“Efforts on local level strengthening party, winning over skeptics—ALBUQUERQUE — When Howard Dean took over as chairman of the Democratic National Committee last February, the selection of the man known for ”the scream” sent chills down the spines of many Democrats in Southern and Western states, where a Dean-injected dose of East Coast liberalism carried the risk of dooming the party for years.
But a year after the crusading former Vermont governor took over the DNC, the party has reacted in some surprising ways. It’s the East Coast liberals who are grumbling about Dean’s talk-show gaffes and staring at the DNC’s near-empty coffers with dismay.
Meanwhile, many Dean skeptics in state Democratic parties — especially in places like New Mexico, a swing state that voted Republican in the last presidential race — have been won over. The reason is the millions of dollars Dean has spent rebuilding Democratic organizations in places that haven’t seen a coordinated Democratic effort in a long time.
It’s a high-risk strategy: Democrats have historically done this kind of grass-roots organizing only in the voter-rich big cities, and right before Election Day. Building the party in rural areas involves spending precious resources long before voters go to the polls.
But as Dean’s mini-army of more than 150 DNC-paid operatives have fanned out across the country, many rural and conservative-leaning Democrats are nodding with approval.
”I’ve never really been a Dean guy,” said John Wertheim, chairman of the New Mexico Democratic Party. ”But I’ve really bought into his program. Is it risky? Sure. But I think it’s a darn good investment.”
In Albuquerque, four energetic young staff members — trained by and drawing paychecks from the DNC — have divvied up the map of New Mexico, a state that was more closely divided than Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004.
From a cluttered warren of offices tucked into a strip mall, the DNC’s new employees are building voter lists, organizing county-level Democratic caucuses, and installing precinct chairmen in rural portions of the state that have voted overwhelmingly Republican in national campaigns.
Though the DNC’s fund-raising was up 20 percent last year over 2003 — the last year that didn’t have congressional elections — the party has brought in far less than the Republican National Committee.
Ken Mehlman, RNC chairman, has already begun amassing a war chest for use in 2006 and 2008 — it stands at $38.9 million so far — even as Dean sends huge sums to many states where Democratic prospects appear to be bleak for the foreseeable future.
The funding gap has provoked private grumbling from some Democrats, who would rather see the national party save its resources for the presidential campaign and targeted state races. And some are skeptical about the party’s ability to build comprehensive voter lists; The Washington Post reported that a group of high-profile Democrats — led by Harold Ickes, a former top aide to President Clinton — is starting a private firm that will essentially compete with the DNC’s efforts by building a voter database that can be sold to Democratic candidates.
But Dean has made clear that his goal is to rival the grass-roots juggernaut that Republicans have built in recent years. In 2004, White House political adviser Karl Rove was able to bring together some 1.2 million volunteers for the president’s campaign push, an effort some credit with securing Bush a second term.
”We weren’t everywhere, and we weren’t in the rural areas,” Dean said in an interview. ”You can’t win the presidency unless you pay attention to the school board and the city council and the mayor’s race.”
Dean promised just such a program last year, helping him win the votes of state party officials who otherwise had their doubts. Now, the money that’s flowing to the states has erased those doubts, virtually ensuring that he’ll stay in his job no matter how much some in Washington tire of him.
”When we first met Howard Dean, we thought he’d be a nut,” said Nick Casey, West Virginia’s party chairman. ”But that’s not the guy who’s been delivering the goods, and he has been delivering to us.”
Casey’s state party has doubled its number of precinct chairmen and is halfway to its goal of having one in each of West Virginia’s more than 1,900 voting precincts. The three new staff members sent by the DNC have given the state party more than twice its previous manpower.
Party chairmen across the nation tell similar stories. In Ohio, the five people being paid by the DNC have helped set up ”Victory Squads” — teams of about 10 Democrats who are eager to knock on doors or set up lawn signs — in 65 rural counties where Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry fared poorly in 2004.
Mississippi’s Democratic Party has established an infrastructure in 10 counties where the organization had atrophied. The DNC has sent resources to hire five full-time workers — up from just a single part-timer previously — helping Democrats secure victories in five special legislative elections over the past year, party chairman Wayne Dowdy said.
State parties are generally used to this kind of attention from the DNC only in the six months or so before a presidential election, and then only if they’re among the small group of states that are considered in play.
In 2004, as in other recent presidential years, the DNC under then-chairman Terry McAuliffe saved most of its cash to help the nominee with television ads and paid operatives.
But by the time teams from the national Democratic party showed up in swing states like New Mexico and Ohio in the summer, they found state parties that were too cash-strapped to have reliable voter lists. And many of the new arrivals had no clue about the states they were sent to.
In New Mexico, the Kerry campaign sent thousands of volunteers into urban areas. Kerry won big in the cities, as expected. But Democrats watched in vain as thousands of Bush volunteers streamed over the Texas border into eastern New Mexico. Bush won the state by nearly 6,000 votes. The pattern was repeated in other closely divided states, such as Ohio and Nevada.
Dean’s efforts are aimed at making sure that doesn’t happen again. Though he insists that the party will be able to raise plenty of money for the presidential race as 2008 draws closer, Dean said building the infrastructure is the party’s top objective.
”No matter how effective this effort ultimately is, it’s going to be judged in the results of 2006,” said Chris Lehane, a Democratic strategist.
The four fresh-faced DNC workers who began working in New Mexico in October are concentrating on 2006, even as they dream of a Democratic majority in 2020.
Said Jenny Garcia, Democratic chairwoman for Colfax County, ”We’re letting the community know, we do have a Democratic Party here.”
-from Rick Klein’s story in the Boston Globe.
I met Rick Klein in Iowa in 2004. He didn’t seem too impressed with Dean then, but I think he has been “won over,” too. Thanks to Lynn Allen for scooping /tipping me on this article.