CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Democrats around the country are demanding change from a national committee they say has focused too heavily on the White House at the expense of governorships, legislatures and state party operations.
“It’s got to be helping us organize in our states to be able to build that power at the state legislative level,” Michigan Democratic Party Chair Brandon Dillon said of the Democratic National Committee, currently searching for a new leader. “We’ve lost governorships and state legislatures at a rate that is pretty astounding.”
DNC members gather in February to elect a new chairman, with five candidates running so far, each pledging to rebuild from the ground up. Money from the DNC to state parties has been inconsistent during President Barack Obama’s tenure and, in most states, less than it was under former chairman Howard Dean. Party chairs say that’s resulted in fewer staff members and training programs, a change felt particularly in Republican-leaning states. State leaders also say Obama’s grassroots group Organizing for Action has functioned more like competition than a partner.
Beginning in 2017, Republicans will hold 33 governorships and fully control legislatures in 25 states, as well as the Congress and presidency. During Obama’s two terms in office, the party lost more than 1,000 seats at the state and national level.
“I love President Obama, but he and his administration allowed for the deterioration, the terrible deterioration, of the state parties over the last eight years,” said Mark Brewer, who led the Michigan Democratic Party for 18 years.
Obama has announced plans, though, to improve Democrats’ down-ballot fortunes once he leaves office. He is launching an initiative with former Attorney General Eric Holder aimed at making Democratic gains when states redraw legislative district lines following the 2020 census. Democrats have blamed Republican gerrymandering for some of their losses in Congress and state legislatures.
State officials say it’s been hard to plan long term and recruit and train candidates in off-election years due to inconsistent funding from the DNC. Under Dean, the national party installed and paid several staff members in each state. But that program ended after Obama’s election. State parties began to receive monthly payments of anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000, an amount that varies depending on the year. At some point, the parties have received no money at all. The DNC does provide some money to state parties for elections based on the state’s competitive races and other factors.
The change has left some states scrambling.
The Nebraska Democratic Party, for example, paid five full-time staff members during Dean’s tenure. But when Dean’s “50-state strategy” ended, it was hard to keep one and pay the rent, said Maureen Monahan, a vice president of the Association for State Democratic Chairs from Nebraska. Some states, such Mississippi, do not pay their party chairs. Even in Michigan, a staff that once stood at more than a dozen now is between five and seven employees, party chairs said.
“The past eight years we have not had any focus on the state parties,” Monahan said. “There’s been a sense that the DNC is a building in Washington.”
The push-and-pull between state parties and the DNC is nothing new. State parties, congressional Democratic groups and the president’s allies often spar over how best to spend party resources. The DNC defended its involvement with states.
“State parties are the lifeblood of the DNC, and we make investing in all of them a priority because they are an integral part of winning up and down the ballot. State parties were critical to picking up Senate seats, House seats, legislative chambers and governorships in 2016, and their importance will be a key focus for the party as we elect new officers in February,” DNC spokesman Adam Hodge said.
Marcel Groen, Pennsylvania Democrats’ chair, said it’s unfair to blame Democrats’ troubles completely on the national party. But he said a focus on recruiting and running Democrats even in low level races in Republicans areas can help the top of the ticket in the long term.
“We can’t expect people in rural areas, in red areas, to vote for our presidential candidates or our gubernatorial or Senate candidates if they’ve never seen a Democrat running for school board or county office,” he said.
Good. There needs to be a fast recruitment of progressive, late Gen X/Millennial candidates for lower offices—school boards, city councils, and state legislatures. When we’re talking about Presidential candidates like geriocrats Sanders, Warren, and Biden, and fauxgressives Booker and Cuomo, we have a problem.
However much we may need to adequately support state party operations in the near term, the long-term goal should be to take all power from the states. The first target, when we get the federal legislative trifecta back, should be elections. We should pass pre-empting federal law to make elections subject completely to federal control. This is an important enough issue that the court should be packed, or election law removed from SCOTUS jurisdiction, if SCOTUS blocks this legislation.
Once federal pre-emption controlling elections is in place, federalizing away the rest of the power still left to the states will be easy. Under a regime of free and fair and ungerrymandered elections, the other side will struggle to win even one leg of the trifecta, and will never regain the majorities needed to undo our work, not until and unless it reforms itself to a state of post-insanity.
If the DNC wern’t to busy looking for corporate whores to support then maybe we would have a chance to get those govenorships those state senate seats and win elections…
I will admit to knowing nothing about the organizational aspects of this. But it seems to me that the DNC should be about messaging for the party overall, coordinating that messaging, and raising funds that can be shared.
The state and local parties should be making themselves known and looking for those local candidates and opportunities to build from the ground up.
A fundamental issue seems to be the sense that democratic and progressive candidates have no ties to their communities and no understanding of the locals. I don’t think you can effectively fight that by relying on “national.” Can you?
The GOTP wants to control 34 states, with both Gov and state legislatures belonging to hem. Once they get the 34 they can and will call for a Constitutional Convention that bypasses Congress. That is what they are looking for. Dems think they want to make Presidential election direct rather than they way it is today. That amendment will never pass as the small rural states, fly over country, would lose what little sway they have on the presidential election
GOTP-31 governors and 25 state Legislatures. Remember 34 is the goal and some teahadists like Texas Gov Abott are pushing hard to get a convention this year.
They need just 3 more
Gov, but 9 more GOTP majority Legislatures.
Of course they could screw up and make the call early, except that is not being politically intelligent. The 34 states needed should call for a CC only if the numbers are all on their side. Smart people would call for the CC only if the had everything set up for a victory. Because the Teahadists want to put a limit on congress, that congress will be fighting it every step of the way.