There's
an important article about the future of the massive e-mail list of 16 million voters, volunteers, and donors that the Obama campaign is refusing to give up to Democratic candidates. I think it's a mistake for Team Obama not to share that e-mail list with other Democratic candidates, and by refusing to share that list, they are not helping the long-term prospects of the Democratic Party. And we need to do better in the 2014 midterms than we did in the 2010 midterms. That list would go a long way in averting the bloodbath that happened to Congressional Democrats.
Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) has also prodded the Obama campaign to make the database available to House and Senate candidates to avoid a midterm bloodbath like the party saw in 2010.
“It’s just on everyone’s radar screen,” said a Democratic strategist involved in House races. “We want the volunteers, we want the donors.”
Jim Messina says that they won't hand the list over because it's too unique, and that candidates will have to create their own lists. The problem with that is that it costs money, and it's been said that the Obama campaign spent $100 million on that list, and it would be near impossible for any Democratic candidate to create their own lists without the need to raise millions of dollars of it. Shouldn't we be more focused on helping out our Congressional Democratic candidates by giving them access to this list so they can focus on winning their races? Here's Jim Messina's lame excuse:
“You know, this organization was built for people who supported this president and who were involved. We had over 32,000 neighborhood team leaders who basically volunteered full time, and those people were involved because of the issues and positions the president took, and … you can’t just hand it to the next candidate. They have to have their own relationship with [voters]. … Look, we learned from our shellacking we took in 2010: Too many Democrats thought they could put Barack Obama’s picture on a piece of literature and his supporters would turn out magically for them. It doesn’t work like that.”
That is NOT why Democrats got shellacked in 2010. They got shellacked because the GOP ran heavily against them on Medicare, and the GOP did a lot of scare tactics about Obamacare. Jim Messina is dead wrong on that. It's not about having Obama's picture on campaign literature. It's about having access to those voters, knowing where they are in crucial precincts that often can determine the outcome of a congressional race. Withholding that access to voters is just inexcusable, and does not help us win back the House in 2014.
If the President wants to do a better second term with a stronger legislative agenda, he will need more Democrats in Congress to do it. And that means he's got to help out with congressional races in 2014. Just keeping the list to himself for legislative initiatives in his second term won't mean squat if there aren't more Democrats in Congress to help him accomplish these initiatives with their votes.
Talk like this, of course, drives Democrats crazy. “They think they have some unique voter who won’t vote for any other Democrat?,” said someone close to the DNC, speaking on background. “Second-term presidents have a unique opportunity to help build a lasting, effective party structure. That is what we are hoping President Obama will do — for the 2014 races and beyond.”
The question then becomes whether the President and his team are truly interested in helping build a lasting, effective party structure for the Democratic Party. At this point, it doesn't seem like it as long as they refuse to share their voter data list with Congressional Democratic candidates.