(It’s hard living in a “red district”. Hopefully, this will make things easier for our great blue candidates here. : ) – promoted by atdleft)
I have read all of your thoughtful comments and I think a little background information would be helpful. Especially for our brothers and sisters from more comfortable “Blue” districts who may not know what its really like campaigning in the “Scarlet Districts”.
I live in the 77th Assembly District, 52nd Congressional and the 36th State Senatorial District. Duncan Hunter is our Congressman, Joel Anderson in the Assembly and Dennis Hollingsworth in the State Senate. Gives you a little idea of what we are up against.
I have read all of your thoughtful comments and I think a little background information would be helpful. Especially for our brothers and sisters from more comfortable “Blue” districts who may not know what it’s really like campaigning in the “Scarlet Districts”.
I live in the 77th Assembly District, 52nd Congressional and the 36th State Senatorial District. Duncan Hunter is our Congressman, Joel Anderson in the Assembly and Dennis Hollingsworth in the State Senate. Gives you a little idea of what we are up against.
None of our candidates got one single penny from the CDP. There are over 120,000 Democrats living here and 165,000 Republicans. But you wouldn’t know there were any Democrats at all. Out of 52 elective offices here from dogcatcher to congress there are 4 Democrats. All four on various school boards. The superintendent of the Grossmont High School District was Ron Nehring, now elevated to Chair the State Republican Party. Ron is a protégé of Grover Norquist. He tried privatizing nearly everything having to do with our schools. He even tried to turn them all into Charter schools as a step towards total privatization. Don’t believe it? Check out the Center for Policy Initiatives report titled “Target San Diego” at www.onlinecpi.org .
We are basically being used as an incubator for radical right wing experiments.
Now get the picture. That is what happens when a district is totally abandoned by the party.
And it’s not for lack of a good candidate. We have had several. Mark Hanson for instance was twice Teacher of the Year, a popular Labor leader and Chairman of the Heartland Foundation which created jobs and provided training for thousands.
Mark ran for State Senate seat 36 against the most egregious right wing extremist in the State Senate, Dennis Hollingsworth.
We had a defining issue. The Cedar Fire devastated a huge swatch of our district including Mark’s home. He literally barely made it out alive with his family in the middle of the night. Calling his neighbors on his cell phone as they drove just ahead of the 3000 degree fire and 60 mph winds. Many of his neighbors weren’t as lucky, the tires melted off their cars on their way out.
Dennis Hollingsworth voted with the insurance companies making it more difficult for survivors to rebuild their lives and homes.
Through the Heartland Foundation Mark help hundreds of fire survivors and their families make a new start.
Mark hired a professional Staff. Including a former Clinton White House staffer.
Mark raised over $100,000. With 12 bound copies of his campaign “Plan for Victory” supported by two poles that showed he could win – Mark went to Sacramento to ask for help from the California Democratic Party.
He got zilch. Nada. Odo blitz. Zero. Nothing.
What did Dennis Hollingworth do? He raised nearly a million dollars and shared it with down ticket Republicans to shore up support in his District.
And Mark is not alone. His story was repeated in nearly all 40 Legislative Districts where a Democrat ran against an incumbent Republican.
Roxana Folescu, a thoughtful and intelligent woman with a powerful message, raised $5,000 for the general election in the 74th Assembly District and garnered 42% of the vote. In spite of her pleading – Roxana did not get one thin dime from the California Democratic Party.
Chris Larkin, a fantastic candidate with all-American good looks, ran twice in the 77th Assembly District. Both times he personally walked more than 25 precincts. Wore out three pairs of shoes. He got respectable results both times and never got a dime from the State Party. Chris won’t run again.
By contrast Maxine Sherrod was given 1.4 million dollars to run in the 78th Assembly District, rich in Democratic voters. Her consultant made a fortune flooding mailboxes with glossy mailers and dopey TV ads. She lost. At one point in her campaign, at a chance meeting, she told me she had more money than she knew what to do with.
It was with this background of experiences that my friends and I wrote our
All District Strategy for Funding California Legislative Races.
Resolutions are supposed to be expressions of “philosophical beliefs and principles”.
Well, nothing could express our belief in fairness and democracy more than our Resolution. And by specifying certain minimum amounts of money for the work of growing the party everywhere we are pointing the way to fulfill our moral responsibility
Our Democratic representatives in Congress and the State Capitol pound the podiums and insist that budget priorities ARE an expression of our morals and values.
This is a declaration of our values and ethical standards. Our policy should now and always be – to grow the party in every district in every county in every part of the State. It is wrong and a betrayal of our Democratic values to abandon any district.
The words in the Resolution were carefully chosen. When it says, “shall receive at least $50,000” that minimum is an expression of value. Not an exact amount. I know I know its splitting hairs. We toyed with the idea of saying “shall receive some amount of money” or even “shall receive for example $50,000”.
But by setting a minimum value we are expressing our belief that our Party and our candidates are worth this much to us. A substantial amount to be sure. But how can we ask anyone to run for an office to represent us in this Democracy if we don’t value them?
We are not attempting to circumvent or modify the CDP bylaws with our Resolution either as some have contended. The purpose of the CDP is to grow the Party and elect Democrats. And that is exactly what our Resolution does.
And please don’t overlook the fact that the use of this money is regulated. It is to be used in a traditional grassroots and GOTV effort and not by throwing money at Political consultants to buy TV, radio or direct mail advertising. But instead, going directly to the voters.
Howard Dean said – “Election by election, state by state, precinct by precinct, door by door, vote by vote… we’re going to lift our Party up and take this country back for the people who built it.”
We have a real advantage here in San Diego County. We have what we call the GO-Team. A county wide infrastructure if you will. And a very good one. This should be a statewide standard. But some districts will have to create one or expand the one they have, some district have an enormous need for registering voters. Some will need an office and phone banks. Ralph Miller’s Audit Resolution will set in place locals to determine the needs of the community and hold the Party accountable.
Do we support the “All 58 County Strategy Resolution” written by my friend Denise Hardin from Riverside? Of course we do. These are the kind of things the Party should have been doing all along. The CDP bylaws section 2 line 28 says the State Party, “. . . . shall conduct Campaigns for the party and its candidates for public office.”
And finally, in spite of the cheering, backslapping and congratulating at the convention let me emphasize that California IS turning “RED”.
In 1992 there were 45 counties with a Democratic voter registration advantage and only 22 in 2006. Democratic voter turnout is also on the decline.
Our Resolution strikes at the very heart of the problem by substantially funding every endorsed Democratic Challenger running against an incumbent Republican or for an open seat. Using the 4 million dollars left over after the last election cycle as a minimum amount we stop the hemorrhaging and take the Republicans head on.
Those of you who are delegates who wish to help or want more information we will be meeting at the Outdoor Amphitheatre of the Convention Center starting at 10:00 am Friday morning. Look for the scarlet armbands.
I look forward to welcoming you all to America’s Finest City – San Diego.
