Blumenthal on "Generation Dem"

Sidney Blumenthal writes a nice summary piece in Salon which ties together a lot of the threads we follow here:

While voters under 30 were the most favorable age group in 2004 for Kerry, casting 54 percent of their votes for him, Democratic House candidates in 2006 received 60 percent of their votes, compared with 38 percent for Republicans. Nationally, partisan identification breaks 38 percent Democratic to 35 percent Republican, but among those under age 30 the percentages are 43 to 31 in favor of Democrats. This pattern runs as strongly in the West as in the East, the Midwest and the Pacific states, a clear indication that the Western states are heading out of the Republican camp -- out of alliance with the deep South's Republican states and into coalition with the broad majority.

Blumenthal also notes how at the state level (Governors, legislatures, etc) Democratic candidates did markedly better than in 2004 on average. For instance, in 2004 Iowa went for Bush by less than 1%. Three weeks ago a Democrat won the Governors race by 10 points.

This is no doubt partly due to a general public distaste for all things Republican (and possibly the weakness of John Kerry's candidacy in '04), but to me it strongly indicates that the 50-state strategy is leading to better Democratic branding and candidates in many places. We're building a network party that operates with greater agility and authenticity than the old Beltway/Broadcast model, and the work has only just begun.