Build Florida's DECs

Who's On Your Email List?

2007-11-02T12:58:00.000-05:00

... almost 80% of the over 50 age group does not respond to email marketing, preferring to use email to communicate with friends.... However ... 36% of this age group are happy to communicate with brands online once initial contact has been made using other media.

Most donors (by a large margin) are over 50.

This is why it's critically important to segment your lists, whether they be email or direct mail, not everyone responds to the same stimulus.

For DECs, who have memberships largely over age 50, it's important to realize that pushing fundraising via your email lists isn't always the exact way to go. People have to be slowly but surely persuaded. My suggestion is to use your email list to send informational emails (like newsletters and event signups) to get your constituencies to recognize the value of opening that message from the local DEC. Over time, you'll develop the loyalty that's required to finally send a fundraising email.

Nassau County Wins First Annual Netroots Award

2007-10-29T19:55:00.000-05:00

Nassau County Democratic Party Wins
First Annual Netroots Award for Best Local Party Website.

Official ballot for the Florida Netroots Awards.

2007-10-24T20:11:00.000-05:00

Official ballot for the Netroots Awards.

Candidates for Best Local Party Website:

* Nassau Democratic Party
* East Hillsborough Democratic Club
* Marion County

When DECs Get It Right

2007-09-12T23:32:00.000-05:00

Most of my life, I've had a pretty negative opinion of DECs. The image I had -- based on some evidence, but probably not enough -- was that they were simply a collection of entrenched good old boys who cared more about their own fiefdom than actually winning elections or changing society for the better. The more I get involved in politics, the less accurate I find this stereotype to be. For example, I've recently joined the Leon County DEC because I really, really like what they've been doing. A lot of people are contributing to the success of the Leon Democrats, but as people from commissioners John Dailey and Andrew Gillum to Congressman Allen Boyd to Senator Barack Obama has publicly said, the key to the great things happening in Tallahassee is Chair Rick Minor. Here's what is going on under his supervision:

1. 2006 elections were a rousing success in Tallahassee. If I remember correctly, no Republican defeated any Democrat in local elections. Most of the statewide elections were significantly more in favor of the Democratic candidate than the Republican.

2. Barack Obama appeared at the annual Collins-Steele fundraiser. Again, correct me if I'm wrong, but Obama only appeared at two fund-raising events in Florida -- Tallahassee and Miami. Miami is much more of a swing district has a lot more donors for presidential campaigns and has a lot more voters. And yet we got Obama too. And he helped Leon Dems raise a whole heck of a lot of money -- Enough money to impress even Ray Seaman. ;)

3. The DEC is pursing policy proposals. Instead of passively waiting for things to happen, the Leon Dems are actively seeking to push the local policy agenda. After a campaign finance scandal with a county commissioner, the DEC has stepped up to push for non-partisan lobbying reform. In addition to pursuing an actual policy proposal with the help of Common Cause and the League of Women Voters, we also spent the last meeting with a diverse panel of speakers who not only gave us the run-down on the issue, but answered the exhaustive questions of the large audience. It would be difficult for anyone who attended that meeting to not have a good grip on the issue.

4. The Takin' It to the Streets program is a great idea. What is happening is that each month at the DEC meeting, instead of having the meeting at the same old stuffy city commission chamber, the meetings are rotating to different locations in each district. This not only benefits those people who don't want to drive across town every month, it has brought out tons of new people to each meeting, the last of which was standing room only (in my district).

5. Rick is great at community outreach. My theory is that no public event in a county should go without a Democratic Party presence. I don't go to every event out there, but I couldn't tell you the last time I went to something in the community when our DEC chair wasn't present and actively talking to people to promote our agenda and learn what the people are saying and thinking.

6. We're also trying to improve outreach to African-Americans in the community by focusing on No Party Affiliation voters. Leon County is like a lot of the state where African-American turnout in elections is lower than we would like it to be. By reaching out to the NPA voters and letting them know about Florida's closed primary rules, we have a chance to change that.

And all of this is just in the three months I've been actively participating in the organization. I hear talk of numerous other things that I don't even know enough about to get into. The point is that this is exactly the type of activity I think a DEC should be engaged in and the activity and excitement you see around here is impressive. A lot of that has to do with Rick Minor.

Like I said before, Minor didn't do any of this alone, but that's one of the keys to why he (and we) have had so much success lately -- he recognizes others, regardless of race, gender, age or personality, who want to help and can help and he gives them the trust and responsibility to succeed and they, and he, do succeed. That helps all of us.

Addressing Latinos at Univision DEM Debate. Miami-Dade DEC Shines Tonight

2007-09-09T07:09:00.000-05:00

Tonight is the first ever Univision debate. DEM presidential candiates will be on the air at 7pm. The GOP will not participate in a debate.
Joe Garcia, chairman of the Miami-Dade Democratic Party, believes the telecast will be a landmark event in the Latino world, drawing millions of viewers who have felt left out of American politics: "I believe more eyeballs will be watching this one than any other so far."
Take a look around the Democratic Executive Committee site . Many ideas.

Goals of the Democratic Executive Committee.

To promote individual freedom within the framework of a just society, and political freedom within the framework of meaningful participation by all citizens.
To elect Democrats as our representatives on the County, State, and National levels.
To strengthen the base of the Democratic Party through community outreach and visibility.
To further Democratic causes and initiatives that will benefit all demographic areas and groups.

Marion Democrats Launch New Website

2007-09-08T11:02:00.001-05:00

After several months and a lot of learning and hard work, the Marion DEC has launched their new website:

www.mariondems.org

I have to say that despite all of the work and some hard lessons, this project was a lot of fun for me and my two nerdy compatriots: Peter Manon and Mr. X.

We still have some bugs to fix, but most elements are working just fine. The site combines Drupal and CiviCRM into a very good package.

We also launched the Marion County Democratic Party Facebook group at the same time. You can check that out here. If you're on Facebook, anyone can join our group!

Update: Did I mention we have a blog, too? Bookmark and link to us as much as you can!

State Democratic Convention: Netroots Panels

2007-08-27T08:57:00.000-05:00

A group of us are helping the Florida Democratic Party organize a series of Netroots panels at the state convention.

By Netroots, we're referring to bloggers and other online activist who use the Internet for such things as organizing, fundraising, and getting out the Democratic messsage.

We will be having three panels:

Netroots 101 - this would cover basics like what is a blog, what to write about, building your readership and using stuff like MySpace, Facebook and beyond.

Netroots Tools - discuss the more advanced online tools and digital media one can use in blogging, campaigning, or party building.

Working with the Netroots - discuss how the party and the netroots can work together from the DEC's perspective, a candidate's perspective, state party perspective and the national party perspective.

I'd appreciate it if you would take this survey and give us some feedback on the kind of things you'd like to learn more about at these panels. There are only 5 questions and you don't have to answer them all - just the ones where you have an opinion. The survey ends on September 7th at Noon.

http://floridanetroots.blogspot.com

Let's Focus on Republicans in County Commissions

2007-08-18T06:39:00.000-05:00

Many county commissions in Florida represent more people than some states. Hillsborough's County Commission represents 1.15 million people. That is more than Wyoming (515,004) or Montana (944,632).
The past week has been an example of Republican developer funded County Commissioners gone wild in Hillsborough County. Politicians build their base at the county level and then move on up the line. Keeping an eye on them and who contributes to them when they win the county is a way to keep track as they go for state or even national office.

She Should Run

2007-08-14T11:40:00.000-05:00

Local activists should take a look at the great website, She Should Run.

Those involved in candidate recruitment should pay particular attention to female candidates. In Marion, we found out in 2006 that voters were tired of voting for men. Undecideds, and in races where voters didn't know much about the candidates, voted overwhelmingly for the female candidate.

Besides, regardless of electablility, we need more diversity in Florida government - at all levels.

Weekend Links: 8/11-8/12

2007-08-11T09:34:00.000-05:00

Masters of Their Domain by Josh Harkinson of Mother Jones

YearlyKos: Catching Up With Change to Win by Shai Sachs of MyDD

Essential Posts That Every Blogger Should Know by Collis Ta'eed of TechSoup

Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Something For Your DEC To Get Involved With

2007-08-06T19:30:00.000-05:00

The idea is simple: hold every congressional Republican accountable in Florida. We all know we can't simply depend on the mainstream media to do the job, so bloggers and local activists must step up and fill the void.

DECs should do their part.

Ken Quinnel of Florida Progressive Coalition has launched a number of blogspot blogs for each Republican member of Congress for Florida. I've signed on to the Kick Out Keller blog, as Tricky Ricky is my congressman.

So if you have a Republican representing you in Congress, sign on the appropriate blog by emailing Ken at quinnelk at hotmail dot com, and let's start bringing an end to Republican rule in Florida.

Precinct Captains Are The Key

2007-08-02T11:55:00.000-05:00

so says Mike Lux of OpenLeft.

Of course, Mike is saying this in the context of the Iowa Caucuses. But it matters just as heavily to DECs and campaigns here in Florida, too.

Precinct captains who have been well trained and know their neighbors well alter the outcomes of elections and make polls seem inaccurate. Of course, precinct captains alone sometimes don't do the job completely - they often need the help of block captains, who manage pieces of the precinct.

Precinct captains are indeed the key.

Never Forget Why

2007-07-31T07:33:00.000-05:00

When you're building any organization, much less a DEC, you will undoubtedly run into frustration and stress. If not, you're probably not changing anything.

There are setbacks, mistakes, arguments, etc. which can bring you down. However, in times like these, just remember one thing: why you're working hard in the first place.

For me, I grew up in Weirsdale, Florida, a rural country "town" in the middle of nowhere. Ocala and Leesburg were the "big cities." You get the picture. Poverty and desperation was everywhere with the exception of wealthy lake shore homeowners and those in nearby gated retirement communities.

The poor and their situation were largely ignored, the local elementary school was one of the worst in the entire county. It didn't start changing until people in the community started waking up, and through the leadership of local churches (one of them being my father's - Weirsdale Presbyterian) good things started happening. The school is now an "A" school and is no longer ignored by the School Board. I can't say the economic situation has improved (that will take both a Democratic President and a complete public policy priority shift at all levels) - that problem remains.

I learned that ordinary people, when organized, could do extraordinary things.

So when I face obstacles and frustrations, I always think "If we don't organize and fight - who will?" Kids aren't going to get better schools, better jobs aren't going to be created, healthcare access won't improve, growth won't be better managed if we sit around and complain.

That keeps me going - what about you?

Belated Weekend Links

2007-07-30T14:19:00.000-05:00

Blogger flagged BFDECS over the weekend as a possible spam blog (which prevented me from posting all weekend), but that's all cleared up now.

On to links!

Myths About Online Volunteering by Jayne Cravens of Tech Soup

Whither Progressive TV? by Shai Sachs of MyDD

Finding Strategy for the Progressive Movement by Shai Sachs of MyDD

New Tools: Engage the Blogs by Jerome Armstrong for the New Politics Institute (NPI)
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"Better Know" Who?

2007-07-30T12:09:00.000-05:00

Is there an elected official or candidate for office at the state or local level that you think the public ought to know more about?

Submit your suggestions in our Better Know Survey and your suggestion may be used in an upcoming profile on Florida Netroots. The survey ends Tuesday August 7th at Noon.

FDP Chair Karen Thurman Answers Your Questions

2007-07-27T09:13:00.000-05:00

Last week, I put up a notice that the Florida Netroots site had the opportunity to interview Karen Thurman, the Chair of the Florida Democratic Party and invited you to submit your own questions. Here is our Q&A.

Death By Committee

2007-07-26T09:38:00.001-05:00

We Democrats love our committees. In fact, we some of the time love them too much. It is necessary to have a number of standing committees to carry out basic functions of the DEC no doubt. In fact, there are a number of committees that are mandated to be in existence by state bylaws (Affirmative Action Committee, for example) and DEC bylaws.

However, not every problem needs a committee, and having too many committees end up stifling innovation, ideas, and potential new leadership.

When DECs are organized and reshuffled around at the beginning of every new leadership team, the structure that is developed should take care of basic tasks and provide for new ideas and innovation. The key here is only having committees that are doing something beneficial for the DEC and helping it progress. If there's a committee where there is all talk and no action, if it only seems to be an echo chamber, or the personal lobbying group of a particular member - its time to bring out the axe.

Its also important that committees don't turn into this, as told by BMW:

Or this

Here are some tips to make existing committees better, particularly if you're in charge of one (via Fundraising Success magazine):

1. Limit your comments. Hold your tongue and suggest changes only when you are squarely within your expertise and you have facts to back you up.

2. Work to enlighten fellow committee members. Bring in documentation from the experts. Build the case for fact-based judgment over opinion-based judgment.

3. Advocate restraint. You might be able to impact your committee’s culture and make it less destructive. Your fellow members likely are open to becoming a different kind of group for the good of your organization.

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Survey Results

2007-07-26T08:34:00.000-05:00

Thanks to all who participated in our recent survey which gaged both reader loyalty and interest in the various elements of the site as well as opinions about the future.

A total of 35 people began the survey, and 17 fully completed it. This is actually a well represented sample of our readership.

Reader Interest
Roughly, how often do you read Build Florida's DECs?
More than one time a day: 11.4%
Daily: 22.9%
Weekdays Only: 11.4%
Weekends Only: 2.9%
Weekly: 42.9%
Monthly: 8.6%

Primary Links
The number after the primary link is the one chosen by a plurality of the voters. Remember, this was on a 1 to 10 scale, 10 being the best.

Donate- 5: 47.1%

Invest- 5: 47.1%

Store- 5: 47.1%

Find Your DEC- 5: 29.4%

All elements had many votes in the 6-10 range with only one or two votes in the 1-4 range.

Sidebar Elements

People Who Make It Happen- 5: 41.2%

About- 5: 52.9%

Proud Member- 5: 35.3%

Useful Links- 5: 29.4%

Archives- 5: 47.1%

Again, most votes were in the 6-10 range, and only one vote in the 1-4 range of all 5 elements.

Projects
What is your opinion of our collaborating with the Florida Progressive Coalition for the creation of the Virtual Think Tank?
Approve: 88.2%
Disapprove: 0%
No Opinion: 11.8%

Would you like to see Build Florida's DECs continue to work with organizations like the Florida Progressive Coalition and collaborate on projects?
Yes: 88.2%
No: 0%
No Opinion: 11.8%

Would you like to see Build Florida's DECs start doing interviews with DEC officials and grassroots activists through possible mediums such as podcasting, internet radio, or simply live blogging?
Yes: 94.1%
No: 0%
No Opinion: 5.9%

Would you like to see Build Florida's DECs use a more interactive platform other than Blogger, such as Word Press, Drupal, or Joomla?
Yes: 11.8%
No: 5.9%
No Opinion: 82.4%

This was a very interesting survey. The vast majority of respondents like what they see here and want to see it do even more. I plan to do a survey every now and then to keep track of any new changes we implement.
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50 State Strategy: Required Reading

2007-07-25T11:53:00.000-05:00

MyDD has gotten an exclusive first copy of The Nations series on the 50 State Strategy. This article is entitled: "PURPLE AMERICA -- The Democrats' Fifty-State Strategy Stokes North Carolina's Grassroots"

You can read the full article here.

As a huge fan of the 50 State Strategy, we really need to do everything we can to preserve it - particularly once Dean leaves in early 2009.

DEC Fundraising: Q2 2007

2007-07-24T15:16:00.000-05:00

I've only received a little more than half of the DEC figures back from the individual Supervisor of Elections office. I'll update this post as new data comes in.

Alachua $44,067.69
Orange $34,070.00
Okaloosa $20,781.18
Martin $20,085.00
Pinellas $16,197.55
Manatee $9,969
Broward $9,903.00
Hernando $9,285.41
Brevard $8,648.58
Escambia $7,231.00
Duval $6,928.74
Seminole $6,307.08
Santa Rosa $5,342.74
Marion $5,236.00
Sarasota 4,952.64
Lake $4,551.55
St. Lucie $4,199.88
Indian River $3,046.00
Putnam $2,695.00
Monroe $2,500.00
St. Johns $2,448.05
Okeechobee $2,330.00
Holmes $2,150.00
Sumter $2,098.00
Osceola $1,852.97
Nassau $1,725
Baker $1,700.00
Walton $1,495.00
Clay $1,430.00
Polk $1,410.48
Jefferson $1,337.81
Charlotte $900.00
Pasco $733.44
Bay $645.00
Leon $470.00
Gulf $450.00
Calhoun: $0.00
Liberty: $0.00
Taylor: $0.00
Lafayette: NO DEC

The big surprise is, of course, the Martin DEC. Martin County has only 25,615 Democrats (compared to 47,307 Republicans.) Raking in $20K is no small feat. It also demonstrates the potential of DEC fundraising. Now compare the Martin DEC to Broward's stats this quarter. Broward County has 480,689 Democrats (nearly 19 times that of Martin County) and was only able to rake in $9,903.00.

DECs have a long road ahead of them to build viable fundraising operations. Posts like this (every reporting period) are designed to let people within DECs know how well they are performing in relation to other counties. Its also great ammo for DEC fundraisers to use - "If Martin County with only 25,000 Dems can raise $20,000 - we can do that - and better."

Update 11:29am: Okaloosa comes in at a resounding $20,781.18. Osceola rakes in $1,852.97, and St. Lucie $4,199.88.

Update 2: A small handful of DEC people have been grumbling to FDP about this post. I thought that would happen. Let me just say that this post isn't intended to shame DECs. We all know that DECs tend to have big annual fund raisers which therefore don't necessarily show up in these Q2 numbers. This is only the first post of its kind. I will be posting summaries every quarter which will demonstrate progress.
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Hosting "The Daily 15" Today

2007-07-24T10:26:00.000-05:00

I'm hosting Florida Progressive Coalition's "Daily 15" today. Tune in at 12:30pm, listen in, and hopefully call in. I'll try and not screw it up :)

Compiling...

2007-07-23T12:01:00.000-05:00

Hey folks. Just wanted to let you know that I've been spending some time collecting data on the amounts of contributions received by DECs in the last quarter. Its all public information, of course, but its often unattainable from local Supervisor of Elections sites. In Marion, its all right there on the website - not so in most counties. So I've sent out around 60 emails requesting this information.

I'll hopefully be able to post on this tommorrow or Wednesday...hopefully.

Update 1:54- 16/67 in. Some Supervisor's offices are pretty fast!

Update 5:00- 26/67 in. Getting better...

Update 11:25am- 34/67 in. Halfway there.

Florida Progressive Radio Tommorrow

2007-07-21T11:02:00.000-05:00

Please tune in for another great Florida Progressive Radio show tomorrow afternoon from 2-3pm. Ken will be interviewing special guest Clint Curtis, Democratic candidate for Congress running against the diabolical Tom Feeney.

Learn more about Clint here.

Voter Registrations, Pt 2

2007-07-21T11:00:00.000-05:00

Any discussion about the possibility of moving Florida into the Democratic Presidential column in 2008 has to look at the trend that went from a 537 vote loss in 2000 to an almost 381,000 vote loss in 2004.

So I thought I would look at party registrations for voters who have registered to vote since the 2004 presidential election.

It's a very mixed bag.

Statewide, there isn't a lot of change. Through 3/31/2007, there were 23,349 more Democrats registered than Republicans (563,110 to 539,761). However, during this period, there were 534,794 third party/no party registrations. Given the current political climate, it might not be unreasonable to expect that a Democratic candidate could do extremely well with this group, pull in disenchanted voters who went for Bush in 2004 and hold onto those who voted for Kerry. Can that equal 381,000 votes? Perhaps.

New voter registrations certainly do not favor the Democrats in the Panhandle, SW Florida and the counties surrounding Jacksonville. Southeast FLorida continues to be a Democratic stronghold and new registrations are certainly favorable in the North Central and holding their own in the central part of the state.

For those of you who like maps, here's thedata plotted by county. If you click on the map it will open in a larger format. Enjoy.

Evaluating Local Republican Websites

2007-07-19T10:43:00.000-05:00

We've talked about the need for better websites for DECs, and websites for DECs that currently don't have one. Fortunately for us, local Republicans fare just as bad if not worse. Here are some observations:

1.) There are around three particular cookie cutter designs.
a.) The waving banner type (Alachua, Santa Rosa)
b.) The glowing title type (Dixie, Holmes, St. Lucie)
c.) The red top banner type (Gadsden, Jackson, Washington)

2.) Most incorporate the "GOPUSA" News Feed (the liberal media can't be trusted, ya know.)

3.) Other than the cookie cutters - most local GOP sites look like most low-end DEC sites: websites that we're built in 1998. The difference between the two is that there is a lot of common widgets and blocks used by GOP sites (GOPUSA being one of them), while there is little such lock-step uniformity among DEC sites.

In other website news, the state Republican Party has rolled out a new website. Its nothing to write home about, they've just finally caught up with the modern age in terms of podcasting and video.

Voter Registration Trends in Florida

2007-07-18T14:10:00.000-05:00

One of the challenges facing the Democratic Party in Florida continues to be a degredating trend in voter registrations outside of urban areas.

One of the difficulties in looking at voter registration by party is that in Florida, particularly in northern and rural parts, older registered Democrats tend to vote more and more like Republicans (the "Dixiecrat" affect as it's often referred to.)

To try and quantify this a little and see what kinds of trends we might be looking at, I compared voter registration numbers, Democrat vs. Republican, by county, by the decade the voter was registered. The map is below. A ratio of 100 indicates an equal number of Democratic and Republican registrations. A ratio of 200 indicates twice as many Democrats as Republicans. (I have not included 3rd party/no party in this analysis, although the number of registrations in this group has continued to increase over the years until today when it is on a par with either party.)

The decline of the Democratic Party in voter registration in northern Florida is readily apparent.

The difficulties faced by the FDP in SW Florida becomes very clear when you see that they have never had a registration advantage in these counties.

About the only place where you see any reversal of these negative trends are in 3 very ubran counties: Broward, Pinellas and Palm Beach.

This is just a rough first pass on these data. I hope to stimulate discussion about what these trends tell us and what opportunities and challenges they present as we try and revitalize the Democratic party throughout the state.

(clicking on the map should open a larger view)

The Value of Service Projects

2007-07-18T09:54:00.000-05:00

As many of you know, I spent last weekend working with my fellow Democrats remodeling Marion Dems HQ. It was a lot of work, but it was also very enjoyable. I can't always say that about a lot of the service projects I've been involved with. I was a Boy Scout for virtually all my teenage years, and service projects we're frequent. They weren't all bad, as I liked hanging around my fellow Scouts, but the projects were often tough and sapped the life right out of you. My own Eagle Scout project was no exception: the development of an emergency food center which took several workdays and hundreds of volunteer hours.

The point here is that DECs should try and do service projects when they can, particularly if they have a HQ. These activities build camaraderie, and Democrats therefore get to know each other better. Those partnerships become critical as big projects arise, and Election Day draws nearer.

Of course, all projects have to be planned out in advance, so people don't end up getting burned out instead of turned on to the Democratic Party.

Recurring Donors

2007-07-16T17:41:00.001-05:00

Barack Obama is now taking his campaign to put much of his support base on a recurring donor program on the front page of his website. He's using this nifty little graphic:

Whether or not Obama gets the Democratic nomination, I personally believe this will be one of his greatest contributions to the Democratic campaign/organizational playbook. Using recurring donors really pays off and helps build and sustain campaigns.

Interview FDP Chair Karen Thurman

2007-07-16T09:35:00.000-05:00

Want to ask the Chair of the Florida Democratic Party a question? Well, now's your chance! Florida Netroots has been granted the opportunity to interview Karen Thurman, so send along your questions to me by Noon tomorrow (I know, short notice) and your question may be used in our interview.

Email Florida Netroots

Some Belated Weekend Links

2007-07-16T08:36:00.001-05:00

You can check these out while you're hungrily waiting for the next post :)

Can Change.org Change Facebook Organizing? by Shai Sachs of MyDD

Tips for Being an Amateur Blogger by jonah in nyc of DailyKos

Hat tips to Eddie for the Facebook post and Tally for the Amateur Blogger post!

Edna Walters, GOP Donor, Demonstrates the Circle of Corruption in Hillsborough County

2007-07-15T08:03:00.000-05:00

DECS should be familiar with the Candidate Finance reports on file at County Supervisors of Elections. GOP donors don't generally make donations to the person who does them the favor, but another GOP politician who then will direct a crony to accomplish the favor. Often the ties extend to other states and tracking the connections takes time and attention. There's a big BINGO in Hillsborough today as Edna Walters a GOP donor to GOP County Commisioner Higginbotham gets a SeaWall paid for by tax payers.

See more details at TampaBay Democrat.

FPC Radio Episode 2: Progressives Strike Back

2007-07-15T07:34:00.000-05:00

Obviously that's not the real title (just a shout out to all the Star Wars fans out there), but I know its going to be a great show.

I unfortunately won't be able to participate as I'm helping paint and reorganize Dem HQ (its looking so much better than before.) Nonetheless, I really encourage all of you to listen in. From my sources, a pretty high profile guest will be calling in - so tune in!

You can listen here. If you want to call in during the show (strongly encouraged), call (646) 716-7543 (its obviously not toll free.)

Enjoy!

Laboring For A Better Image

2007-07-13T20:18:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the lack of posts today folks. I spent most of the day working at Dem HQ putting up a new sign for the front of HQ (pics coming in a few days, I hope) as well as moving furniture to prepare for a big paint job tommorrow.

The new sign is terrific, and HQ will be looking a lot better by the end of the weekend - it really needed it. To me, our HQ is part of our image to the public. If it looks crappy (which it did), it makes people view the party as crappy. The same goes for websites, which are essentially eHQs. If your website looks like its crummy, people will think the candidate/organization/business/DEC is also crummy.

Enjoy your weekend!

Hillsborough DEC Website Now Current

2007-07-13T06:00:00.000-05:00

The Hillsborough DEC website has been unpdated at last.
Take a look.
Hillsborough Democratic Executive Committee.

CiviCRM

2007-07-12T15:05:00.000-05:00

I've talked about the need for DECs to have websites, and what good ones can do. However, I want to plug a particular peice of the website puzzle which I've only linked to in the past: CiviCRM.

CiviCRM is really only for DECs that have people who are techies. I say that because CiviCRM is a pretty complex package to install and use. However, once you have it, I think its a really great tool.

CiviCRM is a "Constituent relationship module" (thus the CRM part), that is, its a huge database with all kinds of customizable features that you can tailor to your DEC's needs. CiviCRM is made up of the four major components:

CiviMember: This module is geared towards tracking individual members, including their contact information, what they volunteer for (and their volunteer preferences), when they contribute and what they contribute to.

CiviContribute: This module is built for accepting online contributions (you choose which service you want to handle the transactions: PayPal, etc...), both in lump sum and recurring forms. The best thing is that you can create custom fundraising campaigns, complete with thermometer (you know you love those.)

CiviMail: CiviMail gives you the ability to send customized mass emails to targeted groups, which you can establish through CiviMember.

CiviEvents: Create your own events, send invites to people, and manage RSVPs. I think you can set it all up so when someone RSVPs for an event, that it shows in their profile through CiviMember.

Once again, you can learn all about it here. I know there are those who will say, can't VAN do all of this? Not really. You kinda need both, which I know is heresy to database people. VAN is great for GITV and GOTV, while CiviCRM is better suited for managing activist information. There's certainly some crossover.

GusWatch: A Model Local Blog

2007-07-11T15:18:00.000-05:00

Some disclosure: One of the main contributors of GusWatch is a fellow manager at the Florida Progressive Coalition.

One of the many things that was discussed at the Netroots Luncheon during JJ Weekend is the need for more local and specialized blogs. The same thing was said over the weekend during the first edition of Florida Progressive Radio. I've talked about the need to set up and develop local progressive blogospheres in the past.

The blog GusWatch is an example of what we would all like to see more of. GusWatch was founded during the 2006 Elections to keep an eye on Gus Bilirakis, the then Republican candidate for Congress. They did a terrific job, and despite the fact that Bilirakis would end up winning the election - they didn't stop. This is what we dream of the blogosphere doing more than it already is - stepping into the void traditional institutions and the MSM have opened.

DECs should do everything they can to encourage activists to start blogs geared towards holding elected Republicans accountable, while searching for Democrats to challenge them. Each specialized blog acts an attractor of potential new volunteers, donors, and activists.

In addition, let's not forget big local issues which demand accountability. Growth management is the first thing I can think of. Isn't there a need for a blog which tracks those sneaky land use amendments being pushed by developers? Shouldn't there be some watchdog out there tracking votes on important things like this?

So again, we should renew the call for more local blogs. They are badly needed, and local parties can play a big role in connecting activists with relevant blogs.

Absentee Ballot Information

2007-07-11T08:56:00.000-05:00

College Progressive at FLA Politics has written a post detailing all the contact information relevant to requesting absentee ballots. You can get that information here.

DECs should really be pushing vote by mail, as was detailed in my postmortem on the SD3 Special Election. Its very hard for our candidates to win when they begin Election Day with a several thousand vote deficit.

Obviously, the key thing to do here is to take this valuable information CP has researched and put them into materials that can be passed out to members and activists in the field. This valuable information also should be put on most party literature.

Update: kansasr has a wonderful form that he used during the 2006 Elections. Check out his comment over at FLA Politics. They had a nice system going, and I think its something that could be easily duplicated elsewhere.

"Voting by mail" must be stressed at every possible moment.

Getting 18 Year Olds to Vote

2007-07-10T14:52:00.000-05:00

A pretty funny video from the voter registration group, Declare Yourself:

18 year olds are tough convince, but videos like this are the answer. Our older readers may find this video offensive and revolting, but trust me, it works on young people.

You can find more videos here.

Leon DEC Snags A Big Fish

2007-07-10T09:30:00.001-05:00

Its reported in today's Tallahasse Democrat that the Leon DEC has snagged Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) to be their keynote speaker at the annual Collins-Steele Fundraising Dinner. This is just another good achievement under the leadership of Leon DEC Chairman Rick Minor. He said it best:

"This is a testament to the strength of the local Democratic organization," DEC Chairman Rick Minor said. "Two years ago, we wouldn't have gotten a presidential candidate."

Of course, its no accident that Obama or any other Democrat for that matter wants to play with the Tallahassee kids:

"This is an indication of how important Tallahassee is for us," he [Kirk Wagar, Obama's state finance chairman in Miami] said. "About 35 percent of the Democratic primary vote is in North Florida."

Nonetheless, a big congratulations to the Leon County DEC!

Ten Tips For Better Thank You Letters

2007-07-10T09:17:00.001-05:00

via Donor Power Blog:

1.) Get the letter out quickly.
2.) Relate your Thank You letter to the ask.
3.) Tell the donor what you will do with their money.
4.) Use a real signature.
5.) Have the ED or President go through the letters and add personal notes.
6.) Add a reply envelope.
7.) Include year to date or lifetime giving data.
8.) Make it clear that the letter is also a receipt.
9.) Include an offer to tour your facility or program site.
10.) Include the name and contact info of someone the donor can call with questions.

The Importance of Municipal Elections

2007-07-10T08:50:00.000-05:00

Back in 2005, I proposed to the small Coordinated Campaign team at the Marion DEC that we should really focus on municipal races (that is, city council races.) They are incredibly small and easy to win, and they pay huge dividends down the road when we're looking for candidates at the county and state level. I was basically told to go ahead, yet due to my own greenness and naivety, I really got nowhere. Besides, I had to go attend my first semester of college at UF at the end of the summer.

Yet had I been successful then, we could have started seeing some of that effort bear fruit for the 2008 elections. You see, as I alluded to earlier, city councilmen and women make great candidates for the county commission, school board, countywide constitutional offices (tax collector, property appraiser, etc...) and state representative. The bottom line is that city councils are where we incubate and develop future candidates. This, by the way, is how Republicans slowly took power in Florida: they started at the municipal level and slowly but surely worked their way up the ladder.

In areas of the state where Democrats are currently out of power, DECs should really focus on recruiting city council candidates as a way of building the bench for future elections.

New Links

2007-07-09T15:07:00.000-05:00

Donor Power Blog is a blog built for fundraising professionals in the nonprofit sector. Now, you may be asking yourself, "Why is Ray linking to nonprofit help sites?" In my personal opinion, I think sometimes the only real difference between political organizations and nonprofits is the way they report taxes. Were all in the "mission" field and 90% of the time lessons that nonprofits have learned over the years are ones that can be directly adapted to the political world. In fact, many of the new links you'll see me link to are geared towards nonprofits. Donor Power Blog is full of great information about raising money. A lot of time is focused on new fundraising technology and tactics, which I believe makes this blog extremely valuable.

Be Relevant! is a blog designed for email marketing tips. The author is Tamara Gielen, an email marketer for eBay Belgium. She has great tips about effective email marketing. There's all kinds of great practical information for any progressive group (particularly DECs) which has a mailing list and wants to use it effectively.

Online Fundraising Stuff

2007-07-09T09:39:00.000-05:00

DFA's Night School program just went through a big series on fundraising which was superb. I encourage all to at a minimum take a look at the presentations and when you have time, to listen to the recorded teleconferences. Awesome stuff!

My father every now and then sends me excellent posts from the Donor Power Blog, which is solely dedicated to fundraising tactics.

Today they had an excellent post dealing with online fundraising. When you get a fundraising email, and you decide to click on the link, where you go is called the "landing page". There was a study done recently on landing pages as reported by Donor Power Blog:

45% of landing pages have the same headline as the email that sent people to the page.

17% of emails send those who click through to a home page, rather than a page where they can immediately take relevant action.

35% of pages don't look and feel like the email that sent them there in the first place.

45% of landing pages bog down users by requiring them to fill out 10 or more fields.

Nearly 70% include a navigation bar, even though it's a distraction that pulls visitors away from the page's primary goal.

25% of landing pages required users to scroll through more than two screens of text.

I'll be adding these and other good fundraising links later today and doing a "New Links" post on them.

2008 Florida House Targets

2007-07-08T20:00:00.000-05:00

One of the things I've been updating is data from the 2006 Florida House elections, to begin to look at where opportunities may exist in 2008 to improve upon the gains made last November.

In looking at Republican incumbents, there were 3 factors that I considered to be important. 1) Districts with a term-liminted incumbent, resulting in an open election in 2008. 2) Districts with a Freshman Republican. 3) The Democratic performance of the district, defined as the ratio of registered Democrats to registered Republicans.

As a first pass, I sorted the Republican districts by the Democratic performance and then looked at the other 2 categories and assigned each district to a tier: 1) Top prority 2) High priority 3) Some possibilities 4) Safe Republican district. (Democratic districts were also assigned to a tier from 6) most endangered Democrats to 9) Safe Democrats.

While this was just a first pass to try and organize some of this information, if you accept my assignment of top priority districts, you have 16 Republican districts that could be challenged and 5 Democratic districts (51, 52, 69, 107 and 120) that will have to be aggressively defended. At least a 16/5 ratio is encouraging. From the special elections this year, it's clear that the Republican party has a virtually unlimited funding source, which makes challenging them, especially in the northern half of the state, very difficult. But if we can gain 6 seats (as we did in 2006) in each election, we would have control of the Florida House in time for the 2012 reapportionment - an almost must if we are to keep from being the minority party for another decate.

Trying to accumulate data on 120 house districts can be daunting - especially in parts of the state where you have no familiarity and don't notice obvious errors. So any feedback or corrections will be most appreciated.

On Florida Progressive Radio

2007-07-08T18:06:00.000-05:00

I was on the first episode of Florida Progressive Radio talking with host Ken Quinnell and fellow Board member Eddie of Grassroots Brevard this afternoon. It was a lot of fun!

You can listen to the hour long show here.

Weekend Links: 7/7-7/8

2007-07-07T14:30:00.000-05:00

There's only going to be one link this weekend (www.paypal.com) because there's a special cause all friends and members of the Florida Netroots should take part in.

Ken Quinnell, founder of the Florida Progressive Coalition has been invited to speak at YearlyKos (a big netroots hoopla), but doesn't have the dough to make it. Ken is a progressive like all of us, and like most of us, isn't exactly being paid a king's ransom for his efforts.

You can send Ken the funds he needs to go by doing the following:

To help, just go to PayPal, log in, go to your "account", click the "Send Money" tab at the top, and enter "kq_n_mq@yahoo.com" in the "To:" box - ANY amount will be very much appreciated.

I also want to tell you how important Ken has been to this relatively new and growing thing known as the Netroots.

Back in 2005, many of us bloggers were out there in cyberspace, doing our own little thing. I myself had just discovered blogging and slowly found my way down to the state level, where I started blogging at FLA Politics and started this blog.

One day I received an email from Ken about this crazy idea he had about getting all the liberal bloggers together to do something bigger and better. I was initially skeptical (through my DEC experiences) - I knew what a group of Democrats could do (LOL). But the first meeting I had with Ken and a few others in Gainesville was amazing. Meeting bloggers and putting faces to user names was a hell of a lot of fun! And oh the plans we made!

That was the founding of the Florida Progressive Coalition. Today, FPC is playing a leading role in organizing online progressives (collectively "The Florida Netroots") in a positive and meaningful way.

Ken has been at the center of it all. He came up with the idea for FPC, got us together, and was skilled enough to manage our gargantuan egos to do something constructive. If there's one person who deserves to represent us at YearlyKos (for those of us poor activists who also won't be able to attend) - its Ken Quinnell. Please dig deep and send this netroots hero to YearlyKos:

To help, just go to PayPal, log in, go to your "account", click the "Send Money" tab at the top, and enter "kq_n_mq@yahoo.com" in the "To:" box - ANY amount will be very much appreciated.

Let's do it.

Help Us Build A Better Blog!

2007-07-06T10:45:00.000-05:00

Build Florida's DECs is a growing, thriving blog with a vibrant community - and we want to keep it that way. The blogosphere is one of the best forms of democracy there is these days and we want to use it to its best potential.

So we would like to hear from you! What do you think of the blog?

Please fill out our survey here.

Your opinion will determine the future of Build Florida's DECs. There are many ideas out there for improving and expanding our community as you'll find out in the survey, but its up to you to decide what course we'll take. Make your voice heard and fill out the survey. Its a quick, 10 question survey.

Thank you for your input!

Reminder

2007-07-06T10:29:00.001-05:00

Just a friendly reminder to all who bookmark and link to this site that the URL will be changing to

buildfloridasdecs.blogspot.com

on Monday.

Promoting Local Party Events

2007-07-06T07:13:00.000-05:00

If I didn't attend local DEC meetings, I would have no idea how the party interacts within our community. As I learned at the DFA training in Tampa, those of us to attend party meetings (or go to trainings for fun on a weekend) are strange. Normal people don't have the time, interest, or patience for such things. However, they do care about their communities and come election time they're going to be asking themselves "what have you done for me lately" of both parties. I've discovered that even "when you're strange" it isn't easy to find out what the local party is doing. So, I've come up with a few helpful suggestions to promote local party activities to both the regular and odd Democrats out there.

What prompted me to write this is that I found out that the DEC here in Leon County was participating in a 4th of July event, not from a local source, but from the regional director of one the Democratic Presidential campaigns. So, the local party does a better job of communicating among themselves and to the national party than it does to its own constituents. To quote from the movie Cool Hand Luke "What we've got here is ... failure to communicate."

So here's a list of ways DEC's can promote their events:

List Event on State Party Website

Why more DECs and Democratic clubs don't do this is beyond me. It's not difficult at all. Here, let me walk you through it.

Go to fladems.com. From the red menu at the top of the page, put your cursor over "Get Active" and select "Create or Find an Event" from the list of options.

Next, select "Plan an Event". Enter the Zip Code where the event will take place and select what type of event it is from the list of options.

If you do not already have an account, you'll be asked to create one before you can add addtional details about the event, otherwise just login, fill out the rest of the requested information and hit submit. Viola! You're Done!

List Event on Local Party Website

First of all, if you represent your local DEC and it doesn't have a website, contact the Florida Progressive Coalition. They can help you get started.

If you have a website use it! It is discouraging to see Local Party sites with little or no useful information or information that is out of date. The Leon County Democratic Party is still telling people to vote on June 26th for Suzan Franks.

If you're going to have a holiday pinic or are recruiting Democrats to serve as mentors in schools or some other community project - put it on your website.

Send Announcements to Your Public Mailing List

Many DECs have a mailing list, of sorts, to communicate with fellow committee members, but lack a more general list to send information to the public. Mailing lists are an easy and cost efficient way to get your message out.

If you represent a DEC and it doesn't have a mailing list, you can set one up on Google Groups or Yahoo Groups very easily for free or if you want something more sophisticated ask your web services provider or ask for advice from the Florida Progressive Coaltion.

Make sure that you keep it simple. On the Leon County Democratic Party's site the link to "Become a member!" and the link to "Get email updates!" asks you to fill out the same information in the form. So much information is requested to get simple email updates that its likely to discourage people from filling it out.

As you can see, the form is so long it scrolls beyond the end of the screen. The Florida Democratic Party's site has it right. It only asks people for their email address and zip code. Usually a name and email address is the only information that should be required and it should be clear to the user what information is required and what is optional.

List Event in the Local Newspaper

Most local newspapers provide a community calendar or listing of events and provide this service FREE of charge. Here in Leon County, the Tallahassee Democrat makes it easy. You simply fill out an online form and your event will appear in both the online and print edition of the paper.

Another good resource are your smaller community newspapers. In some cases, you can even submit a story and pictures about your event for publicaction.

Radio Stations and Local News

Local radio stations and your local news channels also like to provide information to their audiences about community events. Here in Tallahassee, WCTV the local CBS affiliate, has a page on their website where you can submit a community event.

Meetup.com and Social Networking Sites

Meetup.com is a great tool for building up the local party and notifying people about events. A couple of caveats. First, Meetup.com is free for visitors, but if you want to set up a Meetup.com site it will cost you $12 a month for the service. Second, if you set it up - use it! I signed up for the Tallahassee Democratic Party Meetup Group and showed up to two meetings where nobody from the local party attended.

You can also set up free group sites on places like MySpace.com, Facebook.com and Gather.com. These social networks are particularly useful if you're trying to attract more 18-35 year olds to your events.

Democratic Yahoo or Google Groups

As I mentioned earlier, Yahoo and Google provide free and easy to use mailing lists. There are tons of them that center around the topic of politics and Democratic politics in particular. Chances are, there's one based in your local area. Simply have a member of your DEC join one and post local party announcements.

We have one for Leon County on Yahoo called dem-fl-leon and the local DEC never posts anything to it. It isn't a case where they didn't know it existed. The Leon local party also has a Yahoo Group just for DEC members, which I tried to join just to see if I could get in. The Chair of the Party, politely rejected my request for membership and referred me to the aforementioned Yahoo Group.

Local Activists

Finally, the one resource for getting the word out about party events are your local activists. There's nothing like good old-fashioned word of mouth. Here in Leon we have a local veteren who organizes peace vigils and anti-war demonstrations. He's more than happy to advertise liberal events via his mailing list.

There's also local groups that are a part of the Democratic coalition such as the local chapter of the Sierra Club, the local DFA, etc., who may be able to help spread the word depending upon the nature of the event. You can also try the new Florida Progressive Calendar.

There's a wealth of resources out there to promote the party and advertise its activities in the community. These are just some of the ones that came up off the top of my head. If you have other suggestions, post them in the comments.

Mitt Romney and Microtargeting

2007-07-05T10:43:00.000-05:00

The Washington Post has an article up about Mitt Romney's data mining campaign and the larger history of microtargeting. Check it out:

Romney's Data Cruncher

DECs can't do scientific microtargeting on their own as they can't afford it. They can use VAN and work with the FDP to develop scripts and questions that help us better target voters.

Speakers Bureaus

2007-07-05T09:11:00.000-05:00

One of the many problems I've noticed in clubs is the poor meeting structure. Club meetings have a social time at the beginning with refreshments, then everyone sits down to hear a speaker, which if you're in a Marion club revolves around Social Security or Medicare with the occasional candidate thrown in. Any actual action or organizing is left to "The Board", some distant body of hand chosen people. This reflects the ancient mentality that all the hard work and big decisions are made at the top, and then given down to the peons for implementation. It doesn't reflect that grassroots "from the bottom up" theme that Howard Dean and many progressive activists have been articulating for some time now.

Clubs, particularly those that have been around forever and consider themselves for the most part autonomous from their sponsoring DEC, can be a tough crowd to change. Change in well-established clubs, will inevitably come in increments. For new clubs and caucuses, getting them into a grassroots, bottom-up mindset is a lot easier.

Speakers Bureaus are a way to begin to democratize older clubs and put new clubs and caucuses on the right track. Typically, every club's leadership (or leader in most cases) hand picks the speaker for the meeting and designs the entire meeting. And typically, without any DEC leadership from above, each club kind of meanders off on its own path, cut off from any larger vision or purpose.

With a club coordinator, each DEC can start finding good speakers who are passionate about certain issues, particularly local and state issues. However, here's the catch, each speaker should be trained beforehand in the need to articulate to older clubs the need to organize and do things from the bottom up. For instance, an education speaker can say "We won't be able to get the kind of funding we need for our schools unless we have a well-organized dialog with our neighbors. We won't be able to do that either if were waiting for someone else to do this for us. We as individuals need to get together, organize whether through this club or not, and take action."

Every speaker should have the importance of grassroots organizing built in.

Of course, speakers bureaus are important for several other reasons:

Get Everyone On the Same Page: If July is going to be healthcare month (perfectly timed with the release of "Sicko"), the club coordinator should work with their clubs to make sure that pre-designated healthcare speakers are lined up to speak. For baby boomers, make sure that there's going to be some kind of action item associated with the arrival of the speaker, such as the formation of a healthcare action group (more on this idea in another post.)

Get the Base More Excited: Which would you rather hear, a speaker on Medicare discussing the difference between Part A, B, C, and D? Or would you rather listen to someone excoriating the problems of our current system (linking them to the Republicans), and discussing the new ideas being proposed by the individual Democratic candidates? I would say most would go for the latter, but the former is what I've currently seen in many Democratic clubs.

Deliver a Clear and Consistent Message: I hear a lot of misinformation out there about issues, even among hard working Democrats. Some think the property tax amendment on January 29th is a good thing. Of course, it would probably be one of the most destructive things ever enacted in Florida history. The point is, having a month dedicated to educating Democrats and the public alike (through "open meetings") on an issue like property taxes is important and can get everyone on the same plane. Democrats aren't robots and don't just accept everything that their told (which is good), but they can be consistent and well-armed in their conversations with their neighbors.

Collaborating With The Virtual Think Tank

2007-07-04T15:16:00.000-05:00

The Florida Progressive Coalition announced yesterday the creation of the Progressive Florida Virtual Think Tank. You can read the full post here, but this is the highlight:

"Among the things we produce will be an e-book covering — in very specific details — every aspect of organizing, campaigning, winning elections and turning Florida into a blue state. This will be your one-stop shop for everything on activism and politics in the state. If you want to form a group, this is where you’ll go. If you want to win an election, this is where you’ll go. And this won’t just be strategy, it will be data-driven as well. That stuff you learned at DFA training about targeting voters, eventually, we’ll have all that data for you and will run the basic analysis, too."

Build Florida's DECs is also proud to announce that we will be collaborating with the Florida Progressive Coalition in the development of this website.

We can only talk in broad terms about how to build up our local parties here on this site. We can't get too specific, as our Republican colleagues are always watching. The Virtual Think Tank will allow us to get specific and trade truly valuable ideas.

We are proud to join FPC in this worthwhile and valuable project!

Notes on the DFA Training

2007-07-04T11:39:00.001-05:00

After a slow start (too much time spent on math that most people don't need to know), the DFA training really picked up and I learned a lot. I've worked on three campaigns now, one successful and two not so much, and all three of them would've been improved by the information presented at this training. I'd recommend future training sessions like this one to everyone - including those who have already attended them in the past. Three reasons why:

1. Repitition helps things sink in. The more times you hear this stuff, the more you know it and the more likely you are to remember it when you really need to.

2. You can always learn more. Every training is unique, with different trainers and different atendees. Some are the same, but they always change a bit. Each new person brings new information and insight with them and, you never know, that person could bring along the information you need to win the next election.

3. Networking. The political process is all about building and maintaining interpersonal relationships. Meetings like this are incredibly important in meeting new people and in getting together with people you've already met to share ideas and to share good times. Getting together and sharing a few drinks with a fellow activist can be the spark that leads to bigger and better things down the road.

On top of that, these training sessions are loaded with important lessons. Here are the top lessons I learned at this training:

*When you run for office, talk to your family, make sure they’re okay with it

*You have to find the small issues that you agree with people on (even Republicans) and swing them.

*You win through working your ass off, branding, getting your name (making people remember it).

*You might be able to have more effect on helping your community from a local office than national.

*There are lots of people willing to help candidates outside of their own district.

*When the strange speak to the normal, we have to speak normal. (We’re strange).

*People always talk about why doesn’t the party do this or why don’t candidates do that. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We’re the ones who have to do that.

*Prioritize resources and put them to best use.

*The most important thing for your campaign: your field plan, if it ain’t written down…it does not exist!

*Party ID not completely valuable, since people don’t necessarily vote their registration. Actual voter performance is a Florida statues require SoE to delete voters who haven’t voted in three consecutive elections.

*If a Republican canvasser knocks on your door, don’t turn them away – keep them as long as possible so they can’t be out talking to other people.

*We need people to run in every district so we can gather data and figure out what the size of the Dem base is in that district.

*The best way to contact a person is with another person. You need volunteers to contact people. Key resource.

*Don’t waste the time of your volunteers. You don’t waste the money from a campaign fund, why waste the money for a volunteer, who is donating their time instead of their money. Understand their motivations and listen to them.

*Pay attention and get to know what the people are motivated by and what things inspire them. Reward those things and help them achieve those things that inspire them. Treat them like human beings.

*You do not get, what you do not ask for. A lot of times, we put up a barrier in our own heads and don’t ask for things that we can actually get.

*Fund-raising is all about relationships. People who will donate once, will likely donate again or volunteer time.

*Don’t spend a lot of time on any one donor (except corporate/unions/pacs/really, really wealthy).

*Say thank you. A lot. Now matter how much someone gives, give them back the same amount of love and feedback.

*Keep track of your data. HUGELY IMPORTANT!!! Make sure it is accurate, particularly with spelling of names, which can be a huge negative for the future.

*Your highest priority should be undecided voters who always vote.

*Direct voter contact is most effective in canvassing and phone banks. Nothing else is even remotely as effective.

*Democrats tend to...Discount emotion too much, discount humor, be weenies when it comes to fighting back – Leave no attack unanswered.

*A lot of races get framed around one issue. If you start talking about all kinds of things, you don’t really have a message.

*Message should be short, to the point and easy to understand. It must be repeated a lot and appear in the campaign promotional materials.

*Voters don’t read long messages.

*Voters don’t care about you they care about themselves. Make the message about the voter, not about yourself.

*It’s all about the choices.

*Don't be too specific about issues, your message needs to be more global.

*Repetition is the key to the message.

*Be true to yourself. Voters smell bs. Work within the confines of your race, your position and yourself.

*Supervoters need the least contact.

*If you don’t do the multiple contacts, many people won’t vote.

*Don’t let the fact that you don’t like someone get in the way of getting something done. If they are people who know something you don’t or have some skills you don’t, then you need to work with them.

*Candidates/leaders shouldn’t ask volunteers to do things they wouldn’t do. It sets up a hierarchy and discourages people.

*Every county should be running a coordinated campaign.

*When prioritizing, control what doesn’t happen in your day.

*Tell people the reason behind the plan, it helps them feel included and makes them more productive.

Happy 4th!

2007-07-04T10:41:00.000-05:00

What is your DEC doing today? We're attending the "Rescue Our Republic" picnic in the Villages, with the three Villages Democratic Clubs (Marion, Lake, and Sumter.) Enjoy and stay safe!

The Challenge of Absentee Ballots

2007-07-03T20:33:00.000-05:00

Please welcome kansasr to our growing team of contributors! -Ray

As a new poster here, just a brief introduction...I live for political analysis. My background was in market analysis. Now that I've moved to South Florida and am retired from the corporate world, I try to apply those disciplines to political analysis and to getting good Democrats elected. And now, on with our show....

(cross posted from FLA Politics)

I was in the process of cleaning out some of my old data from the 2006 general elections and decided to look at absentee voters one more time.

From previous analysis of areas that I had worked in, it was clear that a suprising (to me) number of absentee ballots were never returned. So I wanted to see just what the opportunity was here. I had data from 3 counties: Broward, Palm Beach and Pinellas.

In Broward only 72.1% of the voters who requested absentee ballots actually returned them. In Palm Beach, the number was 82.9% and in Pinellas it was 85.4%.

Looking across party lines, 3rd party voters were less likely to return their ballots (on the order of 5-7 percentage points less) and there wasn't a lof of difference between the return rates of Democrats and Republicans.

Of the 184,647 absentee ballots requested in these 3 counties, 147,999 were returned, leaving 36,648 votes sitting out there.

Knowing that some of these absentee ballots ended up going to the polls, I took a look at one county, Pinellas, to see what percentage of unreturned absentee voters ended up casting ballots at the poll. The good news is that in Pinellas, it was 37%. The bad news is that 63% of those remaining Pinellas voters who actually had ballots in their hands never cast them.

Assuming a similar voting rate in the other 2 counties, this would mean that over 23,000 voters with ballots never cast them.

I know that in a small target group of Pinellas precincts, they had an active program to follow up with voters who had not returned their absentee ballots. In those precincts, they increased the return/voted rate from 85% to 94%.

Lesson to be learned, I believe...you've got to monitor those absentee ballot requests and follow up with them. It's good use of phone banking - there's a ballot sitting there on the kitchen table. With a little coaxing, you can get a stamp on it and get it in the mail.

Name Change

2007-07-03T11:02:00.000-05:00

This is something I've been kicking around for a while now. The name "Reform" in Reform Florida's DECs has always kind of bothered me in the back of my head. While we are indeed working to change local parties here in Florida, we're not against them entirely. Those of you who were at the Netroots Luncheon at JJ probably remember me saying that "Reform Florida's DECs doesn't mean we're against DECs, we want to help them." The name can mean different things to different people. Ken Quinnel of Florida Progressive Coalition received some communications recently which confirmed some of those initial thoughts.

So today, I'm changing the name of this blog to "Build Florida's DECs". Building is exactly what we want to do and doesn't compromise our original message of change.

The actual URL of this blog will be changing too...just not right now. I want to give all the folks who've bookmarked and linked to this blog some time to know its changing. Instead of reformfloridasdecs.blogspot.com, on Monday, July 9, the URL will be changed to buildfloridasdecs.blogspot.com. Please be ready to make these changes accordingly.

I'll be sending a blast email out shortly to all those on our mailing list.

New Links

2007-07-03T10:15:00.001-05:00

As promised, here are a couple of new links I've added the past few days:

Future Majority is a blog focused on discussing what's happening with Millennials (those born in between 1978 and 2000, roughly.) This is a demographic that is increasingly growing in importance as these individuals start forming their political opinions, registering to vote, and take part in political and civic activism. Progressives, and particularly local progressive organizations like DECs need to know how to reach out and cultivate this valuable group of people.

The New Organizing Institute is an incredibly valuable organization and essential to the future of progressive politics in the United States. NOI focuses on training progressive activists from across the country in new technologies and new media. While I've never been to one of their trainings, I would really like to attend some day.

3,000 Mark Broken

2007-07-03T09:50:00.001-05:00

While there are many progressive blogs in Florida who are way past this benchmark, its a big deal for Reform Florida's DECs. This was a little, no-name blog when it was started in 2005, and it was left to lapse during most of 2006 and early this year.

However, when I decided to bring this blog back from the "digital dead", as I put it, I didn't know that the response would have been so quick. Thanks to all who continue to visit this blog on a daily basis. Thanks to our contributors who every now and then post an idea, and thanks to all who continue to link and refer us.

Onward to the next milestone!

The Vision Thing

2007-07-03T08:24:00.000-05:00

If there's one thing I see DECs doing more than anything else its short-term thinking. We're getting better at it for sure, but its still a never ending obstacle I see DECs and progressive organizations alike trying to overcome.

How do you know whether or not your DEC is suffering from short-term thinking? Here are a few signs:

Gatherings Don't Seem to Have Any Purpose: Ever go to a meeting, not just a DEC meeting but any meeting and all people do is really just announce things to everyone else? Are people really just talking to hear themselves talk? Do your meetings accomplish anything? If not, your DEC or organization is suffering from a lack of long-term focus or vision.

Everyone Is Doing Their Own Thing: If your DEC's activists are all out doing what they want to do, disconnected from any larger plan or purpose, that's a problem. Every DEC suffers this in some form or another. The term "herding cats" applies well to DECs. So the question is to what degree? If its a few folks - don't beat yourself up. However, if entire committees seem to be disconnected, it maybe time for some strategic planning to get everyone on the same page.

There's Been No Strategic Planning: If you haven't gotten all of your committee chairpersons and officers to discuss where the party should be going, its something you really should try and do.

The bottom line here is that DECs have to have a long-term focus and can't become too distracted by short-term events (special elections, personal feuds, the loss of a club, or the resignation of a precinct captain, etc...), otherwise the organization could lose its rudder and some of the symptoms I described above could occur.

So how do DECs attempt to keep their long-term focus?

Strategic Planning: There should be a strategic planning meeting of the DEC's officers and committee chairpersons every 6 months. The first meeting of a new DEC administration is probably the most important strategic planning meeting, as it will set the course of the organization for the next 2+ years. The strategic planning meetings in between that first meeting and Election Day are there to measure progress and tweak things along the way. Or, if things aren't working well at all, to start from scratch.

Bold, Persistent Experimentation: To many of our readers from the '60s and 70s, I'm not referring to giving DEC members different types of drugs :) I'm referring here to what FDR said in the early 1930s:

"The country needs and, unless I mistake its temper, the country demands bold, persistent experimentation. It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something."

In other words, keep your DEC and its clubs on their toes by consistently trying new ideas in a push towards the vision laid out at your initial strategic planning meeting.

Keep Reminding Them: It's oh so easy for any member of a DEC (yours truly included) to get wrapped up or swept up by a short-term distraction and quickly forget long-term goals. At every possible instance, remind everyone of the long-term goal: victory in 2008. Anything that really doesn't get us there probably isn't worth the time.

Financing the Future: Recurring Donations

2007-07-02T10:05:00.000-05:00

By now, many of you have heard about Barack Obama's incredible fundraising quarter in which he raked in $32.5 million. Pretty amazing! The back story that will undoubtedly be missed my most in the MSM, is that Barack Obama has a very visible recurring donor program. Barack is able to consistently raise a large amount of money, hold the average donation low, and therefore keep most of it for the primary because of some help from his recurring donation program.

Some of RFDECs most loyal readers will remember I first discussed recurring donor programs around 2 years ago. DECs are always struggling for money, and that really shouldn't be. Money is the mother's milk of politics, as the old saying goes, but I'll also argue its the canary in the coal mine. If a DEC isn't regularly raising funds, its a good indication that it isn't engaging the community it represents and therefore not doing its job. Some may argue that DECs can be functional without an impressive fundraising record largely through their grassroots organization. I disagree. If your DEC has a good grassroots network, then you really don't have an excuse not to be raising money. A good grassroots network can raise good funds for DECs.

The main reason I think DECs struggle with fundraising is because of the following:

Fundraisers Are A Lot of Work: Those JJ Dinners DECs put on require a lot of time, people, effort, and frustration. Often after one or two dinners, most organizers associated with the dinners are burned out and would rather do something else. They also typically don't raise a whole lot of money.

There Is No Plan: Once you have money, what are you going to do with it? I see DEC members tripping through their words on this one: "Well...we'll use it to pay for mailings, help candidates, you know..." Basically, you really don't have a plan. Big donors in particular want to know where their money is going and whether its making a difference. No one wants to throw their hard earned dollars down a black hole. Would you?

Obviously, having a finance plan is another topic for another post. The question here is how do DECs raise money more efficiently. The answer is through recurring donations. I'll refer you to my previous post on the subject here to provide some context.

In Marion, we successfully implemented a very small recurring donor program, branded "The Winner's Circle" with several levels of support (and therefore recognition.) By just talking to our membership within the DEC and out in the clubs, we were able to recruit enough recurring donors to pay for all our monthly bills (around $16K per year.) There are around 60 people in the program (an average monthly contribution of $22.22.) Our goal is around 100 by years end.

Recurring donations make the DEC's life a lot easier. Its easier to budget, plan, and prioritize funds if you know how much is coming in monthly and yearly.

Weekend Links: 6/30-7/1

2007-06-30T11:54:00.000-05:00

We have some great links for you this weekend. All are tremendously interesting and insightful. Enjoy!

The Generation Gap: Youth Organizing and the Blogosphere from Mike Connery at MyDD

From Volunteer to Staff: Transitioning Without Losing Steam from Matt Singer at Future Majority

How To Retain Baby Boomer Volunteers
from Nancy Schwartz at Getting Attention!

Decentralized GOTV

2007-06-29T08:40:00.000-05:00

The other "innovation" to come out of the SD3 special election for me other than than using Streets and Trips for canvassing, was decentralizing our GOTV system.

This was a test of a get out the vote system which we would like to try and use for 2008, when more precincts and volunteers are in play.

Marion used a centralized system in past elections, as we only were were working a few precincts. Which was fine, being that's all the volunteers we had to spare. However, its major drawback was response time. Marion Oaks, a set of key Democratic precincts in the southern area of the county is around a 30 to 40 minute drive from Dem HQ. Silver Springs Shores, another set of key Dem precincts, is around 15-20 minutes away from HQ. It would take even longer getting lists back to HQ for data entry and evaluation after 5pm as the workforce heads back home. Traffic is terrible on some of the arteries that lead to these two key areas.

To be perfectly honest, decentralizing GOTV, is by no means an "easier" system. It takes more work and effort, but it all pays off in both reaction time and effectiveness. Also, think long term. If a DEC is targeting more than a dozen precincts, some of which may be in different corners of their respective county, is it logistically feasible to bring a dozen or so runners back to HQ periodically throughout the day. How about response? Does your HQ have the number of phone lines to call the thousands of voters that haven't shown up to vote yet? Does your HQ have the sheer space to handle all those callers, much less those callers who bring their cell phones? What about knock and draggers (canvassers)? How do we communicate with them and get them the resources (maps in particular) they need fast enough to have an impact? As you can see, it can get pretty sticky very quickly.

Looking at the long term picture, it seems more and more likely that GOTV systems will have to be more decentralized. What we did in SD3 is take three precincts and test out decentralization. We had mixed results largely because we couldn't get the half-dozen volunteers needed for each precinct in time. That goes to show you how hard getting volunteers was for us, particularly those who would be willing to knock and drag. Most had done calling in the previous week and didn't really want to do much more: aka "burnout in the first degree."

Ironically, while we never truly tested out the entire idea in one precinct, different pieces were tested out in all three. God (or coincidence for our atheist/agnostic friends) is a funny guy. The system itself worked. It didn't produce any noticeable results largely because of a lack of manpower.

Here's how it all works in a broad sense.

1.) You have poll watchers pre-assigned to your targeted precinct's polling places. They're sitting behind the poll workers with a poll list from VAN of all the Dems (and favorable independents if you've identified them) in that precinct who haven't voted yet.

2.) Each targeted precinct has a GOTV leader, who acts as the runner (picking up lists from the poll watcher at pre-assigned times throughout the day) and the "commander" of the precinct and its volunteers. This person is typically one of the precinct captains of the targeted precinct. They've been given training weeks or months ago about what to do.

3.) Someone's home in the precinct acts a field office, technically called a "Turnout Control Center" or "TCC". TCCs are designated months before the election. At the TCC, the GOTV leader uses VAN to enter in all the Dems who have voted so far. All Dems over the age of 65 who haven't voted yet get plugged into Streets and Trips and maps are given to individual canvassing teams. Dems under the age of 65 are given to volunteers with cell phones.

4.) This process is repeated a total of 3 times during Election Day. As data comes in from the precincts, folks at Dem HQ can monitor the results on VAN, and instruct GOTV leaders in the field on any changes.

Obviously we will continue to experiment with this method as more elections (aka opportunities) come down the line.

Republicans Losing Hispanics

2007-06-28T09:49:00.000-05:00

h/t to FLA Politics:

"Whether it's temporary disenchantment with President Bush, fallout from the immigration debate or part of a political and demographic shift, Democrats in Florida and nationally are making major strides with crucial Hispanic voters."

You can read the full story here.

With Republicans continuing to give the middle finger to this growing and ever-critical swing demographic, Democrats have reaped huge gains. Recall in 2006 Democrats won the Hispanic vote in Florida for the first time in 30 years.

Particularly with people in the Republican Party like crazy Tom Tancredo, I don't see this trend shifting anytime soon.

Effective Canvassing with Streets and Trips

2007-06-27T12:59:00.000-05:00

Remember the last time you went canvassing? Yeah, it was repulsively hot and steamy, with some stranger named Steve, roaming throughout God knows where to talk to who knows what, meanwhile sweating your cajones off and finding that you can't feel your feet anymore? Not to mention avoiding the man-eating dogs and the occasional alligator...or an NRA Republican.

The above situation is a bit exaggerated, but canvassing can be difficult and frustrating if not done right. Streets and Trips can help.

Canvassing is the most valuable activity a DEC or campaign performs. Its the most personal contact there is: one on one. The more personal the contact, the more effective it is. Of course, the most effective activity also takes the most planning and resources.

This post isn't about necessarily how to plan and prepare a canvassing operation, this is about making one of the biggest, time consuming obstacles of canvassing far easier than it used to be. The hardest thing about canvassing is giving people accurate maps and lists to work from. Even presidential campaigns are still giving canvassers those huge room sized maps to take with them to figure out where to go.

With Streets and Trips all you need is a simple 8.5 X 11 peice of paper with a map and directions on it. Of course, you'll also need to include a list of your voters in alphabetical order in addition to any campaign materials you have to pass out and/or leave in people's doorways.

Basically, you download a list of people you want to canvass from VAN in Excel. Open up Streets and Trips and import the list (just like if you were going to do a mail merge - only without the maddening frustration.) Every address is plotted as a pushpin like so:

Neat, huh?

Then you select a bunch of pushpins and get a route, directions, and "Optimize Stops" and voila you get this:

No more getting lost and trying to find targeted households. Typically, the average canvasser can cover around 10-20 households and hour the traditional way. Our volunteers were doing an estimated 25-35 houses an hour using these pre-drawn maps yesterday. The volunteers really enjoyed using this "new" technology, and were impressed with how much easier the whole canvassing process was.

Streets and Trips is not exactly a big expense either. Just click the link above and find out. Its a great investment your DEC can make.

March of the Postmortems

2007-06-27T12:17:00.000-05:00

Analysis and opinion is pouring in about the special election yesterday:

Why Calling Supervoters Is Dumb: "Calling primary voters was completely worthless. The time and energy used to call these people five or ten times could have been spent engaging voters who did not vote in the primary, notifying them of the election, and encouraging them to go out and vote..."

What Went Wrong: "Anyway, what really happened? That's more complex than people like Greer [Chairman of the Florida Republican Party] seem capable of publicly understanding. It's actually quite clear, though. The Dems did worse for a number of reasons, and these things have a lot of overlap..."

More Thoughts on SD3: "First, nothing went wrong. The results were about what was expected. It’s unrealistic to think that a political outsider and newcomer is going to defeat a popular, local candidate with deep roots in his community.However . . ."

My own analysis can be found here:

Postmortem for SD3: "Getting beat - and beat hard - sucks. Plain and simple. However, I told our GOTV leaders, and volunteers yesterday that I'm always an optimist. I guess when you're 20 you can 'afford' to be that. But here's the thing: aren't you glad we made these mistakes and found these errors now rather than in 2008? I sure as hell am..."

A Community Presence

2007-06-26T11:59:00.000-05:00

Ray has talked a bit about community outreach in the "Party Building" series, but I had a further suggestion that I thought I'd talk about briefly. The Democratic Party, by definition, is the party of the people. But when do the Party and the people directly interact? Almost never. Candidate forums, DEC meetings, public party's and picnics, etc., are in many cases the only places where the public can find DECs or DEC members in public. All of these events are DEC-centric (or candidate-centric, etc.). There is some merit to those type of events, of course, but they shouldn't be the entire program of activities.

In order to be the party of the people, the Democratic Party needs to go to where the people are. Each DEC needs to identify the community events and activities that allow for or encourage political participation. And then they need to be at ALL of those events. Even if it is one or two members at a table with a sign and a sign-up sheet, the Democratic Party should be at every event in the community that they can have a public presence at. Let people know that you are part of the community and let people know that you care about what they care about. That's how you start building a name in the community and how you make the personal connections and relationships that are everything in politics.

These public appearances should include, but not be limited to:

*National holidays (July 4th, Memorial Day, Labor Day, etc.)
*Local holidays (The anniversary of the founding of the town, etc.)
*Multicultural festivals
*Any kind of political rally
*Charity rallys (Cancer walks and similar events)
*Minority and/or disfavored group celebrations (African-Americans, women, gays, ethnic groups)
*Union activities
*Church/synagogue/temple activities for progressive or Democratic-leaning religious organizations
*Anything else you can think of (leave additional examples in comments, please).

There is no reason that we shouldn't appear at all of these events. We have to let our constituents know that we support them and that we share the same values year-round, every year, not just at election time. If we want their support, we need to give them ours.

Taking Monday and Tuesday Off

2007-06-24T20:19:00.000-05:00

I'm helping with the GOTV for the Special Election for Senate District 3 the next couple of days, so I'll be out of commission until Wednesday. I should have a decent postmortem up, as well as talk about a few "new" tactics we experimented with in Marion County, what went right, wrong, etc...

If you live in SD3 (Baker, Dixie, Hamilton, Lafayette, Suwannee, Taylor, and parts of Citrus, Columbia, Jefferson, Leon, Levy, Madison, and Marion counties) remember to vote on Tuesday the 26th. If you have a Democratic friend in the district, give 'em a call!

Wish Suzan Franks luck!

Introducing "Weekend Links"

2007-06-23T17:19:00.000-05:00

Traffic tends to take a dive over the weekends - which makes sense being we're all out doing things over the weekend. But - I don't want to deprive our "hard core" fans (I'll give you a few minutes to stop laughing)...

...so I've decided to start a somewhat regular tradition: Weekend Links. This is a compilation of all the interesting stories, reports, and posts made around the web in regards to the main topics we deal with here: organizing, training, and building the Democratic Party and therefore the Progressive Movement.

This weekend features three great links:

Mobilizing Young Voters: Ideas to Win Elections from Eddie at Grassroots Brevard

The Progressive Politics of the Millennial Generation from the New Politics Institute (NPI)

Organizing Online Workers from Shai Sachs at MyDD

Of course for finding great links to things happening in the Florida Progressive Blogosphere throughout the regular week, there's the tremendously awesome "5 to Read" at the Florida Progressive Coalition, not to mention the great daily news roundup over at FLA Politics.

Steve Schale on Absentee Voting

2007-06-22T12:27:00.001-05:00

Steve Schale is the Political Director for Florida House Victory, the arm of the FDP dedicated to electing Democrats to the Florida House of Representatives. Steve was instrumental in Darren Soto's win in the special election in HD-49 earlier this year.

Successful absentee ballot programs require real resources. The Republicans
spend literally tens of millions each cycle on their program and have it
greased into a science. HD 49 was the first time we really invested a
substantial amount into a race like this for absentee ballots, and proved we
can go toe-to-toe when the resource ratio is closer to even.

In 2006, the FDP and the legislative caucuses also worked together on a
smaller program, which made a substantial difference in several races. It
is not like we haven't wanted to in the past, for example in HD 3, we did
not have the resources to run a comprehensive program, largely because we
made the decision in October 2006 that we needed to take advantage of our
chance to win now. Elections become about making the best decisions with
the resources you have available.

Volunteers can play an important role in absentee programs, but work much
better when added to the formula of paid phones, mail and staff. It is like
the old saying: Do not bring a knife to a gun battle--If we are going to
compete with them in the absentees, we have to do it all out.

Unfortunately, these days financially we cannot match them everywhere all
the time, which is why it is important to pick our spots, so where we do
play, we can do it right.

It will take time to train our supporters to vote by mail, but you are right
that it is important to start early. In addition, the new absentee rules
give local parties an excellent reason to begin canvassing voters,
especially in communities with lower voter turnout rates. This is where
your volunteer programs can make the biggest difference, because there is
the time to fully develop and execute a program.

One last thing on absentees, not even Katherine Harris could have stolen the
2000 elections if Al Gore had not substantially lost the absentee vote.
That may be the most important lesson to remember.

Some New Links

2007-06-22T11:33:00.000-05:00

I figure every time I add something new to the "Useful Links" list, I should at least promote them a bit and let you know why they're important. The two I've added today are one's I should have added a very long time ago.

Florida Democratic Chair's Association: The name gives it all away: this the organization representing all of the DEC chairs throughout Florida. Its a relatively "new" group which was actually brought back into existence after its fading a few years back. They're really just getting going. Nonetheless, this group has a big role to play in trying to get DECs on relatively the same page.

Small County Coalition: This group has been around for a while. Their goal is to help the 38 small counties (by "small" meaning a Dem registration below 30K) throughout Florida to build these unique communities into Democratic strongholds. Smaller counties are where DECs often (though not all the time) need the most assistance. The Small County Coalition is there to help.

Pushing Absentee Voting

2007-06-22T07:39:00.000-05:00

One of the big lessons I've learned for the Senate District 3 special election (which occurs on Tuesday), is the need for the Democratic Party, particularly local DECs to push absentee voting as early as humanly possible.

Republicans typically "out request" Democrats by around a 2 to 1 margin (sometimes even 3 to 1 or higher) in the absentee ballot column. At least this is the story in Marion County and most of North and Central Florida. This means that our Democratic candidates go into Election day with a vote deficit, which has to be overcome by both Early Voting (another area where Republicans tend to beat Democrats) and regular Election Day voting at the polls. And we wonder why we lose.

However, this was common knowledge in the Democratic activist community long before this special election - so why hasn't anything really changed? For starters, things have changed a bit in targeted races.

In the Special Election for House District 49 earlier this year, which was a race targeted by the Florida Democratic Party, heavy resources (phones, canvassers, knock and draggers, etc...) were spent on absentee and early voting. The Democratic candidate in the race, Darren Soto, won that election handily with 52.1% of the vote. Democrats bested Republicans in all three categories: Early Voting, Absentee Voting, and Election Day Voting. This was a district that was previously held by a Republican.

So its possible for Democrats to overcome Republicans in the critical absentee ballot column, but its not easy. Republicans have been training their voters for years to vote absentee, so this has become second nature to them. Democrats on the other hand haven't, and we're thus behind the curve. But, as HD49 demonstrated, Dems can do this.

How do we do this?

In Marion, for the SD-3 special election, we believed that converting our supervoters in absentee supervoters could be done. This was true to a degree. Some supervoters did make the switch, but most are very set in their ways. The Marion supervoter is a much older voter who has a long history of voting at the polls. So why all of the sudden should I vote by mail, regardless of whether it helps the party or the candidate? It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to them - a vote is a vote.

So a big lesson was learned: our recurring absentee voters probably won't be supervoters. Chances are, they're going to be younger and less frequent voters. These voters have jobs, families, lawns to mow, etc... Absentee voting (and early voting) is probably a lot more appealing to them.

I'll tell you by 2008 whether this strategy works...

In the meantime, DEC leadership should be stressing to party regulars, club leadership, and club members the importance of absentee voting. Here are the highlights I used to convert several dozen Democrats at the club level:

"Absentee voting is the most secure and safest method of voting." With the new law mandating paper trails, this statement is becoming less usable, but for the meantime it is. We're not sure how long its going to take the state to implement this new law. Until then, voting absentee guarantees a paper trail.

"Absentee voting = Votes in the bank." If more Democrats vote absentee, that means on Election Day, the DEC, the FDP, the DNC, and the campaigns can spend their precious resources on voters who actually need a push (irregular voters, younger voters, disabled or elderly voters, etc...) Democratic voter turnout will be much better, and more Democrats can get elected.

"Absentee voting helps our hard working candidates." Based on the reasons I cited above, absentee voting will help our candidates by putting votes for them "in the bank." They can concentrate the resources of their campaigns to getting more Democrats who typically wouldn't have voted out to vote.

"Absentee voting helps you." Absentee voting, in addition to being the safest and securest method of voting, is also the easiest and most efficient. By calling the local Supervisor of Election's office and giving them your name, date of birth, and verifying your mailing address, a request is made. Voters are done is less than a minute. The ballot is mailed to you, and all you have to do is fill it out and send it in with standard postage. This is the way its done in Marion, anyway.

One final suggestion for DECs in encouraging absentee voting is to use their websites by creating a webform for absentee voting. Completed forms are emailed to the local Supervisor's Office, and requests can be made that way as well. Blast emails sent out from the DEC can push supporters to vote absentee by giving them an easy link to the webform.

Absentee voting is critical to future Democratic victories, and DECs must play their part by strongly encouraging it among their membership and support base as well as building absentee voting into their field and campaign plans.

Broward Rebrands from DEC to Party

2007-06-21T04:34:00.000-05:00

PRESS RELEASE:
June 19, 2007
For more information, contact Mitch Ceasar, Chairman, Broward County
Democratic Party, (formerly the Broward County Democratic Executive
Committee) at 954-423-2200 or email info@browarddems.com

============
Broward County Democratic Executive Committee Rebranding Itself (Plantation, FL) The Broward County Democratic Executive Committee is rebranding itself the "Broward Democratic Party" as part of a new
marketing strategy designed to enhance the way it communicates with
voters. This initiative will serve to build recognition within the county
as to what the party´s role is, and strengthen public awareness about
local, county, state, and national issues and candidates in advance of the
next election.

"The use of the term `Democratic Executive Committee´ or
`DEC´ is common throughout the country," stated Chairman, Mitch Ceasar. "However, most voters don´t recognize it or know that it is, in fact, the official county party." "We want to call it what it is: the Broward Democratic Party."

Ceasar, who is also Democratic National Committee executive committee member, stated that this is the first step of an expanded communications strategy for Democrats, which will include an improved online presence and greater outreach to younger professionals.

"Broward County is vital to Democrats, and this next election has huge stakes for all Floridians. We´re determined to be proactive and bring more people into the process," he said.

###

Party Building Basics: Part 3

2007-06-20T10:18:00.000-05:00

As discussed in Party Building Basics: Part 2, once your calling program starts running, you need to have some infrastructure in place (discussed in PBB: Part 1) to plug potential volunteers and activists in. Today's post will focus on how to integrate these folks into the Democratic Party so they can have the most enjoyment and be the most productive.

Its All About Community: As "thekick" discussed in his comment yesterday in PBB: Part 2, Applebee's America is a must read for anyone working on organizing the Democratic Party and the Progressive Movement. The book stresses the current lack of community in the United States, and the fact that individuals are drawn to groups and organizations the fill that void. Megachurches are particularly good examples. There's a small group for everything: sportsmen Bible studies, a young mother's group, an athletic group, etc... Political organizations, like DECs, have to do roughly the same thing. If your volunteers don't feel they're valuable, if they're not rewarded, and if they don't feel a part of the group - they will leave. Of course, this speaks to the larger issue of how to DECs do their own small group thing to attract new activists and volunteers. That's another post for the near-future.

Have Good Training Programs: In my opinion, Democracy For America has the best grassroots training around. There's one in Tampa June 30th, if you're interested. I encourage you to go to one of these trainings and build off of the core ideas presented in DFA trainings as the foundation for your own. Every training should have practical, bullet-point like advice for people. It should be personal and give trainees an opportunity to do things hands on. For instance, do a phone banking training, and then actually give folks lists to take home and try out. Also, every good training has an evaluation form at the end for trainees to evaluate their trainers so trainings can be improved in the future.

Get People Moving Locally: In my opinion, the best way to keep volunteers is to make them feel that their time and talents are valued by the DEC. This means that we try and put new activists and volunteers into action as quickly as we can once they've been trained properly. I would also make sure that they're working in their own neighborhoods and communities as block captains, block leaders, or precinct captains. Getting to know one's Democratic neighbors can be a rewarding experience (hey! you're not the only Democrat on the block!)

Have A Plan/Program For Organizers: Your local volunteers and activists should be given a flexible plan for organizing their communities. Of course, DECs shouldn't just throw them in and watch - they need to make sure there's a set of people at HQ who work hand-in-hand with them. These should be folks who aren't just going to talk over the phone with local organizers, but folks who are willing to come down for the day and take the time and effort to make volunteers feel valued and appreciated. This is how we can keep up the momentum.

Organizing Young Voters: A Must Read

2007-06-20T10:05:00.000-05:00

College Progressive of Grassroots Brevard has written a fantastic post on the importance of organizing younger voters, and some pointers on how to actually do it. Read the post here.

Party Building Basics: Part 2

2007-06-18T13:37:00.000-05:00

Thanks to all of you for your patience...

With the essential elements described in Party Building Basics: Part I, the big question remains: now what do we do? This post, like all posts here at Reform Florida’s DECs are full of broad overviews, big ideas, with some specifics thrown in for good measure. However, every county in Florida is different. Each county has its own constituencies, its own unique issues, and its own colorful personalities and institutions. There is no such thing as a “one size fits all” model for Florida’s DECs to effectively build themselves up to be effective political institutions. The following ideas I present in this post are meant to serve as an outline – not an exact blueprint for success.

Go Grassroots: In my opinion, the best way to ensure electoral success is through grassroots organizing. In an ideal and perfect world, every DEC would have precinct captains in every precinct, with block captains working with them. That is far from the truth today in most (but not all) DECs here in Florida and around the country. This should be the goal of all DEC organizing efforts. It may take the most work – but it will pay your DEC and your community HUGE dividends years and years to come.

Remember to Target: Chances are, your DEC doesn’t have the resources to launch organizing efforts into every single precinct in the county. Just like in any decision, the DEC needs to prioritize. My suggestion is to go to the areas which need the most help, that is Democratic precincts who vote heavily for Democrats, but have piss poor turnout.

Set Up A Calling Program: If your DEC is anything like mine, you know that most of your activists aren’t necessarily canvassing types of people. However, most make decent callers. Work with FDP and come up with a good organizing script. The script should ask questions to gauge the level of support an individual has for the Democratic Party and what issues motivate them. Don’t forget to try and collect email addresses – the cheapest and easiest way to stay in touch and disseminate information! Give out lists of 100 to each caller to take home for a couple of weeks – it’s a lot more effective than trying to pull people into a phone bank for one night and only talk to 10-20% of the people on your list.

Again, Remember to Target: It’s probably a bit of a waste of time to have callers call every single registered Democrat in your targeted precincts. Then again, if there’s only a few hundred – go for it. If you have a couple thousand – its time to target again. My suggestion is talk to the Democrats who vote often, particularly the ones the vote in primaries.

Think Younger People: If you’re using FDP’s VAN system, you’ll probably notice that once you pull a list of active Democrats, particularly ones that vote regularly in primaries, that the average age is pretty high. In Marion, it’s around 73. No offense to the Greatest Generation, but even if you do find a good number of interested people, how much use can they be? They’ll make good callers for sure, but what about canvassing and being able to use a computer? The older the volunteer the less likely they’ll be able to deal with such important tasks. This is a big problem with DECs today: there are not enough people below 60 to get major tasks accomplished. So make sure that in your targeted lists that you’re throwing in a number of people below the age of 60 – you might be surprised about the number of potentially interested people.

Listen for Activists: This is the main point of all of this effort. Each wave of calling should turn up a handful of potential new activists and volunteers to start building the up the network. If a caller finds someone who seems interested about the party, has concerns about issues, is angry at the way things are, and/or are interested in our candidates – this is probably someone who needs to be talked to again.

Plug People In Immediately: Once lists are handed in, obviously data needs to be entered into VAN. In addition, all people listed as being potential volunteers should be handed over to the volunteer coordinator for immediate follow up.

Tommorrow will be final installment of party building basics: part three. That post will focus on the next level of party building: ideas for training and organizing new people as well as keeping up the momentum.

Another Postponment

2007-06-16T14:54:00.001-05:00

Sorry if I've disappointed anyone, but I'll be waiting until Monday to post Party Building Basics: Part 2 - I figure more folks will be able to read and enjoy it then.

Besides, its the weekend - what are you doing here anyway?!

Supporting Our Young Activists

2007-06-15T11:10:00.000-05:00

I'm helping put together a "Come Back Soon" Party for James Walker, an Iraq War vet recalled to duty in the middle of his campaign for state representative against Dennis Baxley in 2006. Therefore, the second part of Party Building Basics will have to wait until tommorrow. Until then, here's a nice caveat to tide you over.

As a 20 year old, I constantly get asked the question: "How come young people aren't involved" and "How come young people don't vote?" The answer to the first question is the start of the explanation for the second question: the progressive movement today doesn't feed its young people - it starves them. Read the article below and you'll see what I mean. Its a constant struggle people like me and many others have to deal with on a very regular basis:

When College Ends, So Does Activism

Unfortunately, local parties can only do so much here. They can put young people in leadership roles, and help get young people elected to local office (building a "farm team"), but in terms of helping them survive financially - DECs are very limited. This is something our progressive movement as a whole needs to address.

Party Building Basics: Part 1

2007-06-14T12:15:00.000-05:00

I see way too often DECs and progressive organizations going out to do party building/membership/volunteer recruitment without the basics to do it with. I also rarely see it all fitting into a larger plan - which means any results gained could possibly be short-lived. I'd like to open up the discussion today to focus around the basics of party building. By the way, the same tactics go for campaigns. Here are my ideas:

Good Party Leadership: This is often the hardest commodity to have, I know. I used to believe that even with poor leadership at the top, a dedicated activist can still get things done. This is only partially true: a dedicated activist can move the ball, but in terms of accomplishing things for the long-term, the possibilities of success are very limited. You have to have a party chairperson, vice-chairperson, secretary, treasurer, state committee people, and committee chairpersons who can work together effectively. They can (and probably will) have differences on a number of topics. This, by the way, is normal. If there aren't any differences between your leadership members - that's probably a sign that something is seriously wrong. At the end of the day, however, everyone needs to realize the larger goal of building the Democratic Party and electing progressive politicians. The DEC leadership also needs to be able to adapt. Plans should be built to be adaptable - because conditions can change instantly. The DEC leadership also needs to have some vision (a long term focus) and realize that just because you have a setback, doesn't mean you halt the program you're working on and start from scratch. Wrapping all of this up, DEC leadership needs to be able to work together, and create long term focused plans which can roll with the punches.

A Committee Dedicated to Party Building: In the Marion DEC, this entity is known as the Grassroots Development Committee (or GRD, pronounced "Gird".) I know other DECs have different entities dealing with this, but for the sake of brevity, I'll use GRD to describe the party building committee that your DEC has or should have. A good GRD chairperson is someone who has been a successful precinct captain or club leader. They need to know and understand the volatile nature and structure of the grassroots. They need to be able to figure out and juggle personalities - the Democratic Party is full of varying and...shall we say interesting personalities and psyches. Knowing how each person ticks can yield better results in volunteer recruitment and task allotment. When I talk to New Yorkers, the accent that my grandmother and mother has comes out slightly. When I talk to my friends in the peace community, I take some time to talk about the War and the peace movement before I ask them for help. You get the picture. This isn't sinister in my view, its being courteous of the people you're trying to recruit and get more involved. I view the Democratic Party as a community of individuals from diverse backgrounds and spectrums. Party builders should be very conscious of this.

A Volunteer Coordinator and System: When you find people who might be interested in getting involved, or you have them in your database, how do you manage them? You don't want them sitting on the database forever - those individuals might think you don't value them over time. You also want to be able to track how well they do with certain activities. A volunteer may say they like to phone bank, but if they have a voice that shatters glass - you're going to want so find another activity for them to do! Its also a good idea to track how long it takes volunteers to complete a certain list of calls, and how effective they are at getting information from the voters. Effective volunteers can make effective trainers as your operation grows.

To do all of these things, you need a volunteer coordinator who has the same abilities as your GRD chairperson: someone who knows the lay of the land, who can be patient, can juggle personalities, and in general get the job done. Your volunteer coordinator also needs to learn how to use the FDP's voter database, the Voter Activation Network (called "VAN".) The new version of VAN will contain volunteer database options. In the meantime, a simple access database (for a volunteer system over 100) or excel spreadsheet (for a volunteer system under 100) will do.

People Willing to Do the Work: We have way too many people in DECs who love to talk - but clearly don't want to lift a finger. They have golf games, haircuts, and the like. For the first stage of real party building (which I will start discussing tommorrow), you need a group of people who will be willing to do the phone call work to start getting in touch with your base. Don't bother with the dead weight of the DEC - they're not going to help you. Get the activists together and get going. More tommorrow...

Idea For "Blog Florida Blue" Logo

2007-06-13T13:45:00.001-05:00

Wanted to put an idea I had out there for critical review:

Obviously, this is something that's important to us in the Florida Netroots, as this is kinda going to be our brand look.

I'll also make it smaller to fit into folks' sidebars.

Don't hold back - be critical - this is important.

Update: You can find the smaller version in the "Proud Member" block on the sidebar.

More Lessons Learned at JJ

2007-06-12T22:53:00.000-05:00

Eddie of Grassroots Brevard (friend of this site) has written an excellent post summarizing the lessons he learned at the Youth Caucus during JJ weekend. Read it here.

Club Coordination: A Must Have

2007-06-12T10:12:00.001-05:00

Not all DECs have a lot of clubs. In fact, some have no clubs at all. In Marion, we have 10 chartered clubs, all geographically based. So its important for us to have some level of coordination. Its just as important for all DECs who have clubs to have a club coordinator, or someone who works solely with club leadership.

In Marion County, we had a great lady who organized and help start a lot of these clubs. Today, our DEC couldn't be more grateful. Through these clubs we have access into communities (6 of which are gated, restricted communities) where we wouldn't no anybody if it hadn't been for the presence of the club.

The problem that we have had is that because there has been little coordination, as well as leadership from the DEC after these clubs were started, clubs have grown to be very autonomous institutions. Some (not all) view the DEC as a pesky, intrusive group who only seem to show up when there's an election or the club needs to be rechartered.

We started changing this practice at the start of the new administration in January. The new chairman visited all of the clubs between January and March. He is set to tour them again starting this month to discuss progress and new challenges that we face ahead. This is a great start, and I would recommend other DEC chairs around the state do the same with their clubs.

But DECs have to do even more than this. There has to be a constant coordination process. This is why every DEC that has clubs should have a club coordinator. Even for DECs who don't have clubs, clubs are important, and they should try and appoint a club coordinator to go out and start new clubs (another post coming in the future.) Here are some things a club coordinator can do to make sure clubs are generally on the same page, and that they don't drift too far from their sponsoring DEC:

Create A General Program: Clubs can play a tremendously helpful role in building a DEC's field capacity - particularly if some (or all in Marion's case) are geographically based. Precinct captains? Block captains? General volunteers? Donors? All can be found within clubs. Remember, clubs should essentially be funnels for interested people to become activists and community leaders. The club coordinator can work with the DEC's coordinated campaign and field (precinct team, committee, whatever) teams to make sure clubs are doing their share of the heavy lifting.

Help With Branding: Every club should have a distinctive logo, which sets them apart from the rest. The club coordinator should work hard to make sure each club has the proper materials (brochures, business cards, letterhead, banners for events, etc...) to make them stand out and be effective in their communities. Remember, Democratic clubs can also be folks' first impressions of the Democratic Party - they need to look good.

Help With Communications: A good club coordinator should work with any techies that are working with the DEC to make sure every club has either its own website, or a subdomain within the DEC's website. They should either find someone in each club who can do basic editing to provide the web page with up-to-date information. The club coordinator should also make sure that clubs are advertising their meetings well in the local newspaper and through other media outlets. If your DEC has a robodialer, it can help raise awareness and attendance.

Assistance with Rechartering: Clubs have to recharter I believe every year (someone can correct me here if I'm wrong.) The club coordinator should work closely with each club to make sure everything is being done properly. They will be particularly needed if there's a new rule or regulation that's coming up (for instance, the whole registering as a PAC or CCE thing which occurred this year.) Having a knowledgeable club coordinator can prevent any miscommunication or confusion in the rechartering process.

Good, healthy clubs equals a good, healthy DEC.

GOP Losing Rural Support

2007-06-11T19:58:00.000-05:00

For all of our brothers and sisters working hard in the vast rural areas of our state, there is some comforting news from a new poll released by the wonderful Center for Rural Strategies. Here are some highlights:

* A slight majority of rural voters prefers a generic Democratic presidential candidate to a generic Republican candidate.
* War support is declining. Forty-five percent of rural respondents said the country should "stay the course" in Iraq, down from 51 percent in 2004.
* Rural people have a personal connection to the wars. Sixty percent know someone serving in the wars. One quarter say they have a family member serving in Iraq or Afghanistan.
* President Bush's job performance ratings have dropped 10 points (to 44 percent approve) since the 2004 election.

You can read the details here. Rural Florida, and indeed rural America will be a hard nut to crack for us, but it certainly can be done. Don't forget that farmers and rural folks were what started the Populist Party in the late 1800s. The Populists were the forerunners of the Progressive movement of the early 20th century which brought us child labor laws, women's suffrage, trust busting and business regulation, the initiative and referendum process, direct election of Senators, and environmental conservation. This laid the foundation for the modern Democratic Party under Woodrow Wilson, which reached its full fruition under FDR and subsequent Democratic presidents.

It all started with the farmers in rural America as a response to growing corporate domination. Sound familiar?

DEC Websites

2007-06-11T15:48:00.000-05:00

DEC Websites come in many formats. They are each unique and reflect the interests and focus of their respective counties. One thing that should be uniform to all, however, is UP-TO-DATE information. Voters will review these sites and make judgments about the viability of each DEC. We encourage Democrats to contact your DEC leadership about the need to have current and timely information on your DEC website. Just for starters, here are DEC websites of TampaBay.

Manatee DEC. Up to date! Has a current events calendar. Club list well done.

Pasco DEC. Linked precinct finder-nice touch. Good navigation.

Pinellas DEC. Archived Newsletters are up-to-date.

NEEDS REVIVING.
Hillsborough DEC. Hasn't been updated for many months. Candidates listed are from Fall 2006. Elected officials are out of date.

Update from Ray (6-12: 2:25pm): From cjohnson, who is a member of the Hillsbourough DEC. He says the DEC is focusing on rebuilding themselves right now after some past troubles. According to Curt, they need volunteers to help rebuild the organization there. Email him if you're in the area, and see what you can do. We here at Reform Florida's DECs are here to help and find solutions for our friends in need.

Building Local Progressive Blogospheres

2007-06-11T09:46:00.000-05:00

I've heard many times on Kos and MyDD, that the trend in blogging is towards the local level. This is absolutely correct. While there is still some frontier left at the state level (not in Florida though) in some portions of the country, the real possibilities lay in counties, towns, and neighborhoods. Local issues, local politicians, and local institutions need to be given the same critical analysis and research that the blogosphere has brought to the state, national, and international levels.

DECs can play a small role here. These local institutions are already home to community activists, who in turn have connections to other activists. Just 3-6 people can form the core of a wonderful local progressive blog. Of course, don't underestimate the power of one person to start a powerful local blog as well.

Individuals inside DECs should take it upon themselves to try and form a local progressive blog, which may or may not be affiliated with the local DEC. Each model has its benefits and drawbacks.

Here are some things that a good local progressive blog can do:

Raise Awareness: For candidates, community leaders, and voices of dissent, having a place to get their message out (other than the MSM) is an incredibly valuable tool. There aren't really any big media gatekeepers standing between you and the public.

Activist Recruitment: The blog world is a much different place that the DEC world. One of the funny (and awesome) things we found in the Marion DEC was that there were nearly a dozen people who were signed up on Party Builder, MyBarackObama, and OneCorps who were from Ocala/Marion County, who we had never met before! There are people in the blogosphere (and non-blog people, too) who don't even know that there is a local Democratic Party or Democratic club in their area. As a local progressive blog grows, it will naturally attract these people and funnel them into the local scene.

Hold Politicians Accountable: Accountability isn't just a scarce commodity in Washington! If you've ever spent time at the local level (particularly in Republican-held areas) - things can be just as bad - if not worse. Developers are buying off politicians, people are getting screwed, and special interests only seem to be benefiting. Sounds like a great set of posts! Rather than a DEC trying to set up something like a Government Oversight Committee to send activists to County Commission, School Board, Water Board, and City Council meetings, they can essentially outsource this critical task to the bloggers.

Push Progressive Issues: Did you know there are ways to enact public financing of elections at the municipal level? Did you know you can make your city compliant with the Kyoto protocol (here and here)? Sure you can! But why wait for the national groups to get their bloated butts down to your neck of the woods to make it happen? Local progressive blogs can bring these issues to light, and push them hard. DECs really don't have the time or the resources to spend on issues (they're organizing, recruiting candidates, and raising money to get the right people elected), so its up to local blogs to get the necessary policies in place.

Build Community: Having a place for local progressives to congregate besides the stuffy and sometimes frustrating DEC meetings and DEC committee meetings is a great thing. Local progressives need some place to go to vent, share ideas, and rally. A good local progressive blog can build that critical esprit de corps needed to move mountains.

This is all part of a larger idea I have, which I'll try and expand on in the future, which I like to call the idea of having DECs as progressive lend-leasers. Lend-Lease was of course, the WWII program that we used to help fund and supply our allies. Once again, more on that in the future.
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Changes to Political Party Organization in Florida

2007-06-10T10:40:00.000-05:00

A couple weeks ago I wrote up a summary of Florida HB 537 on Daily Kos detailing how we may have gotten a few things we didn't bargain for in addition to paper ballots. One of the things I left out of that summary are the changes that were made to the organization of political parties in the state. I'll go through those now.

Section 103.081 of the Florida Statutes dealing with the use of a party's name was amended to include this additional subsection:

(3) A political party may file with the Department of State names of groups or committees associated with the political party. Such filed names may not be used without first obtaining the written permission of the chair of the state executive committee of the party.

Section 103.091 of the Florida Statutes deals with the organization of political parties, particularly their executive committees at the both the state and county level.

Subsection (1) was amended to add:

Each state committeeman or committeewoman must be a member in good standing of the county executive committee for the county in which the state committeeman or committeewoman is a registered voter.

Subsection (4) was amended to provide an additional two weeks for those seeking to qualify for elected positions in the state or county executive committee.

Subsection (6)(b) concerns the composition of each state executive committee and adds that it shall include:

10 Florida registered voters who are members of the party as appointed by the Governor if the Governor is a member of the party

Section 103.161 is the real meat of the changes. It deals with the removal county executive committee members. It completely removes all the previous legislation that left it up to the state or county executive committee to take legal action to remove a county executive committee member and puts that soles in the hands of the chair of the state executive committee.

(1) The chairman of the state executive committee is empowered to remove or suspend from an office within the chairman's political party any officer, state committeeman, state committeewoman, county committeeman, county committeewoman, precinct committeeman, precinct committeewoman, or other member of a state executive committee, county executive committee, political party club, or other organization using the political party name as provided in s. 103.081 for a violation of the oath of office taken by such individual or for engaging in other activities described in this section.

(2) Such violation may include engaging in activities that have or could have injured the name or status of the political party or interfered with the activities of the political party. The chairman has sole discretion to determine if a violation occurred.

(3) Upon the chairman's determination that a violation of the oath of office occurred or that an individual engaged in other activities described in this section, the chairman may remove or suspend the individual from his or her office. If the chairman removes the individual from office, the office shall be deemed vacant upon the delivery of the chairman's written order of removal to the individual. When a vacancy in office is created, the chairman shall appoint an individual to serve through the end of the term of the office. If the chairman suspends the individual, the chairman shall determine the length of the suspension.

(4) An individual removed from office by the chairman shall not be eligible to serve on the state executive committee or any county executive committee of the political party for a period of no less than 4 years from the effective date of the removal.

As someone who wishes to help reform the party and encourage more grassroots involvement, I'm a little concerned about the shift to a more centralized authority structure where the chair can seemingly remove anyone at will or vanquish any group or club from using the party name.

It makes sense for Republicans where it is expected for members to be automatons who move in lock-step, but it doesn't seem very Democratic. We are a party in which members often disagree and I would hate to see those disagreements escalate into opportunites to oust people who are dedicated to the party, but may not share everything in common with the establishment.

What do you think of these changes?

JJ: The Netroots Unites, The Grassroots Validated

2007-06-09T21:30:00.000-05:00

Cross Posted: FLA Politics, Florida Progressive Coalition

What can I say? Where can I begin? Today was one hell of a day - and I mean that all in a good way. I went to JJ two years ago, and this was SO much more fun. For starters, I actually knew people. My Dad, Rick Perry and the Van Heydes from the Marion DEC, in addition to Ken Quinnel, gatordem, and many others were all there. Did I mention that other cool people like Karen Thurman, Nancy Pelosi, Dave Aronberg, and others were there, too!?

I could recite the whole day, but that would be ridiculously long - I'll point you to Ken Quinnel's masterful day-long coverage over at Florida Progressive Coalition. Don't worry, I called 911, and the EMT's are taking care of Ken's carpal tunnel as we speak.

The netroots really came together for the first time today. Not all of us were there, to be sure, but all were certainly there in spirit. HUGE kudos to meowmissy for suggesting this idea - and then following it up and working really hard to make it happen. Also a big thanks to Phil Perry and his team for pulling all the logistics together, and getting us credentials to cover the dinner with Speaker Pelosi. What a group of wonderful, practical people! Nonetheless, as typical Democrats and progressive do, we talked endlessly about various topics, and found it hard to focus on the subject at hand: planning a big netroots coming out party at the state convention. But we did, and I think we're going to have a really great shindig later this year. For now, I think were going to have several panels: technology and the blogosphere, why the netroots is critical to candidates, how the netroots and party (both state and DECs) can better work together, while each maintaining their integrity. I think we'll also have a panel on how to best promote our blogs and bring in larger audiences. The big draw is hopefully a prominent blogger as out guest speaker. I personally suggested the lead bloggers at Raising Kaine, a real model for statewide blogospheres to follow.

The other main lesson I learned today was how the idea of strong local parties and grassroots systems was validated - and validated again. It really hit home with me, after bringing Reforming Florida's DECs (which I plugged unmercifully today) back from the digital dead earlier this week. No matter where I went, whether it was the DEC chairs breakfast, the DCCA meeting, the Legislative Liaison and Campaign Committee, and particularly the Netroots luncheon - the same theme remained. We have incredibly smart, energetic, and passionate people at the FDP, which can use resources the best ways and come up with the best plans - but it all rests on the shoulders of the DECs, the grassroots, and yes, the netroots to get the job done. The conversation about how we modernize, streamline, and make more effective the grassroots is more critical than ever.

We Democrats and progressives stand at yet another crossroads. With a fresh round of victories behind us, will we rise to the challenge of building a long-lasting majority party and movement? Will we not only win elections, but push valuable issues and legislation with our new majority? And of course, will our communities be better than when we found them?

I know we can do all of these things, because the people I met today are patriots and know in their souls that this country can be better tommorrow than it is today.

At JJ For The Weekend

2007-06-08T12:17:00.000-05:00

Hey all. Wanted to let you know that I'll be at the Florida Democratic Party's Jefferson Jackson Dinner this weekend down in Hollywood, FL. I'll see if I have time to post anything this weekend. I'll certainly try!

If any of you are also going to be at JJ, if you see me, just say hi. I promise I don't bite :)

Applebee's America: A MUST Read

2007-06-08T10:43:00.000-05:00

I bought Applebee's America: How Successful Political, Business, and Religious Leaders Connect with the New American Community last summer, after hearing about it from a few liberal blogs as a great new resource for organizers. It exceeded even my expectations. The book attacks many conventional wisdoms that are out there: that policy talks are more critical than community connections, that media buys win elections rather than grassroots organizing. Applebee's was written by infamous Bush strategies Matthew Dowd, Clinton strategist Douglas Sosnik, and journalist Ron Fournier.

Americans are becoming increasingly isolated, and are looking for community. Businesses, political organizations, community groups, and mega churches have figured this out. They do their homework - through demographic data, microtargeting, and long term planning. It is only after these things are accomplished do these institutions build themselves. The name of the game of staying afloat is appealing to niche markets and groups of people. Businesses like Delta have spun off branches such as Song, which appeals to a younger audience. Megachurches have small groups. Because these small groups and niche markets attract people of similar tastes - community is formed.

DECs are institutions which have to pay attention to these lessons. We're on the front lines of the Democratic Party, and its mostly up to us to form these critical community connections. For specifics, buy the book. Its required reading for the Marion DEC Steering Committee. All have found the book to be incredibly informative, eye-opening, and thought-provkoing.

Buy the book by clicking on the picture-link above. Some of the earnings will go to help Reforming Florida's DECs stay in business. Thanks to all our supporters!

What A Good Website Can Do

2007-06-07T12:28:00.000-05:00

Expanding on yesterday's post on the need for DECs to have a website, today's post will discuss a few things that a good website can do.

Let People Know You Exist: If you include your website on your press releases, logos, and on most of your materials - this will drive traffic. As word spreads, your website will become the first impression many people have of your DEC.

Voting Absentee: GOTV strategies are slowly losing relevance to GITV (Getting IN the Vote) strategies to get votes in the bank before election day in the form of absentee and early votes. A webform can do the trick of increasing absentee turnout nicely. Just have the results of the website emailed to your Supervisor of Elections. You'll obviously need to coordinate with your county SoE to see whether they allow requests to be emailed, and if they do, what is the correct email address to send the information. We did this in Marion County in 2006, and we had several dozen folks request their absentee ballots this way (including yours truly.)

Recruiting Volunteers: Having a webform for volunteers is another great resource to have. Make sure you get all the relevant contact information (particularly their email address), their interests, times they can work, and any special skills they have. Have the webform email results to your volunteer coordinator or the appropriate party official for quick personal follow up.

Contributions: The ability to contribute online is a quick and easy way for the party to get the resources it needs. However, a slight warning: I've generally found that older folks, including those who surf the web often, don't trust giving online (fearing ID theft and the like.) Giving online is also very impersonal and distant - there isn't the instant "Thank You!" from a fellow warm body. So don't be surprised if your contributions page doesn't make you rich overnight. There are several ways to accept contributions online. The two most used I've seen is PayPal and Click and Pledge. If you're using the Drupal package, the somewhat complicated CiviCRM package is the best way to start accepting contributions.

Build A Strong Mailing List: A good mailing list will allow you to regularly communicate with your support base and keep them informed, drive traffic to your website, and organize more efficiently. With the Drupal package, in order to have an account to do much of anything, you have to give your email address. If you're not using the Drupal package, you can use what we use here at Reform Florida's DECs: Bravenet. I've also seen feedblitz used. I'm sure there are plenty others.

This is a good list of things a great website can help DECs do. There are others, but these are the core benefits.

Update: I should add I will be more than willing to help build or reconstruct your DEC's website. I'll work out a workable price.

Websites for DECs

2007-06-06T11:48:00.000-05:00

No matter how small the county - every DEC should have an effective web presence. This is one area where many DECs fall short. Websites are viewed as an amenity rather than an essential. These vital pieces of infrastructure will only become more important as time goes on. This is because more and more people are using the Internet as a means of getting their information, staying informed, shopping, meeting people, and having fun.

DECs have to evolve with the times. Good websites can yield significant results for DECs in terms of volunteer recruitment, contributions, network development, and keeping your supporters well informed and up to date.

What stops many DECs from building a website is the potential complexity and cost. This is only true to some degree. If you're familiar with navigating the web, and using Microsoft Office applications such as Word and Excel (possibly Access) - then you can probably maintain a website.

Building one isn't that complex, either. The only real technical knowledge you may need is a bit of knowledge of HTML, and possibly (though not likely) in CSS. You can learn all the things you need to know and more about HTML and CSS here.

You can certainly build a website purely on HTML and CSS, but that would take a lot of time. There are several packages out there which can do most of the work for you - you just have to fill in the spaces. The package I recommend is Drupal. With this book on Drupal, installing and configuring is easy, easy, easy.

This is what we're doing with the Marion DEC website, which should be released at the end of the summer. I'll talk more about things you can do with a good DEC website later today.

Young Voter Mobilization Tactics

2007-06-05T13:44:00.001-05:00

Interesting new report out by the Young Voter Strategies site. I'm going to try and read it this week.

Young Voter Mobilization Tactics: Lessons from 2006 House and Statewide Campaigns(.pdf)

If you want a nice quickie, here's the Top Ten Tips to Mobilize Young Voters.

Young Voter Strategies is an excellent resource which I invite all of you to visit every now and then.

Clubs: The Peril...and the Promise

2007-06-05T13:20:00.000-05:00

Throughout my time in the DEC, Democratic clubs have consistently been portrayed as "problems." "They don't do anything", "They're all too old", "What a royal pain in the ass", are some of the sample phrases I've heard. I, too have been frustrated with clubs. Its often like trying to herd cats.

You've seen me write about clubs before, and what they could do if they were better organized.

However, with a bit more experiences under my belt, I want to talk some more about these vital institutions.

Clubs, in my opinion, have been "such a pain" largely because there has been minimal to zero DEC oversight. The DEC is too busy trying to keep its own house together, than it doesn't have the time, the people, or the resources to deal with clubs, which are miniature versions of the DEC. Clubs have been left to their own devices, and because of that, they have found the best way to survive is to be as independent as possible from the DEC and from any outside force.

So when the latest round of regulation came down, requiring that in order for clubs to re certified by the state party - they would have to register as PACs for financial purposes - you would think they were asked to switch parties or something! We were getting calls from frustrated club presidents, saying their clubs wouldn't be able to re certify, as they couldn't get anyone to do the job of being treasurer. To refresh everyone's memory, reporting contributions and expenditures every quarter isn't rocket science. Candidates have to do it, and often in more frequent intervals. So you can understand the frustration on the DEC's end, hearing the blood and tears coming from the clubs.

However, this is also an opportunity. Clubs will undoubtedly fold because of this. But is it a bad thing? If a club can't get the wherewithal to do the very simple task of financial reporting - then they probably won't be able to step up to the plate on bigger items - like actually organizing their communities and beating the Republicans.

Another great opportunity that is presenting itself is the possibility of building new clubs with some youth in them. Most clubs in Marion County and around the state have an average age in the mid 60s probably. Typically people below 60 (the boomers and my generation) don't join "clubs." Clubs are synonymous with old men wearing red fez caps and singing ridiculous songs and performing embarrassing rituals.

We're going to have to transform the club model to make it work for younger people...but that's another post.

A Big, Long Overdue Update

2007-03-21T16:04:00.000-05:00

...It's been a while.

My last post over here at my very first blog was (whew) July 26th of last year. Well, a little thing called the 2006 Elections got in the way. I gladly became the campaign manager for James Walker, an Iraq War veteran who had this crazy idea that the people in State House District 24 (Marion County- Ocala, Belleview, Silver Springs Shores, Ocklawaha, Summerfield) wanted an alternative to uber right wing Dennis Baxley. I need a job that paid over the summer, and through this wonderful medium known as the blogosphere, I made a contact up at the state party, and they let me become James' campaign manager.

Needless to say, it was all quite the roller coaster ride. James was recalled to duty in Iraq days before the primary (September 2nd, I believe), as James is a part of the Instant Ready Reserve (IRR) have already done active duty in Iraq during the 2003 invasion and subsequent occupation. James nonetheless decided to stay in the race. Despite overwhelming odds, James did better than any Democrat had in the district since the early 90s with 44% of the vote. The last Democrat who ran against Mr. Baxley was during Mr. Baxley's first run for state representative in 2000. The Democrat was a well-known county commissioner who managed to be within the ballpark in terms of fundraising (she raised around $120K to Mr. Baxley's $150K.) She only managed 41% of the vote in a district which was more Democratic than the one James ran in (due to the 2002 redistricting.)

Looking back, I had a lot of fun, overall. It was a tremendous learning experience which I will cherish and look back on forever. As the election was winding down, however, I noticed that the one thing which was seemingly gumming up the works when it came to getting Democrats elected in Marion County, was, you guessed it - the DEC. Now, I'm not blaming any one person, it was all of us (I was a DEC member too, after all.) We won a county commission seat back, which was fantastic, but we lost the other one by only 1,675 votes out of 98,049 cast. We were by no means organized, so I wondered with just some semblance of a better organization, we could have elected two county commissioners to the county commission, sweeping that set of races. It would have also set us up for having an easy shot at taking back the majority on the Commission by 2008.

I knew we were going to need a fresh, bold approach for the 2008 elections. There was a lot of change that needed to happen. I didn't see anyone at that time who could do this job. I knew what I had to do - I had to run for DEC chair. For the next few weeks, I put myself before the Nominating Committee and argued my case. Alas, they couldn't quite bring themselves to put a 20 year old in charge of the party. I understood their sentiment and did my best to persuade them otherwise, they still wouldn't quite budge. One member of the Nominating Committee, who is a friend of mine, knew that I wasn't going quietly, and so he called my father and asked him if he would like to be chairman. Funny, the night before the call I was talking with my Dad about the whole process and said the only person who I would want to be chair other than me would be him. Dad accepted and called me to let me know the news. I was initially miffed that I had been outmaneuvered, but glad that Dad had accepted. You see, my father is a Presbyterian minister by trade, and has worked for the past 25-30 years with churches, community groups, and overall, failing organizations. He's a tremendous orator, organizer, and a good human being.

So from now on, I'll be posting about the things we're doing in Marion County in general terms. I think you all understand why I can't be too specific.

A lot of my ideas about DECs have been tweaked a bit, while some I've changed by opinion on. However, my core beliefs remain: DECs are the key to reviving both the Democratic Party, the Progressive Movement, and civic life in this great state of ours. We must do everything we can to rebuild and reform them.

Democratic Professionals Forum: A Success Story

2006-07-26T08:35:00.000-05:00

In the rather bleak landscape of the current state of progressive infrastructure in the state of Florida, one shining exception is standing out: The Democratic Professionals Forum.

These forums, just started a little over a year ago, have done what DECs have so far failed to do: broaden the base of the Democratic Party away from older activist crowd and dig deep into the mostly untapped young business professionals community.

As Bryan Miller (a member) put it, "I was sort of imagining it as a Democratic Chamber of Commerce."

You can read the full article in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel here.

DECs take note: starting something like a professional's forum as well as other constituency councils will bring badly needed fresh voices and resources into the Democratic Party. Its time we take seriously our obligation as a political party to become community partners.

Constituency Councils

2006-07-11T15:31:00.001-05:00

So far, our discussions about DECs have revolved around structure and procedure. We haven't focused too much yet on outreach.

There are many constituency or issue groups in many of Florida's counties. DECs should be making every effort to connect with these groups, network with their leadership and organization(s), and overall forge new community partnerships.

I believe these parnterships can best be formed through Constituency Councils, a group of 5-10 influential or supportive Democrats of a certain constituency or issue group. Here are a few possible Constituency Councils which a DEC can form:

Small Business/Economic Development Council
Women's Council
African American Council
Hispanic/Latino Council
LGBT Council
Youth Council (or Young Democrats)
Senior's Council
Education Council
Environmental/Growth/Quality of Life Council
Healthcare Council
Families Council
Worker's Council (legal issues might be involved here if Union members get involved, not sure though to be honest)
Religious Council

Not only can these groups be conduits to the communities they represent, they can be extensions of the DEC's policy and fundraising arms. These groups can be asked to assist in the research for a policy report, or host a fundraiser and use their community contacts to boost attendance and raise needed funds.

The benefits of having a number of Constituency Councils, as alluded to in the previous paragraph, are numerous. Various councils can connect the DEC with the community. Let's face it, DEC members are very political people, the vast majority of citizens and voters are not. Also, DEC members may not be the greatest cross-section of the county and need outside voices to let the Party know what's going on on the ground in the community. Therefore, community concerns can be quickly identified and responded to or communicated to the appropriate public officials and bureaucrats by DEC staff or volunteers.

Even with all of these benefits, I think the greatest benefit is a transformation of how the public views its local Democratic Parties. Even though the local party's main responsibility is electing and reelecting Democratic candidates to public office, the public will increasingly view the Democratic Party as more than that: a community institution devoted to increasing the quality of life for all people.

Precinct Organizing: The Path to the Promised Land

2006-04-19T19:18:00.000-05:00

NOTE: This is crossposted from MyDD and DailyKos. The material here applies to our efforts to rebuild Florida's DECs - precinct by precinct.

The path to a Democratic majority and possibly subsequent realignment will be paved with the work of precinct captains and the volunteers they are so key in bringing into the process. However, this post isn't completely focused the importance of precinct captains and precinct-level organizing. This post is mainly focused on the question I've been asked over and over again: how are precinct-captains recruited and therefore how are precincts organized?

As a prospective precinct captain for precinct 3230 in Marion County, Florida, I have a few ideas.

First, a little background information. Late President Harry Truman once said that being a precinct captain was the most important job he ever had. It's up to a precinct captain to get members of their respective political party (for our uses Democrats) as well as independents to get out and vote for their party's slate of candidates. Put simply, precinct captains often make or brake elections for candidates.

Democrats cannot expect to truly build a strong majority and realign the public toward progressivism until it has precinct captains in as many precincts as possible. We already know what happens when Democratic precinct captains are nonexistent. West Virginia (as discussed in this Hotline article) is a perfect example.

However, building a strong precinct organization is a lot easier said than done. I know in my home county, Marion County, Florida, has 140 precincts. The local county party (what is called a Democratic Executive Committee or DEC here in Florida) has only managed to have at least 1 precinct captain in just roughly 50 of those precincts. Among that group of folks, roughly 30-40 are active and at least come to monthly meetings (though I have to confess, even though I'm friends with all of them, they do little else.) Just organizing a single precinct can be a taxing activity for a local party (if they're even engaged in this important responsibility at all.)

Here's how I believe a precinct should be organized:

1.) Get a list of all the registered Democrats in the targeted precinct (from your local supervisor of elections, or whoever managed elections in your county - in Florida the state party has provided each county party a way to access this information quickly and easily.)

2.) Take the list of registered Democrats, and pull out those Democrats who have voted in 4 out of the last 4 elections (including primaries.) These are committed Democrats.

3.) Get a team together (hopefully a county party's precinct committee or whichever person or institution that should be dealing with this, again if there is such an entity.) Find a central meeting place and prepare for a meetup.

4.) Send out a snail mail invitation (preferably hand-written, sorry, but this is far more likely to get read) to all the "4/4" Democrats to the meetup.

5.) Coordinate a phone bank to call all of these active Democrats to coincide with the arrival of the snail mail and encourage them to attend.

6.) At the meetup, discuss the need to organize the precinct and how it figures into the larger Democratic strategy. Set some dates for a few (3-4) more meetups.

7.) At the subsequent meetups, discuss local issues and ideas on how to solve them, invite candidates to come speak - and always have free food. Hopefully, some leaders might emerge.

8.) At the final county party sponsored meetup, ask the group to elect a captain and turn over control of the small organization to the captain. But don't just walk away! Always have something there for the precinct captain to fall back on and get support from within the county party.

However, I don't think anyone would argue that the best way to organize a precinct is for someone interested to come forward and agree to stop complaining, and start leading.

We in the blogosphere should take note. To all the bloggers who only blog and haven't given a dime to a campaign, or more importantly, your local or state party (or even the DNC), or haven't volunteered, or who aren't a precinct captain: you should change your ways.

We all want to see the Democratic Party succeed in 2006 and beyond. However, there's a difference between those who talk about victory (or complain about existing inefficiencies) and those who work to make victory happen. I hope that we in the blogosphere will take a closer look at what's happening in our communities (though I don't want to diminish the efforts of those in the blogosphere who blog as well as work for change at the local level) and be the change we want to see.

DEC Evaluations: Defining Progress and Direction

2006-04-18T15:23:00.000-05:00

The other day as I was filling out the traditional evaluation forms for my professors (an end of the semester ritual), I began to think about how this idea of evaluations could work for DECs.

Currently, DECs march forward without a real plan of action, either for the short term election cycle, or for the long term. DECs tend not to have sets of goals to shoot for, and even if they've defined goals (for instance, "elect more Democrats to office"), they don't provide a way to meet those goals.

I believe regular (quarterly, every half year, or every year) evaluations of DECs by the Florida Democratic Party (FDP) will give DECs badly needed focus and direction.

DECs should be evaluated in 4 main categories:

1.) Organization:

How many active precinct captains are available to the DEC versus how many precincts exist in the county?
Are precinct captains doing their job and are communities truly organized?
Are precinct captains being trained, if at all? Are they trained regularly?
How many volunteers are available to the DEC?
How many donors are on the donor list?
Are there volunteer and donor lists at all?
Does the DEC have a headquarters or office space.
Does the DEC completely rely on volunteers, or has it hired staffers to coordinate central operations?

2.) Fundraising:

How much money as the DEC raised in comparison to the local Republican Party?
How much money has it spent and what has it spent it on? Is fiscal responsibility being applied?
Has the DEC created a budget and distributed it regularly to its membership?
Has the DEC established fundraising goals and defined where it needs to spend money in order to win (budgetary priorities)?
Has the DEC created a recurring donor program? How effective is it, and what has been done (or not done) to make it effective?

3.) Communication:

How (or if) has the DEC interacted with the press?
How well has the DEC communicated its message to the public? Does it even have a message to be communicated?
Has the DEC promoted positive stories, or incurred negative ones?
How well does the central leadership communicate with its precinct captains, volunteers, and donors?
How well does the DEC communicate and coordinate with candidates and their campaigns whether in terms of planning or in the field?
Does the DEC have someone or a committee assigned to be a liason with the press?

4.) Electoral Performance

How well has the DEC and the Democratic Party done in recent elections (this can be as small as municipal races or as large as a presidential race) in the county?
Have there been improvements from election cycle to election cycle?
How many Democratic candidates are running for office? Are Republican incumbents sufficiently being challenged? Are there Democrats running for open seats?
Has progressive legislation and ordinances been successfully implemented at the county level, or has legislative gridlock taken hold? What has the DEC done to promote progressive ideas and legislation at all levels throughout the county?

I'll leave it up to the FDP to decide how to score all of this. Obviously, there are some aspects of a DEC which should be valued more than others. The score should be simple to understand however. DECs should be graded just like a standard test: a percentage (1-100%) indicating a certain letter grade (A-F). Obviously, the grading scale would be the same as any school's: 90-100% is an A, 80-89% a B, 70-79% a C, 60%-68% a D, and 59% and below an F.

Once again, I believe such evaluations will give the DECs needed focus and direction. If a DEC scores well in fundraising, but poorly in communication, then this tells a DEC that their communication apparatus (or lack thereof) needs to be reevaluated. And more specifically, if a DEC scores poorly in communication because they don't have a press secretary/spokesperson or a public relations committee, then the DEC will know clearly that they need to hire a press secretary and/or create a public relations committee.

The FDP, in addition to providing a critique of a DEC through an evaluation, should also provide some ideas on how to solve the problem. By that point the FDP should have an array of programs and options to help and enhance DEC performance (more on that to come in a later post.)

"Taking Over" Local Parties

2006-04-15T14:46:00.000-05:00

NOTE: This was a big hit at both DailyKos and MyDD. Enjoy!

"Let us begin anew - remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness and sincerity is always subject to proof."

- President John F. Kennedy

Mike (of flapolitics.com) reminded me of several stories that fellow blogger Chris Bowers wrote over at MyDD on the reforms happening inside the Democratic Party in the City of Philadelphia. Chris recently became a ward captain in a system which is becoming increasingly composed of more and more reformers intent on changing the structure and operations of the stagnant and entrenched party. Of course, the establishment figures inside the party are freaking out, and conflict seems to be possibly looming (though Chris I'm sure can agree or disagree with this). I hope that the reformers will keep their cool and continue to push for change in a positive context, while the establishment will slowly begin to realize that change must be realized if the party is to move forward and be effective.

As I've said in a previous post, reformers are beginning to make themselves known in Florida's local parties, the Democratic Executive Committees, or DECs.

Let me say first that I am 100% in favor of comprehensive reform for Florida's local parties. Most (though certainly not all) are currently ineffective institutions with little political relevance to local and state politics (when they should be the most important in terms of elections and grassroots organization and mobilization.)

Many find out how bad their local Democratic Party is a combination of three main ways. They (1) either read about it (I personally remember reading references in Stupid White Men and Crash!ng the Party.) They (2) have been avid followers of Howard Dean, his presidential campaign, his subsequent organization Democracy for America (DFA), and the campaign to make him chair of the DNC (I personally have been apart of all three to some degree.) I think folks find out most often how bad their local party is by (3) showing up to a meeting and seeing its mind-boggling chaos and shouting heads first hand. These folks almost instantly realize that this is no way to run things - and they essentially become reformers (now also known as "Gate Crashers").To them the party must be "taken over."

Reformers (whether they are DFAers or frustrated newcomers) approach this disheveled institution in two ways. Unfortunately, the main way that I've personally seen is in open anger and frustration. When party leaders demonstrate their usual ineffectiveness, sometimes ignorance of an issue, or even sometimes outright arrogance, reformers lash out and try and verbally beat them to death. The second way, the path less traveled (again, from my experiences), is through steady, smart, and positive action. These reformers realize that they way to best reform an organization in the quickest and easiest way is not to wage open warfare, but to work with the leadership, and begin the process of reform. They know they don't know all there is to know because they read one book or even a few books or blog posts. They join committees (even though they know they're ineffective and don't do much) and begin to slowly but surely take over certain operations which the committee should be doing, while learning from folks who have done party operations in the past. If this is done by just a handful of reformers inside a DEC - the party has a very bright future.

Granted, these "takeovers" (I really don't like this term, to be honest, its more negative and seems to promote hostility) haven't been very organized. There usually isn't some sort of plot by an outside group (such as DFA, as many establishment folks would like to believe) planning a takeover step-by-step at some secret location. Often, reformers just pop in randomly. Unfortunately, such sporadic efforts do tend to create more unnecessary conflict. Those who seek change should try to loosely organize themselves (so as not to provoke establishment figures who may view such activities as extremely threatening, and act accordingly.)

To wrap this up, reform needs to happen, but reformers need to realize that even though they can probably do a better job, they're not experts. They must also know that the best avenue to change is through openness, friendliness, and tolerance. Granted, resistance is probably inevitable, but the smart reformer will use truth, combined with their friends and growing network to continue to gradually push for change. Reformers who believe that establishment leaders, who can be ineffective and frustrating, need to be "put in their place" by yelling, bullying, and intimidating them into submission, will be quickly rebuffed, and will find themselves increasingly marginalized.

The bottom line: those who best represent the values of the Democratic Party will be the ones who lead it.

The DEC and Campaigns: Drawing the Line

2006-04-09T16:02:00.000-05:00

Many, though not all of Florida's DECs at this point just don't have the resources to wage a full comprehensive campaign on all fronts at the local and state level. They can't exactly put money and volunteers into all of the campaign's running for county commission, school board, and the legislature. Though I would also say, when has this ever not been the case?

DECs must do the hard work of drawing the line of what it will do to help campaigns and what campaigns will need to do on their own. After all, campaigns are somewhat of a measure of how well a candidate can organize themselves and be a good public servant.

The DECs role at the end of the day is to build the party (and thus help elect candidates.) After all, campaigns and politicians come and go, but there needs to be an institutional constant which helps guide ideas over the long term.

Here's what DECs should do to help campaigns:

Recruit precinct captains in as many precincts as possible. These precinct captains should be given proper training on their job and how to do it. One of their main jobs should be to recruit as many volunteers as possible, and if leaders emerge, designate them to be representatives for certain campaigns, thus building the grassroots network for candidates and campaigns.
Raise money to help out initially those campaigns which are the most competitive and whose campaigns are the most competent. If more monetary resources become available, DECs should give to campaigns which are considered "long shots" (this helps tie down Republican resources which would normally go toward competitive races), however they should be wary of giving to campaigns which don't seem competent. Campaigns which don't have their act together (campaigns which don't seem to be going out into the public that often, or don't have their priorities straight) will waste resources given to them and it won't be worth the investment.

Campaigns should realize that they need to do the following, and not wait for the DEC:

Plan a Get-Out-The-Vote (GOTV) campaign.
Plan an absentee ballot and early vote campaign.
Raise money for campaign functions
Organize phone banks, canvassing efforts, direct-mail, and media efforts

Despite each entity's role, it doesn't mean they can't ever collaborate or work together to get certain tasks done. DECs have volunteer and donor lists (or should have them or are developing them) which will be valuable to campaigns and should be shared. Anything the DEC plans to do in terms of advertising or getting their overall message out should be coordinated with campaigns. In turn, individual campaigns should share their GOTV, absentee and early vote campaigns, and planned days of canvassing, phone banks, direct mail, and media efforts, with the DEC so the DEC can play the middle man and avoid overlap or voter irritation in the form of over contacting by all of the campaigns.

Working together and knowing each other's roles, the DEC and individual campaigns will enhance each other's efforts, present a united front capable of real leadership to the public, and greatly increase the chances of victory.

The Role of Clubs

2006-03-28T16:20:00.000-05:00

When I first got involved in real politics (I was in student government before I got involved in the Democratic party, and even though in student government there is certainly politics, its not exactly the real deal) I was introduced to the local Democratic Party through the local club, in this case the South Marion Democratic Club.

Contrary to what many say are dying institutions in the local Democratic scene, I believe clubs will be critically important to the party's future.

However, critics of clubs do have their points. They say that clubs are on their way out for a reason. Here's why:

Clubs have become too social.
Clubs, in some cases, have become too exclusionary (they build an establishment which doesn't want to deal with new people over time.)
Clubs have lost their focus.
Clubs don't know where they fit in the overall picture.
Clubs are seen as ineffective in the overall political scene.

To be honest, I have seen all of these elements in local clubs, though not all at once. Also, many in clubs see these problems, yet are unsure about what to do about them.

I believe that we can move clubs back toward political and institutional relevance by defining or redefining their role in the DEC. Because too many clubs have been left up to themselves to figure out what they should do, you get the kind of disorganized and inefficient clubs that you do see (to be fair, not ALL clubs are like this, there are still many of effective clubs throughout the nation.)

Clubs should focus on the following aims (this is their role):

Precinct Organizing: The county DEC should divide up their county into regions (based on precinct lines) with clubs at the center of each region. It should be the individual club's responsibility to recruit precinct captains for each precinct in the area. The very process of organizing a single precinct (which will be discussed in an upcoming post) will generate new membership for the club as well as a new pool of volunteers and donors not only for the club, but for the DEC and campaigns.

Introducing Citizens To The Party: Let's face it. The vast majority of citizens in your area are probably not that politically active : you're the weird one. So when new members are added to clubs through precinct organizing and overall outreach, it should be the club's goal to introduce citizens to what the Democratic Party is and stands for, as well as local candidates.

Keeping Citizens Educated and Smart: One of the main reasons I believe our democracy has been so damaged recently is because most citizens don't have a clue what's going on (especially at the local and state level) - and this includes Democrats! Democratic clubs should be extremely active in holding community meetings and seminars on the important issues of the day, and bringing in speakers and public officials which can shed light on these issues. They should also be invovled in researching issues.

In short, clubs should be the outreach vehicles for the county DEC. The ideas mentioned above don't sacrifice the social factor which has kept clubs vibrant institutions inside the DEC. Having parties (including free food and punch - staples of a standard club meeting) can be incorporated into organizing precincts as well as in community meetings and seminars.

If clubs begin to realize their role as outreach vehicles, they will become the most important institutions outside the actual DEC. Most importantly, the Democratic Party and the state of democracy here in the United States will be much better off.