After significant losses in the last election cycle, the Kansas Democratic Party has had some soul searching to do. What direction should the party take? With the 2015 legislative session, a record breaker, in the books the party is still looking for a message that will resonate with the people. In light of that, the party commissioned field focus groups where members of the party were encouraged to attend and discuss the issues that motivated them.
Meanwhile, an outside consulting group, unaffiliated with the party, Smoky Hill Strategies, commissioned PPP to conduct polling research and data. The two groups have reached significantly different points of discussion. Smoky Hill Strategies looks at the data and believes now is the time to fight for progressive issues. State Party Leadership has announced to the press an intent to rebrand, deciding to make the party more conservative.
Kansas Democratic State Party Chair Larry Meeker took to The Pitch today to explain why the rebranding:
http://www.pitch.com/...
Instead of referring to the statewide party as the staid Kansas Democratic Party, they may start calling themselves Red State Democrats.
That's the idea promulgated by new KDP Chairman Larry Meeker, the former Lake Quivira mayor and banker who took over for Joan Wagnon in March. Meeker got the nod over former Kansas Rep. Dennis McKinney, a western Kansas Democrat who didn't want the job.
"It's a statement of predicament," Meeker tells The Pitch. "We'd like to be blue or purple, but it's a statement about our conservatism. We're fiscally conservative."
This comes as little shock to Kansans who have heard the stump speech. In an appearance at the Kansas Federated Democratic Women's Club annual gathering, the state party chair took time to address the audience:
Let's be honest: if we were in California, we'd likely be Republicans. We are not as liberal as Republicans make us out to be.
The speech, which highlighted what people in Turkey thought about the state of Kansas, as well as a discussion of a new way forward should have been the signal to many of us that the idea of rebranding the Democratic Party was gaining ground. Committee meetings and focus groups gathered with the concept of potentially changing the state party name, dropping "Kansas Democratic Party" and instead moving to "Red State Democrat Party".
In one focus group in Wichita, attending party members were asked: "What issues do you think the party could/should be more conservative regarding?" This question caused several attendees, including a state representative to balk: "What is this?" The concept of adopting conservative ideas in order to make a candidate acceptable seemed to fly in the face of what most activists believed about the party.
The concept was problematic on multiple fronts; by adopting the moniker "Democrat" instead of "Democratic" for a party name, organization leaders worried that the party is accepting the Rush Limbaugh type terminology; and including "Red State" but dropping "Kansas" seems to open up the argument that Kansas Democrats don't love their state enough to invoke the name.
The idea to rebadge the party, however, was shelved after several meetings and instead, I'm told, a way to "rebrand the party message" was adopted. This rebranding would not change the state party name, but rather it would just change the outward PR: We are Red-State Democrats.
While the Kansas Democratic Party voiced the idea that we were actually California Republicans, Smoky Hill Strategies put forward data with a much different message: no, if we were in California we'd still be Democrats.. we'd just win much more often.
In a poll conducted by PPP with a survey strength of 1,217 respondents, Kansas Voters don't seem to be as enamored with the idea of embracing an austerity/conservative viewpoint as the Democratic Party Chair thinks.
The polling data provided by Smoky Hill Strategies, with a sample of 50% (R), 28% (D), 22% Unaffiliated shows that Kansas Residents are largely unhappy with the direction of the state, and that several issues that feed into progressive values are quite popular. Medicaid Expansion? Yes. Lowering of the regressive sales tax? Yes.
Some social issues polled higher than even advocates expected, with 67% of the public favoring the expansion of Body Cameras.
While the polling data suggests the party needs to become far more direct in order to motivate voters who stayed home in 2014, the official party approach appears to be trending another direction. In a speech before the Douglas County Democratic Party, the party chair informed the audience:
We have to find ways to adopt a message that grows our party with conservatives who want to vote with us but may disagree with us here and there.
It has taken some time, but the Kansas Democratic Party looks prepared to embark on promoting a message. Unfortunately for many Kansas Democrats, that message looks far too much like a white flag of surrender in the adoption of unpopular conservative talking points.
Kansas Democrats will host DemoFest, an annual meeting this weekend in Wichita, KS.
The event may end up being a gathering of competing ideas. Smoky Hill Strategies has reserved a large ballroom in order to present a "Progressive Pavilion" which will feature campaigns, advocacy groups, and three main events: a 9:30AM State of the State Briefing, a 1:30PM meeting to discuss the PPP Poll and the direction of Democratic Messaging for 2016, and a 5PM DailyKos Connect! Unite! Act! event, where video clips and an update on the growth of the party into the remainder of Kansas is announced.
The question that will task many who attend this weekend is likely to be: which path is right for the future of what was once the Kansas Democratic Party?