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

One of the critical parts of being a successful party leader, I think, is the ability to recognize that there are ideas out there that you haven’t seen or thought of that just might work.  (Conversely, some of the party leaders that I think have the most problems are those who are unwelcoming to any kind of change.)  Pat and I get to attend a number of meetings and trainings, but easily the most helpful to us have been these ASDC meetings like the one we just concluded here in San Diego.

This morning, we spent several hours discussing many issues — and a key topic was how things will change now that we have control of the White House.

We began with several pieces of standard business — approving minutes, adopting a treasurer’s report, etc.  But we soon moved into a much bigger discussion of the national voter file and how we can work to make the voter file work better for us in 2010 and 2012.  We heard from DNC Technology Director Ben Self, DNC Voter File Director Katie Allen, Obama For America Technology Director Michael Slaby, and Keith Goodwin, who developed the “neighbor to neighbor” tool used by the DNC and OFA this year. 

In the end, there was a universal sentiment that while the voter file worked better than ever in 2008, there are still significant areas identified where changes can, and should, be made. 

We then heard from a couple of more veteran state party leaders about what the transition to a new DNC will look like.  As many of you know, when we have the White House, the President essentially gets to select the DNC Chair (Governor Howard Dean has indicated he does not intend to seek a second term).  But on the flip side, the DNC is responsible for all of the political costs of the White House, including all political travel costs, which are pretty large. 

These folks — New Hampshire Chair Ray Buckley (who apparently occasionally reads DemNotes) and South Carolina Executive Director (and former Oklahoma Chair, and former college classmate of mine) Jay Parmley — talked about exactly how that transition will work, and the complications of dealing with a White House political office where we have normally been used to dealing with the DNC political office only.  It was an incredibly informative and interesting discussion, and probably the most lively discussion of the day.  They were later joined by David Strauss, who was the Deputy Chief of Staff for Vice President Al Gore.  Strauss also talked about some tips to make life easier for the state parties in dealing with the White House.

After some discussion of new fundraising techniques that should help us raise a bit more money for 2010, we had a very interesting — and Colorado-based — presentation from the co-founder of Democrats Work, Thomas Bates.  His presentation did quite a bit to prove to the chairs and vice chairs that establishing a community service component to our field plan is actually a good move, politically.  His proof included a detailed case study of work that the group did this year in Arapahoe County, and was very compelling.  I didn’t know the extent of Democrats Work’s efforts in Colorado, but I’ve got to tell you, I’m incredibly convinced that we can win more elections in Colorado if we put together a community service component in place properly. 

The family and I are headed back to Colorado tomorrow afternoon.  But I feel like I’m a lot more informed about what we can do in Colorado — as I am after every ASDC meeting — than when I arrived here in San Diego.

See you soon!

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 13th, 2008 at 4:02 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.