US News and World Report: Dean's List

Dean's List
The Democratic chair plans to fight in every one of the 50 states. Is this shrewd strategy or a recipe for disaster?

By Dan Gilgoff
Posted Sunday, July 16, 2006


DIAMONDHEAD, MISS.--Here's what the front line of Howard Dean's revolution looks like: two dozen senior citizens seated inside this gated community's clubhouse listening intently as operatives from the state Democratic Party pitch them on becoming precinct captains. A rep named Jay Parmley approaches an oversize easel and flips to a page showing John Kerry's share of the 2004 presidential vote here in Hancock County. "28%" is scrawled in magic marker. "Kind of scary," Parmley says.

But he flips the page to show former Democratic Gov. Ronnie Musgrove's share of the vote here in his unsuccessful 2003 re-election bid: "43%." The discrepancy, Parmley explains, shows that the better Mississippians know a Democrat, the more likely they are to vote for him. Which is why he's here recruiting precinct captains. If Democrats can define themselves on a "neighbor to neighbor" basis, Parmley says, their candidates can win again, even here, in a red county in a red state.

If that doesn't sound revolutionary, consider this: Mississippi's Democratic Party hasn't trained precinct captains for more than a decade. Until recently, the state party consisted of a single full-time staffer. In 2004, the Democratic National Committee invested so little here that activists shelled out thousands of their own dollars to print up Kerry yard signs. That all changed last summer, when newly elected DNC Chairman Howard Dean began rolling out his "50-State Strategy," a multimillion-dollar program to rebuild the Democratic Party from the ground up. Over the past year, the DNC has hired and trained four staffers for virtually every state party in the nation--nearly 200 workers in all--to be field organizers, press secretaries, and technology specialists, even in places where the party hasn't been competitive for decades. "It's a huge shift," Dean tells U.S. News. "Since 1968, campaigns have been about TV and candidates, which works for 10 months out of the four-year cycle. With party structure on the ground, you campaign for four years."

The strategy is also a reaction to the past two presidential cycles, when the shrinking number of battleground states the Democratic nominee was competing in left no room for error. Both elections were arguably determined by a single state: Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004. Says Dean: "We've gotten to the point where we're almost not a national party."


Rita Royals leads a session on how to
be a Democratic precinct captain in Diamondhead, Miss.


Much more: http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/060716/24dems.htm

It is so overtly a WATB thing with the elites of the party. The states' organizations are LOVING it. Dean's getting them energized, seeding activism. The baseball farm team analogy is exactly right. When the management spends all their money or trades away their triple A prospects so they can get a superstar this year, they make themselves weaker down the road for years to come. I hope Dean has the stones to continue with what he's doing. I think he has exactly the right idea and the party will be stronger for it.

http://www.tbo.com/news/metro/MGBIO59VOPE.html

Virtually Unchallenged, Putnam's Power Rises
Skip directly to the full story.

By BILLY TOWNSEND The Tampa Tribune

Published: Jul 16, 2006


LAKELAND - There's quite a Democratic campaign to be built around Republican Adam Putnam's record in Congress, if only someone would challenge him, contends Mark Hopkins, campaign committee chair for the Polk County Democratic Party.

He points to Putnam's support of private accounts for Social Security, environmental record, support of the occupation of Iraq and a national political atmosphere suggesting Democratic gains this fall.

"We thought he was vulnerable," Hopkins said. "When you look at his record, he's not in lock step with the majority of people in Polk County."

Yet, Democrats could find no candidate willing to test that theory in 2006, even in a district where more than 60 percent of voters are Democrats or have no party affiliation.

..more at article...

It doesn't even have to make sense.

No mention at all that Americans are fed up with Repubs and that polling shows they think Democrats would do a better job on a majority of issues.

The corporate media is tiresome.

all over the country. They knew what happened in Florida and how strong Dem party infrastructures need to be and how smart and tough Dem election board members MUST be in crucial states.

Yet, they chose to let many state party infrastructures collapse long before 2004 - - - Why?

It's a shame Dean has to work overtime in so many states just to get some semblance of organization there before November. You can be sure the Clinton-MacAuliffe team will be blaming the 50 state strategy instead of the voting machines if we don't prevail.