local parties

"It’s not just the Presidency, stupid." This phrase carries as much importance today as its economic counterpart did 16 years ago.

In the thrilling environment of the national election, the nation is reveling in the wave of new voters. Yet at least two questions linger: (1) Can we leverage this involvement for big participation in state and local elections today?; and (2) Can we keep the historic energy from evaporating tomorrow morning? If we cannot meet these challenges, we will miss perhaps the largest civic opportunity of a generation.

We know that the electorate is excited this year, and that youth in particular are finding new entry points into the system—from colossal voter registration numbers to iPhone-app organizing phenomena. We’ve already seen encouraging signs: for instance, youth turn-out for the primary hit multiples of 2004 levels. Still, the central challenge of democracy is not whether a citizenry can make a few binary choices once every four years. The challenge of democracy is whether a populace of divergent interests can come together to accomplish common goals. How can we be sure that this organizing power and creativity can be funneled beyond a single (admittedly critical) race in 2008? How can we encourage the millions of new young voters to become life-long political participants?

We write not to add to the myth of youth ineffectiveness on the political process. We won't add to the chorus of "sure, they'll register … but will they vote?" with an equally curmudgeonly, "okay, they'll vote, but will they vote the whole ballot and stay involved after the election?" Without doubt, an engaged Millennial Generation will change the face of American politics for the better.

They were awakened by 9-11, by Katrina, by Iraq, and by the collapse of our economic house of cards. They will grapple with global warming, the redesign of governmental mechanisms, education policy for this century, foreign policy in an interconnected world, and the glories and excesses of global turbo-capitalism – and these are just the challenges we can predict.

We can meet these challenges if we funnel this energy into a new activist generation.

The opportunity in considering the whole ballot does not lie in winning or losing any particular races, although the impact would be undeniable. The true virtue of this project is the chance to build a culture of participation. An individual has a greater impact on a local race than national one. Indeed, a single person can be decisive on a local race, a race that have direct impact on an average young voter’s daily life. An example, to pick a state: the current Oregon Legislature voted to approve renewable energy standards, domestic partnerships, land use reform, a rainy day fund, substantial increases in school funding, and early voter registration for eligible 17-year-olds. Passing these bills was contingent on a one-seat majority in the State House. One of those seats is occupied by Jeff Barker, who won it by forty votes. Groups like the Oregon Bus Project sent hundreds of young people to walk in his district, each knocking on more doors than Barker’s margin of victory. The end result? Those young people got to go home and say, “Look Ma, I helped change history.”

And you can be sure many came back to participate again.

It’s time to begin building a lasting constituency for the public interest, and the best engagement we can have is at the local level. We are stronger together than we are apart, and to ever get public policy to yield to public interest, we’ll have to move not just to the left or to the right, but forward.

Jefferson Smith, Bus Project Executive Director
Garrett Downen, Bus Project Political Director

The sad fact of every election is drop off. Drop off is when people only vote in the presidential race and turn in their ballots. Many people each election either don't know who the other candidates are or don't feel they are educated enough on the candidates to make a decision.

This is bad. Its wrong.

So some folks at the ACLU Foundation in California have started a non-partisan campaign to connect with young voters and ask them to pledge that they will "Go All the Way" on November 4th.

There are so many jokes to be made about "going all the way" in the voting booth.. . but I digress.

Just this week they launched a Facebook Application that I am a big fan of as well as a website and SMS campaign where people can text their pledge both from your phone or text your friends to their phones from the website.

The best part is the chance to win a free Nintendo Wii if you recruit tons of people to the application.

Onward Oregon in conjunction with the Oregon Bus Project is also encouraging folks to Fill Out Your Whole Ballot by asking for a pledge

"As excited as we all are by the Presidential and Senate races, here in Oregon we have some very important local races, the outcomes of which are likely to have a profound impact on the direction our state takes. Each of your votes is important, and participation becomes critical the further “down” the ballot you look."

At their site Whole Ballot anyone from any state can sign up to pledge to vote the whole ballot online. There is a scroll along the left side that shows folks who have pledged to vote on their whole ballot.

Pledge today! Friends don't let friends drop off.... Besides, for some of us, its the only chance we have at going all the way...

Some post-debate reading:

• Newsweek just put out an open letter to young Obama supporters from a Millennial born on the cusp, Jonathan Darman. I like it all but this part, which unfortunately happens to be the crux of the letter.
  

  With the new fiscal reality, neither he nor John McCain should get away with promising everyone what he or she wants. In debates they will be pressed to explain their priorities. Seize this opportunity. To get the best of Obama, young people, cut out the blind devotion. Get off the Huffington Post. Stop the Facebook blasts. If you really want to be the change you've been waiting for, start holding Obama to some of his promises to our generation. In these waning days of the campaign, ask not what you can do for Barack Obama, ask what Barack Obama can do for you.

  This once again assumes that internet activism doesn't get anything done. Not cool.

• Is Friday night the best night to have a debate in order to attract more youth attention and involvement?
• A Columbus Dispatch piece visits a debate-watching party near Ohio State University to get feedback from both College Dems and College Republicans organizations on campus.
• Michael A. Cohen of the New America Foundation penned a decent piece appearing in the New York Times a few days ago on the state of the race.

  His words at the end dovetailed with the coverage of Obama's performance in the debate so far:

  All of these elements make the presidential debates so crucial for Mr. Obama — and so potentially dangerous for Mr. McCain. Unlike an acceptance speech before a partisan crowd or campaign advertisements, debates are the single best opportunity for a relatively inexperienced presidential candidate to show the electorate their qualifications for America’s top job. Indeed, Mr. McCain’s debate performance will be of almost secondary importance. If Mr. Obama, who already has the political wind at his back, is able to show that he has the proper facility with the major issues of the days to go head-to-head with Mr. McCain, he will go a long way toward erasing the doubts that many voters still have about his experience.

  Since June this election has been Barack Obama’s to lose. Because of his consistent message discipline, Mr. Obama has ensured that with approximately 40 days until Election Day, this is still the case.

• An actual example -- in Frederick County, MD -- of the energy from this election reinvigorating local parties.
• A piece on the Student Voter Act of 2008 -- Rep. Jan Schakowski's the lead sponsor -- that would require all institutions of higher education receiving federal funding to offer students the opportunity to register to vote while registering for classes.
• An article from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern examines preparations being made for another surge in the youth vote this November.
• "Youth Activism Isn't Dead, Just Different" -- a good piece by Ned Resnikoff found on Pushback.

Kevin Bondelli is on fire this week, first with his post about why and how chapter-based youth orgs should blog, and now with a new post outlining why young people should become involved in state and local parties, and a few ideas for how to go about doing it.

Here's an excerpt, go read the whole thing:

I know that’s what your thinking, and trust me, as a former state party employee I feel you, but the rewards of involvement will vastly outweigh the costs if you and your organization commit. Here is why:

• The local and state parties determine the allocation of a lot of resources, and if nobody is there to advocate for youth programs, they are going to be overlooked.
• Elected Precinct Committeepersons and state committee members (at least in Arizona) vote on who becomes delegates to Democratic National Conventions, so while advocating for youth representation goals in delegate selection plans is important, having a number of young democrats involved will make the biggest difference.
• Some of those older activists are actually quite interesting, and talking to them and learning from their experiences can be an invaluable education for you and your members.
• Fundraising lead generation. The members of your state and local parties are the high-efficacy donors, even if they are small-contribution donors, and knowing them personally will give you a much better opportunity of raising money.
• You can sell your organization and young voters in general to party regulars, and getting your message out to them will increase your legitimacy and exposure.
• You are officially changing your role from “future of the party” to the “present of the party.” As long as young democrats are absent from the regular party apparatus it will appear that Young Democrats is AAA and the local/state party is the major leagues, and when you get older you graduate and get called up.
• The more your state party knows you the more you will be able to partner up with their big events. In Arizona the state party works with YDAZ to have after-party fundraisers following their big dinners.

Here's a question. Why is it that in the last 5 years all of the most exciting things that have happened in progressive youth politics have happened outside of the Democratic Party structure? Culturally relevant campaigns, peer to peer tactics, leveraging of Facebook and other new technologies for organizing purposes, viral video - as much as these have had break-through moments in youth organizing, those moments have come by and large from new institutions that are disconnected from the party - not from the College or Young Democrats.

Some of this had to do with the willingness of funders to put money into new projects which, of necessity, are structured at 501c nonprofit organizations. Part of it has to do with the fact that for a long time the College and Young Democrats were considered ineffectual by the party and unappealing to their own generation - essentially neutering the organizations.

But some of the blame for that also lies with the state and local parties, who for a long time have been hostile to young voters - withholding money and resources, and exploiting young people for free labor without ever addressing their issues or providing a seat at the table.

The latest example is Alma Sanford, a Davidson County (Tennessee) Democratic Party Regional Chair. In an email sent to Addison Pate, President of the DC Young Democrats, Sanford expressed concern about the propriety of a phone banking operation by the Yound Dems, who were using the county headquarters to GOTV young voters for the upcoming Nashville mayoral race. Her email can be read here, along with a response from Addison Pate.

Essentially the whole affair boils down to this - some of the local alt-weeklies and dailies in Nashville haven't been kind to Sanford's preferred candidate, Bob Clement, and Ms. Sanford assumed that any attempt to GOTV the youth vote, who read those papers, would automatically be "partisan" by default and unfairly detrimental to her candidate. In response, Addison Pate has suspended Young Dem phone banking activity out of the party headquarters until the matter can be resolved before the county Executive Committee. Two local blogs, Silence isn't Golden and Nashville for the 21st Century both have good coverage of the issue.

I've exchanged a few emails with Pate, who assures me that Sanford's opinions and actions are not representative of the County Party, which maintains generally good relations with the Young Democrats. Rather, this is the action of one person.

And yet, in my opinion, her attitude is representative of too many who are lodged in our state and local parties across the country. In the view of these people, young voters are dumb and easily swayed by superficial concerns. We're only good for free manual labor or for pumping up Democratic numbers in the general election. We have no business in primaries, where the big boys decide who gets on the ticket. The idea that increased youth turnout is a good in and of itself for all Democrats and for our politics (and not just a preferred or individual candidate) doesn't cross their mind.

This is yet another reason why young people have been so reluctant to get involved in Democratic Party politics. This is why so much innovation in the last 5 years happened outside the party rather than within it. Too many local parties don't have room for someone who isn't willing to be a cog in someone else's machine. Why would any young voter want to be part of an organization that looked down on them or actively discouraged their participation? In that light, with so much new donor money available for the asking, it makes perfect sense that young people would abandon the party to start their own competing and parallel institutions.