100 County Strategy

Okay, so there was little real interest in the 100C idea at the "official" level. Which, let's face it, is not surprising. It's time for us to figure out what we can and cannot do here at BlueNC or through whatever "alternate" ego we establish.

I'd like to make something perfectly clear here. I like collaboration. I dig collaboration. And, I know that leadership in collaboration means not always being in charge, not always getting your way, and not getting credit. I HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH THAT. If I could find a job doing just that, I would. Finding collaborative grants, convincing everyone to participate, spearheading their writing, getting funded, then moving on to another one. I love this stuff. So, I'm going to kick things off here with the full understanding that this will grow into whatever y'all want it to be. I'll play whatever role I can and no more. With that, some random thoughts below the break.

We’re sitting 24 months away from a massive election. A Presidential election that has no incumbent President or Vice-President in the race. A Gubernatorial election with no incumbent in the race. A Lt. Governorship with no incumbent in the race. A Senate race with one of the most miserable failures in America trying to hold a blue-trending seat. State houses with big Democratic margins that probability suggests should begin to shift back towards neutrality. It’s not big, it’s hugangous.

What do we do to take advantage of this? We run somebody in every race…duh. But, what does that really do for the election? In this posting I will give some suggestions for filling those seats that we never have candidates running. I’m going to try and lay out how the 100 Counties strategy works from the top-down and from the bottom-up. Lastly, I will give some suggestions for what kind of timeline would be needed to put a 15-day GOTV effort in place by October. This might seem like micromanaging, but my point is to lay out how a person could potentially run for office and help set up the 100 County strategy without bankrupting themselves.

I realized as I composed Part II and as I answered questions to Part I, that there was really no way of doing this without getting folks on the same page with me as far as the Online Management System. Because, I think it is key to running a great grassroots campaign for a couple reasons.

• It makes it cheap.
• It centralizes the campaign
• It allows for quick interaction with the constituency, the state, the county, and other campaigns.
• It provides instant fundraising ability.
• It provides an instant method of signing up volunteers on the spot into a state-wide database that can then be used by the NCDP.

So, what does an Online Campaign System do?

So, it seems everyone has their own version of a 100 Counties strategy. This is the first post in a multi-post series. I was planning on holding off on this since I am calculating the change in turnout based on counties that had all seats filled versus those that have only some seats filled. But, since there is such interest on the topic right now, I thought I would go ahead and get the ball rolling. I have two straights days of meetings coming up, but I will get part II out when I can.

click picture to enlarge
100 Counties, Part I: Why?

With all apologies to Chris Bowers who inspired me with his 50-state project.
In 2004, in the midst of the hardest-fought Presidential Election any of us have ever experienced and perhaps that the United States of America has ever faced, the North Carolina Democratic Party (meaning you and me) ran six empty Senate seats and twenty-nine empty House seats. In 2006 we fared even worse, losing 31 House and 10 Senate seats without even running a candidate. The 50-state project has been debated online and in the “Halls of Power”, but I am a firm believer. I am going to suggest, with that in mind, that we in North Carolina should push for and accept nothing less than a candidate in every race in North Carolina in 2008. And, we need to start now. This is part one of two on 100 counties.
1. Why a 100 Counties Project?
2. Who to run and how to run on the cheap.

There has been some talk on the site about the creation of a 100 county strategy for the state in 2008. I have been thinking about it since before the election and I have come up with some ideas. Let me say that I know that I am new to NC so some of my planks are more general and could be (and I believe should be) applied to all states, but I still think that they are good ideas. The second thing is that in my experience working in politics, the majority of what I have done has been field work. This has made me a devoted advocate of field. I truly believe that I dollar spent in field is worth 5 spent on TV ads.

So here is the plan:

1) Hold all current office holders accountable. This includes everything from Dog Catcher up to Gov., Sen., etc.

2) Create, support and help fund local county organizations in every county. Even here in Buncombe there are precincts that do not have leadership. This needs to be fixed in every county in the State.