A movement is growing at Daily Kos to fix a key problem in our party — regardless of whether Hillary, Martin, or Bernie wins the presidential nomination. In the past couple of months we’ve launched Crowdsourcing the 50-State Strategy and are recruiting activists to join us in this long-term, bottom-up rebuilding process.
If you are interested in volunteering to help with this effort please send our group a kosmail and let us know how you want to help. navajo, who is organizing volunteers, will send you an invite. Also please post your own diaries and recommend the work of others you think are good additions to the effort.
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It was 1998. Bill Graves, a Salina, Kansas, Republican and sitting Governor, was viewed as overwhelmingly popular. Graves was known as a moderate Republican, viewed with some hostility by anti-choice organizations within the state for his opposition in regards to continuing morality debates in the state house.
Democrats had found a partner they could work with, they believed and as a result, few had great interest in challenging Bill Graves in a race they thought was doomed.
And along came Fred Phelps. Yes, that Fred Phelps. The leader of Westboro Baptist Church, an organization that spent all of their resources picketing gay funerals, gay friendly locations and threatening women’s clinics. Fred Phelps had been a repeat Democratic candidate, running in 1990 and 1994. In those years, he had faced an active Democratic party ready to make his run at the nomination laughable.
Without the candidacy of Democrat Tom Sawyer, Fred Phelps — the homophobic hate monger — would have stood in as the Democratic nominee.
During Netroots Nation 2015, a discussion evolved in which a panelist asked: why do we spend resources on races that maybe we can’t win? The reason is simple: races left dormant or uncontested can result in very dire consequences for Democrats, and that should motivate all of us.
In a piece for the International Times, Thomas B. Edsall makes clear the problem: Democrats believe they can accomplish everything in one fell swoop at the national level with a president, and as a result, Republican control of statehouses and governor’s mansions today is stronger than it has ever been.
By 2015, there were Republican majorities in 70 percent — 68 of 98 — of the nation’s partisan state houses and senates, the highest number in the party’s history. (Nebraska isn’t counted in because it has a non-partisan, unicameral legislature.) Republicans controlled the legislature and governorship in 23 states, more than triple the seven under full Democratic control.
What drove the right to invest so heavily at the state and local level, while the left fell behind?
“The civil rights movement taught the left the lesson that one could win in ‘one fell swoop’ by going for national level changes,” Frank Baumgartner, a political scientist at the University of North Carolina, wrote me in an email. Baumgartner’s view was echoed by a number of other scholars I contacted.
The result? State houses have now run rampant with policies toxic to the progressive movement. Changes in voter rights have occurred in places like North Carolina, Kansas, Texas, Missouri, Wisconsin... the long list continues, but all of it points to the same problem... the failure to invest in state level races can have dire consequences for residents.
As Democratic slots are left open on the ballot, not only are the craziest of Republicans left without any real challenge on any issues, but the Democratic brand is wide open to be hijacked by outsiders who can use it to put their own, often non-Democratic friendly issues on the ballot.
If you’ve been following Crowdsourcing the 50-State Strategy, you know that we look at U.S. House races around the country, places where we need to place Democratic candidates in order to make sure that Republicans don’t simply have a free pass.
This same standard applies to all races, not just at the federal level, where more Democrats are needed to run for their State House, State Senate, County Prosecutor, County Commissioner, School Board, Mayor and other offices available to them.
Fred Phelps wasn’t the Kansas standard bearer in 1998. Today, however, should someone like Phelps decide to run, almost anywhere in the nation, there are few Democratic candidates who would stop them from getting on the ballot, providing embarrassment to Democrats nationwide.
Lee Drutman, a senior fellow at the New America foundation, laid it out to Edsall in the International Times article:
[Liberal foundations...] have for a long time got perpetually distracted by fads and short-term metrics, whereas conservative foundations were willing to invest much more in long-term organizational capacity.
Republican control of state houses and the congress shouldn’t be a fad any member of Daily Kos wants to participate in. In order to fix that, we must begin to build the Democratic bench, everywhere in America — candidates not just of today, but candidates of the future.
If you #FeelTheBern, know that a Bernie election with states who are adamantly opposed and a U.S. House in Republican control will not provide much warmth. Standing with Hillary? Prepare to stand out in the rain if Republicans control the US House and State Houses.
Republicans have made such a serious investment into state houses, that Democrats in numerous “red” states have turned to moderate Republicans in hopes to save their issues. These moderate Republicans, however, may be with us on the issues — but they still count as caucus votes for the Republican super majorities in their statehouses, enabling the policies of the worst elected officials to seize power and promote their agendas.
Until Democrats are prepared to put serious investment in the tools that build our democracy, the specter of empty slots on a ballot providing an easy opening for unfriendly candidates remains.
Background on the Crowdsourcing project:
The Crowdsourcing Steering Committee comprises Chris Reeves, evcoren, Meteor Blades and navajo. If you’d like to join this group, send our group a kosmail and let us know how you want to help. navajo, who is organizing volunteers, will send you an invite. Also, please post your own diaries and recommend the work of others you think would be good additions to the effort.
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