Just arrived back in town from my weekend in Phoenix, at the joint DNC/ADSC/YDA fall conference. My impression: eye-opening.
Background: three Democratic conferences were held together in the same hotel, with many people attending some of the events of all three. The ADSC is the Association of Democratic State Chairs (the chairs of all the state parties). YDA is the Young Democrats of America.
As a YDA member, I had guest access to drop in on nearly all DNC and ADSC events. This post will be mostly YDA-specific since that's the bulk of the events I attended. There is a full DNC account over at mydd from Jenny Greenleaf. Also the DNC set up a bank of computers onsite for attendees to blog from, comments collected here. This was many DNC folks' first ever experience blogging - maybe it'll become a habit?
This event was so big that the original hotel, the Wyndham (which happens to be the only union hotel in Phoenix), sold out - so there was spillover at a second hotel and all around. With all three conferences together, I think there were several hundred people there.
I flew in late Thursday night so I missed the Thursday events. Woke up bright and early Friday morning for the 8am DNC Rural Council. Unsurprisingly, not many Young Dems in attendence - they tended to show up at a more reasonable hour!
Good speakers at this caucus. Pam Womack, the DNC Political Director, talked about how the DNC understands the importance of the rural vote. She said they are looking for ideas, because they know they don't have all the answers. The DNC wants to start funding some small trial projects, so if you have any thoughts on how to organize in rural areas, she would be the one to talk to. She also spoke about the America's Majority Partner Program, where the DNC will begin organizing people & doing outreach by issues as well as by location. (Sorely needed in my opinion - isn't this one of the keys to Republican success last year?)
Then Parag Mehta, DNC Director of Training, spoke about the training they are offering in each state, and the DNC's goal to organize every precinct in the country. (This is taking the 50 State Strategy right to where people live. It'll be huge.) His five things he wants every precinct organizer to do to help organize their area to help Democrats win:
- Recruit 25 volunteers in your precinct. Give them specific jobs & titles, such as voter registration, outreach to specific groups and so on.
- Host at least one social event per year in your precinct. Let's put the party back in the Democratic party - make it fun.
- Run at least 2 voter contact events per year in your precinct. (Such as phone banking and door-to-door canvassing).
- Attend 1 training to keep up your skills and learn about new methods and ideas. (He's working with the states to help step up the training offered)
- Create a welcome program for people moving into your precinct, registering to vote, or becoming a citizen.
Last but not least, candidate
Scott Kleeb introduced himself, and talked about his race for the open congressional seat in the 3rd district of Nebraska - very rural, an uphill race. To find out more about his campaign and how to help, check out
his website. He was very much in evidence all weekend, at DNC and YDA events (he's a YDA member, and the only YDA candidate that I saw). I'm surprised actually that more candidates didn't show - this is a great place to meet not only major party players & experienced campaign professionals, but also dedicated grassroots volunteers - especially with the YDA sessions there too. Maybe at the meeting next year word will have gotten around.
Next I went to the DNC Women's Caucus, but unfortunately it didn't really catch my attention - it started late and was fairly disorganized - when the room broke into caucuses of specific regions, I seized my chance to escape.
Went to the DNC Regional Caucus next - my region is the Midwest. Quick election held to determine leaders, and then a presentation by LaToia Jones, Executive Director of the College Dems. She was quite good, spoke about their goal to grow by asking the state parties to help out in getting organizations in place at every one. She is currently working on a list of targets now. Can't remember if it was her or someone else later, but a big target will be organizing and creating closer links with Historically Black colleges and Native American colleges. Pam Womack and Parag Mehta spoke here too (I think they did the round of every caucus.)
That afternoon I attended the first YDA training session, on press and marketing. Crystal Strait, California YDA President and YDA Communications Director gave the talk. She was very good, and the content was good too, albeit YDA chapter-centric. (But that makes sense, since this is a YDA event after all). She talked about types of earned media, how to do a press release, rapid response and so on, and she also gave examples. And Bob Mulholland came and spoke - he's a legend in California campaigning. Lots of great stories, check out his blog for more.
Then I went to the YDA's Rural Caucus and heard the extended version of Scott Kleeb's stump speech. And then went to the general dinner reception held by the Arizona Democratic Party. Talked with some fascinating attendees - a man from the Virgin Islands and a man from the rural part of Illinois were at my table. One of the nicest things about the whole weekend is that everyone is generally open to meeting a fellow Democrat - you could walk up to anyone and introduce yourself and start a conversation.
Then a trip to Casino Arizona. Did you know they did not have any poker tables there? I didn't know that, but I soon found out. Sheesh. The cheesy nachos nearly made up for it though, and meeting some fellow DNC and Young Dems from Chicago to Hawaii. The rest of the night takes place at the bar, so..
Saturday gets a much later start than Friday did. Attended a YDA lunch with Raul Grijalva, a congressman from Arizona speaking. This might have been where I first heard about YDA's peer-to-peer voter contact program. This is ground-breaking. YDA first rolled it out in some targeted races in '04, and they used it again in the Virginia race last month. How it works, is that YDA voters talk specifically to other young voters - both through phone banks and door knocks, collaboration with other groups such as PunkVoter & Rock the Vote, text messaging GOTV, and working non-traditional places like nightclubs, parks and so on. An analysis from '04 shows that YDA was able to reach voters traditional campaigns couldn't, and added an extra 5% on average to progressive turnout in targeted precincts. YDA is in the process of figuring out how to use their new weapons for '06 and beyond, so if you want to know more and get involved, join your local YDA chapter. Membership is open to those age 14-35.
One more note from lunch- they passed out fliers explaining how YDA's new predictive dialing system works, and asked people to use it for GOTV calls for the CA-48 race this weekend. You call an 800 number to reach the system, and it automatically patches you through to a randomly selected voter in CA-48. So no long distance changes at all. This will be great for outside-the-area GOTV calling in the future, assuming the YDA targets some races and chooses to make this tool available for them. Expect to see it deployed in the CA-50 special election next year if it worked out well this weekend.
Then I dropped in on an ADSC session, where communications consultant Jennie Blackton talked about campaign speeches, and she (and the audience) did hands-on work on a handful of candidates and their stump speeches. If you ever have a chance to hear her speak, don't miss it - this was one of the most valuable sessions all weekend. Her basic speech formula is this:
- Who are you and why are you running?
- "Because.." There's a problem. What is it, and who's hurting?
- Experience? (How are you the right person to solve the problem)
- Creative solutions?
- "But.." Who's the opponent? (Doesn't have to be a person, could be lack of energy, lack of vision, inertia)
- What do you want? (Their vote, their $$, their effort to do something.. be clear what you want their next step to be)
Then I went to the Women's Leadership Forum, and heard several great speakers. Two women recently elected to Tuczon City Council explained how they did it, and fired up the crowd. Rebekah Friend, President of the Arizona AFL-CIO, talked about a program called EMERGE, that trains women how to run for office (There is a CA version as well as an AZ version). A woman also spoke about how the Democrats are missing an opportunity by not going after the single female vote, in any more than a token way. (As she put it, martinis and manicures are nice, but you have to do more than thtat.) Talk about the issues that matter to single women: broaden the choice question to talk about issues such as insurance coverage of contraception (versus Viagra!) and pharmacists who refuse to dispense it, make the morning after pill available OTC, equal pay for equal work and more. Also a women who may be running for the AZ state house introduced Governor Dean with a cute story about how he brought her and her husband together.
After that, I went to the YDA Women's Caucus. Two speakers, who spoke about some of the same things as at the WLF, and encouraged everyone to consider running for office. Heard that more than once today.
Then was the actual YDA meeting proper. Which started off well, with the description of YDA's '04 and Virginia '05 success, their grassroots fundraising plan to pay for this (The Tomorrow Club, similar to Democracy Bonds), reports from various officers. However, since they didn't have any food and it had been a looong day, my attention wandered. Then it turned into one of those meetings that takes forever to end. Some business was done - some states became chartered, we voted to accept several resolutions (including one in support of Murtha's statements on Iraq) and then finally we were free.
And thus concludes my report. Some key findings:
The DNC's next stage of the 50 State strategy, the precinct organizing piece, will be huge. They are committed to building up the local parties, not just providing the new organizing staff paid for by the DNC, but offering training to state party staff, to turn around and offer training to local parties too. Dean visiting all the states to help state parties fundraise is also much appreciated. Stay turned to find out how it will be rolled out thru the states and how you can sign up.
The Young Dems are really serious about moving young voter turnout, and if this is something you care about, get involved. Join 'em. Fund 'em. Support 'em.
Great trainings are offered at these meetings, and guests are welcome - so if the DNC, ADSC or YDA come to your town, you should go. If you're a candidate, especially go!
Democrats from all over the world tend to be pretty friendly and open to meeting new people. Finally, if you're looking for a Democrat at the end of the day, you'll probably find them at the Irish pub.