[Kreweoftruth] 500 days...

[kreweoftruth at kreweoftruth.net]

Here's the URL for the web version of this email: http://www.louisianad2d.us/D-LA2-3.html


Mike Stagg


		
						
				
				
				
			
			
				
				
					
						
							
Volume 2, Number 3
							
								
									By Democrats For Democrats
							
							
								
									August 22, 2011 
							
						
					
				
				
			
			
				
				
					
						
							
								
																		
The election calendar as the Roadmap for Democratic Renwal
								
								
The pundits have already tagged the toe of the Louisiana Democratic Party in this election cycle.
								
There's been a string of defections from the party by white Democratic elected officials ranging from the attorney general to members of the state House of Representatives.
								
There is a dearth of Democratic candidates for statewide office, including governor at this time (though there are rumblings that someone is running).
								
David Vitter's Louisiana Committee for a Republican Majority (LCRM) has piled up fresh stockpiles of cash to try to elect overwhelming Republican majorities in both chambers of the Louisiana Legislature.
								
Not to be outdone (or, in an attempt to prove his relevance to his party) Governor Bobby Jindal has poured some of his campaign millions into a Republican Victory fund that shares the same goal as Vitter's LCRM — the locking in of solid Republican majorities in the Legislature that will last at least a decade.
								
Vitter told columnist John Maginnis that the majorities he's working to build here "might last forever."
								
If that sounds familiar, it's because that was also the goal of former U.S. House Republican Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas when he created his Texans for a Republican Majority and Americans for a Republican Majority — the criminal enterprises that served as the models for Vitter's LCRM.
								
A funny thing happened on the way to DeLay's permanent majority — and it was not just his indictment (and conviction) on money laundering charges related to his attempt to win Texas state legislative races.
								
Politics changed. Democratic activists and party stalwarts rallied from the defeats of 2004 to regain control of Congress in 2006 and take the White House in 2008.
								
Could it be that Louisiana Democrats will awaken in time to stave off defeat this year and rebuild our party in time to challenge in congressional races next year? Some of us are working on just those goals. We're doing it by using the election calendar as our road map.
								
Democrats and progressives from around the state are gathering in Alexandria this Saturyday (August 27) to lay out that plan and invite others to join us. We want to plug activists into legislative races, recruit these activists to active roles in the party, and start the work of making being a Democrat matter in Louisiana politics again.
								
The main article on the right has more details. The graphic at the top of this column takes you to the event website.
								
Come join your fellow Democrats and progressives and "Lay Claim to Louisiana."
								
Mike Stagg, Editor
							
							
								
									
								
									
Progressives and Democrats from across Louisiana will gather in Alexandria on Saturday, August 27, to unite behind a strategy to plug grassroots activists into Democratic legislative campaigns this fall.
									
The event -- "Laying Claim to Louisiana"-- is the first part of a 500-day strategy to renew and revitalize the Louisiana Democratic Party and change the course of electoral politics in the state.
									
At the core of the strategy is the belief that all politics is local and that the key to renewing the state party is to harness the enthusiasm and passion of Democratic activists who have been motivated and engaged primarily by national campaigns and national issues.
									
The organizers of the event include officers and members of the Louisiana Democratic Party at the state and parish levels, traditional Democratic constituencies, and the in-state leaders of organizations active in national Democratic campaigns.
									
The goal is to build a new, working coalition that begins with electoral politics but extends beyond that into joint work on legislative and public policy issues.
									
The redistricting process completed earlier this year by the Legislature provides a new map from which the leadership of the Louisiana Democratic Party will be elected next year (qualifying is in early December). The state party leadership is going to change because the legislative map has changed.
									
We will plug in these activists into that new map to bring new vitality and energy into the state party through the election of members to the state party central committee, as well as to parish Democratic executive committees. The aim is to utilize the structure of the Democratic Party to channel the efforts and enthusiasm of the activist base into Louisiana state and local politics. We want to build a functioning political party that can provide resources, technical skills, and people to help Democratic candidates win election across the state.
									
It's a model that has been shown to work for Democratic parties in other states. Hell, it's worked for the Republican Party in Louisiana.
									
The election calendar provides the road map to guide this effort. The October 22 primary election and the November 18 runoff provide great opportunities for activists to connect with Democratic legislators and their allies to help those legislators stave off the attacks coming at them from Republicans led by David Vitter and Bobby Jindal.
									
Many of the activists who have been drawn to politics by national campaigns have not been as active in Louisiana politics. They have been turned off by Democrats who tended to run 'Republican-lite' campaigns. The exodus from the party of many of those candidates combined with the explicit targeting of Democrats by Vitter and his operatives, Democratic candidates must now follow the model of their Republican peers and understand that winning campaigns begin by securing their base — not in trying to themselves from it.
									
In Alexandria, there will be a list of targeted races presented where activists will be asked to help Democrats win election. That cooperation can serve as the springboard to greater cooperation between the activist wing of the party and legislators who, prior to this year, tended to operate independent campaigns with little or no regard for party.
									
The explicit external threat posed by Vitter's Louisiana Committee for a Republican Majority has produced a willingness to engage the party's activist base among Democratic legislators that did not heretofore exist.
									
That opportunity to cooperate shows the path forward for the entire party, not just the legislators.
									
The entire 500-day plan will be discussed in detail in Alexandria. Keynote speaker Melissa Harris-Perry will put our fight in the national context of other fights in places like Wisconsin and Ohio (the same anti-labor, anti-women, anti-democratic forces at work there, are working with Vitter and Jindal here).
									
The days of Democrats being able to hide their party label are over -- Vitter and the Republicans have seen to that. The path forward is to embrace to our party. We are the only multi-racial, pro-middle class, pro-education, pro-small business party in our state.
									
If we lay claim to our party, we can once again lay claim to our state.
									
Hope to see you in Alexandria on Saturday!
								
								
									
										
									
								
								
									
										
									
									
										
									
								
							
						
						
							
								
									
							
							
								
									
										A Publication of www.louisianad2d.us
									
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