It’s another Saturday, so for those who tune in, welcome to a diary discussing the Nuts & Bolts of a Democratic Campaign. If you’ve missed out, you can catch up anytime: Just visit our group or follow Nuts & Bolts Guide. Every week I try to tackle issues I’ve been asked about, and with the help of other campaign workers and notes, we tackle subjects that people who want to assist a campaign want to know.
One of the joys of running this series has been continuing conversations with candidates, their campaign teams, and political consultants regarding what has worked for them in campaigns. Based on these meetings, I continue to look for ways to refine and grow this series. Over the years, we’ve discussed what makes a campaign work and the inner workings of the Democratic Party.
In January this year, a newly elected official sent me email, and this statement stood out: “I had so much help during the campaign. Now that I’m elected, it seems all those resources just went away.”
Republican advocacy groups and conservative PACs run retreats and camps for those elected to everything from the school board to the state house. For offices lower down on the ballot, however, Democratic officials have organizations such as Democratic Municipal Officials (DMO), but newly elected Democratic officials don’t have remotely the same level of resources to help them actually govern.
How can we all work to fix this?
Introducing Nuts & Bolts: Governance
Starting Sunday, June 9, I’m introducing a companion series to Nuts & Bolts aimed specifically at governance. While campaigns are great, when we elect officials, we need to help provide them with the resources and connections they need to be successful in office.
Rather than offer lessons or provide proposals, this series will focus on talking to actual elected officials in all offices and on asking a simple question: What do they wish someone had told them before they were elected?
Building a support network
No one running for office should feel as though they are abandoned the moment they win the election. In state after state, however, I’ve heard from people who ran for school board or city council and told me that once the campaign was over, the level of support from their own Democratic allies, those who backed them in the campaigns, faded away.
Often it is because, in local or nonpartisan offices, Democratic advocates who want to elect more progressives know they want more progressive city councils, school boards, district attorneys, and mayors, but they are unsure of how exactly those elected officials can successfully craft and develop a strategy. While some progressive issues seem obvious, a lot of local governance is far more difficult to sort out in regard to what should be done to create progressive policy and avoid policy that seems harmless but creates a conservative infrastructure. This includes everything the elected body does, from spending priorities and competitive bidding policies to environmental or zoning guidance.
We are stronger when we share what we know
Republicans have a very effective set of legislative assistance, advocacy, and promotion groups that use the money of billionaires and PACs. Democratic candidates have set up myriad organizations that have started and then slowly faded as they attempt to compete with ALEC and other self-funding Republican entities.
One of the ways we can help stop conservative policies from advancing is by pushing forward progressive policies instead. Change the tone of the debate at a county commission meeting, and begin the debate on policies that help communities instead of policies that benefit the very few.
Another way to help stop them is by sharing what we know about the policies being proposed. Because Republicans use a national network to share resolutions even for entities as small as school boards, when we see conservative proposals appear in one state, we know that it will appear in short order somewhere else in the country. By sharing with one another what we learn in meetings all over the country, we address not just how to deal with specific policies, but what approaches are successful in keeping our voters and community members active and concerned with what actually happens once we are elected.
Another introduction: Little Blue Pockets
Talking to elected officials about what has worked for them and helped them become effective in office is only part of how we build a stronger Democratic community. Through our Daily Kos community, there will be another series coming soon that looks beyond campaigns and elected officials and focuses on the work of local advocates, and on what has made their advocacy successful, all over the country. Fantastic advocacy all over the country deserves to be recognized, investigated, shared, and spread to places where Democratic need templates that go beyond running for or serving in office.
Next week on Nuts & Bolts: Making friends