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The last time I played any kind of formal role inside the Democratic Party was being a (volunteer) vice-chair of the finance committee for the Clinton-Gore re-elect, right after leaving the White House in mid-1995. Since that time, I have chosen to work outside the party system, focusing on trying to strengthen and revive the outside progressive infrastructure.
While that continues to be my primary focus, this year I decided to break my ban on helping party committees because of a unique set of circumstances, and agreed to do some consulting for the Ohio Democratic Party (DOP). The reasons I decided to do so are as the following:
1. Ohio's central importance electorally. For all I believe in expanding the map and the 50-state strategy, in any kind of close election, it is still very likely that we will need Ohio's 20 electoral votes to get to 270. On top of that, there will probably be six or even more competitive US congressional races, and the Ohio State House could be retaken after 12 years of Republican legislative domination. That is not only important for making Ohio more progressive, but the congressional redistricting battle coming up following the 2010 elections.
2. The new state party. Gov. Strickland, Sen. Sherrod Brown, and the rest of the impressive group of statewide officeholders have made a major commitment to rebuilding the Ohio Democratic Party, which with occasional exceptions hasn't been really strong in at least a couple of decades, and probably longer. I know Doug Kelly, the new executive director, and he is a top-notch operative, and the team there is committed to rebuilding the ODP infrastructure from top to bottom.
3. Ted Strickland and Sherrod Brown. These guys had been two of favorite my people in Congress for a long time, both strong progressives who were among the leaders on the right against the war resolution, and who have been great fighters for working people. When they ran for governor and senator, respectively, last year, and even ran as strong unapologetic progressive champions, it was the first time in 14 years that the Democrats had won major statewide offices in Ohio.
I spent most of the weekend in Ohio at a strategy session for the ODP, and came away even more excited and impressed about our chances in 2008. With a strong progressive Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner, a lot of the problems in 2004 that Ken Blackwell created in trying to disenfranchise voters will be gone. And with a governor and senator committed to making it happen, the state party is going to be a major factor in winning the state.
The thing that always impressed me the most about each meeting this weekend was that Strickland and Brown, who were both there for most of the time, were both repeatedly using the phrase "building the progressive movement." They see the Democratic Party's mission as building the progressive movement for the long haul, which was thrilling to me as a person who has sat in hundreds of party meetings over the years where the word progressive movement never came up.
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