This effort may be far too late in a lot of ways, but at least Dems are finally realizing that winning nationally (for offices other than President) and putting an end to the GOP’s “meth labs of democracy” plan requires actually winning at the state level.
A cadre of wealthy liberal donors aims to pour tens of millions of dollars into rebuilding the left’s political might in the states, racing to catch up with a decades-old conservative effort that has reshaped statehouses across the country.
The plan embraced by the Democracy Alliance, an organization that advises some of the Democrats’ top contributors, puts an urgent new focus on financing groups that can help the party regain influence in time for the next congressional redistricting process, after the 2020 elections. The blueprint approved by the alliance board calls on donors to help expand state-level organizing and lobbying for measures addressing climate change, voting rights and economic inequality.
“People have gotten a wake-up call,” Gara LaMarche, the alliance’s president, said in an interview. “The right is focused on the state level, and even down-ballot, and has made enormous gains. We can’t have the kind of long-term progressive future we want if we don’t take power in the states.”
The five-year initiative, called 2020 Vision, will be discussed this week at a private conference being held at a San Francisco hotel for donors who participate in the Democracy Alliance. Leading California Democrats are scheduled to make appearances, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and California Attorney General Kamala Harris. The alliance, which does not disclose its members, plans to make some of the events available to reporters via a webcast.
The gathering coincides with the long-awaited launch of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential bid, infusing the event with buzz about the 2016 race. Clinton, who was invited to attend, will instead be on her debut campaign swing. But her campaign chairman, John Podesta, who has worked closely with the alliance, is set to participate in events celebrating its decade-long history.
I’m at least pleased that the Dems with the big money have decided that fighting fire with sternly worded vision statements is a good way to get covered in third-degree burns, as 2010 and 2014 showed. States like Ohio, Virginia, Wisconsin and Florida that vote for Dems at the presidential level are under total GOP control at the state level , and dozens if not hundreds of state legislature seats across the country are being filled every two years by Republicans running completely unopposed. That’s the kind of stuff we have to fix if we want any chance at staving off the crazy.
What kind of ideas do the assembled have for improving the Dems chances where you live at the state level?
Yatsuno
Get a Teatard to cut off the money spigot to Hanford. Seriously. The ONLY thing keeping this area growing right now is federal government spending and the soakers are total teabillies and other Repukes. Cut it off and they’ll scream to the high heavens but all that will be left will be ag around here.
Patricia Kayden
My suggestion is for Democratic voters to vote FOR EACH AND EVERY ELECTION — not just for Presidential elections. I’m still in shock that we have a Republican Governor in Maryland because Prince George County voters decided to stay home in 2014.
NCSteve
Now all they have to do is get Democratic voters interested in state and local politics. Face it. Most of us are manically focused on national and international politics and bored to tears by state and local politics, because, hell, most of us aren’t even from where we live anyway.
But on the other hand, there’s easy, low-hanging to be taken simply by getting across the message that Democrats need to fill out the rest of the goddamned ballot after they vote for president all the way to the very end in states (like North Carolina) where Republicans have eliminated straight party voting would help.
danielx
About. Fucking. Time.
Finding another sword upon which Mike Pence and the evangelical geniuses in the legislature can impale themselves.
Cervantes
Gara is a good guy in his own right but you should probably mention his years of working (in philanthropy) for George Soros, a major backer of this effort.
CONGRATULATIONS!
Far too late? The conservatives have been doing this since about ten years before I was born, and I’m fifty.
So yeah, sixty years. That’s a long time to wait for someone to get a clue.
And that’s how long it’s going to take to build a true, functional alternative to the Republican party. Sadly, we liberals don’t do long term planning. Too difficult or something.
Cervantes
Unfortunately (I’m the other Cervantes) I lived in Massachusetts until recently, now I live in Connecticut, and work in Rhode Island. So I don’t have any ideas because those three states are already completely dominated by Dems. (Massachusetts has a weird tradition of electing non-wingnut Republican govs to go with its veto-proof Democratic legislative majorities. Charlie Baker would not be a Republican in any other state. But the solution to that problem is to make sure that Martha Coakley never again runs for political office of any kind.)
Amir Khalid
@Cervantes:
Should we call you Cervantes Prime then?
Mike E
@Yatsuno: OT hi Yutsy, I got a question for you if you know about it at all…I called in to an ‘ask the tax expert’ event at my local teevee news station, and he thot I could straight-deduct my ACA premiums since one of my two part time jobs is contract work (my ‘biz’) and for the life of me, after reading relevant publications, I can’t figure out if I can put the full amount on the 1040 self-employed health ins line, or, some kinda percentage of my total income (the biz is 40% of my total income). New territory for me! What’s yer seat of the pants take on this, if any? Thanks.
Belafon
I’m in Texas. Democrats here try just about everything they can, but we’re going to need some help from outside groups to get Latinos to register to vote and go to the polls.
VidaLoca
Under what definition of “the left” do “A cadre of wealthy liberal donors aims to pour tens of millions of dollars into rebuilding the left’s political might”?
In Wisconsin that has a lot to do with the fact that the Wisconsin Democratic Party is 10 lbs. of shit in a 5-lb. bag. Throwing tens of millions of dollars at that organization will not fix what’s wrong with it; in fact it will only make it worse.
ruemara
Nice to see the rich democratic leaders being where I was over 10 years ago. I used to wish I won one of those huge jackpots so I could get the party to listen to me about those races using the best lure – money. Welcome, boys. You’re here just in time to turn out the lights.
BGinCHI
Until they clean out their own corrupt and shitty state Dem parties this isn’t going to change.
IL Dems are mostly rotten as hell. It wouldn’t be so bad if they put forward good candidates, for Governor, for example, but they don’t.
Fucking machine politics.
RSR
I have no suggestions. After the re-elections of Andrew Cuomo and Rahm Emanuel, ugh, I don’t even know. It just disgusts me.
Anyway, 2020 is advantageous due to the cyclical element. Billmon documented some points in that regard shortly after the mid-term last November. 2018 is likely to look very different from 2016 and 2020. If the left is more successful in 2018 than the last two mid-terms, it would be pleasantly surprising. And if not, it would be par for the course, and not likely a sign of impending doom.
We just have to wait three-and-a-half years to find out. ;)
germy shoemangler
Bring back The Fairness Doctrine.
That might repair some of the damage done to public opinion since Reagan’s administration and the rise of Murdoch/Ailes.
Zandar
@VidaLoca: Which is why I asked people for ideas. Here in Kentucky the situation is the same, only it’s a choice between Democrats who are effectively Republicans and Republicans who are effectively completely insane mouth breathers who want to endorse cockfighting and eliminate the state’s income tax and replace it with a massive sales tax boost, something that even the most awful counties here won’t go for.
Anybodybuther2016
They couldn’t be bothered to do this in 2010 or 2012? They held back for hilz eh? Interesting.
Bruuuuce
Time to get every state to have its districting done by a bipartisan commission, and not the politicians in power. Require that plans be approved by judges, and while there will still be some degree of gerrymandering, it will be greatly reduced and more fairly reflect states like Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ohio, where Dems are sadly underrepresented in state legislatures and Congress.
This will be ESPECIALLY important with the new Census in 2020.
Cervantes
@VidaLoca:
I think reading the linked article would help you address your own concerns.
The Alliance advises people as to where they should invest their money. Membership is by invitation only but here is the guide they issued last year. Take a look. You’ll see that “throwing tens of millions of dollars at the Wisconsin Democratic Party” is not a recommended strategy.
Which raises another question: the Alliance has helped direct maybe 500 million dollars over its lifetime (about ten years); whereas the Koch brothers alone, and in the next year alone, plan to spend about twice that.
Cervantes
@Anybodybuther2016:
No, you’re just unaware. The Alliance has been doing this for ten years. The new thing is that they are finally convincing the partners (donors) to focus on work at the state, as opposed to federal, level.
Cacti
@Belafon:
The same is true for Arizona, where the hispanic/latino population always punches below its weight come election time.
AZ has about a 29% and growing hispanic population, but in 2012, they only accounted for 17% of votes cast.
VidaLoca
@Cervantes: Fair enough. I’m at work ATM, didn’t have time to read the article through at all. I did send it on to some people here who could put the money to good use. I’ll read it over after I get home.
@Zandar:Also fair. I don’t think it’s fair to the people who take the time to provide content here, to just shoot negative BS off the top of my head but this pisses me off so much that I broke my own rule. Tell you what: it will take me a couple of weeks to do it but I will offer to write up a long post that includes a critique of the Wis. DP and some of the things we’ve tried to do to address the problems. If I send it to you will you publish it?
debbie
In Ohio, it’s due to gerrymandering so scandalous that even the state GOP supports a commission to redraw the lines before they’re due to be withdrawn.
I heard that for the state elections, there were more votes for Democrats than there were for the GOP’s candidates, yet it’s the GOP that practically runs the state unilaterrally.
People need to pound Kasich on this situation.
Jim
I live and vote in Virginia, and have been saying the same thing for years. We’re a “purple” state in only one way: We vote Dem when everyone in the state gets an equal vote (Pres, Senate, Gov, AG), and Repub in our gerrymandered districts for state-level offices and Congressional Representatives. This didn’t happen by accident, and is one thing the Republicans have been very efficient at. Too bad they don’t govern well once in office.
myiq2xu
Here in California the Democrats have a hegemony or near-hegemony at all levels of government.
Everything is just peachy.
WereBear
@Bruuuuce: Yes, yes, yes. Right now it’s a totally unfair advantage the Republicans are happy to perpetrate.
I know we decry the marketing efforts of the Republicans, but we have to come up with our own catchy phrases and compelling action lines; because if wonkery worked, we’d be fine.
However, most people, even the ones on our side, are overwhelmed and short of time and brain space. They need short, sharp, snappy brain phrases to embed in their heads. It’s that simple, and that difficult.
For instance, I loathe being advertised to and the like, but when I do it for our little cat business, it works. I don’t like putting ads on the site, but it keeps me from begging for bandwidth money so often.
The best I can do is use ads from companies I believe in, keep my own efforts discrete and funny, and realize I’ll get some indignant emails from people CUTTING ME OFF FOREVER because I’m… not independently wealthy?
And I guess Dems will have to do the same thing.
Keith G
This column by Slate’s Jamelle Bouie makes a case for why HRC is so important for the Democrats.
The Indispensable Hillary Clinton: Why she is more vital to the future of the Democratic Party than even Democrats realize.
Cervantes
@myiq2xu:
You must be in Georgia. You only think you’re in California.
Must be that high IQ of yours, clouding your vision. This may help.
phoebes-in-santa fe
@Patricia Kayden: Patricia, I have a new slogan I’m going to put on bumberstickers, “Democrats – Vote TWICE. 2016 and 2018!”
I think that’s the message we have to get across to our fellow Dems.
Tenar Darell
Start publicizing where to get local and state reporting. Seriously, there is no info out there about where to get/how to find local political news. Why do I know this? Because there’s a town election tomorrow and I have no idea who or what is running. I’ll be going practically blind into that booth if I can’t get Google to cough something up.
Cervantes
@phoebes-in-santa fe:
That is excellent!
Elizabelle
Cancel the midterms. Great NYTimes op ed from last November by Duke professor DAVID SCHANZER and his student, JAY SULLIVAN.
Change our federal elections schedule and do Congressional elections and Presidential elections every four years.
Get the same (larger) electorate to turn out; stop with one large group of voters voting for a change, and a smaller, more habitual set of voters voting to throw any wrench possible in the process.
Vote by mail for city and county elections. Make it more accessible and easier, plus a paper trail.
Is it possible fewer elections would less money spent on campaigning? Because what we have going on now is a scandal in plain sight.
Oh: and once you’ve got a better Congress and Supreme Court: legislate away Citizens United. Actual American citizens are against it, by heavy margins.
Elizabelle
@phoebes-in-santa fe: Brilliant. Fits on a bumpersticker too!
WereBear
@Elizabelle: Great ideas!
Cervantes
@Tenar Darell:
For some reason I thought you were in Brookline (where there is no election until May 5).
Zandar
@VidaLoca: I’ll absolutely take a look at it, yes.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@myiq2xu: Not even close, unfortunately. Only at the state executive level.
Local governments are overwhelmingly Republican here, save for the Bay Area. I suspect we’re in for a real nasty surprise in a few more years because of that. Their bench is huge. Ours is nonexistent.
scott alloway
“Anybody who thinks that ‘it doesn’t matter who’s President’ has never been drafted and sent off to fight and die in a vicious, stupid war on the other side of the world–or been beaten and gassed by Police for trespassing on public property–or been hounded by the IRS for purely political reasons–or locked up in the Cook County Jail with a broken nose and no phone access and twelve perverts wanting to stomp your ass in the shower. That is when it matters who is President or Governor or Police Chief. That is when you will wish you had voted.”
― Hunter S. Thompson
Morzer
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
Which, sadly, is true across frighteningly large swathes of the nation.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
Depends on your locality. I think you’re in the SD area? Here in La-La Land, we’re almost as solidly Dem as Chicago, and that includes the various cities (I’m currently in Burbank, just moved from Glendale). The OC is a mix — lots of Repubs, but also some solid Democratic areas now that Asian and Latino immigrants are going into politics.
mai naem mobile
1/any dem controlled states where its possible – get easy voting rules into the srate constitution if possible/ strenghten them to the point where they’re very hard to roll back to at least stop the bleeding.
2/ get Latinos out to vote
3/get native americans out to vote
4/minimum wage
Latinos – I was talking to a Mexican American friend about how voting happens in Mexico. He said the winner usually has put up one heck of a party with lots of food. I don’t known if its legal but maybe something like this needs to.be done to get.the Latinos out.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@myiq2xu:
I know, employment constantly improving, budget back into surplus, infrastructure spending, it’s a nightmare, I tell you!
Or are you one of those people who thinks the Sierra Club is causing the drought and if we just let them drain the Sacramento basin, the rains will magically begin to fall again?
Botsplainer
@Zandar:
Coal. Guns. Bibles. Freedom.
Nobody loses an election in the ruralities of this state without invoking this sacred refrain.
raven
@Mnemosyne (tablet): The Vietnamese in OC are democrats?
VidaLoca
@Zandar: It’s a deal, then. I’ll try to focus on ideas for solutions rather than just foaming-at-the- mouth w/r/t the DPW and I’ll try to address some of the points that people are making here in the comments.
dogwood
This is good news indeed. It is a project that requires patience and perseverance.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@raven:
After the anti-immigrant Prop 187, they are. Strange as it seems to Republicans, when they complain about “immigrants,” it turns out that immigrants from all countries think you’re talking about them.
Cervantes
@raven:
No, they’re still registered Republican to a large extent, although they don’t necessarily vote that way state-wide or nationally.
Plus I expect the registration numbers will change, albeit slowly.
Punchy
While Koch and Ilk pour hundreds of millions into the right.
Knife to gunfight, etc. Unpossible to compete long-term without reform (read: new SCOTUS)
catclub
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
National healthcare has been on the agenda since Truman.
Mike J
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
Maybe it’s because even when they do something people just start whining that it’s not enough, too late, it’ll never work.
tam1MI
@Botsplainer: Yeah, just look at Alison Lundegran Grimes. She did all that, plus did a Judas on Obama to boot, and look how well she did! [/sarcasm]
cahuenga
“staving off the crazy” by embracing the same DLC clowns and policies that got us where we are today really doesn’t sound like a rational plan.
geg6
Euthanize all the old white people in Western PA who used to be a solid Dem block but who fell for St. Ronnie, who then outsourced all their jobs and made them like it because the blahs got hurt worse. It’s the only solution I can see. My county Dem party might as well be a subsection of the Tea Party.
piratedan
@CONGRATULATIONS!: the reason that their bench is so huge is because their requirements for candidacy are pretty low, i.e. 1) be alive, and 2) swear fealty to the herd……
@bruuuce – one of the great unspoken truths…..gerrymandering sucks (in essence for both parties) for everyone because it’s not an accurate representation of the districts and the populace. It’s how we manufacture crappy politicians who are beholden to essentially nobody once they are in place…
My “great idea” would be to simply point out what kind of idiotic legislation these asshats actually produce, that never see the light of newsprint, much less TV or the web, and let the voters decide is this is a good use of their tax dollars. I mean do you really want your local legislator working on whether or not we have a state firearm or if it is in our best interest to have the state strip people off the state organ transplant list?
CONGRATULATIONS!
@catclub: In fairness, since he really was the last non-asshole Republican, I’m pretty sure national healthcare was Teddy Roosevelt’s idea.
Problem is, it was never taken seriously. And still isn’t. Right now, we’ve got a lot more people insured, but only by taking even more of our GDP and turning it over to insurance companies, who then do their damndest to keep every last dime of it rather than spend it on patient care.
Still, glad for what we’ve got. And that’s not really the point. We need more local Dems, end of story!
The Dangerman
@Yatsuno:
Glow in the dark ag, you mean.
Dude, you’re in Hanford area now? I’m so sorry (unless you enjoy that area, in which case, congratulations). I have to jet into that area this summer (Family deal) and am so not looking forward to it. Of course, by jetting in, I mean driving, as I think the only flights landing in the Walla Walla (oh, whya, whya) area are cropdusters. Maybe I can DB Cooper it in and they’ll write songs about me someday.
Cervantes
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
What makes you sure?
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Cervantes:
According to this story, Vietnamese-Americans in California are only about 1/3rd registered Republican:
http://www.scpr.org/blogs/politics/2012/12/07/11443/profile-westminsters-tri-ta-first-elected-vietname/
Prop 187 hurt Republicans across the board with all immigrants, not just Latinos. My former city of residence was solidly Republican until it got a lot of Armenian immigrants. Now it’s had a Democratic rep (Adam Schiff) for almost 20 years.
ETA: Reading further, the politician who is the subject of that story is still a Republican, but the note about registrations is there, too.
Tenar Darell
@Cervantes: Heh. Yeah, drive through and stop a lot. Good place to visit for parks and walking on way to Boston.
Gin & Tonic
@piratedan: their requirements for candidacy are pretty low
All requirements for candidacy are pretty low. I don’t know how it is where you live, but when I ran for a local elective office, I had to fill out a (very perfunctory) form for the state’s Board of Elections, and get 50 signatures of registered voters in the municipality where I was running. I bet any B-J reader could fulfill similar requirements in a slow afternoon.
Kay
I know I’m preaching to the choir, but people need to realize that most law is made at the state level.
I don’t care what your issue is- criminal justice, education, consumer protection, if you aren’t running states you’re not even at the table.
Democrats can’t have an agenda without running states. They will be all but irrelevant on a whole host of issues. Protecting basic civil rights or liberties at the federal level is the last line of defense. It was never supposed to be the goal.
grandpa john
@Zandar: But, but, That involves work and time . when it’s so much easier to get on a blog and piss and moan about “corrupt” politicians and evil political machines, and how every states organization is the same and there is just so many we can’t possibly organize ourselves to recapture the party leadership and promote our own candidates and take back control of state government, it’s too hard.
kc
About friggin’ time.
kc
Ah, never mind.
Cervantes
@Mnemosyne (iPhone):
Not sure: is that a fraction of the population or a fraction of those registered to vote?
Anyhow, Martin Wisckol at the Orange County Register disagrees with you (and your source). His article also points out (as I did above) that registration may not reflect voting patterns any more, especially nationally.
Here is another disagreeing article:
Those are the same numbers the Register published.
And about my comment re the numbers changing slowly:
That’s from an article by My-Thuan Tran and Christian Berthelsen published by the LA Times.
Certainly I’d like to believe that a majority of every community in the country is registered Democratic, but with regard to the Vietnamese community in Orange County, I don’t think that time has come yet.
Cervantes
@Mnemosyne (iPhone):
Not sure: is that a fraction of the population or a fraction of those registered to vote?
Anyhow, Martin Wisckol at the Orange County Register disagrees with you (and your source). His article also points out (as I did above) that registration may not reflect voting patterns any more, especially nationally.
Here is another disagreeing article:
Those are the same numbers the Register published.
And about my comment re the numbers changing slowly:
That’s from an article by My-Thuan Tran and Christian Berthelsen published by the LA Times.
Certainly I’d like to believe that a majority of every community in the country is registered Democratic, but with regard to the Vietnamese community in Orange County, I don’t think that time has come yet.
LanceThruster
It’s hard not to get disheartened by the eternal uphill slog just to keep bad consequences at bay, whether by the other side, or those you consider otherwise in your own ranks…but surrender is not an option.
I would like to add sincere thanks to all those in the trenches, time after time. I give what little support I can.
“In our age there is no such thing as ‘keeping out of politics.’ All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia.”
~ George Orwell
VidaLoca
@Kay:
No you aren’t preaching to the choir and you ought to preach it more because you’re the only person that writes semi-regularly on the liberal blogosphere that I’m aware of, that seems to get this. It’s absolutely critical.
QFT.
It comes down to power: powerful people are organized. Disorganized people are powerless. And we are massively disorganized and mis-organized.
catclub
@CONGRATULATIONS!: The reason I posted was that you said liberals do not have a long attention span. I gave an example where liberals have had a very long attention span.
Teddy Roosevelt is an attempt at distraction. You forgot to thank me for bringing up a counterexample to your statement.
Iowa Old Lady
I have no use for people who don’t vote, but I have even less use for people who refuse to vote for someone like Clinton because it would sully their pure political position. To me, those people are the anti-vaxers of politics. They rely on the rest of us to elect the impure candidate but save them from an insane Republican.
Amir Khalid
@Iowa Old Lady:
There quite a few anti-Hillary commenters here who don’t understand this, or who refuse to understand.
hoodie
@Kay: So how do you win at the state level in a place like NC, where the GOP has exquisitely gerrymandered legislative and congressional districts, and is now setting about gerrymandering county and municipal elections? It seems like one of the goals of this petit gerrymandering beyond the power grab itself is to deprive democrats of a new generation of candidates. We had some fine new ones pop here in county elections, and now the leg is trying to strangle them in the crib. ALEC and its allies appear to be staging a bloodless coup, and most folks don’t realize it. Having been exposed to some of the GOP “thinkers” from the NC leg, it’s pretty clear that they’re just apparatchiks that take orders from the central committee, the irony of which should not be lost on anyone here. Damn if I know how you root them out.
piratedan
@Gin & Tonic: perhaps you’re correct in that neither party tends to filter out who decides to become a candidate or who the party supports if there are multiple potential candidates to be chosen from, my bad.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Cervantes:
Note, however, that the post-Prop 187 trend changed in 2002 due to local, not state or national, politics:
I stand by my statement that Prop 187 broke the cozy relationship between Republicans and Vietnamese-Americans. Right now, they seem to (understandably) be voting for Vietnamese-Americans who are running as Republicans, but they are not acting as the lockstep Republican voting block that they were pre-Prop 187.
Cervantes
@Mnemosyne (iPhone):
I agree. Thanks for elaborating.
Here’s to Republican outreach. (Warm day here: a nice, cold prosecco.)
rikyrah
@Anybodybuther2016:
Thought I was the only one who noticed this.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
Well, one thing you can say for the Republicans: They’ve been willing to run for thankless posts with no glamour at all, like state legislature seats, seats on town and county councils, and even school board seats. They find people to run for these seats, and then they get their people to show up and vote for them. We on our side have really gotten lazy about that, and I hope to hell that this might be the first signs that we’re pulling our heads out of our asses.
Tripod
So basically, they’re stupid enough to think a white presidential candidate will win back rural butternut seats. Enjoy pitching away that half a billion.
Nir, Singiser, etc. do great work showing why this is an utterly useless endeavor.
mclaren
I live in a deep blue state so there’s not an issue about getting Demo control at the local level in my neck of the woods. A lot of the problem is demographic. The entire middle of the United States consists of K-12 kids and over 60s people, because as soon as a boy or a girl graduates from high school in the middle of this country, they have to leave their home state for either the West or the East Coast to find a job. This leaves the entire center of the country in demographic collapse, while urban areas on both coasts are exploding with excess population and skyrocketing property values.
Until someone does something about that situation, the current politics on the ground will remain unchanged. Most of the center of the U.S. is deep red for a reason — there are no young people there.