How it Happened...the Democratic takeover was the product of real Party reform

Written by: Scott Goldstein on Nov 14, 2006 1:42 AM EST

There has been a lot of talk in the last couple of days about the macro factors that were at play in the midterm elections.  The Democratic takeover was certainly due in large part to discontent over the Iraq war and the culture of corruption in Washington, but it would be a mistake not to acknowledge the massive changes that have taken place in the Democratic Party over the last two years

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Almost two years ago Howard Dean took a stand that many in his own Party considered radical, that the Democratic Party should compete in all 50 states, in every single race from school board to the U.S. Senate.  Against a lot of internal resistance he forged ahead with his '50 state strategy’ and made heavy investments in state parties.  When he took over, the Democratic Party only had a real infrastructure in less than half of the 50 states, and just a year later, every single state had at least 4 full time Democratic staffers.  That investment, not only of money, but of confidence, boosted the Democratic effort around the country. 

For the first time in more than 30 years in some places, the Democrats went door to door asking Americans for their vote and presenting their plan for a New Direction for America.  What they found were thousand of Democrats in red areas who were afraid to say so because they didn’t know there were any other Democrats around!  Door by door stories came in of red state Americans welcoming Democratic Party volunteers with surprise, and relief.  In Mississippi Democrats had paid to print their own Kerry signs in 2004 because there was no real Party infrastructure and the campaign had given up on more than half of the country.  

There was an ongoing debate in the past year about allocation of resources.  Rahm Emmanuel at the DCCC and Chuck Schumer at the DSCC wanted to devote all of the party’s money and resources to the 2006 effort while Dean wanted to take the opportunity starting in an off-year (2005) to build up the state parties to ensure not just a majority in 2006, but in 2016.  The fight was fierce and confrontational at times, and in the end, deals were brokered. 

Dean reserved a significant amount of funds for the 2006 effort without sacrificing the Party building.  While the DCCC and DSCC were outdoing their Republican counterparts in fundraising, the DNC was still raising significantly less than the GOP.  At least that was the story from the insiders. 

What they forgot to consider was that when Dean went around the country raising money, he was very often raising money DIRECTLY for the State Parties instead of throwing it all to the DNC coffers and then redistributing it.  This meant the DNC total looked small in comparison to GOP fundraising, but in actuality they were making a far more worthy investments, and placing a great deal of confidence in local Democratic leaders. 

Even by the figures that the media kept citing, the DNC was still raising far more than it had under the previous DNC Chairman and setting records for off year fundraising.  All this amounted to Chairman Dean being revered and respected by the State Parties and despised inside Washington.  He was doing what he’s always been known for, giving power directly to the people.       

Within months, Dean’s 50-State Strategy began to produce real results.  On the ground, the newly hired organizers were building an infrastructure for the Democratic Party where we haven’t been active for a quarter century.  They reached out to Democrats who thought the Party had given up on them, brought in new voters, and started spreading our message to Independents and moderate Republicans.  And it paid off.  The Democrats started winning races at the local level all over America.  We won state legislature races in Mississippi and North Carolina, local races in Indiana and Utah, and laid the foundation for future victories. 

Along with getting out the Democratic message, the new Democratic staff set up a '50-State Turnout' operation to compete with the famous Republican 72 hour get out the vote machine.  And in the end the Democratic GOTV effort matched and in some placed surpassed that of the Republicans, and the results were clear. The Democrats swept to power in the House by an overwhelming vote, and they took the Senate by winning key races in Montana and Virginia (two places the 50 state strategy had placed a high premium on).  The highest Democratic turnout in 2006 was in South Dakota, further proving the Party has breathed new life into areas they have long been ignoring.  Amongst the Democratic pick-ups in the House of Representatives were 3 Democratic victories in Indiana, wins in Kentucky, North Carolina, Kansas, and Arizona.  The Democrats set the all time record for contesting a total of 425 out of 435 races.  The previous record was 418, set by the Republicans in 1994.    

The party was also able to coordinate their message for the first time.  Dean, Pelosi, Reid, Emmanuel, and Schumer were able to agree on a ‘6 for 06’ agenda for the Party including honest leadership, open government and real security including transition in Iraq, energy independence, economic Prosperity,  educational excellence, a Healthcare system that works for everyone, and retirement security.  Then they backed up each of those planks with very specific plans on each issue, including a plan for the first 100 hours of Democratic control including raising the minimum wage, cutting the interest rate on student loans, allowing seniors to negotiate for lower prescription drug costs, ethics legislation, and so on. 

At the time, the media had a narrative, “The Republicans may be incompetent, but the Democrats have no ideas.”  No matter how many agendas the Democratic Party released, no matter how many press conferences they held outlining specific policy proposals, the media would not report it…they already had their storyline.  While the media loves jumping on the Democrats for not having their own plan on Iraq, the political calculation made by the Party was exactly the right one.  If they had released a specific plan on Iraq, the attention would have turned to the faults of their plan as the Republicans and the mainstream media would have picked it apart.  But instead they were able to keep the attention on the failure of the Bush administration and the Republicans in executing this unpopular war.  If the attention stayed on Bush and Iraq, they knew they would win, and did exactly that.   

Apart from building a new 50-state infrastructure, building a bench of future Democratic candidates, and coordinating their message, the Party also managed to reform how they reach out to the LGBT community, Evangelicals (which worked as they picked up 1/3 of the Evangelical vote), and their base of African Americans and women more effectively.  There were significant reforms at almost every level of the Party (barring how they reach out to young voters, which will be a topic of a future editorial), and on Tuesday we saw the results of a new, more confident, more coordinated Democratic effort that has a real chance to secure a lasting majority.     

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Location: Washington , DC 20008