Report from Mobile, Alabama Southern DNC Meeting

As I promised from the podium of the SEC Meeting, I am posting a report from the Mobile, Alabama Southern DNC Meeting.

The experience started with a flight from Charlotte to Pensacola, FL (it is virtually impossible to fly directly to Mobile) and renting a car to drive to the meeting which was downtown. Mobile has an incredibly modern downtown convention center and hotel complex, largely because the director of their State Employees and Teachers’ Pension Fund has decided to build hotels and buy and rebuild golf courses all across Alabama. Apparently, based on what local teachers that we talked with at some of the social events told us, the investment strategy has been a huge success. Mobile has a Democratic Mayor and State Legislative members who met with us at the meetings (all of which were open).

The meeting started with presentations of messages that were working in the South and polling trends. Studied were two elections: Virginia’s Gubernatorial elections and the 2008 Presidential Primary in Alabama.

One common thread was that appeals to moderate Evangelicals could be hugely effective if they were sincere. False religiosity fails. Part of this is due to the background of Governor Kaine (see his bio at http://www.governor.virginia.gov/AboutTheGovernor/biography.cfm ) as a missionary and part of it is due to the shifts in Evangelical ideas regarding the environment (as God’s creation) and social justice (do unto others…).

Senator Obama’s polling during the Alabama primary season was interesting, even if the “Best Political Team of TV” has been over and over the material. The fact is that until Obama’s victory in Iowa, his candidacy was not taken nearly as seriously by the African American community who support for HRC was in the 30’s and low 40’s. After Iowa, however, Obama’s support in the AA community soared. It is troubling that HRC’s support in the White community also increased, but that trend was more than offset with Obama’s support in the AA community and the shift of undecideds to him.

Each State present reported on what was going on in their State and what they foresaw for the Fall. The most interesting report was from Mississippi concerning their victory in the recent Congressional special election. Several factors won the election for the Democrat:
• The Democratic Party in Alabama raised about $200,000 in around 10 days for the campaign (while the GOP poured some $3 million in RNC $ into the district).
• The Dems used their $$ for producing door-to-door campaign drives using volunteers from across Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia who came in to help.
• The GOP used their millions on race-baiting negative ads.
• The negative ads linking the Democrat to Obama failed – and failed miserably. The more negative the Repubs went, the better the Democrat’s numbers became.
• The Democratic candidate had strong organizational support from the County Clerks in the District, but grassroots was clearly the key to victory.

Saturday morning, I started on my journey from Mobile to New Bern at about 4:30AM and arrived in New Bern at 5:30 PM – now that’s a long day! The DNC Caucus had meetings on message development in the South while I was gone – if I get a report from one of my friends from another State on those meetings, I will pass it along to you.

My wife, Sally, and son, Carey, got our hospitality room ready for that night in New Bern – I wish I had been able to see more of you, but we were not really sure we would pull it together until we nailed down the room. Staying up until the last guest left at 1:30AM brought back a lot of great memories of my days running for YDNC President.

Thanks for all the BlueNC comments during the run-up to the SEC meeting – it was good to put faces to names and email monikers. I have congratulated Phil in a reply to the Convention thread. He will be a terrific addition to out DNC delegation.

As an aside, I subbed for Jerry Meek in speaking to Boy’s State this AM in Salisbury – a lot of energy for Obama in the room. I used to do that duty 5 and more years ago and can report that in that fairly conservative venue and selection process, we have a very bright future. I was helped by the fact that my GOP opponent was Senator Andrew Block (see http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/gascripts/members/viewMember.pl?sChamber=Sen... ). Can’t we do better than this guy in Davie and Rowan? His theories on why we should stay in Iraq for another 100 years were as ridiculous and insulting as they were scary – it is truly amazing that anybody can think that way!

Thanks, too, for the support for DNC. I look forward to serving you on the DNC these next four years and will keep you posted. I think that between Phil, Susan and me, we will keep you informed.

David Parker