Markos has some great commentary today in the San Francisco Chronicle regarding new models of Democratic outreach and fundraising, scoring points for the positive frame he was able to place around Kerry's 2004 candidacy.
"It's a nationwide phenomenon," said Markos Moulitsas Zuniga of Berkeley, whose DailyKos.com is the nation's largest political blog, with 600,000 daily visitors. "And it's especially true around here, where the Pombo race is the most competitive race within a million miles of Berkeley.
"More people are realizing that they can't just get involved every four years," said Zuniga, who bought five new servers in anticipation of interest in election night 2006.
Democrat John Kerry's loss in the 2004 presidential race "was the best thing to happen to the progressive movement," Zuniga said, "because it taught people that this wouldn't be won or lost in a year. It's a multiyear-long process, and it is going to take their involvement every year."
http://www.sfgate.com/...
The article goes on to mention in rather specific detail outreach activities going on through traditional Democratic party channelsand netroots organizations like Moveon.org to sustain and build that multiyear process, like Barbara Boxer's PAC for Change "Take Back Congress" event in San Francisco this coming Saturday evening.
https://secure.ga4.org/01/pacforachange_commit2006
Even Washington Beltway politicians such as Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., are being influenced by such "fun raisers."
On Saturday, Boxer's political action committee will hold a fundraiser in Medjool Restaurant, a Mission District club and bar, with a twist for a politician accustomed to $1,000-a-plate fundraisers at the Fairmont Hotel: The cheapest ticket will be $25, and a DJ will spin tunes until 2 a.m., long past bedtime for most of the usual crowd at fundraisers.
There will be "action booths" set up in one part of the club where people can volunteer to walk precincts in Tracy for a Democrat challenging Pombo or make calls for Francine Busby, a Democrat running to replace disgraced former GOP Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham in San Diego.
"We just don't do fundraisers like that," said Doug Boxer, the senator's son, who runs the political action committee. "You just don't make a lot of money, and there's a lot of time and effort to coordinate it. But here, we're measuring the success of it in a different way: How many people signed up to walk precincts, or make calls?
"There's a lot of people wanting to know how they can get involved," he said. "We're trying to put the fun back in fundraiser."
Also mentioned in the article are the Kegs for Change, which exchanges cheap beer in exchange for making phone calls to representatives.
And coming soon to the Bay Area: a political party called Kegs for Change. Popularized in Minnesota by a Music for America member, it goes like this: Instead of paying $4 for a cup at a keg party, partygoers pay only $3 -- if they place a call to a congressional representative about an issue.
Disclaimer: The cup-holding lobbyists must call before drinking, as organizers note that drunk-dialing Congress isn't an effective lobbying tool.
"We always try to make the events fun, but many of our members are more interested in issues than candidates," said Molly Moon Neitzel, Music for America's executive director. The group will honor top-selling punk band Green Day for its political work in San Francisco tonight.
The article also describes the Progressive Reading series that has been taking place in San Francisco, often in conjunction with our local Drinking Liberally group, at the Makeout Room in the Mission.
It's unheard of to see hipsters waiting in line outside the Mission District's Make-Out Room club at the ordinarily sleepy hour of 7 p.m. on a Monday. Especially ones ready to pay at least $10 to get into a literary reading.
But there they were, queuing up for what has become one of San Francisco's hottest recurring literary gigs, the monthly Progressive Reading Series -- progressive in the political sense, that is. They're coming even if they have little idea that their door fee is part of a new wave of liberal fundraising, one that sugarcoats the urgency for political involvement with a healthy layer of partying.
Events such as the Progressive Reading Series are an indication of the interest that liberal organizers are showing in the traditionally unsexy topic of midterm congressional elections. The beneficiaries are largely politicians far outside the Bay Area's politically blue bubble.
The best part of the article: Democrats are outflanking the Republicans!
California Republican officials haven't yet noticed a similar bubbling of midterm interest among conservative activists, but as state party spokesman Patrick Dorinson said, "It's still really early. We probably won't see a higher level of enthusiasm until after the primary."
My question is: why stop in San Francisco's Mission where the tragically hip and insufferably trendy live in a progressive bubble(disclaimer: I live in the Mission myself!) and not extend these outreach efforts? Preaching to the converted doesn't really expand the base very much. Shouldn't similar events be happenng in senior centers and nursing homes to mobilize those disaffected with the Medicare part D fiasco? Or maybe organize free progressive film events in college towns, particularly in the Red States, so that the current crop of wonderful new documentaries can be seen, and the resulting controversy be ventilated in the local press?