"An OFA effort running alongside the Ohio Dem Party effort & that’s where the House races come in"

[Pirate Smile]

Democrats Always Have a “Massive Political Machine”
by Kay

Democratic Senate candidate Lee Fisher faces a daunting 9-to-1 disadvantage in fundraising in his campaign against Republican Rob Portman in Ohio and has endured unexpected staff turnover, developments that have spread concern among national party leaders about his ability to remain competitive in the race. Fisher, the state’s lieutenant governor, recently hired his third campaign manager while his campaign spokesman and researcher quit.

The Democratic Party’s massive political machine in Ohio could help Fisher with $3 million raised during the last 40 days to help statewide candidates. Organized labor has long played a role in the state and has opened political offices in Columbus, Cleveland and Cincinnati. And Obama’s political arm, Organizing for America, never truly shut down after the 2008 race and continues to communicate with supporters who helped Obama carry the state with 52 percent of the vote. The state party, the largest in the nation, has more than 206 paid staffers working for Democrats. The Ohio Democratic Party has taken over the statewide voter turnout and political aspects of the campaigns, including Gov. Ted Strickland’s bid for re-election and Fisher’s Senate run.

It’s early for individual races, but I had an organizing meeting at my house last night, so I’ll translate this into how the “massive political machine” looks from the ground, right now.

I’m in a “red” Ohio county. We have about 15 local Democrats who are members of the State Party and reliably volunteer at this point in any cycle. I call those 15 people, and we meet at my house. We invite the paid organizer and he or she tells us the Master Plan, and then we tell him or her how we plan to customize it to our county.

This year the Ohio Democratic Party is running a “coordinated campaign”. That means all of the grass roots planning and work for every statewide candidate will run through the state Party. Lee Fisher will be the main beneficiary of this approach, because he seems to have some campaign issues.

Last night, 11 of the 15 showed up, but we lost two from 2008 (one moved to Texas and the other got a paid position with Sherrod Brown). That’s a good turnout.

The 11 state Party members will then contact the people they’ve personally worked with in the past, and essentially form “teams”, and that’s where we start.

Some points of comparison: In 2006, the Ohio Democratic Party had 33 paid organizers in the state. In 2008, the Obama campaign had 300+ paid organizers. In 2010, the Ohio Democratic Party has 105 paid organizers.

In 2006, we had 25 active county volunteers. In 2008, we had 58 (that was an all-time high for us) and in 2010, we anticipate we’ll have 40, plus or minus.

I “poll” the local volunteers occasionally, and they put up with it because they’re very kind and patient people. I’m always surprised at the result, and last night was no exception. The single thing they are most pleased about re: Obama is that he is getting us out of Iraq on schedule. All eleven mentioned the Iraq draw-down. I was surprised by that, as it got virtually no media attention, and Democrats here run hawkish. Health care was next, with nine.

There is an OFA effort running alongside the Ohio Democratic Party effort, and that’s where the House races come in.

http://www.balloon-juice.com/2010/08/15/democrats-always-have-a-massive-political-machine/