Supporters
10 Senators call for Denver Convention
The campaign to put the 2008 Democratic Convention in Denver is picking up steam. From the AP:
As the head of the Democratic Party moves closer to choosing the site of the 2008 convention, 10 senators and senators-elect from the western half of the nation said the Mile High City is a natural choice. ...The letter noted that since 2002, Democrats have won GOP-held governorships in Montana, Kansas, Wyoming, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado. Last month, Democrats also picked up a Republican-held Senate seat in Montana and GOP-held House seats in Colorado and Arizona.
“In 2008, our presidential nominee will have, for the first time in many years, an excellent chance of winning several Western states, which would secure enough key Electoral College votes to restore our leadership in the White House,” the letter said. “In short, the West is the Democratic Party's new frontier.” ...
Signing the letter were Sens. Harry Reid of Nevada, the incoming Senate majority leader; Ken Salazar of Colorado; Max Baucus and Sen.-elect Jon Tester of Montana; Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico; Byron Dorgan and Kent Conrad of North Dakota; Maria Cantwell of Washington; Tim Johnson of South Dakota; and Ben Nelson of Nebraska.
Keep up the pressure, folks.
Kari Chisholm | December 8, 2006 | Comment on This Post (1 so far) |
Now is the time
Being a good citizen and an informed voter is always in season, but as the 2006 campaign is in its final two months, now is the time to get involved, or if you are already involved, to step up the pace.
Now is the time to make sure you are registered to vote, that your family is registered to vote, that your extended family is registered to vote, and that your friends are registered to vote. If you can spare the time, you can participate in voter registration drives. Most states allow registration up to about a month before election day. Check on your state here. We are a mobile society, and if you’ve moved, be sure to update your registration.
Now is the time to make a financial contribution to the candidate(s) of your choice. You can go to the candidate’s website, a state party website, the DSCC website, the DCCC website, the DNC website, the site of your favorite PAC or political blog, etc. The GOP has signaled they will be running a lot of negative ads. Answering those ads with a positive vision will take real money.
Now is the time to volunteer for a campaign. You can volunteer for a local campaign or a more distant one either by commuting to a neighboring district in some urban and suburban areas or by an electronic commute in the vast distances of the West. The websites that accept contributions can often suggest ways to volunteer.
Leo Brown | September 13, 2006 | Comment on This Post (1 so far) |
DLC report argues for the West
As we've been arguing here at WesternDemocrat, it's critical to change the political map. If we continue to rely on the solid Northeast, the solid West Coast, and the 18 or so swing states, Democrats will continue to lose at the national level.
The DLC has just released a new report that argues the same:
We believe it is important that Democrats look at the country as it is, and as it is likely to be, and dedicate themselves to an effort to expand their ranks into what has previously been considered "enemy territory."
From the report itself, the Ken Salazar win in Colorado is "success story #1":
Centrist Attorney General Ken Salazar of Colorado took away a Republican Senate seat in 2004, winning 52.4 percent of the vote against GOP nominee Pete Coors, even as John Kerry, in a performance that exceeded Al Gore’s, won just 47.6 percent of the vote.Salazar’s win was clearly not attributable to better performance in Democratic base areas.
His total vote exceeded Kerry’s by 79,456; the two big Democratic base counties, Denver and Boulder, contributed only 4,362 votes to that margin. Heavily Republican and incredibly fast-growing Douglas County, with 39 percent VAP growth from 2000 to 2004, alone contributed 5,764 votes.
Appendix 2 divides Colorado’s counties into five groups based on VAP growth rates between 2000 and 2004. The first quintile (11 percent VAP growth) produced 46,832 more votes for Salazar than Kerry, well over one-half of his statewide margin. The second quintile produced another 17,371 votes. In percentage terms, the same picture is evident. In large Colorado counties, Salazar’s percentage of the vote exceeded Kerry’s by 2.7 percent in Democratic counties, by 5.3 percent in marginal counties, and by 4.2 percent in Republican counties. In smaller counties, he improved on Kerry’s vote by 3.6 percent in Democratic counties, by 5.8 percent in marginal counties, and by 8.3 percent in Republican counties.
Ken Salazar’s advantage over Kerry in large Republican and marginal counties was really the difference, since together they gained 169,000 in VAP, even as large Democratic counties lost 20,000 in VAP.
Salazar’s campaign placed special emphasis on his law enforcement experience, his national security views, and his mainstream cultural values, helping him address several persistent voter concerns about the Democratic Party. This strategy paid off in significantly lower Republican margins in fast-growing counties.
Kari Chisholm | May 26, 2006 | Comment on This Post (0 so far) |
PPI on "Winning the West"
If you've read this blog for more than a few months, many of these themes covered in the Progresive Policy Institute's "Winning the West" report are familiar to you. But, it is good to know that our message is being heard back east:
If more progressives weave these themes nto their vision for the West, if theydemonstrate that they really understand core Western values, then more electoral victories are sure to follow. As other progressives have already shown, they need to stand for sensible development of Western natural resources that respects local values, meets straightforward economic and environmental tests, and protects the interests of future generations. If they do, they will expose the false promise of conservative calls for unbridled resource exploitation and at the same time gain a hearing for their broader agenda of health care, education, jobs, and other quality-of-life issues.
Read the entire report here (pdf file)
Watch a talk by former deputy secretary of the Interior David J. Hayes on the report.
Emmett O'Connell | April 15, 2006 | Comment on This Post (0 so far) |
ActBlue is coming West and interesting races
An important follow up on a recent post. Actblue, the website that lets you contribute directly to your favorite candidate decided to come down to the state level, and Montana is one of the states that was voted for their initial effort. I would have liked to see more Western states, but with the important races in Montana next year, I can't complain.
Also, speaking of important races, Swing State Project recently had a discussion about what races people were paying closest attention to. A lot of Virginia gubernatorial people, and I was surprised by how many folks were enthralled with Northeast races. There were though, some interesting races out West, including Rep. Pombo (R CA-11), the Oregon gubernatorial race, and Jay Fawcett in the CO-4.
In addition to Fawcett, I would have added Larry Grant in the open seat in the ID-1.
Emmett O'Connell | October 22, 2005 | Comment on This Post (4 so far) |
Bring ActBlue West
ActBlue, one of the best ideas since there have been good ideas, is expanding down to statewide and state legislative races. The only thing they need is help navigating through 50 different campaign finance systems. They've already figured out Virginia, and good for them for not picking a Big Blue East state first.
But, it would be safe to assume that their next obvious choice would be something like New York or Massachusetts, unless we convince them otherwise. The West needs ActBlue more than any other region. ActBlue has already helped insurgent candidates (Paul Hackett) and there isn't a region were insurgents can do more in a short period of time than in the West.
From their post on MyDD:
The PlanWe're starting to navigate the campaign finance landscape in each state, and we've got a fantastic group of volunteers helping us gather information on candidates across the country. (We could always use more, by the way — check out our directory of state candidates and let us know who we're missing.)
The most challenging part is the legal side of getting our fundraising operations going -- the staff time and lawyers, Lawyers, LAWYERS, LAWYERS required to do this right are going to cost on average $10,000 per state, at least for the first set of states we take on.
So we're asking: can you help make it happen?
We're going to take an approach just like Howard Dean's 50-state strategy: with the help of this discussion we'll choose a small set of states to start with. If the fundraising there goes well, we'll add more!
Please chime in below with your thoughts on priority states, and thanks for all you do to make the Democratic difference.
I'd be remiss not to mention this: just like we have a directory of candidates, we also have a directory of our fundraising drives for all the states. So if you're hankering to support a state RIGHT NOW, you can do so here.
Swing State Project: ActBlue Expanding to State Races
Washblog: Help bring ActBlue to Washington State
Emmett O'Connell | September 22, 2005 | Comment on This Post (0 so far) |
PACs, Frontier and otherwise
A new political action committee, Frontier Pac, has launced with the mission "to draw the brightest possible contrast between Frontier Democrats and corrupt Washington Republicans." Sweet.
Frontier PAC isn't the first committee to address Western Democrats directly, that honor would go, as far as I know, to Democrats for the West. The difference being the refreshing part Frontier's take, that they to have staked out some actual policy issues, beyond party building in the West: "Energy Independence," "Abortion: Ideology or Results?" "Wal Mart and The Living Wage," and "Civil Liberties and the Individual."
The economic populism of their Wal-Mart position would make David Sirota of Montana smile.
Even more specific is Third Degree PAC, which is out to oust open target of the West, Conrad Burns.
Emmett O'Connell | April 11, 2005 | Comment on This Post (1 so far) |
Reid's response rocked
Harry Reid (NV) and Nancy Pelosi (CA) did a much better job than last years responder. Who was that? While Gary's was a somewhat flat, meaningless message from the West Coast mostly focusing on the domestic side of the war on terrorism, Harry and Nancy, the leadership from West of the 100th Meridian, actually seem like they were ready to fight for something.
I was especially pleased with Reid. I won't say that was one of the best speeches I've ever heard, but it was definitely a breath of fresh air compared to what we've grown to expect. It its tone, I would even say it was Clinton-esque.
Are we willing to do right by our parents and care for our children? Do we believe that big corporations with powerful lobbyists should get special favors and that the wealthiest should get special tax breaks? Or do we believe we are all God's children and that each of us should get a fair shot and each of us deserves a say in our future? Will we be able to tell young people like Devon back in Searchlight that America is still the land of the open road and that you can travel that open road to the place of your choice?
This was my favorite section of the response, when he brought God into the fight. But, at the same time, he didn't bring God in the way a lot of Southern conservatives do, he brought God in the way Western Democrats do.
Instead of pounding down from above, demanding obedience to God's law, Reid asked "aren't we all God's children," meaning, "aren't we all equal?" Doing that is a more honest and open way of bringing religious values into the political arena.
That was good, and that's the difference between Western Dems and the rest.
Emmett O'Connell | February 3, 2005 | Comment on This Post (0 so far) |
Democrats Score in the Rockies
From John Nichols, writing in The Nation, come these excellent thoughts:
Western Democrats tended to abandon the national party's template and focus on local issues, they relied far more heavily on volunteers than paid staff and they worked much, much harder--and with considerable success--to attract rural voters. ...
If there is a single lesson that Democrats and their activist allies need to learn after what was for the most part a 2004 electoral debacle, it is that rural America is still winnable. And they can start by looking west.
Nichols does an excellent job of recapping many of the positive outcomes in 2004 - as well as drawing common threads of campaign strategy among the winning Western Democrat campaigns. Read the rest of Democrats Score in the Rockies.
Kari Chisholm | November 23, 2004 | Comment on This Post (0 so far) |
"Let us look west"
From the Oregonian:
Let's face it: For all of his strengths, average middle-class American families simply couldn't identify with John Kerry. He may be a decorated veteran and an extreme-sports athlete, but he and Teresa always came across as prep-school liberals, part of the brie-and-chablis scene back East.Conversely, George "Dubya" Bush has portrayed a regular-guy image, comfortable with the NASCAR-and-barbecue crowd. While Kerry tried to fake it with L.L. Bean camouflage hunting gear, Bush looked at home in his blue jeans and cowboy boots.
....Can a Western Democratic Party succeed? Absolutely. If the 29 electoral votes in Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada had swung from red to blue, John Kerry would have won 281 to 257. And in all 50 states, a Western candidate would signal a fresh start.
While it's perhaps too early to start naming names of possible presidential candidates, we might pay attention to the lessons learned from the politics practiced by Gov.-elect Brian Schweitzer of Montana, Sen.-elect Ken Salazar of Colorado, California Insurance Commissioner (and possible gubernatorial hopeful) John Garamendi, U.S. Rep. Mark Udall of Colorado and former Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber, who represented Douglas County timber country before being elected statewide.
Amen brother.
Update: My comment on BlueOregon.com:
I woke up the day after election day convinced that only a Western Democrat, a Brian Schweitzer or Ken Salazar, could bring us back to the White House. Unfortunately, I think Zell Miller is correct, we have lost the South for the time being, but as Schweitzer, Salazar and several other Western Dems have proven, we can win from the West.I think Bill Richardson, a governor, former Clinton appointee and someone with foreign policy experience, seems to be the natural leader if we're talking about Presidential candidates from the West.
Emmett O'Connell | November 17, 2004 | Comment on This Post (0 so far) |
Let us look West, Democrats
This editorial was originally published in the Oregonian newspaper on November 17, 2004. The response to the editorial motivated the author, Kari Chisholm, to found WesternDemocrat.com.
Since the election, Democrats have been seized with recriminations and re-evaluations. Some argue that the party should move left to energize its base, while others argue that the party should move right to capture GOP turf. Some point to "moral values" and call for more overtly religious candidates, while others point to former Presidents Carter and Clinton and make the case for a return to the Deep South.
But there's another viable road ahead for disappointed Democrats.
Let us look west.
With the emergence of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada as swing states (all narrowly won by George W. Bush), the Democrats should look to become a Western party. Even in Montana, a state that Bush captured by 20 points, the Democrats have now captured the state Senate, the governorship and four of five statewide elected positions.
It would be a mistake for partisans to learn the wrong lessons from 2004. When polled on issues, Americans consistently agree with the Democrats on health care, the environment, taxes, the minimum wage, foreign trade and even national security.
Some have argued that Democrats should surrender on the culture-war topics of guns, gays and God. But more Americans agree than disagree that reasonable and limited gun controls make sense, and society's views on gay rights are rapidly changing. (Even Bush supports civil unions now.)
So winning is not about the issues and it's not about moral values. So what is it about?
Let's face it: For all of his strengths, average middle-class American families simply couldn't identify with John Kerry. He may be a decorated veteran and an extreme-sports athlete, but he and Teresa always came across as prep-school liberals, part of the brie-and-chablis scene back East.
Conversely, George "Dubya" Bush has portrayed a regular-guy image, comfortable with the NASCAR-and-barbecue crowd. While Kerry tried to fake it with L.L. Bean camouflage hunting gear, Bush looked at home in his blue jeans and cowboy boots.
The Democrats have simply failed to connect with average Americans. Yes, it's true, finding a good ol' Southern boy to lead the party might bring back the glory days, but it's almost impossible to find a Southern Democrat with presidential stature anymore. (With the possible exception of John Edwards.)
Let us look west. In the mountains and ranchlands of the West, there are Democrats who understand real America. Out here, far from the nation's capital, there are Democrats who understand skepticism of the federal government. Out here, Americans will find Democrats comfortable in jeans and boots. In the West, we can find Democrats able to speak plainly in the language of real America.
Can a Western Democratic Party succeed? Absolutely. If the 29 electoral votes in Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada had swung from red to blue, John Kerry would have won 281 to 257. And in all 50 states, a Western candidate would signal a fresh start.
While it's perhaps too early to start naming names of possible presidential candidates, we might pay attention to the lessons learned from the politics practiced by Gov.-elect Brian Schweitzer of Montana, Sen.-elect Ken Salazar of Colorado, California Insurance Commissioner (and possible gubernatorial hopeful) John Garamendi, U.S. Rep. Mark Udall of Colorado and former Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber, who represented Douglas County timber country before being elected statewide.
Reclaiming a majority is not about turning South, or preaching the Gospel, or moving left or moving right. It's about reconnecting on a gut-level with middle America.
Let us look west.
Kari Chisholm | November 17, 2004 | Comment on This Post (14 so far) |
There is an organization that supports my goals
The new organization, composed of Democratic stalwarts such as Stewart Udall, Cecil Andrus and Mike Sullivan, rising stars, and party activists, brings together Democrats from across the region to build long-term governing majorities throughout the West – one of the nation’s fastest-growing regions.
"The values of the West are the same values of the Democratic Party," said former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb. "As Democrats, we will not abdicate the West by default to the Republican Party."
The group, created with help from state Democratic parties, will unite Democrats across state lines, add value to state party efforts, and share ideas and resources.
The nine states represented in the new regional endeavor include Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.
"Democrats have made significant gains recently in the West," said Cecil Andrus, former governor of Idaho and Secretary of the Interior. "We believe our region deserves leadership that provides hope and opportunity for all westerners."
Drawing from a rich history of Democratic leadership, Democrats for the West is focusing on common western challenges and opportunities, including:
- Strengthening the economy of the West and its communities
- Managing urban growth and enhancing the livability of western cities and towns
- Addressing federal mandates, such as No Child Left Behind, that are hurting western communities
- Addressing Indian, Hispanic and other minority concerns
- Improving access to public lands for hunting and fishing
- Resolving natural resource conflicts, including water use and conservation and energy development
Emmett O'Connell | November 4, 2004 | Comment on This Post (0 so far) |
On "Democrats need to connect with heartland" by Nicholas D. Kristof
This guy isn't totally right, but he's on the right track. There are Dems in the West that are very "competitive in the heartland." We just need to listen to those guys.
"The Republicans are smarter," mused Oregon's governor, Ted Kulongoski, a Democrat. "They've created ... these social issues to get the public to stop looking at what's happening to them economically.""What we once thought -- that people would vote in their economic self-interest -- is not true, and we Democrats haven't figured out how to deal with that."
Emmett O'Connell | November 4, 2004 | Comment on This Post (0 so far) |
