from Nina Turner, about Ohio Dem Party

Team Turner -
I've heard from so many of you since Election Day, and I want you to know how much I appreciate your heartfelt words of encouragement and your interest in my future plans. And thanks to each and every one of you - your emails, your phone calls, your hand shakes, and your five and ten dollar donations - I was reminded that although my campaign for Secretary of State came to a disappointing end, the struggle for which we all collectively toiled did not end.

In fact, almost four weeks ago David Pepper and I came together as a team to campaign for our shared vision of how to best lead the Ohio Democratic Party moving forward (see below for details).

I'm excited to share with you that on Tuesday, December 16, the Pepper-Turner vision for the future of our Party was embraced, and David was officially elected as Chair of the Ohio Democratic Party! I will serve as the Chair of David's Leadership Team – an ad hoc committee tasked with overseeing the development of a strategic plan to rebuild our infrastructure from the ground up and win elections every year.

All of the Democratic values for which I fought as a State Senator and candidate for Secretary of State matter now more than ever. And your grassroots support, your people power, and your engagement in this process matters just as much as it did during my campaign.

We did not get here on our own, and we can not move forward without you. We can not fight for a better Ohio, for a better nation and for a stronger democracy without you by our side.

I wish you a very joyous holiday season and look forward to continuing our journey towards progress in the new year!

All the very best,

Nina

P.S. Please see below for the shared vision David and I have for the Party moving forward.

OUR VISION: TURNING THE TIDE

"When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.”

— Harriet Beecher Stowe

As your newly elected leaders of the Ohio Democratic Party, our number one responsibility and goal will be to win elections.

We must win local races in 2015. When the whole nation is counting on us and so much is at stake in the judiciary, there is no other option than to win big in 2016. We must use the momentum and energy from our successes in ’15 and ’16 to win in 2017 and 2018.

But to be very clear: winning is not enough. How we lead as Democrats and what we do after we win are just as important.

Beginning in January, we will systematically gather input from across the state about your and others’ views, ideas and suggestions. We will use all of this input, as well as best practices from around the country, to build and release a Blueprint to Victory by early next spring. Below, you will see the five guiding principles we believe should serve as the foundation of the Blueprint, but be assured that many of the details and specific steps to execute these principles will be driven by your feedback.

FIVE GUIDING PRINCIPLES

1. FIGHTING FOR THINGS THAT MATTER: If we want Ohioans to show up on Election Day and vote for our candidates, they must know what we stand and fight for--and that what we fight for will make their lives better.

• Our message must be clear, concise, and issues-based, and we must deliver our message on an ongoing basis—not just during elections, but introduced long before our candidates show up to run and reinforced long after our candidates are elected. Voters must know the issues that affect them are always on the ballot, and are therefore motivated to vote each and every November.

• Our message must hit on bedrock issues that 1) matter to our core voters; 2) speak to a broad swath of Ohioans beyond those who consider themselves Democrats; 3) make a difference to the direction of our state. Issues such as Higher Wages, High-Quality Public Education, Early Childhood Development, Affordable Healthcare, Basic Human Rights.

• We will enlist Party leadership and various ad hoc issue committees with developing clear positions on a set of bedrock issues, and provide practical guidance on how to advance these issues at every level of government.

• And we understand that most often, the most credible messengers on these issues are not the Party Chair or staff, but all the elected officials and activists on the ground, who speak with authority in their region of the state.

2. ENERGIZING OUR INFRASTRUCTURE: Beyond being crystal clear that we fight for issues that impact Ohioans’ daily lives, the Party needs to touch voters where they are, and do so with passion -- not just in the weeks prior to an election (when it’s largely too late), but on an ongoing basis. This means firing up the entire Democratic infrastructure so it’s not simply a long list of names in a database, but an ACTIVE, WORKING infrastructure, fueled by passion and energy at every level of the Party.

• Precinct committee members should be empowered so that they don’t simply attend occasional meetings, but actively know and continually work their precincts. Our goal: GOTV calls should not be the first time folks have heard from the Party, but the final step of continuous engagement. If every precinct captain does this work, we win, even in the non-Presidential years. It’s that simple.

• County chairs and county parties should feel empowered and supported no matter if they are large or small, red or blue.

• We will work to actively involve mayors, county commissioners, city council members, state legislators and others who are on the front lines, fighting the good fight every day.

• Being a member of the state executive committee should be an engaging experience, such that members return to their respective corners of the state as ODP ambassadors with clear direction and purpose.

• We must redouble our efforts to energize crucial constituency groups that are at the heart of our Party—especially African Americans and women who form the core of our voters. And we must passionately reach out to growing constituencies such as the LGBT and Hispanic/Latino communities in Ohio.

• We must reach out to, reenergize and unify all parts of the House of Labor to be active participants in the Democratic Party—having key institutions sitting on the sidelines only weakens us, and we will work to bring folks back to the table.

• All of this will require leadership, restructuring, additional resources to support our efforts, constant communication within our infrastructure, and good old-fashioned hard work and teamwork.

• A summit meeting in early 2015 with executive committee members, county chairs, labor leaders and and others to discuss our infrastructure building issues will be crucial to ensuring we are all working from the same playbook for ’15 and ’16.

3. BUILDING OUR FUTURE: We must always operate with our eye towards the future, both when it comes to recruiting and cultivating our bench, and standing strongly against the GOP tactics that most threaten our success long-term.

A. Our bench is far stronger than the GOP’s bench, but we must strategically support and nurture our incredible array of candidates and current officeholders so they can climb to the next levels.

• We need to recruit, tout, encourage and cultivate the best candidates possible, and encourage and support those already in office. This is not new to either of us—as candidates and officeholders, we have spent years mentoring the next generation of candidates, a number of whom are now serving their communities.

• As Party leaders, we will do the same, but with more resources and tools at our disposal, including but not limited to: creating candidate recruitment guidelines and best practices; offering cutting edge training sessions to candidates and current office holders; making trusted introductions to donors, volunteers and other supporters, as well as in-roads to state and national progressive organizations and allies; and using ODP’s communications infrastructure to tout our rising stars.

• We will explore the creation and raise money into a Local Candidate Support Fund so we can provide funding support to strong candidates running for local offices across the state, where every penny can make a difference.

• We will pay special attention to diversity when it comes to our slate of candidates. We acknowledge the unacceptable reality that Democrats have never had an elected statewide African American officeholder, and we commit to taking any and all steps necessary to change that.

• We also commit to focusing special attention on tackling the challenge of electing more Justices to the Supreme Court of Ohio, particularly with three races just around the corner in 2016. This is a huge opportunity for us if we get organized immediately, and we plan to enlist a panel of attorneys, former judges and past candidates to recommend strategies we can take to seize this moment.

B. Attacks on voting rights to discourage Democratic turnout is one of the GOP’s main election strategies to win long-term, and we must be ready to protect the right of ALL Ohioans to cast their vote.

• We will be vigilant to protect voting rights wherever and whenever they come under attack as we approach the 2016 election, including taking legal action whenever necessary.

• We also commit to support the effort to enact a Voter Bill of Rights to permanently establish a guaranteed set of voting rights in Ohio’s Constitution.

C. Nothing has more poisoned politics in Ohio, and more disenfranchised Democratic voters and voices, than the Republican gerrymandering of our legislatures. Correcting this anti-democratic injustice is key to our long-term viability.

• Thanks to the past and current leadership of many elected officials in the General Assembly regarding the issue of re-districting, we are at the precipice of historic progress on this issue.

• We pledge to be vigilant in ensuring that these changes happen, that future processes cease the blatant disenfranchisement of Democratic voters, and that we advocate equivalent reform at the federal level.

4. RAISING RESOURCES. The Party needs the resources to fuel all these efforts, and these resources must come from the bottom-up as much as the top-down.

• In this past election cycle, the two of us alone held hundreds of fundraising events and raised millions of dollars from 22,000(!) individuals—even in a year when people thought we didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell to win.

• We have been successful because we understand fundraising is not just about knowing a handful of people with means. Although such high-level support is very important, we learned from President Obama that it takes a disciplined process of engaging and connecting with thousands of people in a way that makes them feel energized and moved to invest their own resources, as well as help us raise resources from those they know.

• We will infuse the Party with this model of fundraising to build a network of donors that reaches far above and beyond the current network the Party is fortunate to have.

• Having a well thought-out and thorough Blueprint to Win will afford us the opportunity to raise money from Democrats across the nation who understand the strategic importance of a strong Democratic Party in Ohio and believe our plan is a worthwhile investment.

5. ORGANIZATIONAL INTEGRITY. The Party must be a robust organization that lives by our values and is infused by energy, common purpose, high-integrity decision making, open communication, and transparency.

• With your input, we will explore ways to reform the structure and staffing of the Party so all parts of the state feel they are equal partners at the ODP table.

• Staff and volunteers of the Party will thrive when they work in a supportive, high-morale, professional work environment—and that staffing must reflect the diversity of our Party.

• Participation in the Party at every level should be personally meaningful and rewarding, starting with Executive Committee participation itself. We look forward to hearing your input on how being a member of the Committee can be most energizing and personally satisfying for all the time and energy you each put into it.

• Opportunities to do important work on behalf of the Party should be broadly available. We will develop guidelines to ensure that is the case, and that we avoid any conflicts of interest (or perceptions of such) in the way such decisions are made by the Chair, Party officers and ODP staff.

• Key, high-level decisions about the Party’s direction should be transparent and inclusive, as should the overall financial health and well-being of the Party.

• And like any good organization, we will ensure that decisions affecting the Chair are made at an arm’s length—such as salary and benefits decisions, which should be determined by a Compensation Committee, as has occurred previously.

# # #