After perusing here and at MyDD the lists of House, Senate, Governorships and State Legislature to take over a thought occurred: it means nothing unless we are able to hold fair and honest elections, including making sure EVERYONE has an EQUAL opportunity to have their vote counted.
What would happen if the Blog community, instead of targeting big-name Senate and Gubenatorial races (where our impact would be slight) set our sights on impacting the races for SECRETARY OF STATE.
In Missouri, for instance, former Gov. Carnajan's daughter won a tight race to capture the MO SOS- important in a state trending red.
The roster of Secretaries of State can be found here:
http://www.nass.org/sos/2004roster.html
More...
Yep, that's their National Association (I'd love to hear what they have to say about some of their member's practices in FL and OH...but I digress).
Before the 2004 elections Republicans controlled the following SOS Offices:
Alaska
Arizona
Colorado
Florida (TARGET #1)
Hawaii
Idaho
Indiana
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maryland
Michigan
Minnesota
Missouri (Dems won this race on Nov. 2nd)
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
North Dakota
Ohio (TARGET #2???)
South Carolina
South Dakota
Texas
Utah
Washington
Wyoming
A start would be to make sure all blue states and battleground states have Dem Sec of State or HONEST Sec of State. Some obvious targets seem to be:
CO, FL, HI, MD, MI, MN, NV, OH, and WA.
If we controlled those SOS offices, how much better would we feel about this election? About the election results? Any evidence of the importance, besides Presidentially, is summed up in the Washington Gov race, which Dems are poised to lose narrowly.
So, a call to the Kos community:
Which SOS are vulnerable? Which are entrenched (especially on this list)? Any reason MARYLAND has an R in that position? Which Red State SOS are vulnerable (the more the merrier).
A proposal: A Kos Half-Dozed Sec. of State takeover.