicer acknowledges the review will include the "extensive examination" of those groups and independent voters.

He also acknowledged a particular problem connecting with Latinos. But he added that pointing fingers is a "really a short-sighted way of making people feel good about this election."

Romney lost big among Latinos.

Fox News exit polls show Obama won 71 percent of the Hispanic/Latino vote, compared to 27 percent for Romney.

Spicer says Republicans need to work to appear less confrontational and more inclusive to Latinos. He thinks that will require "reaching out in ways we never thought of."

He also credited Democrats with being more successful in targeting their message to key groups. Spicer said Democrats upon realizing a problem with demographic addressed it head on with a massive ground game.

When Republicans realized there was a problem, they shifted focus to other areas that they could win.

Spicer says Republicans will "continue to be strong on our principles and what this party has stood for" but need to re-look at the mechanics of how they can win again in 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2020.

Preibus' term is up in January. He will decide later this week if he will run again.