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DNC Fifty State Strategy

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Jason Leon: DNC Deputy Director in charge of the overseeing the 50-State Strategy aka the State Partnership Project (SPP)

 

How was the 50-State Strategy Developed?

First Step: Governor Dean and staff traveled to all 50 states to and assessed State Parties to see what their strengths and weaknesses were. They did not want to create a top-down structure, but a bottom-up approach that was localized to make it work for each state. When it came to hiring new staffers they also wanted to let the state parties to tell the DNC who the best people were for the job.

 

How has the 50-State Strategy changed the Party?

(Second Step) Once the staff was in place, we need to bring the people back to the Party. Over the past year the DNC has worked at steering the grassroots and the Netroots back to (or into for the 1st time) the state parties. We need them local activists to be allies and partners where there are intersecting points of interest. Because Governor Dean has earned a lot of credibility as a people-powered leader and because we have point people on the ground we can better coordinate local efforts.

 

An Example of change in the states:

Colleen Montgomery: DNC funded Organizer from New Jersey.

Bringing DFA members into DNC organization via national days of action, trainings, and NJ party activities.

Utilizing theses partnerships to leverage electoral power and look to these groups for really good volunteers.

In New Jersey where it’s been a purely paid canvass state in the past, finding and recruiting new activists for volunteer canvasses have been a new priority since the 50-State Strategy.

 

An Example of Change within the DNC:

Jason: Dean utilizing technology to organize folks offline. Past chairmanships and administrations had used the online team for fundraising and stuck them in the basement. Under Dean the Internet Department is on equal ground with every other department in the building as a full partner. Jason noted how closely online and offline teams (internet and political) work together, especially on national days of action.

 

So about those national organizing events? What was the point?

Goal: Deliver our message and test our operation on the ground before Election Day. Goal: Use the Internet, Governor Dean’s credibility and energy of activist community to turn this party around.

Goal: Build trust and bring outside organizations into the Party. Jason (paraphrasing): “It’s a trust thing, state parties have viewed these outside organizations skeptically. While there is a need for organizations outside the party, they need to have more of the folks inside the party to make the party work better.”

 

Q and A

 

Q: What is the DNC doing to make sure these personal connections are translated into lasting connections with the grassroots and Netroots?

 

A: Training organizations; Partybuilder; Changing the mindset of the people involved; taking the grassroots to integrate and go in and take over and run for local democratic party offices.

 

Q: There seems to be a conflict amongst many folks about the viability of the 50-State Strategy. Why is that? And what is James Carville smoking?

 

A: In many states maybe you can’t win the federal races, but you can control the state level races and flip state houses. In 2006 we flipped 19 State Houses. A lot of the problem was that no one was minding the store on the down ballot races. DLCC was being largely ignored.

 

Example: In Oregon, there was no real coordinated campaign because all federal races were safe, but with 2% extra would mean winning the state house back and keeping the Governor’s seat. DNC funded organizers ran the entire field organization, using volunteers. In OR they targeted drop off voters – 90,000 Kerry voters who didn’t vote in midterms. They got the performance of the drop off voters up to 57.5% and the Gov race was only won by about 1% and they also flipped the state house for the first time in 16 years. You have to believe that picking up and going after drop off voters that helps in local state legislative races. The national events help create excitement and give ailing county party resources.

 

Q: How do you know if you are doing a good job or not and what are the metrics for accountability?

 

A: We started a year ago, no one thought we could do and doubted its value and relevance. State party/national party and state/county party relationships were fractured. Rebuilding trust is a huge part of that. Goals are different for every state based on where they were then and where they are now. One tool is exit reports from organizers. Asking questions like what % of precincts were organized when you took the job vs. how many are covered now? The DNC is also doing internal vote analysis. .

 

Q: You talked about training, but is there an evolving training manual that is handed down from campaign to campaign?

 

A: Parag Mehta (DNC Training Director): First step, is training the organizers, then go to the state and have organizers run local trainings in partnership with organizers. Then make sure organizers are on the ground and connected to local campaigns to learn from their successes and failures. This is a sort of institutional memory.

 

Q: What are you doing to bring in persons of color and low income grassroots activists into the strategy?

 

A: Diversity is a priority of Governor Dean’s. As a result the staff hired in each state reflects the state that they are in. Plus, in addition to hiring a diverse group of organizers, a large piece of the training they receive is focused on recruiting diverse people from different constituencies. At the national level, DNC held several constituency summits that brought in more grassroots volunteers than ever before. “From the table to the ticket” is the motto – i.e. We don’t just expect diversity around the table (for planning, etc) but we expect to see it on the ticket as well.

 

Q: What is the next phase?

 

A: Setting goals for each region and by state. Help, support and elect the Democratic Presidential nominee.


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