50-State Strategy

Importance of Fifty State Strategy Becomes Conventional Wisdom

Posted by on March 14, 2006 at 09:46 AM

Governor Dean knew it was a good idea. The grassroots and non-traditional media infrastructure of the party bought in immediately. State Party Chairs were singing its praises and discussing the impact of the program during the one year anniversary celebration of Governor Dean's chairmanship. And despite the always-anonymous detractors, the importance of the fifty state strategy is quickly becoming conventional wisdom in the traditional media. Three successive articles over the course of the past seven days highlight the usefulness of the undertaking.

First was captain conventional wisdom himself, Charlie Cook:

The primary responsibility of the DNC is not to win House, Senate, gubernatorial, or state legislative races, but to build and sustain a national party and to oversee the presidential conventions and nomination process. The same is true of the Republican National Committee. No other entities within the two major parties are charged with those missions.

In January, while giving a speech at Mississippi State University, I happened to meet a DNC staffer, a former executive director of the Oklahoma Democratic Party, who was assigned full-time to party-building in Mississippi. In the 33 years that I have been involved in politics, I have never heard of the national Democratic Party assigning a full-time staff member to organizational efforts in Mississippi.

Then the Boston Globe:

'When we first met Howard Dean, we thought he'd be a nut," said Nick Casey, West Virginia's party chairman. ''But that's not the guy who's been delivering the goods, and he has been delivering to us."

Casey's state party has doubled its number of precinct chairmen and is halfway to its goal of having one in each of West Virginia's more than 1,900 voting precincts. The three new staff members sent by the DNC have given the state party more than twice its previous manpower.

Party chairmen across the nation tell similar stories. In Ohio, the five people being paid by the DNC have helped set up ''Victory Squads" -- teams of about 10 Democrats who are eager to knock on doors or set up lawn signs -- in 65 rural counties where Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry fared poorly in 2004.

Mississippi's Democratic Party has established an infrastructure in 10 counties where the organization had atrophied. The DNC has sent resources to hire five full-time workers -- up from just a single part-timer previously -- helping Democrats secure victories in five special legislative elections over the past year, party chairman Wayne Dowdy said.

State parties are generally used to this kind of attention from the DNC only in the six months or so before a presidential election, and then only if they're among the small group of states that are considered in play.

Locally, the Albuquerque Journal provides the third wheel of the trifecta (subs. only):

It doesn't take a political expert to figure out why the DNC's 2004 New Mexico campaign fell short: Although Democrats have long outnumbered Republicans, President Bush bested Kerry by about 6,000 votes.

The DNC early last year elected former presidential hopeful Howard Dean as the national party chairman, and Farrauto said the chairs of state Democratic Parties nationwide asked him to place more focus— and spend more national party dollars— on stat e parties in the years between presidential elections.

"It's a really critical investment," said state Democratic Party chairman John Wertheim. "There was a consensus among the state chairs that the national party needed to get involved in mid-term elections, in municipal elections, in elections at all levels— because that would lay the groundwork for winning the presidential race the next time around," Wertheim said.

There are now nine staffers in the state party's Albuquerque headquarters, including the four field directors, Farrauto said. The party has a Web site— something it didn't have at this time in 2004. And Farrauto said the office phones are ringing far more than they once did.

Of course, the flip-side to the fifty state strategy is the Democracy Bonds Community. On that end, it's you getting the job done. In order to put organizers on the ground in every state and build a permanent party infrastructure where there hasn't been one for decades, it takes sound financial planning and a sustained commitment of resources. We can't afford to have a boom-and-bust operation that pops up every two or four years in a few key states. We have to build a permanent presence everywhere, and Democracy Bonds make that possible.

What's more, by funding this unprecedented organizing strategy with small monthly donations from ordinary Americans, the Democracy Bonds community provides a sharp contrast to the insidious Republican culture of corruption that has recently begun to unravel. We saw in court filings this week how Republican leaders raise money: in exchange for putting statements in the Congressional Record, or granting federal contracts, or expensive golf trips to Scotland.

This concept scares the GOP, and they quick to paint the grassroots of the Democratic Party willing to part with small dollar contributions every month in order to fund a Democratic Party fighting in each and every one of the fifty states as "fringe," "extremist," or out-of-touch with mainstream American values. Our graphic designer, Jessica, put together a beautiful montage of Democracy Bond holders complete with photos and testimonials. These are the people the GOP thinks are the "far left wing." Clicking on the photo takes you where you need to go.

For more on the people making the fifty-state strategy not just a possibility, but a national success story, click here.

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