Reply #14: The road back to power is paved with strategy [View All]

The road back to power is paved with strategy

Dick Kamin, the former co-chairman of the Republican State Committee, is a die-hard conservative. Howard Dean, the former presidential candidate who was recently named chairman of the Democratic National Committee, is not.

These two men would not agree on much when it comes to policy. But in Trenton last week, they were voicing the exact same strategy just a few hours apart about how to win elections: Build political parties that stand for something, and make sure voters know what it is.

"If we want to win as Democrats again, we need to stand up for what we believe in," Dean told a fund-raiser at the Marriott hotel on Monday night.

Dean applauded Trenton Democrats for passing a bill to increase the minimum wage in both houses of the Legislature earlier in the day. He said Democrats nationwide can push their way back into power by focusing on similar issues that have a real connection with the working people long considered to be the core of the party.

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Dean also said the focus on "moral values" in the wake of the 2004 election can work for Democrats rather than against them if they convince voters that taking a moral position means advocating for social justice, not social conservatism. It's a moral value, he argued, to try to prevent children from going to bed hungry, and to fund medical care for the poor.