50-State Strategy to Shrink
Former DNC Chair Howard Dean's 50-state strategy is generally regarded as the non-Obama reason for the Democrats' success last November. By putting representatives in every single state, Democrats were able to turn states like Virginia, North Carolina, and Colorado from red to blue.
In a video released recently, the new DNC chairman, Virginia Governor Tim Kaine praised the 50-state strategy for its overwhelming success but said that it would be scaled back because "You never should just do what you did yesterday."
Tremayne of Open Left mocks this response perfectly:
So, bottom line: it was really important and successful and we'll be doing something that we'll call a 50-state strategy but it won't look like it did before. Because "you never should just do what you did yesterday" even if what you did yesterday worked really well.
The idea behind the 50-state strategy is that voters in states like Alabama, Idaho, and Oklahoma are never going to vote for a Democrat unless they meet a Democrat once in a while. If you send two or three Dems to a rural town in red states like Nebraska, though, then you just might change some minds.
I'm worried that without the 50-state strategy, the Democratic Party will not maximize its potential in states like Georgia, Missouri, North Dakota, and Montana, all of which were very close this year. With just a little more attention (and some luck with the economy), those could really turn blue in 2012.
The idea was also to build state democratic party organization and elect down ticket democrats.
I see the knee are jerking again at Open Left. they ought to figure out how to connection a generator to those knees.
January 16, 2009 8:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ah, I aint worried. As long as reps show up on cable and are quoted in newspapers, Dems are going to get a lot of money and good backing from the net and a bunch of good ground troops.
We are going to be fine.
January 16, 2009 9:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey, we got 1 electoral vote out of Nebraska (Omaha) for Obama. I voted in 8 presidnetial elections before this one. This was the first, my 9th, that I voted in where my vote made a difference. Whew!
January 17, 2009 1:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'm going to be worried. This time the Reps did not see us coming. They are going to be more prepared. In the heartland, things actually became more Red, not less. This was an anomoly compared to the rest of the country that went more blue even where they were not blue enough. We really need a complete transformation. That way, if and when the Reps return to prominence, they will be nothing like the thieves we just cleaned out of DC.
January 17, 2009 2:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
BrBuchwal that's nonsense. I don't see anywhere in that video where Kaine says he's going to "scale back" the 50 state strategy. In fact he brags about how thanks to Dr. Dean's faith in Dems in his state they've won both US senate seats, turned their US house delegation from a 8-3 R advantage to 6-5 D, retaken the state senate and cut the R advantage in the state house from 30 to 5. Not to mention helped Kaine himself, a decided underdog when he entered the race, win the governorship and deliver VA's electoral votes to the D candidate for POTUS for the first time since 1964.
That's all happened since 2006 and he uses that as an example to inspire activists in ID, TX, the Dakotas, everywhere that they too can turn their states around just that quickly.
Of course there's going to be changes. States like VA aren't going to need nearly as much help as they did in the past. There's real opportunities opening up in states like TX. The 50 state strategy is an ongoing process requiring constant reevaluation.
And yeah because of the election cycle and the devastated economy there's not going to be as much money available for the DNC to do everything we want it to. With the economy hemorrhaging jobs people just aren't going to have the cash to pony up for 2010 like they did in 2008. It's not a presidential year and the wildly popular Obama won't be on the ticket. And you're not helping fill the coffers with bullshit posts like this.
January 17, 2009 10:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
Interesting how the video itself isn't linked; and the crucial phrase "scaled back" is outside the quotes.
Thus bullshit grows its wings.
January 18, 2009 12:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
.
There's an awakening across this land
It's seems to be a little early in the game to start rending garment and gnashing teeth over the demise of the continuation of organizing folks all across this country.
Things are going as planned, as announced by Obama this morning.
See my blog for the video.
~OGD~
January 17, 2009 2:45 PM | Reply | Permalink