The Fifty State Strategy and the West
Democratic state party chairmen have been meeting in Teton Village, Wyoming in the wake of the elections, and the state chairmen praised Howard Dean’s fifty state strategy.
From the North County (San Diego County, CA) Times
Democratic Party luminaries back East who think it was a waste of money to beef up local organizations in places like Montana and Wyoming don't understand the gains the party can make in the West, state party directors said.From the Jackson Hole (WY) Star TribuneThe state party chairmen are firm believers in the 50-state strategy employed by Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, who took his victory tour to a weekend meeting in this Wyoming resort town of the state chairmen who elected him.
"We have been able to build our party around the state by creating Democratic organizations in every county in the state, for the first time in anyone's living memory," said Jim Farrell, executive director of the Montana Democratic Party
"I don't think Mr. Carville [a critic of the fifty state strategy] knows what he's talking about," said Richard Stallings, the Idaho party chairman. "Democrats haven't been winning on the kind of stuff Carville is talking about. The 50-state strategy is the future."The state chairmen and vice chairmen were key to Dean's successful campaign to become national chairman in 2005, giving him the votes he needed to trump critics from inside the Beltway, where he is not a favorite of the party's established powerbrokers.
The strategy worked, the state chairmen said, who hailed Democrats' victories not only in Congress, but in state legislatures and all the way down to county commissions.
"So when the James Carvilles of the world question the money given to state parties, I have to wonder why," said Mike Gierau, the Wyoming Democratic Party Chairman.
These are great articles, and I recommend reading them in their entirety. The Helena (MT) Independent Record and the Casper (WY) Star Tribune were among the papers carrying these stories. This matters in the West. This is not about personalities. It is about an important idea for the West and for the Democratic Party.
Leo Brown | November 21, 2006 | Comment on This Post (1 so far) |
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Comments
Hello,
This is a great article appearing in the Casper Star Tribune. I have said all along, here in Wyoming, the DNC money has made a difference. For at least a year, people here have been skeptical about the impact that this would make. Barbara Cubin would have lost had the Libertarian candidate not been in the race.
Trauner should have done a recount. The machines here in Wyoming obviously did not count every vote.
I hope the DNC will continue their 50 state strategy in the coming 2008 election cycle and send Wyoming even more money.
Daniel
Posted by: Daniel C. Cardenas Jr. | Nov 22, 2006 9:15:55 AM
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(and yes, we know that sometimes they're very, very wrong. Other times, they're right on.)
