The Democrats secret weapon to take back statehouses

Donald Trump has certainly helped. But Democrats' massive success in flipping statehouse seats in special elections this past year isn't happening by accident.

The party’s dominance — it’s flipped 35 seats, and is hoping to make it 36 next week in a Florida House race — is also the result of old-fashioned political organizing. Nuts and bolts steps like funding year-round staff on the ground in the states, designing digital fundraising platforms, training volunteers, screening résumés for campaigns around the country and, of course, collecting huge checks.

At the center of those efforts is the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, mostly forgotten in the 25 years since it was founded as the D.C. hub for state legislative campaigns, but now working to coordinate efforts and partners, and along the way double its spending for the cycle to $35 million in strategic investments.

Realistically, most people working on state senate or assembly campaigns are young and don’t know what they’re doing. Often, it’s their first campaign, and many times, their only campaign. That can be true of the candidates, too, and certainly of the volunteers.

Over the phone and during regular check-in visits in person, the DLCC has been moving in with its experienced staff of operatives to get staffers and elected officials up to speed....

The DLCC has made direct cash infusions into some races: $745,000 for an independent expenditure in a Washington state Senate race that gave Democrats the majority in the chamber; $450,000 into the September Florida Senate election that saw a former contestant on “The Apprentice” defeated; and $41,000 into the Wisconsin state Senate election win that Gov. Scott Walker tweeted was a “wake up call Republicans in Wisconsin” ahead of his own race for a third term in the fall.

“For them to be as strong as they are and as organized as they are is critical for us,” said Sharon Nelson, the leader of what became a Democratic majority in the Washington state Senate with the special election win.

For the Florida House races on Tuesday, the DLCC sent $10,000 to the state Democratic Party, and this past week sent an email on behalf of Margaret Good, the candidate they’re most hopeful about. The group also helped facilitated a Joe Biden endorsement for Good that raised $8,000 more for her.

In Pennsylvania — where a court decision throwing out the state’s existing congressional map guarantees it will be an epicenter of the redistricting fight — the DLCC funding has subsidized the salaries for nine finance directors for the Democrats in the state Senate and House. It has made similar investments in Arizona, Georgia and Nevada.

In New Hampshire, after flipping four seats last year, the DLCC paid to help keep a campaign structure in place, with a staffer covered through November. In Minnesota, the DLCC put $75,000 into building out the Democratic caucus’ digital fundraising operation, along with money that went to Alaska for candidate recruitment ,and Maine and Michigan for other campaign infrastructure improvements.

The DLCC provides basic campaign infrastructure, from budgeting software to field training guides. In Virginia last fall, as House of Delegates candidates were swamped with volunteers that helped power the wave of wins on Election Day, it was as simple as sending out staff to help direct them.

In August, after Phil Miller won a special election for an Iowa statehouse seat in a district that went to Trump by 21 points but that Barack Obama carried in 2008 and 2012, the DLCC, in consultation with the local Democratic caucus, persuaded Miller campaign manager Caroline Closson to stay on and wrote a check for $25,000 to underwrite her salary.


https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/10/democrats-special-elections-organizing-401365