(Cross-Posted to DemNotes at www.DemNotes.com)

I’m on a lunch break here in San Diego, where I just returned from an “informal session” with the other state party chairs and vice chairs. We had a nice discussion of both the successes in 2008 as well as a long discussion of the importance of keeping the State Partnership Program (a/k/a the “50-state strategy”) in place. Here are some brief reports from the other states:

– In Idaho — yes, Idaho — Vice Chair Jeanne Buell was proud to report that they’ve finally elected a Democrat to represent the state’s First Congressional District in Congress. But they’ve also heard they’re the number one target for the GOP in 2010.
– The Chair of Democrats Abroad, Christine Schon-Marques, reported that the 2008 campaign resulted in an amazing new ability of people being able to do phone banking from abroad, especially using Skype. Indeed, the campaign even had field staffers in some countries assigned to generate turnout among American citizens living abroad.
– Our chair, Pat Waak, talked about the good communication work among the organizations (Campaign For Change, Coordinated Campaign (Forward Colorado) and the Party), and the 51 CFC and 15 FC offices in the state. She was asked about the effect of holding the Convention in Denver, and reported that it certainly helped generate more excitement and volunteers.
– In New Hampshire, Chair Ray Buckley talked about the concerns about melding the new volunteers that were brought in by Obama and the long-time Party volunteers — and also reported that they melded perfectly. He mentioned that there would normally be some jealousy and infighting, but the volunteers for Shaheen (their Senate candidate) were happy to support Obama, and vice versa — and they all were happy to support all of the down-ticket races. In 2004, they had a record 2,000 people on election day working on GOTV. In 2008, 12,000 people worked on election day GOTV in New Hampshire.
– Karen Thurman, Chair in Florida, reported on the massive mobilization there. They had 57 field offices and 600 paid staff, just to pull all of the volunteers together.
– In Maryland, Chair Mike Cryer reported how they dealt with the challenges of being a solidly blue state. Nearly one-fourth of the volunteer calls into battleground Virginia originated in Maryland. Maryland Democrats were able to identify and mobilize 230,000 volunteers, an immense number. He reported being able to ably define a role that Maryland could play in this election that contributed to the overall success of Democrats.
– Missouri Vice Chair Yolanda Wheat followed up on that. She had great words of thanks for the volunteers that poured into Missouri from places like Kansas, Oklahoma and Illinois, but wondered how those states handled the “brain drain” of volunteers working on races outside of their blue and red states.
– In Washington, they had a very tough, but successful, race for re-election of their governor, according to Chair Dwight Pelz. He said the Obama campaign helped by “semi-targeting” the state.

At this point, Governor Dean walked in the room and talked to the crowd. He certainly got the mood right when he began by saying, “Doesn’t it feel much better than it felt four years ago?” He took a number of questions, and lots of kudos for a successful term as DNC Chair from everybody. Even one-time cynics, such as the Chair from Delaware, gave him credit for a successful 50-state strategy and true partnership with the state parties. Many noted that his role in the 2008 wins has not been fully appreciated by the press or the pundits. He did take several questions, and was very frank — and, at times, funny — in his responses.

Once Governor Dean left, the topic remained on the 50-state (or, as the territories like to remind us, the 56-state) strategy. I think it is a universal sentiment among all of the state party chairs and vice chairs here this weekend that keeping that program in place for the next DNC chair is going to be critical.

DNC Secretary Alice Germond came into the meeting toward the middle of the meeting, and briefly thanked all of the state parties for their work in making the National Convention in Denver “the best convention I’ve ever seen” — and she’s been around since the mid-70s!

In addition to the 50-state strategy, the other major concern seems to be a desire to avoid a repeat of 1993 and 1994, where a Democratic victory in a Presidential year led to a huge backlash just two years later, and major legislative failures. I spent some time talking about that last night, and the New Hampshire Chair, Ray Buckley, also echoed the same thoughts today. We’re still trying to figure out how we do it, but one thing is clear: we have got to give President Obama as much support in his efforts to change America as we possibly can, and we have to do that in all 50 states.

Well, I’m headed off to the joint meeting of the DNC Executive Committee and the ASDC, which will take up all afternoon. There are a couple of receptions after that. So, if I don’t get to write about this afternoon later today, I’ll be sure to do it before I head out in the morning.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 12th, 2008 at 2:16 pm and is filed under DNC. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.