Fresh on the heels of his successful 50 state strategy, former Vermont Governor Howard Dean has today launched a nationwide drive to get grass-roots Americans activated to support real health care reform. Contrary to what the health insurance industry would have you believe, millions of Americans want and need the option to buy-in to Medicare-type insurance coverage because they can't get or can't afford private health insurance coverage. Dr. Dean clearly stated that without the Medicare option for any American, we won't have meaningful health care reform. Health insurance rates have escalated dramatically for years now, and many Americans who have lost long-held jobs, or whose medical history is not pure enough have found themselves unable to qualify for any comprehensive coverage or else they simply cannot afford the monthly premiums or the high deductibles.
As President Obama has stated many times, if you like your present health insurance policy, you can keep it. Neither The President nor Governor Dean are opposed to your right to keep your current insurance policy. But if you need a different choice-better coverage or a more affordable option, a Medicare-type policy provided by the Federal Government should be available for you and your family.
Tonight, I spent two or three minutes on-line at Dr. Howard Dean's new web site
www.standwithDrDean.com and I signed his petition to demand a public healthcare option like Medicare for any American who needs it. You can watch his video on-line and read the petition, but I hope for your sake that you will sign his petition and join thousands of Americans in demanding the option that will make health insurance affordable again for every working American. You don't have to contribute any money and you don't have to volunteer anything, but I hope you'll feel the same way I do...This is one of the most important issues facing Americans, even in this year of crisis upon crisis. I contributed to Dr. Dean's organization and I signed up to volunteer because I'm sick and tired of having my health and my family's health and my ten employee's health jeopardized by some insurance company's greed.
It's up to you! Do you deserve decent health coverage? Are you sick and tired of being jerked around by some faceless insurance company bureaucrat? Don't be fooled by the insurance lobby, this isn't about socialism, it's democracy in action! Step up, demand real reform! Demand a REAL CHOICE! Sign the petition!
There's no question it'll be hard to match Howard Dean's record as chairman of this party. His 50-state strategy was simple and powerful. The Obama campaign adopted it and the results speak for themselves.
The basic point-and the principle I'll carry with me as DNC Chair-is that everybody matters...
...You don't have to be a big donor for your donation to matter.
...You don't have to be an expert for your idea to matter.
...You don't have to be a full-time campaign worker for your effort to matter.
I will be true to that strategy-every state, every community, every person matters.
Together, we'll do some new things-because we can never rest on what worked yesterday. But we will never again as a party write off states or regions or people.
...
The 50 state strategy is now and forever what Democrats do.
If Kaine keeps his word, it appears that reports of the demise of the Fifty State Strategy were greatly exaggerated. Good news for Texas.
That's what Chris Bowers of OpenLeft says the DNC, under the new leadership of Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, is planning.
During the festivities here in D.C., I ran into a source close to the transition at the DNC who was able to provide an update on the new outlines of the DNC strategy, which does diverge from the current form of the fifty-state strategy in multiple ways:
Increasing Centralization: The shift in resources away from paid media and toward on the ground organizers will continue. However, these resources will be more directly controlled by the DNC itself, rather than by state parties. In other words, the SPP program where the DNC pays for organizers chosen by the state parties themselves is, as previously reported, done. Instead, the DNC will likely hire and assign organizers themselves. State party grants will also likely be transformed into more centrally directed expenditures by the DNC.
More swing state, less fifty-state: Many, if not most, states will have more resources spent on them during the next four years than during the previous four years. In addition to increasingly centralized control over how these resources are spent, there will also be a return to a swing-state focus for 2012. However, it is important to keep in mind that the Obama campaign's version of a swing state strategy was broader than either the Gore or Kerry incarnations.
In short, the DNC will be moving away from the long-term, decentralized, fifty-state strategy of Howard Dean's tenure, and toward serving as a short-term, centralized re-election effort for President Obama in 2012. It will continue the move away from paid media ushered in by Howard Dean, maintain or increase the amount of resource expenditures in most states, and the number of states it targets will be a broader effort than the narrow focus we saw in 2001-2004 (but more narrow than 2005-2008). However, it will return to the traditional role of the DNC as a supplement for the sitting President's re-election campaign, rather than as the long-term, localized institution building operation that is was from 2005-2008.
The fifty-state strategy of 2005-2008 is going to be replaced with the "re-elect President Obama" strategy of 2009-2012. Both have their advantages, but I still consider firing the 200 state party organizers a real blow to the long-term development of local Democratic Party talent and infrastructure.
Obviously planning for the re-election of President Obama is important, but investing in an aggressive Fifty State Strategy like the one Howard Dean has implemented is an investment towards Democratic victories in 2010, 2012, and beyond.
Some of us had reservations when the Obama campaign moved volunteers out of Texas, but overall I think the Obama team really understood the upside of the Fifty State Strategy. Unlike the 2004 campaign of John Kerry, Obama's campaign seemed to get "it."
The change in attitude that came to the DNC with Dean's January 2005 election helped Obama win in places like North Carolina, Virginia, and Indiana.
Since Dean took over at the DNC, Democrats have won U.S. Senate and House races in many areas not traditionally friendly to Democrats. As Gov. Dean said on Morning Joe yesterday, the 2006 elections, which included Democratic Senate pickups in Montana, Virginia, Missouri and Ohio, "gave our strategy credibility."
So what exactly happened to justifty getting rid of the 50 State Strategy?
It is unclear of course what influence, if any, Emanuel (who I still believe is a great pick for CoS) had in killing the strategy of Dean. The two had many disagreements over 50 state vs. swing state issues when Emanuel served as Chairman of the DCCC.
It is not all gloom and doom though. Bowers makes a good point that Obama's swing state strategy is significantly broader than that of Gore or Kerry.
If Texas Democrats can continue to make progress and win a few statewide offices in 2010, perhaps there is a chance we can end up on the swing state list. If we do, there will be a lot of people to thank. Howard Dean will be one of them.
There is little doubt that Howard Dean's Fifty State Strategy helped Democrats make gains across the nation this year.
Even Republicans agree and now one Republican may be ready to try to emulate the strategy that some once laughed at.
Chip Saltsman, who was Mike Huckabee's campaign manager, is now running for Chairman of the RNC and recently had this to say, from Politico:
If there is one area Democrats out-worked Republicans over the past four years, it is expanding their voting bloc. Many scoffed at Howard Dean’s “Fifty State Strategy,” including other Democrats. But the fact remains that his party became more competitive in more places over the past two election cycles. In 2006, Democrats won House and Senate seats in traditional Republican territory. Two years later, Obama won nine states President Bush carried in 2004, and, in almost half of those states, Obama ran ahead of the national vote. The Republican nominee did not win any state John Kerry won in 2004.
As Howard Dean prepares to leave the DNC, we should all remember the success of the Fifty State Strategy and the positive benefits we will see for years to come from this change of attitude at the DNC.
The Huffington Post is reporting that Governor Howard Dean will step down as Democratic National Committee Chairman after serving just one term.
Dean, who has been serving in the post since 2005, has said in the past that he would serve only one term, though his successful work with the Obama campaign had led some Democrats to wonder whether he would stay on into the next administration. This won't be the case, officials at the DNC confirm. He will serve as chair until his term ends in January. The party will settle on a new head when it hosts a meeting during the week of Obama's inauguration.
The Huff Post is also reporting a name being floated around as a possible Dean replacement is one of the president-elect's closest allies: Claire McCaskill, the junior Senator from Missouri and a national co-chair of the Obama campaign.
The key for states like Texas will be if the next chair will remain committed to the 50 State Strategy. It has absolutely relieved the burden on local and regional organizations to help organize 254 counties and helped turn Texas blue.
Going into a redistricting year, regardless of who chairs the party infrastructure, we need national support to protect big gains in red and purple states.
With Howard Dean set the leave the DNC after a successful four-year term in January, the next Chair will have an important decision to make: whether to continue the "Fifty State Strategy" that Dean put in place beginning in 2005.
Firedoglake is reporting that many of the DNC state organizers -- of which Texas has three, according to the TDP website -- will be let go at the end of the month.
For those of us who have advocated for the 50-state strategy, this is not good news.
My hope is that the next DNC Chair believes that Democrats should compete in every community in America. The next chair will presumably be hand-picked by Obama and, while I haven't heard many names thrown around yet, I think Obama would be wise to consider David Plouffe, his campaign manager.
Plouffe seems to understand the importance of expanding the map for Democrats. He would make a great chairman.
Of course, as Firedoglake points out, the new Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is a long time opponent of the Fifty State Strategy. What effect, if any, he will have on the DNC remains to be seen.
Who do you want to be the next DNC Chair?
Update: According to Marc Ambinder, David Plouffe has said he is not under consideration for DNC Chair.
The Democratic National Committee is waging a last minute injection of as much as $20 million into state legislative races in key states, hoping to take advantage of Democratic momentum this cycle.
A senior Democrat familiar with the conversations said: "We are looking at options, races, where we can be helpful, as we did in 2006. This is the time when some races pop."
State legislatures are key to the long term success of the national Democratic Party. With redistricting on the horizon getting control of state legislatures in key states is increasingly critical. Perhaps that is why the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee sounds like they are targeting Ohio, Wisconsin, Delaware and the Texas House.
This possible infusion of millions of dollars falls in line with Howard Dean's 50 state strategy.
DNC chairman Howard Dean has made it a priority to help Democrats win down the ballot, so that if Obama wins the presidency, Democrats will have a larger majority in Congress. But with states planning to redistrict their congressional boundaries in 2012, control of state legislative chambers is all the more important, people close to Dean said.
Wells Dunbar took the City Hall out of City Hall Hustle this week. Wells recaps the highlights of the convention and the low lights of local bloggers (Wells got me on tape after one too many...).
Check out the Chronicle and the videos of your favorite candidates and elected officials below the fold!
On this week's episode of Who's Blue, our guest is Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee. We discuss his political career, the role of the netroots and new media in future electoral cycles, and some DNC strategy for 2008. A partial transcript of our discussion can be found after the jump.
I love transformational politics. But sometimes you have to take transitional to get there. I'm glad to see things like this move in the right direction. Plus it's just really cool sounding.
Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean said Thursday the days of the $60 million political convention coronations are numbered and he's studying ways to make them more relevant to average people.
Dean said politicians need to find more ways to connect with voters, going door to door, instead of depending on television to deliver their messages. He said next year's convention in Denver will be different.
"We've got to change the way we do conventions in this country. I'm looking to try to make this a transitional convention, in the sense that the day of the $50-$60 million convention is coming to a close. The day of one-way campaigns where we do everything on television, and we don't listen to people before, is coming to a close. We need to be knocking on doors, talking to them directly, asking their opinions," Dean said during an interview on the Aaron Harber show on KDBI-TV.
