News Round Up: 50 State Strategy Helps Democrats Across the Country
Recent articles around the country confirmed that the Democratic National Committee's 50 state strategy helped make a difference in critical races across the country this mid-term election. Democrats' commitment to rebuilding the Party everywhere and not just in a few key states helped to reap big dividends in areas once thought to be un-winnable. On November 7th Democrats were able to make gains in states like Montana, North Carolina and Kentucky when Americans went to the polls and voted for change.
Behind Democrats' climb in Mountain West
Martin Kasindorf and Tom Kenworthy
USA TODAY
November 21, 2006
"A wave of Democratic blue is splashing the fast-growing Rocky Mountain West, which until recently was so Republican that all eight states in the region went red for President Bush in 2004.
"Democrats are celebrating their Election Day seizure of a U.S. Senate seat, a governorship, three U.S. House seats and other major offices in Rocky Mountain states. That extends a trend started in 2002 with winning three governor seats. Now, Democrats are hoping to break the Republican lock on the inland West in the 2008 presidential race.
"DNC Chairman Howard Dean's '50-state strategy' put field operatives on the payroll and dispatched them a year ago for groundwork in Mountain West states that Democrats used to write off...'"
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State party officials say Dean understands Democrats in the West
MATT GOURAS
The Associated Press State & Local Wire
November 19, 2006
"Democratic Party luminaries back East who think it was a waste of money to beef up local organizations in places like Montana and Wyoming don't understand the gains the party can make in the West, state party directors said.
"The state party chairmen are firm believers in the 50-state strategy employed by Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, who took his victory tour to a weekend meeting in this Wyoming resort town of the state chairmen who elected him.
"'We have been able to build our party around the state by creating Democratic organizations in every county in the state, for the first time in anyone's living memory,' said Jim Farrell, executive director of the Montana Democratic Party...'"
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Kansas Democrats' victory seen as 'bellwether' for party
Scott Rothschild
Journal-World
November 19, 2006
"Sebelius won an easy re-election, Democrat Paul Morrison ousted Atty. Gen. Phill Kline, Nancy Boyda upset five-term conservative Republican icon Jim Ryun in the 2nd Congressional District, and the Democrats picked up a handful of seats in the state House.
"'People could look at what has happened here and find some new ideas based on what we've done,' said Kansas Democratic Party executive director Mike Gaughan.
"Gaughan and other Democrats said the party benefited from national chairman Howard Dean's '50-state strategy' and the cross-party appeal of Sebelius.
"When Dean became chairman of the Democratic National Committee, his main goal was to try to organize and grow the party in all states instead of ceding states, such as Kansas, to the Republicans..."
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Spending turns red areas blue
News & Observer
Rob Christensen, Staff Writer
November 19, 2006
"Democrats captured two seats on the county board of commissioners, helped elect Heath Shuler to Congress, re-elected the clerk of court and elected a sheriff...
"Because of the Dean effort, the national party hired three regional field coordinators who spent 20 months in North Carolina helping counties get organized for the elections.
"One of the Dean-financed pros worked Western North Carolina, where Democrats picked up a congressional seat, won two sheriff's offices and 16 county commissioners' seats.
"'It indicates to me that there is hope for even the reddest of counties," Meek said. "With thorough organization and thorough grass-roots activity, we can turn the tide. That is what I think our mission needs to continue to be...'"
To read the entire article, please click here.
GOP might be losing once-staunch regions
Chuck Raasch
Argus Leader (Sioux Falls, SD)
November 13, 2006
"Regionalism might not be what it once was in American politics. But the Republican Party should be concerned about the bloodbath it suffered in the Northeast and losses in the Plains and Mountain West on Tuesday.
"They were significant ingredients of the worst day for the GOP at the ballot box since 1992. With Democrats now on a Howard Dean-led mission to compete in all 50 states, this could mean an expansion of the electoral battlefield in 2008.
"On their way to losing the House, Senate and a majority of governorships, Republicans lost a U.S. Senate seat in Rhode Island, governorships in Massachusetts and New York and moderate GOP House members from Pennsylvania to New Hampshire..."
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