Sullivan and Buckley will seek another term to lead state Dems

[Freddie Stubbs]

By JAMES W. PINDELL
PoliticsNH.com

CONCORD, Dec. 15 – Following a successful election for state Democrats, the top two Democratic Party officials said they will seek re-election when elections are held in March.

State Democratic Chair Kathy Sullivan and Vice-Chair Ray Buckley, both of Manchester, said they want to build on the success of this past year’s election and look to do more party building and candidate recruitment as the 2006 elections approach.

“Two years ago I told some people that I wouldn’t run again, but a lot of very good people have asked me to run again and I said ‘why not’,” Sullivan said in an interview Wednesday.

Applications for top party positions opened Wednesday. The application process will continue through Jan. 15. Elections are scheduled for March 12.

more: http://www.politicsnh.com/archives/pindell/2004/Dec/12_15dems.shtml

[maxanne]

1. no surprise

NH Dems don't really want to win. Keeping these hacks in place will ensure more losses in the future.

[Freddie Stubbs]

2. Didn't NH elect a Democratic Governor this year?

And isn't it also true that NH went for a Democrat for President for the first time in eight years? Too bad more state Democratic parties don't have 'hacks' like that.

[maxanne]

3. sighs

The Republican governor was hated by his own party - had more ethics scandals than any gov in recent history. Republicans crossed party lines to vote against him. The moribund state party deserves little credit for Benson's loss - he killed himself.

We did turn the state blue - thanks to groups like ACT, MoveOn, the NH Citizen's Alliance, and local Dem organizing groups.

The state party chose to give a great deal of support to a guy in my county who couldn't possibly win, whilst ignoring the guy who did win. The first Dem to win an NH House seat in my county in 22 years. They chose not to support a Democratic candidate in Senate district 3 because they have a candidate they like better in 2006. So, the eminiently beatable Republican is still in office.

Are you from NH, Freddy?

[Freddie Stubbs]

4. How many other states flipped from red to blue in 2004?

ACT and MoveOn were active in most if not all of the swing states. What was so different about NH?

[maxanne]

5. the volume

NH has 1.3 million people. Lots of bang for your buck in NH. Nearly every in-state group organized - Planned Parenthood, Sierra Club, AFL-CIO, SEIU - I worked for a group that started door knocking for voter registration last spring - and continued all the way to the election. Some groups (like the one I work for) chose to team up with ACT - who really did manage to reach every part of the state. We had thousands of new voters register and vote this year. In Manchester alone, 5000 new voters registered on election day.

The state party ignores the northern part of the state, BUT - it was the north where a number of counties actually turned blue.

It didn't hurt that NH has a disproportionate number of National Guard troops in Iraq, and that a few of them were killed just before the election. Those tragedies brought the truth of the war home, all over again.

We had volunteers up the wazoo on the days before the election. Buses of folks came from MA, CT, NY, VT - the state was blanketed with volunteers. I ran a GOTV operation in northern NH, and my volunteers came from as far away as Montreal. In the city we focused on, there was a 92% voter turnout. Do we get credit for all that? Nah. Some of it? Hell, yeah!

NH Republicans tend to be the more moderate, libertarian kind. The Bush debt is horrifying to them. The right wing takeover is offensive to them.

Plus - Bush sucked - and that wasn't hard to sell. :)

[FightinNewDem]

6. Demographic trends

NH is changing from the old "Cow Hampsha". It is increasingly a high tech-intensive, suburbanized place, much more attuned to moderate Dems like Kerry and Lynch.

Kathy and Ray need to move along. They have stunted the growth of the party by their obsessive need to control the nomination process, their cliquishness, and their inability to reach out to Democrats who aren't part of the old guard, be they New Dem types such as myself or Dean-style reformers like Maxanne.

Truth be told, this year's results weren't as impressive as they were spun. We only gained two senate seats, when we should have picked up two or three more; if Beth Rodd had more backing from the party, she could have beaten Flanders. We also have continued to struggle in the high growth southern tier communities. For example, the Dems did not elect a single state rep in Hampton, Salem, Windham, Derry, Londonderry, Merrimack, Amherst, Goffstown, Kingston, Plaistow, Hampstead, Sandown, Atkinson, Candia, etc. This is a bad omen, and one to which Ray and Kathy seem oblivious.

[Redneck Socialist]

7. That last bit about the southern tier is telling.

If we can't expand the party beyond the Portsmouth, Keene, Hanover triangle (something of an oversimplification I know) we are never really going to have a serious shot at fixing the political imbalance in the state.

It also points out what I consider the biggest weakness in the state democratic organization, the lack of a meaningful "farm team." As far as I can tell the state party does little or nothing to recruit and groom folks who can move up the ladder of elective office.

[maxanne]

8. You can carve that in stone

"the state party does little or nothing to recruit and groom folks who can move up the ladder of elective office."

Then they wonder why they don't have anyone to run for national office. So many people lose the first time, and win the second - look at Maggie Haasen. There were some great candidates in Coos and Carroll counties, and I fear the party will let them slither away without a fight. The northern part of the state seems to be viewed as part of Canada by the state party upper echelon.

It's really disheartening to read what's going on in the southern tier. That should be an area of focus for the state party. Given how densely populated that part of the state is getting to be, we can't afford to ignore it, or write it off.

The organization I work for is going to start recruiting and training progressive candidates at least a year in advance. Certainly the nuts and bolts of how to run a campaign are valuable, but I want to focus on messaging and public speaking, too. I think state budget 101 would be helpful, given how convoluted it is.

[FightinNewDem]

9. The farm team issue

"As far as I can tell the state party does little or nothing to recruit and groom folks who can move up the ladder of elective office".

Actually, it's even worse than that; the state party hierarchy actually obstructs newcomers who aren't tied to the old guard.

Look at how the party jacked around Bob Bruce this year. The Usual Suspects got behind Justin Nadeau not because he was a better candidate (he was ill-informed, clumsy on the stump, and a lazy campaigner), but because his father is a former county Dem chairman and a friend of Billy Shaheen.

It often seems that kathy and Co. try to squash new faces from reaching the public. I suspect that they want to keep the field clear for tired old retreads like Lou D'Allesandro and Caroline McCarley in case they want to seek higher office. If there are newer folks in the mix, it becomes harder for the hack candidate to have a free ride to the nomination.

Beleive me, as someone who is a Democratic elected official, I have run into this first hand on many, many occasions.

[maxanne]

10. has an independant/undeclared

ever been elected to the state lege, FND? I'm thinking about running as an indie in 2006, just to shake things up.

[FightinNewDem]

11. Independents in the legislature

It has happened, but it is a rare occurence.

In 2000, Steve Vaillancourt lost a Democratic state senate primary to Dan O'Neil; he subsequently was nominated for his House seat as a Libertarian. Vaillancourt later switched to the GOP.

John Tuthill, an environmental activist, served a term from a rural district in Sullivan County. Tuthill generally caucused with House Democrats.

Naida Kaen was elected as an independent from the Durham/Lee/Madbury district in a special election. She ran for re-election as a Democrat, and continues to serve as a member of the House.

In the early 1990's, a handful of Libertarians won House seats in Raymond and Merrimack. These guys weren't technically independents, since the LP had "major party" ballot status for a few year.

Ideologically, these folks are all over the map. Tuthill is a liberal, Kaen is a New Dem, and Vaillancourt is basically a libertarian gadfly.

[Redneck Socialist]

12. That might work

"Independent" is the largest voting block in the state and I think that people are looking for alternatives to the major parties in NH.

People are pretty disillusioned with the repukes under bushie and the Dems, well they're the Dems. The north a' the notch crowd alway struck me as pretty accepting of pols that go their own way as long as they are straight shooters.

NH has a pretty strong tradition of independent minded politicians.

[Ray Buckley]

13. How exciting

It was terrific to read of the high interest and energy to make the task of transforming NH into a sustained Democratic majority state. There is so much work to do and I am so enthused to read of the terrific commitment to make our plans a reality. Keep up the great work!!