Saturday, January 24, 2009

The Future of the 50-State Strategy

I just got this email from the organization Democracy for America.

What a great week, right? Finally, we have a President intent on getting America back on track and he hasn't waited a single day to get started.

But why can't we say the same thing about his leadership of the Democratic Party?

The 50 State Strategy will go down as one of the most successful long-term programs the DNC has ever implemented, providing resources for increasing voter registration, maintaining a national voter file available to local parties, developing leaders at all levels of office, and employing official DNC staff in every state.

This week, word leaked from Washington that the DNC might return to the short-sighted policies of the past and only focus real resources on swing states in preparation for the next Presidential election.

If it ain't broke, don't break it. We must step up our aggressive campaign to immediately reinstate the 50 State Strategy...

Yesterday, local DFA members delivered our "Reinstate the 50 State Strategy" petition with signatures and comments representing over one million DFA members nationwide.

We can't sit idle and wait for a response. Local elections for Mayors, City Councils and School Boards are coming up fast. Congressional elections in 2010 will need the grassroots groundwork we lay right now. And in 2012, Barack will need a strong people-powered Democratic Party nationwide.

Since President Obama appointed Gov. Tim Kaine to be the new Chair of the DNC, both Barack and Tim have said many nice words about the 50 State Strategy. But praise is not action and over 200 organizers have been let go with no announced plan to replace them.

Keep up the pressure and make sure Gov. Kaine understands that if it ain't broke, don't break it.


Apparently the Democratic Party is seriously considering doing away with the highly successful 50-State Strategy for political and community organizing and going back to the short-sighted focus on swing states as its main political strategy. This relates to an issue percolating late last year where 200 local community organizers were fired by the DNC after Howard Dean stepped down as DNC chair.

3 comments:

King Politics said...

I really don't believe the DNC will eliminate the 50-state strategy; tweak it for sure, but not entirely eliminate it. I've blogged repeatedly on Obama's desire to build an enduring Democratic legacy beyond his tenure in office. More likely, there will be a temporary focus on the more limited 2010 battleground states.

redante said...

I hope you are right. The urgency of the DFA e-mail leads me to believe that the situation is quite serious. If this news is indeed, true, it would be a big, bonehead move by the Democratic Party.

Anonymous said...

Lib, aside from the obvious success of the 50-state strategy, there were two other major things securing Obama's victory. The first was the economy; which I suspect will be an issue for years to come. But the second was Dubya who; by the end of the month; will be a distant memory for us.

That said, hitting up all 50 states and trying to recolor the map will be critical since the Dems are running out of cards to play. I doubt they'll abandon this system any time soon.