Nebraska Democrats Moving Up

Nebraska Democrats Moving Up:

Working their way back. Nebraska Democrats have been at it since a disastrous 2002 election when they were buried by record margins in Senate and gubernatorial races.

Road kill.

In 2004, they made great strides in terms of organization, fund-raising and candidate recruitment, but had no breakthrough victories to show for it.

But Democrats approach the 2006 general election in a strong position to help Ben Nelson defend his Senate seat. And they’re fielding competitive candidates in the gubernatorial scrap and in at least two House contests.

(We wrote about those candidates and their growing momentum, here.)

Nebraska Democrats have been organizing a 93-County Strategy in their state and doing the hard work necessary to turn every county blue.

This week they released their "State of the Party" report for 2006 to detail their progress.

Some achievements to celebrate:

• Since 2002 the NDP has tripled its budget.
• The NDP has managed to revitalize the local party infrastructure. 95% of Nebraska Democrats live in counties with county parties.
• County Parties have held 68 local conventions in 2006 - up from 36 during the 2004 Presidential cycle. In the past year they've also identified over 3,000 new volunteers!
• The NDP has also made investments in their technology - growing their e-mail list exponentially, developing a top-notch and popular web site, compiling an up-to-date voterfile and a growing database of donors and activists.
• The NDP is now a resource for candidates throughout the state, providing a full range of tangible services, including: strategic planning, an automated in-house call center, and assistance with direct mail and message development.

The success of the Nebraska Democratic Party is a testament to the 50-State Strategy and the benefit of investing in the infrastructure of the Democratic Party from coast to coast.

For too long we have ceded territory to the GOP, and focused our efforts on a handful of battleground states. It was time for a change. Governor Dean's belief in supporting a nationwide infrastructure is only the beginning of a resurgence of The Democratic Party in places like Nebraska, where common sense Democrats now have a support system for their campaigns and local activists have a place to turn.

We've seen similar patterns emerging in Wyoming, where Gary Trauner is surprising everyone with his campaign for the state's sole Congressional seat. We've seen the success of Democrats in Kansas and Montana as well - two states that seem redder than red, but that have wildly popular Democratic Governors and increasingly strong, active state parties.

This is just the beginning.

Comments (3) «

Connecticut is moving up too.

Can you spare an hour to help Ned Lamont win the primary?

MoveOn.org has on line phone banking.

1

PeppermintLizzy on August 7, 2006 at 04:25 PM

Ben Nelson is worse than Lieberman ever thought of being.......
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/n000180/

2

lavndrwmon on August 7, 2006 at 10:38 PM

I agree with, lavdrwmon who hasn't responded to my email yet about meeting up at Amy Klobuchar's rally on Thrusday. So I assume that she's decided to stand me up.

And I wish that Ben Nelson was more like Claire McCaskill.

Nelson voted no on stem cell research.

He voted no S2766 which would have called on the president to withdraw troops from Iraq, but set no firm deadline.

He voted to extend the president's tax cuts.

He voted against numerous anti-consumer bills.

He is strongly anti-choice.

He voted yes on a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages.

=========

He has had some good, important votes - but I think he could learn from Claire.

He voted against privatizing Social Security (thank God) but has only voted about 40% of the time to protect seniors.

3

dorsano on August 8, 2006 at 03:25 AM

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