New DNC field directors from WI, SD, and OK were in DC for training.

[madfloridian]

Joe Rospars of the DNC has a good post up at Kos on the 50 state strategy. He does a very good job of explaining it, and there are some excellent comments.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/29/121025/166

When he first started talking about needing to create a staff in all 50 states, I was like "What the hell do you MEAN the DNC didn't already have staff in all 50 states?"
This is a very common response to Gov. Dean's talk about putting organizers on the ground in every state. Here's the real deal --

Joe Rospars's diary :: ::
In reality, state party folks out there and people who have been through several tours of duty at the DNC say they have never seen anything like this organizing program -- even though lots of people presumed that this whole operation existed.

The big question hanging out there, of course, is the funding of this whole operation. In off-years in the past the DNC has been outraised by Republicans by as much as 4 to 1. Dean's DNC has cut this gap in half, to 2 to 1 -- but the prospect of hiring 150+ organizers on top of everything else is a big deal, and a huge new commitment.

That's why the Democracy Bonds community is a core of Dean's financial plan for the party. Getting a whole lot of people making monthly contributions will provide the financial stability you need to sustain and grow the ground operation for 5, 10, 15 years.

The party can't do what it needs to do only raising money in single surges that depend on the political environment, or the proximity of an election.

And an interesting statement from the comments section there by VirginiaBelle. I had not thought of the strategy in just his way before.

The DNC has always been decentralized, moreso than the RNC which started to centralize in the 70s as a response to continued Democratic dominance, and, at least in my personal view, because of Nixonites obsession with control. The DNC didn't have state operatives because the DNC was really just an umbrella group for 50 separate organizations called the state Democratic parties.

What went wrong is that various state parties went into atrophy over time and failed to sustain themselves. Essentially, the state parties went out of business and the decentralized nature of the DNC didn't support it. Think of it like McDonald's. Some McDonald's make more money than others, and some of those McDonald's profit is used to sustain the less profitable McDonald's. We didn't do that, so now many states have no McDonald's (state parties).

The 50 state strategy is a centralization of power in the national organization that will essentially support lesser states, but also make all states more accountable to the national organization. The DNC is no longer a dormant umbrella that puts on a convention, but the main organ for fundraising and candidate recruitment. To go back to the McDonald's metaphor, instead of a bunch of franchises, we'll now have direct, corporate owned stores. It's a major power grab. But also a good idea in many ways.

And yesterday the DNC posted some more political directors from the states who were in DC for training. They are from WI, SD, and OK. Here they are with Governor Dean at HQ.

When we talk about the importance of building a community of Democrats committed to a stable party, we aren't talking about abstractions. Under Gov. Dean's 50-state strategy, we're hiring local organizers from every state in the nation to build a solid, permanent Democratic organization in their states.

Recently hired organizers from Wisconsin, South Dakota, and Oklahoma came to Washington for a two-day training session, and they visited with Gov. Dean in his office.

And all the above reasons are good ones. Buy your Democracy Bonds.

http://www.democrats.org/democracybonds.html

[MaineDem]

1. The new Maine staff goes to DC in a week

This is good!

[ladylibertee]

2. They sure as hell need to send one here to Wisconsin because I am so

disgusted with Feingold and Kohl...Assholes.

[JNelson6563]

3. Great stuff

Ihope everyone sees this. Especially the morans who scream bloody murder when Dean's not out on the talk show circuit every day with talking points.

The sooner Dems realize that organizing on the ground (a.k.a. "gruntwork") is the key to winning, the better off we'll be.

Of course it's nowhere near as exciting as posting about who will win the nom for 08 or other useless crap so I guess the crux of it is, we all need to grow up, get down to business or STFU.

Julie

[madfloridian]

4. N.C., S.C., & Mississippi Organizers at DNC in August.

http://www.democrats.org/a/2005/08/a_50-state_stra_1.php



The group, consisting of new organizers hired in North Carolina, South Carolina and Mississippi, were here all day yesterday and today -- meeting staff from the various departments, getting information about what their jobs will be, and interacting with each other about the huge and exciting task in front of them.

Jesse Berney, Josh McConaha and I (the Internet team) spent a little time with them today talking about how important it is to use the Internet to communicate with everyone and engage in conversation about what they're doing, and to reach out to communities of folks online in the regions of their states.

Several of them decided to get started right away -- they came over and borrowed our computers to write up some blog posts introducing themselves, talking about their sessions here, and about the program that you created.

So here's the scoop on this 50-state strategy you keep hearing about, straight from your organizers in:

North Carolina

South Carolina

Mississippi

Their bios are at the site.

[safi0]

5. You see the Indian

Guy standing next to Dean, that's my brother.

[madfloridian]

6. In the maroon colored shirt?

That is great! I wish the picture were larger so I could people better. Which state?

[safi0]

7. No, he's the one

In the black shirt. We're from Wisconsin

[madfloridian]

8. Ok, it may be black instead of maroon.

If he is to the right of Dean in the picture...could be a black shirt.
That is great. I think he is the one you mean.