(Not sure why this didn't show up on the front page, but this is a great piece on an impressive organization. - promoted by Matt Glazer)
The following is the latest, and most likely final article, in BOR's continuing series focusing on how Texas Democrats won this election cycle.
Every incumbent House Democrat won re-election. The Texas House will have six more Democrats at the start of the 80th Regular Session than it did at the start of the 79th Regular Session. And Texas Democrats did it all despite being considerably outspent in every single one of their competitive races.
How did this happen? We've looked at a few individual groups, including the Houston GLBT and their involvement with the Ellen Cohen campaign, the efforts in Dallas County, and the excellent work done by Annie's List. But who had the largest overall impact towards the success of Texas' House Democrats?
That answer, unequivocably, is the House Democratic Campaign Committee (HDCC). The HDCC is the leadership PAC run by House Democratic Leader Jim Dunnam of Waco, LSG Chair Garnet Coleman of Houston, and Mexican American Caucus Chair Pete Gallego of Alpine. What began in 2004 as a simple fundraising PAC expanded this last cycle into one of the most important Democratic organizations in Texas.
From high-dollar fundraising to grassroots efforts, and from hard-hitting direct mail pieces to daily phone calls with dozens of campaigns, the HDCC made it happen. Here's a brief look into what they did, how they did it, and what to expect in the future. |
| Looking Back: Texas Media Recognizes HDCC Efforts
Before we begin, I want to point to a few of my sources for this piece. The following are newspaper articles that discuss the victories House Democrats had across Texas. While they may not all specifically mention the HDCC, each article outlines the successes enjoyed by Texas Democrats.
Obviously, there are numerous other articles that have been written since the election, but these are a good sampling.
Fundraising: Early Investments Pay Off in the End
For Texas House races this election cycle, it was the quality of where the check went -- and not the quantity of the amount given -- that was the best barometer for who would win on Election Day.
The story about the money contributed and spent by the HDCC is the same story told by winning Democrats across Texas: raise money early, invest in an infrastructure early, use that infrastructure to build support and prove how effective you can be, and use that infrastructure to raise money to donate to campaigns and pay for GOTV efforts of all shapes and sizes.
One large piece of the GOTV efforts was the direct mail program that went through the HDCC. The mail pieces were specifically designed to mobilize base Democratic voters who supported not only Dem. State House candidates, but all other Democrats on the ballot. The program, which included two early voting pieces and two Election Day pieces, was funded through a smart combination of HDCC raised and Trust contributed funds. Every Democrat on the ballot benefitted from this effort.
Finally, no honest discussion about the HDCC can ignore its primary contributor, the Texas Democratic Trust. Without the investment of the Trust, the HDCC wouldn't have been able to hire such quality staffers -- Jerry Philips and Jeff Rotkoff -- and build such a successful infrastructure. The Trust paid for all of the salaries of the HDCC, allowing the money raised by the HDCC to be spent directly on campaigns, and not eaten up by overhead. Though the final reports aren't in, the HDCC raised and contributed several hundred thousand dollars to House candidates this cycle -- an impressive amount, to be sure.
HDCC Grassroots: A "Campaign Google" for Candidates
The HDCC infrastructure worked like a "campaign Google" for Texas House candidates. HDCC staffers spent countless hours each and every day on the phones with every candidate and campaign that would take their calls (or that called them). As one campaign staffer recently told me: Question about fundraising? Call HDCC.
Need help with your ethics reports? Call HDCC.
Need to organize an event for the campaign? Call HDCC.
Need assistance with a press hit? Call HDCC.
There was nothing you couldn't ask them. It was literally like having a campaign Google at your disposal, and having worked on numerous campaigns for the past decade, I can't begin to tell you how valuable that was. In this sense, the HDCC was a permanent grassroots infrastructure, working with every campaign that needed help with whatever they needed.
A Case Study of Success: Joe Heflin
Many of the prognosticators figured House Democrats would win, at best, two seats this last election cycle. The general consensus was something like this: - Pick-up seats with Pierson, Cohen, and Bolton
- Lose Speaker Laney's seat, and maybe Hopson
That was my general feel, too -- until I met with the HDCC. After meeting with them, I was convinced we could win four to six races, and made my BOR predictions as such. Turns out, they were right.
What did they know that we didn't? For one, the HDCC, along with the TDP and Speaker Laney, were some of the only people that believed Joe Heflin could defeat Republican Jim Landtroop. When money was tight towards the end, the HDCC donated money to keep Heflin on television in mid-October to counter Landtroop's massive media buy. Their donations were able to keep Heflin from going dark, and allowed Heflin to hit Landtroop hard for his support for vouchers, an issue that played strongly for Democrats in the rural West Texas district.
In addition, the HDCC regularly communicated with the Texas Democratic Party and groups like the Texas State Teachers Association about the Heflin race and other key races. TSTA produced targeted direct mail to go into the district, and the TDP donated an additional $15,000 to help with Heflin's television and placed field staff in the district. Ultimately, the work done by the staffs from these two offices were able to keep Heflin alive until the final weeks, when a $35,000 donation from Speaker Laney finally provided a closing kick to usher Heflin into office.
The HDCC's infrastructure and their working so closely with Heflin over the spring and summer months put them in an authoritative position to work with others and raise money for him at the end. Had that not happened, we would be looking at one less Democrat in the House. That's proof positive that investing early in a solid infrastructure can pay tremendous dividends in the end.
How We Won: The HDCC
I'm very proud of the work done by the House Democratic Campaign Committee, from the work done by Rep. Dunnam, Rep. Coleman, Rep. Gallego, and others, to everyone that worked with them this past election cycle. They showed that smart campaigns (Heflin) can defeat the wealthiest of campaigns (Landtroop), that idea-based campaigns (Farias) can trump sleazy campaigns (Antuna), that we can win in rural Texas (Hopson, Cook, Homer, McReynolds), in the most Republican parts of Texas (Garcia), and in Texas' growing suburban areas (Pierson, Cohen, Bolton, Vaught).
The HDCC showed how Democrats can win everywhere in Texas, and everyone that worked with them deserves a tremendous amount of credit. |
