An earlier post about a farm team gave me some good ideas. If your going to have a farm team, first you need the funding to build their stadium.
Thats where the netroots can come in. There was an incredible sum raised by this site for the Kos Dozen, but now with it being an off year, theres no where to really send the money. What I am proposing is that the local party of a critical county in the upcoming elections is adopted for a month and money is given to them in order to help them update technology, hire staff, improve research, better communication capabilities, running workshops for candidates and campaignworkers, etc. to make an all around stronger party organization.
For example, I'm from the Syracuse area and my congressman is Republican Jim Walsh. Kerry won Walsh's district and won Onondaga County (the heart of the district) by 10 points (larger than Gore's margin). Walsh ran unopposed, the Republican County Executive ran unopposed in 03, and the Republicans have a 13-6 advantage on the County Legislature, in Onondaga County. Part of the problem is the Democratic County Party just isn't capable of aiding the candidates to the level it should. They raise some money, and will give it out to candidates, but they have no staff except someone who comes in twice a week for maybe 4 hours. Going into a campaign they have almost nothing to prepare you against your opponent, no precinct breakdowns, no expanded voter data, no research on the opponent, they are just unable to provide what the candidates really need.
There would definately need to be a rigirous review before any county is given money, but you can see how a little money can go a long way in reforming these local parties in a manner necessary to build a farm team and a strong ground game.