What? (0.00 / 0)

So the DNC wants to make sure that their brand new tool that will have a huge impact on the election works well?

And that turns into Obama's campaign altering with the 50 state strategy?

Huh?

This is good news. It means that we have people who care about winning in charge of our party now.

John McCain: Beacuse lobbyists should have more power

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by: Populista @ Wed Jul 09, 2008 at 21:35:41 PM CDT

I guess I see this fitting into a pattern. (0.00 / 0)

Though in my defense, I guess I'd like to point out that I used the word "altering" instead of "tampering" or "abandoning" because I wanted to be neutral.

Some of us in the new swing states are concerned. Part of it is a "high-class" problem (the kind you want to have): we're so used to our local races being entirely disconnected from the presidential race that we're having trouble adjusting to the sudden appearance of a presidential campaign.

We've been overlooked by the national party for so long that for all we know this is what it looks like everywhere else every four years.

But we're also concerned in part because we see a down side in giving up local control of party resources. We could very well lose our state senate majority this year, our candidate for governor is polling even with the Republican candidate, and those of us who can remember back to 1994 rightly fear Republican control over any part of state government.

These things are priorities for us; we're not sure that they're going to be priorities for the Obama campaign. And we can't be sure that our priorities will even match accidentally.

Ultimately the 50-state-strategy isn't just about allowing the presidential candidate to compete in a few more states, but about allowing state parties to take the steps they need to take to make themselves stronger.

A lot of us who have put our energy into our local parties saw another benefit to the 50-S-S: as the party gave the grassroots the tools to help candidates win, candidates might become more responsive to the grassroots. Ultimately, one of our concerns as party activists is that we continue to build that influence over our local elected officials. Centralizing the campaign's structure and priorities gives us less leeway for that.

By the way, we've had people who care about winning in charge of the party since 2005, when Howard Dean took over (and Jerry Meek in North Carolina). You probably agree with me on that, but your last line raises some doubts on that score.

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by: NC 11 CD @ Thu Jul 10, 2008 at 12:41:34 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Jerry Meek (0.00 / 0)

is the single best state party chair in the country. IMO. Howard Dean is the best DNC Chair in history.

And they both now have allies in the Obama campaign.

David Ploffe ran the DSCC. David Axelrod ran the DCCC and DSCC's media efforts. Steve Hildebrand was the Democratic Senate leaders campaign manager.

The way Obama's campaign sees it from everything I have gathered is that the stronger the Democratic Party is everywhere the stronger they are and the stronger a Obama White House will be.

They are not going to abandon North Carolina. The change might be hard to adjust to at first but I think the Obama campaign is on the same side as the Dean/Meek/Reform/50 State Strategy movement.  

John McCain: Beacuse lobbyists should have more power

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by: Populista @ Fri Jul 11, 2008 at 00:13:52 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

I just commented to you on this (0.00 / 0)

In Bower's diary: http://www.openleft.com/showCo...

It sounds like the Obama campaign is taking over the Constructing Victory program since Julia says, "The bad news is that because North Carolina is important, the campaign wants to spend extra time building an even better system for North Carolina .:

"The bad news is...the campaign wants to...: Interesting wording, to say the least.

As I noted in my comment linked above, I certainly hope whatever restructuring they do, does not harm any of our local races by diverting/competing for resources. In general though, it would seem that being a targeted state would boost our Dem turnout. Let's hope so.  

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by: NCDemAmy @ Wed Jul 09, 2008 at 23:38:21 PM CDT