A comment
popped up on another thread that is worth highlighting:
When he first started talking about needing to create a staff in all 50 states, I was like "What the hell do you MEAN the DNC didn't already have staff in all 50 states?"
This is a very common response to Gov. Dean's talk about putting organizers on the ground in every state. Here's the real deal --
In reality, state party folks out there and people who have been through several tours of duty at the DNC say they have never seen anything like this organizing program -- even though lots of people presumed that this whole operation existed.
The big question hanging out there, of course, is the funding of this whole operation. In off-years in the past the DNC has been outraised by Republicans by as much as 4 to 1. Dean's DNC has cut this gap in half, to 2 to 1 -- but the prospect of hiring 150+ organizers on top of everything else is a big deal, and a huge new commitment.
That's why the Democracy Bonds community is a core of Dean's financial plan for the party. Getting a whole lot of people making monthly contributions will provide the financial stability you need to sustain and grow the ground operation for 5, 10, 15 years.
The party can't do what it needs to do only raising money in single surges that depend on the political environment, or the proximity of an election.
Getting grassroots donors thinking about the financial realities of the new 50-state strategy and the new challenges (and oppotunities) for funding our party is one of the biggest tasks.
Hopefully everybody responded to Tom McMahon's email yesterday.