DNC, 50 State Strategy Update

by: Chris Bowers

Wed Jan 21, 2009 at 09:42

Another story we have been following on Open Left is the fate of the fifty-state strategy now that Howard Dean will no longer be DNC Chair. During the festivities here in D.C., I ran into a source close to the transition at the DNC who was able to provide an update on the new outlines of the DNC strategy, which does diverge from the current form of the fifty-state strategy in multiple ways:

Increasing Centralization: The shift in resources away from paid media and toward on the ground organizers will continue. However, these resources will be more directly controlled by the DNC itself, rather than by state parties. In other words, the SPP program where the DNC pays for organizers chosen by the state parties themselves is, as previously reported, done. Instead, the DNC will likely hire and assign organizers themselves. State party grants will also likely be transformed into more centrally directed expenditures by the DNC.


More swing state, less fifty-state: Many, if not most, states will have more resources spent on them during the next four years than during the previous four years. In addition to increasingly centralized control over how these resources are spent, there will also be a return to a swing-state focus for 2012. However, it is important to keep in mind that the Obama campaign's version of a swing state strategy was broader than either the Gore or Kerry incarnations.
In short, the DNC will be moving away from the long-term, decentralized, fifty-state strategy of Howard Dean's tenure, and toward serving as a short-term, centralized re-election effort for President Obama in 2012. It will continue the move away from paid media ushered in by Howard Dean, maintain or increase the amount of resource expenditures in most states, and the number of states it targets will be a broader effort than the narrow focus we saw in 2001-2004 (but more narrow than 2005-2008). However, it will return to the traditional role of the DNC as a supplement for the sitting President's re-election campaign, rather than as the long-term, localized institution building operation that is was from 2005-2008.

The fifty-state strategy of 2005-2008 is going to be replaced with the "re-elect President Obama" strategy of 2009-2012. Both have their advantages, but I still consider firing the 200 state party organizers a real blow to the long-term development of local Democratic Party talent and infrastructure.

Tim Kaine - 50 State Strategy Will Stay

Kaine: Dems will court all 50 states ‘now and forever’

By Michael O'Brien
Posted: 01/21/09 03:12 PM [ET]

Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, installed Wednesday as the new chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), vowed to aggressively campaign in all 50 states and promised to rely on ideas and not ideology.

“The 50-state strategy is now and forever what Democrats do,” Kaine told DNC members at the party’s winter meeting in Washington, D.C. The plan to seek to compete in all states was put in place by Kaine’s successor, Howard Dean.

“The results speak for themselves. I’ll oversimplify: everybody matters. Every state, every region, every community matters,” Kaine said. However, he also warned Democrats to not simply trust that strategies that worked last year would also work in the future.

Dean had earlier defended the strategy in a valedictory speech before Kaine’s election as chairman.

“We cannot appear complacent,” Dean told party members. “We need to keep showing up, keep asking people for their vote, or we can lose their votes just as quickly as we gained them.”

Kaine set high expectations in the speech by repeatedly referencing the electoral successes enjoyed by the DNC under Dean, though he promised to continue the efforts credited with helping Democrats reclaim the presidency and both houses of Congress. Kaine said following Dean made him “nervous.”

The Virginia governor also argued that a less ideological approach would help the DNC continue its winning streak.

“Our elections in 2008 proved that Americans want leaders that are about solutions, not ideology,” he said. “We’re the problem solvers, not the ideologues ... In Virginia, our political success has been directly related to the success we’ve made in governance.”

Kaine sought to reach out to Hispanic voters in particular. He said, speaking in Spanish, that he learned important lessons while working as a young missionary in Honduras, and that the DNC would work to build strong relationships with the Hispanic community under his tenure.

Kaine was appointed by President Obama to succeed Dean at the DNC.