So, as promised yesterday, over the next three days Im going to outline the three key things I believe the AZ Democratic Party should focus on in 2015. Here it goes... #1, and this will be obvious to many but Im stating it nonetheless: Voter Engagement and Outreach. And let me underscore that Im using the term Engagement, not registration or GOTV. This is critical. We must develop a deeper level of conversation that is not based on simply asking people to vote because were Democrats and its an election year. This mindset simply doesnt work. We have to create an ongoing program, focused in many ways at the local level - be it county and/or legislative district volunteers (PCs, for example) - that actually discusses the issues voters care about within their community. In other words, we have to start where the voters are at and we have to do it with real people engaging them in real dialogue. We cant just talk about the Democratic Party in an election year and expect people to be motivated by that - most people dont care about a Party, they want to know what is actually happening and how it can improve their lives. We need to engage them and show what the Democratic Party stands for, what were working on (more on this in the next couple of days), and invite them to become part of a bigger movement that is about improving their community. This isnt going to change things overnight. Im aware of that. Even more reason why it cannot wait until the summer of 2016. The program should be driven by local efforts and mechanisms, but guided by a centralized system of accountability and metrics. And the entire process should be thought of as a life cycle of sorts - when a voter gets registered, thats not the end. In fact, its just the beginning. Once registered, a system is followed to build a relationship with that voter and strive to ensure that person will vote in 2016 - and the system will be built to prove who is voting and who isnt from this new engagement, so that we can continually refine the program as we move into new election cycles and get the greatest return on our investment (both in time and money). Why is this so important? First, the obvious reason: we need to register more Democrats and get them out to vote. No-brainer, I know, but it goes beyond that... Second, it inherently allows us to build a broader base of active volunteers and, if done correctly, a Democratic brand (more on branding to come in the next two days) that is driven by community based conversations which we can use when it does come to election time. Finally, and perhaps something that is often overlooked, registering new Democratic voters isnt just important in terms of actual votes - its important in terms of MONEY. I cant count how many times Ive heard people say we got crushed this year because of the outside money that supported the Republican candidates. While I agree that was a huge issue for us, it shouldnt have been a surprise to us. We all knew it was coming. And, until significant reform is made to stop dark money (which will require not only changes at the state level, but also the federal level) we have to accept the reality of this situation. We need money to win. And, quite frankly, when you look at the trends of registration numbers in AZ over the past few years it is virtually impossible to convince third party supporters outside of Arizona to invest significant resources into our state races right now. There are so many other states that are more competitive in terms of pure registration numbers. And with limited resources to go around the nation we arent going to get the money we need to compete...unless we close the registration gap. It must be done. Can the AZ Democratic Party do this by itself? I dont believe so. As I said, I think it can and should be driven by local mechanisms, but guided by an expected level of accountability, reporting and metrics that is more centralized. Will the Party need to hire somebody or some group to manage this effort? Quite possibly. That will have to be part of the discussion. But the bottom line is this: we need to register Democrats. We need to turn out Democrats. And in order to do so, we need to create an ongoing (and not just an election year) program that is focused solely on Voter Engagement and Outreach.
Posted on: Tue, 23 Dec 2014 01:06:34 +0000