(Cross-Posted to DemNotes at www.DemNotes.com)
Yesterday was a full day here in Vermont, as the DNC and ASDC Executive Committees met to discuss how things are shaping up for the 2008 election cycle.
We began after breakfast, together in an informal, “closed,” joint session of the two committees. Because that session was closed to the press, I’ll keep my descriptions of our discussion there pretty general.
ASDC President and Michigan Chair Mark Brewer kicked off the morning by welcoming everybody and discussing the commitment of the state parties to Governor Dean’s “50-state strategy”. He pointed participants to the study done by Harvard’s Elaine Kamarck showing that the 50-state strategy helped boost Democratic victories in 2006. He discussed the ASDC’s efforts to get Presidential campaigns to sign a written pledge to support and continue the 50-state strategy if they are nominated / elected. So far, the pledge has been signed by the Clinton, Dodd, Obama and Richardson campaigns.
We then heard a polling update from the DNC’s pollster. Again, I worry about revealing too much “inside” information, but it appears the Democrats in 2006 really narrowed the huge gaps on the issues of “values” and “security”. Things don’t look good for the Republicans, but that doesn’t mean voters have decided to support the Democratic Party, either. “We are not a shoe-in for 2008,” the pollster concluded. So I guess this means we will have to get out there and work harder over the next 15 months.
Actually, that last statement seemed to dominate our discussions yesterday. I’ve received several e-mails from Democrats who are upset at our Congressional majority and our Congressional leadership, and I apparently am not the only one. We heard from several state party leaders who were concerned about the number of people out there upset about Democratic leadership. What Governor Dean and others did help us realize was that, even though you don’t hear it enough in the press, Democrats in Congress are getting a lot done — even though our majority is extraordinarily slim, and even though the Republican Party is working to obstruct us at every turn.
Specifically, we’ve done more in the first 6 months than the Republicans accomplished in six years:
– Increased the minimum wage
– Cut in half the interest rate for college loans
– Expanded health care for kids
– Largest increase in veterans’ benefits
– A real ethics bill has passed
– We’ve already cut earmarks in half
– We’ve restored “pay-as-you-go” into budgeting (as Gov. Dean said, “we’re restoring fiscal discipline — you can’t trust the Republicans with your money!”)
– We’ve done something about security, instead of just commissioning another commission — we’ve mandated that the Bush Administration comply with the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission.
And on the War in Iraq, the vast majority of Democrats in both the House and the Senate have voted to get us out of Iraq. The differences could not be clearer, especially when you look at our Presidential candidates: every Democrat running has a plan to get us out of Iraq — we may differ on the timeline, but the end goal is the same. And every Republican (with the exception of Ron Paul, who is really a Libertarian) stands in lockstep behind the President and wants to keep our troops in Iraq and in harm’s way with no end in sight.
All of these points were so eloquently made by Governor Dean in his address to the Committees in the open session yesterday morning. We then heard from former Vermont Governor Madeline Kunin, who did a wonderful job challenging us to do a better job recruiting women and minorities to run for office. She used some telling statistics to drive her point home. The nation with the largest percentage of women in their national legislative body: Rwanda, with 48% women in their Congress. Where does the U.S. rank? Well, we rank 69th out of 187 countries, with only about 15% women in our Congress. She encouraged us to make the process more inclusive for selecting and recruiting candidates.
Gov. Kunin also talked abou the need for further campaign finance reform, pointing out that there was a correlation between public funding and greater diversity.
We next heard a report on the 2007 elections for governor in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Kentucky. All three are “red” states, but we have a real shot to win in each of these states. In Kentucky, Republican incumbent Governor Ernie Fletcher is best described as “ethically challenged,” while our candidate, Steve Beshear, is a popular former Lt. Governor and Attorney General. The latest polling shows Beshear leading Fletcher 58-37, but we expect that to tighten before November.
In Louisiana, we have a real shot to keep the open seat there with either State Sen. Walter Boasso or Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell. The initial election will be on October 20, with a runoff (unless somebody gets 50%) on November 17.
In Mississippi, Republican Governor Haley Barbour is dealing with plummeting favorability ratings, while Democrats turned out in huge numbers to vote in the primary. John Eaves is the Democratic nominee, a well-known attorney with a strong faith background.
After a lunch together, the ASDC Executive Committee met in a small conference room around a table with Governor Dean. We went more in-depth into a lot of the things I mentioned above, as well as discussing the state of the presidential campaigns and their relationships with the DNC.
We also had a good discussion about the future schedule of the ASDC, which will include a couple of meetings in Colorado as we prepare for the Democratic National Convention. You can expect to see the various chairs, vice chairs and executive directors of all of our state parties flooding into Denver next summer to do walk-throughs and trainings on the convention preparations.
After all of the meetings, I took a nice hour and a half cruise of Lake Champlain, which was a real treat. I spent the time with a couple of wonderful Democratic leaders from Oklahoma, Jim and Sally Frasier, and we discussed a little about the state of Oklahoma politics (I graduated college from the University of Oklahoma, so I knew some of what I was talking about).
The evening ended with a nice dinner at a local establishment with the other members of the ASDC Executive Committee. Colorado Chair Pat Waak was also there for all of this, as she was elected just this week to represent the Western states as the ASDC’s Western member of the DNC’s Executive Committee. Congrats to Pat — I don’t think we have any other state that is represented on the ASDC’s executive committee by two people, which is a testament, I think, to Colorado.
I’m off today to a quick visit to Boston before heading to New York tomorrow to fly back to Colorado. This has been a great weekend, and I think we are all feeling pretty good about the year to come, from a Party perspective.
All Welcome