I think it is clear to say that Govenor Howard Dean's 50-State strategy was highly effective. Building infrastructure in every state is not only important, it is the key to long-term success.
My thoughts on expanding the 50-State Strategy.
The 50-State strategy brought about many new tools. From local and state Progressive activists to state and local blogs, the tools we need are strengthening.
With all this I thought to myself "that's great but...what are we missing?"
The first thing that came to my mind was Progressive talk radio in every media market. After seeing Progressives rise up to bring our talk radio back to the air where it was dropped (mostly by Clear Channel). After seeing two years of hard work by Jeff Santos and his team in Boston bring AM 1510 on the air, we can do it anywhere!
So what's next? The Center for American Progress was formed to go up against The Heritage Foundation, even though they still have four times the funding that we have. After doing research on state based think tanks I found that almost every state had at least one, some had two or three Conservative think tanks. As far as Progressive think tanks at the state level, very few. We need professional, well funded Progressive think tanks in every state. We need not only combat Conservatives during elections but we need to expose their false Conservative academia for what it is. But we all know that isn't enough, that is why we need to develop and communicate a Progressive vision.
With proper funding State based Progressive think tanks should do more than develop policy. They should also work to communicate a Progressive world view, be a media watch dog for their local media and coordinate Progressive media (such as blogs and talk radio).
My last thought seems a little more fun. Create state based MoveOn style PACs. It is clear that MoveOn is well organized, has a clear vision and is a fundraising & political machine. Imagine we had the power of MoveOn to work on state issues?
So what should we work on first, expanding Progressive talk radio, building state based Progressive think tanks or creating MoveOn style state PACs?