More Blowback - Candidates needed
I discussed the concept of blowback with regard to the D&C editorial board endorsing a mostly Republican Legislature candidates, thereby endorsing status quo. The D&C can and should endorse those who meet their standards (we can discuss their standards another time) but they also need to be reminded there are consequences - the Public defender debacle is such an example.
As said in an earlier post, with regards to advocating for real change, the D&C editorial board punted.
The Public Defender is but a single example of poor Republican policy - RenSquare, the upcoming MCC presidential appointment, and others will easily be more examples of poor governance.
Well - If the D&C punted, the long snapper in this mess was Joe Morelle in his capacity of Monroe County Democratic Committee chairman. (ed. note - this idea of this post were originally lumped together the the one about the D&C but I chose to separate them out).
It is well documented that the local Democratic party failed to run a candidate against Maggie Brooks. What seems to be overlooked is that the local Democrats failed to run candidates in 3 legislative races.
This means 3 Republican Legislators got a pass. eins, zwei drei - three got a pass.
The questions now need to be future focused.
What is the local Democratic party doing about ensuring all Legislature races are contested?
How will the Monroe County Democratic Committee ensure that enough of those candidates get into office so the Public can see the value of Democratic governance, as opposed to the Republican Iron Rule we have now?
The ultimate question is -
Is the local Democratic party up to the task?
If not - how do the local Democrats ensure that their party becomes up to the task?
i have some info to share. first off, mcdc has created subcommittees containing members of the exec. committee and is open to other committee members. one of said committees is candidate recruitment. one MAJOR problem has been weak town committees. weak in terms of volunteers, doing work, money and also candidates. however, the tide is turning and there are now many energetic leaders out there reversing this trend. so i think that will help.
to help this process, all of you should be on committees. maybe you are already, so good for you who are. those who aren’t, NEED to be. no bashing the party from the outside without trying to help us from the inside. maybe as party hacks we are defensive at first, but don’t let that turn you off for good. we come around with good info. it is a two way street and we all have the same goal. representative democracy with democratic officials.
Any idea what these committees are ?
1 – Website/Technology
2 – Committee level fundraising
3 – Committee Member and Volunteer recruitment
4 – Local candidate recruitment and campaign management
Fundamentally, you can either approach elections by targeting or you can take a fifty state style approach. What has driven the Dems to take is a targeting approach is based on their limited funds (being outspent by Republicans 3 to 1) and a desire to keep nuts that would embarrass the party off the ticket (a qualm that Republicans have never had).
While the latter is a legitimate concern, choosing targeting because of limited funds actually restricts your resources further by preventing you from using the media to deliver a macro message. Because you are targeting, each race has to be won door to door through targeted walk plans and the money gets sucked up into lit (known to voters as garbage). The Dems have gotten very good at targeting and have been successful in the races they have targeted, but it is an expensive and time consuming slog of a way to get elected.
The Republicans by contrast vote as a block, speak with one voice, play down individual candidate’s credentials, and deliver nothing but macro message (often a negative one about Dems). The lit is mass produced and negative, the lawn signs are multi-candidate, and nobody ever goes off script when they talk to the media.
Most voters in local elections pull the lever for the party, not the candidate unless they have met the individual. Recruiting good candidates is only half of the equation, unless the idea is to simply get to 51% and hold a slim margin over the Republicans. The other half is to state your principles, define your vision for the community, and run a coordinated campaign that stays on message, with candidates voters can actually vote for.
What a great point…
Here’s another great quote:
If the local Dems could do this consistently, I don’t even know if we’d need something like RT.
Yeah, this is what actually worked in Mendon! Run as a team, from the bottom up, not the top down. A consistent message works wonders. If you run as a team, you don’t target races, it’s all for one and one for all.
Is MCDC up to the task of running a “50 state strategy” in Monroe County….easy answer is NO. Even among the legislature candidate who did run, not many received much in the way of support. While I believe this is a decision on MCDC’s part and not simply a matter of allocating available resources, it is up to everyone else in the party to do something.
As I posted yesterday, it’s one thing to find a willing candidate. It’s an entirely different ball game to actually run a campaign. If anyone thinks that finding a candidate is the hard part, think again.
If YOU are going to start keeping your eye open for a good candidate, YOU also better be ready to step and and serve in some capacity with the campaign–campaign manager, volunteer coordinator, etc.
The best example is Andrew Stainton–a great candidate without a full support staff.
“Even among the legislature candidate who did run, not many received much in the way of support.”
Is this targeted support or full support and can you be specific? Sure some leg candidates got more support that others. Not that it is right but I’m sure the ones who got the support benefited.
This comment seems to be caged as an either or discussion. No, it is a both discussion. We need Candidates and support structure.
How can we make MCDC better able to have both?
give them money or people. why do you think unions have such power? they give both.
It is not an issue of simply more money or more people. By piling more money and people onto the same approach you may get to 51%, but next cycle your back where you started needing even more money and people just to hold on to what you have.
You have to have a viable message and you have to commit to delivering that message consistently in a way that convinces voters that have voted for Republicans in the past that you will do a better job representing them. After that it is a matter of implementing a strategy that actually makes use of the money and people you already have.
Message matters.
Tactics matter.
Quality matters.
Organization matters.
And the right candidate matters.
Money and people are just tools.
if you don’t have money or people (the best tools for getting message out - so we agree here), good candidates don’t matter. a tree falling in the forest and all that. if you want mcdc to run viable races in 29 districts, you need 29 campaign managers, 29 sets of volunteers, 29 fund raising lists, etc. resources are finite meaning choices are made. mcdc isn’t going to throw money at some dude who wants on the ballot just to say he’s on the ballot. its a waste.
Sometimes the best message sent is the one where your opponents do the advertising. I have changed my personal feelings towards Morelle’s decision NOT to run a County Executive candidate. Morelle had the forsight to realize that given enough rope, they would hang themselves. The desparation that we have talked about with the GOP nationally and locally is very noticable. The fact of what has occurred locally WILL NOT be forgotten nor brushed under the carpet by the voters of Monroe County. The continued arrogance with their appointments at MCC, combined with the unFAIR plan, the PD selection, high reassessments, taxes, and the use of force against the citizens of this community will be the rope by which they will hang themselves by.
I’d like to have a glance into that crystal ball Morelle has. But even if he didn’t plan it, it was wise to reserve the funds to offer a well-financed, outstanding candidate to end the horrors of the Monroe County GOP and their cronies once and for all.
Anyone who has been involved in the campaign process knows you never throw good money after bad. At election time, when a candidate could have been announced, Broomarik’s approval rating was around 78%. A candidate challenge would have suppressed the obviously pre-planned strategies the GOP has been working on for months until election day, which probably would have led to her victory.
It was when they KNEW there was no challenge they let loose their wrath, announcing the unFAIR plan, and now taking civil disobedience to an all new high.
The best offense is a good defense…true. But when the bold-faced blatent arrogance of this GOP elected body and their party officials is THIS bold, all the money in China could not buy you this kind of advetising - nor these kinds of issues.
So we don’t implode - we explode. We go to the local meetings - we push to find good candidates - we organize and contribute in all the ways we can. Make phone calls, contribute dollars, get behind a candidate and stand strong.
Victory isn’t victory when the people suffer. And the people are suffering. But victory can be had when the people unite.
Lets all keep in mind that Republican don’t have 29 campaign managers or 29 sets of volunteers, and they sure as hell don’t have 29 fund raising lists. They run coordinated, message based campaigns, from the top down. I’m not sure if that approach is possible or even desirable for the Dems, but it seems to be working for the Republicans.
The Dems have consistently banked on the idea that the GOP’s arrogance would unseat them, yet the public has repeatedly shown their disinterest. Until you explain to a voter that previously voted for a Republican that you will do a better job representing them, you will continue to struggle with an apathetic public that only hears the din of people bashing each other.
I definitely agree that MCDC should not just throw money at some dude that wants to run, but writing off races means that you piss off Dems in uncontested districts, and you depress Democratic turnout countywide. And as to Republicans and Independents, if you make a choice not to offer an alternative, don’t be surprised when people think you don’t have one.
the republicans run top down races to coordinate things. some folks here seem to think mcdc can’t do this, therefore the alternative is a bunch of uncoordinated efforts. the republicans pool their money and trust minarik will do the ‘right’ thing. dems tend to do their own thing, which means we are all chasing the same dollar, the same volunteer, and in some years, the same voter. i think by directing our attention to mcdc and helping them, we have a bigger impact than say me working for todd dunn and you working for carmen gumina. we both show up at hq and have hq say, we need your feet, your voice, and your 20 bucks on the east side this week. maybe next week we are needed on the west side. keep in mind too that mcdc was a relative disaster only a short time ago. it is heading in the right direction (a direction advocated by many of you) but it takes time to jump from a road stand to wegmans.
I agree - you don’t have to replicate services 29 times. Why didn’t all the Dems come out together on the FAIR plan before elections - one group, one message? Why don’t they coordinate their campaigns more? Strength in numbers, folks.
great point w/my bold..
More to the point - are NOT a viable alternative.