Democrats in July: Action Items

It's a little more than a month until the Democratic National Convention and almost four months until the November election. It's time to put on the sunscreen, get some bottled water, put on some nice comfortable, cotton clothes, and get to work! Here's a few action items to get your thoughts going on a summer to-do list...

Some random thoughts:

1) Does everyone lived in an organized precinct? If not...what can we do to help make it organized? (Only takes five!) I know some people who have taken on the thankless task of precinct reorganization in my county. Not only does it help focus all the people who wish to get involved in Election 2008, it also builds the party for the coming year, gets people engaged, ensures that county parties don't get "fined" under the Sustainment Fund, and helps make our state party stronger and more representative of modern Democratic voters! Under the North Carolina Democratic Party's Plan of Organization, there's plenty we can do to help combat unorganized precincts...no reason to wait until 2009!

2) It's (past) time to do some fundraising for our Denver delegates (if only I knew one...) who may not be in the best position to afford that travel and those daily Denver hotel rates. We all knew it was a "self-funded" enterprise going in, but we are fortunate this year to have delegates who are young (and not-so-young), who are not part of the good ol' boy "clique" and who need financial aid. If you know of any delegates in your area, take time to organize a rally/party builder/fundraising event and help send them off to a historic convention! And please take pictures and videos, so we can hear from our great North Carolina delegates about why they are excited to go to Denver, what they hope to accomplish, and will they get us a souvenir t-shirt (size L, please!)??

3) In a year of change, when we (supposedly) struggle to establish a new kind of politics, what can we do to put this rhetoric into action? Keep holding everyone's feet to the fire, BlueNC, and let's keep supporting good candidates...and creating some of our own! Everyone ask for a digital camera for their birthday and start getting to work on building BlueNCTV, so we can see your action in, um, action!

4) County party websites are just one small dimension in party building. In y'all's opinion, what content does it take to make a "great" county party website? An up-to-date calendar? Contact info for local officials? Precinct info? Blogs from party leaders? Just interested. Feel free to name names (for the good ones!) and link, please!

5) Communications. How many people hear from their elected officials via e-mail or snail mail on a semi-regular basis? It hurts me to admit, but Rep. Robin Hayes (R) actually sends me the most correspondence (e-mail) than any other of my federal, state, or local officials. Basic communication means so much...whether you are an elected official or party leader.

As a member-elect of the DNC, I hope to take the next month to establish a communications network with local, district, and state political organizations, as well as elected officials, to help communicate what the heck we do once I take office on August 29. It's funny (actually, sad...) how excited some state legislators are when I tell them I'd like to send them e-mails. No one has ever bothered to do this before, I guess! (Any county/district chairs, PM me!) Whether it's elected officials or party leaders, everyone mostly gets D's and F's on communications. Please give a shout-out to whom you think does a great job of this!

In case anyone needs some motivation, here's one of my favorite "action" heroes: