Public: Iraq in Civil War
Just because "bubble-boy" doesn't understand reality doesn't mean that the public doesn't. According to poll results reported on by the Wall Street Journal, Americans believe that Iraq is in the midst of a civil war. http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB116474147042634772-gU9Td4pkKwbUb_rqXDHGQHgOUnQ_20061229.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top
The Great Republican Shut Out of 2006
Not one incumbent Democratic U.S. Representative, Senator, or Governor lost in 2006. That is really unique for mid-term elections. Not only that, but Democrats didn't lost control of any state legislative chambers they had controlled going into the midterm election, while Republicans lost control of 12. We picked up the House, the Senate, and went from a 22-28 deficit in state governors to a 28-22 advantage in state governors. All of this has caused internal finger-pointing among Republicans. Read this article about the fallout in the GOP and enjoy: http://thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Campaign/112906.html
Limitations of the GOP Southern Strategy
Here is a blog entry on Daily Kos that dissects the limitations of the GOP "southern strategy" developed by Nixon and then used successfully by Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and now bubble-boy, George W. Bush: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/11/29/1251/2453 The theory of the entry is that the southern strategy worked well as long as Northeast and Midwest Republicans stayed on board. What's happening, however, is that as the national GOP caters to Southern social conservatives, it loses support in the Northeast and is starting to lose support in the Midwest. This means that what Democrats in states like Ohio need to do is make sure that they split between social conservatives and Republican moderates widens.
The LA Times ran an article this past week on how the Bush administration is getting ready to submit a large supplemental budget request for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan to Congress. This budget request will bring the cost of the so-called "War on Terror" to over 500 billion dollars. This war is fast approaching the cost of the Vietnam War, which went on for about 10 years. All of this, of course, is not to mention the human cost of the war both to our troops and to the Iraqi civilians, who are increasingly caught in the middle of a civil war. Here is the article link: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-warcosts29nov29,0,2663211.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Battle Between the "Money Party" and the "People Party"
David Sirota has an interesting take on the battle in Washington. He says it is not between Republicans and Democrats, but rather between what he calls the "money party" and the "people party". He sees this distinction in battles over minimum wage increases; trade agreements; union rights; and environmental safeguards. His argument is that on these issues Democrats often side with Republicans because of their allegiance to the money party. This is a link to his website: http://www.davidsirota.com/ Check it out, we think you will find it very thought provoking.
Global Warming and Conservatives
The Washington Post ran an article in Sunday's edition about how, even as the Bush Administration dithers about how to combat global warming, governments, businesses and animals in affected areas are making adjustments. Animals adjust by moving habitats. Businesses adjust by trying to change their operations. Local governments adjust by taking action on their own. (Here is the link for the article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/25/AR2006112500877.html ).
Global warming will be to this generation of conservatives what the Great Depression was to the generation of the 1920s: an event that will discredit their philosophy for 50 years or more. In the 1920s, conservatives had succeeded in capturing control of the presidency and both branches of Congress. Republican pro-business philosophy was dominant. Conservatives had seen the election of Harding and Hoover. (Harding, of course, died in office and so Coolidge finished out his term). Harding was apparently an amiable dunce and Hoover a pretty bright engineer. America was seemingly enjoying the prosperity of the Roaring 20s. Then along came the stock market crash, which woke everyone up, followed by the worsening of a depression that had been afflicting the farm belt. All of a sudden a market based philosophy that claimed that government had little or no role in solving America's problems was a luxury that Americans could not afford, and so, with amazing speed, they elected FDR. From 1932-1968, Democrats occupied the White House for all but eight years. They controlled the Congress from 1932 until 1946 and then again from 1954 to 1994, a remarkable record of political dominance.
The reason why all of this occurred is that conservatives couldn't cope with a problem that defied their ideology. They put their faith in the marketplace and that faith failed them. Some problems are just too big, too enormous to be solved without the assistance of an activist national government. The Great Depression was one such problem and so is global warming. What Democrats and progressives have to do is seize this opportunity and start talking about governmental solutions to this problem.
Surprise, Surprise
Former commander of Iraqi prison says that Rumsfeld signed off on interrogation techniques that some have labeled "torture." (Read article here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061125/pl_nm/iraq_rumsfeld_dc_1 ) The damage that this idiot did to the United States military and the mideast is just incredible, yet it couldn't have happened without Bush's consent. Not that Bush knew that Rumsfeld had approved such interrogation techniques, but rather that Bush put Rumsfeld in the position where he could do such things. Yet, Bush and his supporters will now try to distance themselves from the horror that is Iraq and blame Rumsfeld.
Being Bush Means Never Having to Take Responsbility
Josh Marshall, of TalkingPointsMemo.com, raises the question of whether Bush is walking away from Iraq. He points out that since the election Bush has been totally silent about Iraq and what is happening as a consequence of his war. (Here is the link to Marshall's article: http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/011269.php ) This, of course, is not the first time that Bush created a mess and walked away from it. He bankrupted two businesses down in Texas, he left Texas to become President without dealing with some of the problems his programs were causing Texas, he has plunged America into multi-billion deficits without seeming to worry about how we are going to pay them off, and now he may be planning the same thing for Iraq. He has gotten away with such behavior because when you come from a powerful and rich family, you can avoid accountability.
Take a look at his history: He got into prep school and Yale because of his name. Turned down by the University of Texas for law school, he was able to get into Harvard's School of Business because of his name. He was able to get into the Texas Air National Guard because of his name. He was able to walk away from the aforementioned bankruptcies because of his name. He got elected as Texas's Governor because of his name. He got elected President because of his name. Do we see a pattern here? This is a person who has never had to clean up his own mess or even acknowledge that he created a mess. Unfortunately, this time in Iraq, however, it isn't investors' money that is being squandered, it is the lives of thousands of American military personnel and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.
College Republicans to Offer "Whites Only" Scholarship
Let's suppose you are a local chapter of the College Republicans. Let's further suppose that your party has had trouble getting black voters to back it, even when, as in Maryland, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, you run black candidates. Let's further suppose that your outgoing national chairman promised in the past to change the image of your party so make more appealing to black voters. What do you do? Well, if you are one College Republican club, you create a whites only scholarship because, after all, nothing says you aren't racists like, well, being racists. Read more here: http://www.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/11/22/caucasian.scholarship.reut/
MCDAC Newsletter for 11.24.2006
Newsletter changes
You may have noticed that we are linking more and more to the MCDAC blog. We are doing this because we keep running into problems with "spam" detectors on various e-mail servers. If we are above a certain size, or if we have too may links, then the spam detectors block our newsletters. This leads to us having to re-configure and then re-send them. This increases our expense. Therefore, what we are now doing is posting items on our blog and linking to the items. We apologize for any inconvenience that this causes, but we don't see any other realistic alternative. Thank you for reading MCDAC's Democratic Newsletter.
Changes to http://www.DemTV.org
We have made some changes to the Dem TV website. We are now hosting it on Blogger, which is the same service we use for the MCDAC Blog. Check it out and let us know what you think! If you are a Democratic officeholder, candidate, or oganization and have some videos you want to display, send them to us at joycekimbler@medinacountydemocraticactioncommittee.org.
Ted Strickland Transition Team
Friends:
Articles/Links
Read the articles and links section of the Newsletter at http://mcdac.blogspot.com/2006/11/articleslinks-for-mcdac-newsletter-for.html
Articles/Links for MCDAC Newsletter for Week of November 17-24
LA Times columnist about one reason why the GOP lost control of Congress: lack of oversight. Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/columnists/la-na-outlook19nov19,1,4219901.column?coll=la-news-columns
Oregon Secretary of State on why that state's system of voting by mail is the best for America. Imagine an election without lines, chads, touch-screens, gliches, or recounts. Ohio can have that too. Voting by mail would be a big step forward. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/17/AR2006111701592.html
Democrats to stress economic issues in the new Congress, including raising the minimum wage, college affordability, and health care. They understand that it was middle-class anxiety that got them elected and they want to address such anxiety. Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/18/AR2006111801001.html
Former Bush allies are turning against Bush on Iraq including the man some say is the "architect" of the Iraq War, Richard Pearle, whom, we are told, resents being called the War's "architect". Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/18/AR2006111801076.html
Democratic State Chairs applaud Dean's "50-State Strategy". Article link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061118/ap_on_el_ge/democrats_dean
The so-called War on Terror could soon be the most expensive war since WWII, surpassing Vietnam. Article link: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-11-16-iraq-costs_x.htm
Tony Blair doesn't dispute David Frost description of Iraq as having been "pretty much a diaster" during interview. Article link: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2459292,00.html
Why political reporters in Washington, D.C. are like high school and junior high bullies Article link: http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/2006/11/kewl-kidz-and-queen-bees.html
Incoming Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Max Baucus of Montana tells Bush that Social Security privatization is "off the table". Article link: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1153AP_Baucus_Finance_Agenda.html
From a online article by an editor at CBSNews.com: "Really, it's just a simple thesis: The men who ran the Republican Party in the House of Representatives for the past 12 years were a group of weirdos. Together, they comprised one of the oddest legislative power cliques in our history. And for 12 years, the media didn't call a duck a duck, because that's not something we're supposed to do." Read whole article: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/11/15/opinion/meyer/main2182755.shtml
According to the Bush Administration, Americans are no longer hungry, now they suffer from "low food security." The number of Americans suffering from "low food security", or what non-ideologue conservatives call hunger, at least part of last year was 12% or 35 million people. Read whole article:
From the "We kid you not" department:
The Bush administration has appointed a new chief of family-planning programs at the Department of Health and Human Services who worked at a Christian pregnancy-counseling organization that regards the distribution of contraceptives as "demeaning to women." Read whole article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/16/AR2006111601929.html
Time Magazine, hardly a bastion of liberalism, takes on five myths about the 2006 election. Read whole article: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1560212,00.html
Senators Harry Reid and Barak Obama go after GOP dirty tricks such as harassing robo-calls and misleading flyers designed to influence elections. Read more:
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/002009.php
Speaking of "dirty tricks", a follower of Michelle Malkin and Ann Coulter was arrested by the FBI after supposedly sending threatening letters to media figures and liberal politicians. Read more here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15721895/
Is Bush's Brain, aka Karl Rove, about to leave the White House following last week's election? Article link: http://thinkprogress.org/2006/11/17/rove-departure
Rove's influence on wane, but sources inside the White House say he will stay on. Article link: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/19/washington/19rove.html?_r=1&hp&ex=1163912400&en=3d7666a9cf7533df&ei=5094&partner=homepage&oref=slogin
Reader Submission: General Abizaid's Testimony Raises Questions
General Abizaid testified before Congress this past week. Under questioning by Senator Talent, General Abizaid acknowledged that embedding America advisers farther down to the company and platoon level of the Iraqi military would be useful, yet Adizaid stated there would only be embedded down through the battalion level team. Translation, no direct embeds at lower levels, a direct contradiction. Who is calling the shots for the U.S. Forces in Iraq, the military or the politicians in the Pentagon?
Kim Kendall
Editor's Note: Reader submissions are the opinions of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of MCDAC, its officers, or other writers on this website.
Why Local Campaigns Often Fail
Local campaigns often fail to realize that they need both a message and a marketing plan. The message needs to be developed first. Candidates need to be able to express in one or two sentences why they are seeking office. They need to hone the message so that it can be summed up in one short paragraph. The message needs to be the same at the beginning of the campaign as it is at the end of the campaign. Gary Hart once said that Ronald Reagan was the last president who could sum up his political program in 12 seconds: "Government is too big, make it smaller; defense is too weak, make it stronger; and taxes are too high, make them lower." Although Hart may have meant his observation as a joke, think about this: in our media saturated world, the candidate who can sum up his/her message in 12 seconds has a distinct advantage over the candidate who takes 12 minutes. Local candidates often get into races with no clear idea of why they are running or what message they want to communicate to voters. Such candidates shouldn't be surprised when they lose.
After the message has been developed, then a local candidate needs to develop a marketing plan. How is the campaign going to get its message out to the voters? What advertising vehicles is it going to use? Who are the voters it is trying to reach? No business would spend thousands of dollars on promotion without some sort of plan. Yet, local candidates often do just that. They spend literally thousands of dollars on advertising without a plan. Such expenditures may result in victory, but it is not likely, especially if they are running against a candidate who has both a message and a plan.
Local campaigns need to work on the 2MS: message and marketing. Local government is too important to approach a campaign for local office like a high-school student election.
MCDAC Democratic Newsletter for 11.17.2006
More on Medina County Election Results
A lot of people who have recently moved into Medina County or recently got involved in politics may be wondering why so many long time Medina County Democrats were so excited by last Tuesday's results. (Read the rest at http://mcdac.blogspot.com/2006/11/more-on-medina-county-election-results.html
The On-Going Battle in American Politics
Since the creation of the United States, there has been an on-going debate in America over what is and is not the proper role of government. (Read the rest at http://mcdac.blogspot.com/2006/11/on-going-battle-in-american-politics.html )
Dem TV Video on the U.S. Supreme Court
Last week we put up a video on Dem TV that raises a question about the U.S. Supreme Court. Click here to view the video: http://mcdac.blogspot.com/2006/11/dem-tv-video-on-us-supreme-court.html
Rove is Not a Genius
In 2000 the "boy genius" Karl Rove, aka Turd Blossom as the President fondly refers to him, sent George W. Bush to California during the last week of the campaign. (Read the rest at http://mcdac.blogspot.com/2006/11/rove-is-not-genius-in-2000-boy-genius.html)
Name Recognition Trumps Everything
This is very hard for candidates to understand, especially if they have never run for office before, but name recognition is extremely important. (Read the rest at http://mcdac.blogspot.com/2006/11/name-recognition-trumps-everything.html)
Articles/Links
Is Hillary getting ready to announce this winter for the 2008 nomination? The Hill, a Congressional newspaper that covers the Senate and House, seems to think so in this article: http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/111406/clinton.html
Senator-elect Jim Webb does the unthinkable and actually talks about America's growing class differences. http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110009246
Is support for "free trade" bills crumbling? http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/15/business/15trade.html?_r=1&hp&ex=1163566800&en=87fe6f8f64b83576&ei=5094&partner=homepage&oref=slogin
Republicans upset over Bush announcing that Rumsfeld would resign after the 2006 midterm election. Many believe that it cost them control of one or both Houses of Congress. Couldn't happen to a nicer group of people. http://www.forbes.com/technology/feeds/ap/2006/11/12/ap3166168.html
How King Karl got is so wrong. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15675318/site/newsweek/ And how the media continues to kiss his rotund behind. http://mediamatters.org/columns/200611140003
The Boston Globe reports on how the battle over Social Security laid the groundwork for the Dems taking control of Congress on November 7th, 2006: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/11/12/social_security_at_roots_of_shift/?page=1
Remember oversight by Congress of the Executive Branch? Well, the Democrats plan to restore the concept in Washington. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/12/washington/12oversight.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5088&en=07d26de296e6c4dd&ex=1320987600&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
Senator Russell Feingold of Wisconsin rules out running for the Democratic nomination in 2008. In his statement he said that since the Democrats took control of the Senate, he believes that he can be more effective working in the Senate than running for president. It will be interesting to see if other Senators such as Biden, Kerry, and even Clinton find staying in the Senate more attractive now that they will be in the majority for at least two years and maybe the next six. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061112/ap_on_el_pr/feingold_president
A very interesting profile on Harry Reid, the new Senate Majority Leader. One of the dumbest things that Frist did, and he did a whole lot of dumb things, was work to get rid of Tom Daschle. He got rid of Daschle and got Reid in his life who has been a much more effective Minority Leader than Daschle ever was. Thanks for helping us out, Bill, you idiot. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/10/us/politics/10reid.html?ei=5094&en=76271991a422d347&hp=&ex=1163221200&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1163174308-45H8yOpFr16LD4tXCLuIHg
A lot of people don't realize that while Nancy Pelosi has lived in San Fransisco, where she raised her family, she actually grew up in Baltimore where both her father and her brother were mayor. This article points out how she learned politics from watching her father. One thing that that taught her was the importance of government in helping those who can't help themselves. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/09/AR2006110901581.html
Bush wants John Bolton to be confirmed as U.N. Ambassador, but Senator Lincoln Chaffee is not going to back him on the Bolton nomination in the committee. According to Joe Biden, incoming Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, the Bolton nomination is "dead." http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6134734.stm
From the "I don't belong to an organized party, I'm a Democrat" department. After winning both the House and the Senate and a whole lot of state legislative seats, James Carville has the bright idea of getting rid of Howard Dean as DNC Chair. Why? Because Dean wants to build up the Democratic Party in all 50 states. Only a Washington insider married to a high-level Republican operative would think that is a bad idea. Oh, and it gets better, he wants to replace him with Harold Ford, who just lost the Tennessee Senate race. Boy, that's just makes a lot of freaking sense, doesn't it. http://www.tnr.com/blog/theplank?pid=56467
By the way, James, a poster over at Red State, a conservative blog, credits Dean's "50-state strategy" with "destroying" the Delaware GOP.
http://www.redstate.com/blogs/j_map/2006/nov/14/is_howard_deans_strategy_working
Lincoln Chaffee, who just lost a race as an incumbent Republican Senator from Rhode Island, is thinking about leaving the Republican Party. Now on the one hand this could be seen as "sour grapes" but on the other hand it could be seen as the harbinger of things to come. Over the last several election cycles the New England states have become more and more Democratic as the national GOP has gone further and further to the right under Rove and Bush. Over the next several years, look for other NE Republicans to move into the Democratic party. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061110/ap_on_el_se/rhode_island_senate
Two of the six newly elected Senators come from the South, four of them, including Sherrod Brown, come from states that Bush carried twice. Clearly Democrats can win in so-called "red states". This article explains why we can't write off the South: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061110/ap_on_el_se/rhode_island_senate
Twenty-four states have now raised the minimum wage, with Ohio joining five other states last Tuesday. http://www.alternet.org/workplace/44084/
Democrats pledge ethics overhaul when the take control in January. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061110/ap_on_el_ge/ethics_overhaul
For the love of God, can we finally put to rest the idea that the media is somehow "liberal"? Read this blog entry and tell me why it is that when Bush admits to lying, the Washington Post can't bring itself to call the lie a lie. What is with these people that they are just afraid to say that this administration tells lies? http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/2006/11/extremely-odd-behavior-from-washington.html
Franklin County won't count provisional ballots until after the OSU-Michigan game. http://www.dispatch.com/news/news.php?story=dispatch/2006/11/10/20061110-A1-00.html
Washington Post article on Sherrod Brown's victory in the Ohio Senate race. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/10/AR2006111001454.html?nav=rss_politics
Bush's popularity slips to a new low in the Newsweek as only 31% of Americans approve of the job he is doing. Frankly, that seems a bit high to us, but as Abraham Lincoln once said "you can fool some of the people all of the time." http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15667442/site/newsweek/
More on Medina County Election Results
A lot of people who have recently moved into Medina County or recently got involved in politics may be wondering why so many long time Medina County Democrats were so excited by last Tuesday's results. Here's why: Prior to last Tuesday's elections, it had been 20 years since a Democratic nominee for President or Governor carried Medina County The last candidate to do so was Dick Celeste in 1986. It had been 14 years since a Democratic nominee for Senator last carried Medina county. Prior to Sherrod Brown, the last Senatorial candidate to do so was John Glenn in 1992. What makes the results of last week's victory in Medina County by both Strickland and Brown more impressive was that neither was running as an incumbent. As one long time Medina County Democrat said this past week: "I haven't felt so good the day after an election since 1986".
Rove is Not a Genius
In 2000 the "boy genius" Karl Rove, aka Turd Blossom as the President fondly refers to him, sent George W. Bush to California during the last week of the campaign. This was breathlessly hailed by the national media as a brilliant tactic because he was expanding the playing field. Al Gore's people sent him to Florida. On election night California went for Gore by a huge margin and Florida went down to the wire and beyond. Bush only carried Florida because the U.S. Supreme Court decided to pull off a black-robed coup and give him the election. This year, during the closing weeks of the campaign, Rove has the GOP spend money in Michigan, North Dakota, and New Jersey. Once again he tried to expand the playing field and once again he came up short as Democratic candidates not only carried those three states but Virgiana, Missouri, and Montana by narrow margins. Once again you have to wonder how this guy ever got the label of "genius". One thing about the national media pundits, though, they don't let the facts confuse them. In their dictionaries Rove is a political genius and no amount of evidence to the contrary will convince them otherwise.
The On-Going Battle in American Politics
Since the creation of the United States, there has been an on-going debate in America over what is and is not the proper role of government. It started with the adoption of the United States Constitution and continues to this day. That debate is at the heart of the partisan divide between the two parties. If you ask Republicans and Democrats what role does government have in educating children, guaranteeing access to health care, protecting consumers from shoddy products and services, and helping Americans with retirement, you are likely to get different answers based on what each side sees as the proper role of government. Democrats can usually win this debate, if they engage in it and are not distracted by Republican attempts to confuse the electorate and distract it. Most Americans don't agree with the Republicans that the government has no or little role to play in areas such as education, health care, consumer protection, and retirement security. When Democrats primarily focus on these pocketbook issues, they win. When, however, they primarily focus on contentious social issues they usually lose.
Think about the just completed campaigns for governor and senator in Ohio. Both Strickland and Brown focused on pocketbook issues and both were very successful. Most Ohioans don't want their government to only be responsive to the rich and well-connected. Most Ohioans want their government to work for the middle class. If, however, we don't tell them that is what we want to do and if the other side is telling them that all we want to do is encourage abortions, allow gays to marry, take away guns, and protect terrorists, then we are going to lost elections. In politics you have to have a message and then you have to deliver that message. Too often the Democratic message is "we're not the other guys." That simply doesn't cut it. As Harry Truman once said, "If the choice is between a Republican and a Democrat who sounds like a Republican, the public will choose the real thing every time."
Name Recognition Trumps Everything
This is very hard for candidates to understand, especially if they have never run for office before, but name recognition is extremely important. Indeed in counties such as Medina, which is experiencing a lot of growth, it is probably the most important part of winning elections. Candidates are people who are very interested in politics and government. It is easy for them to believe that everyone is as interested in these matters as they are. After all, their friends and family all know they are running for office, doesn't this mean that the rest of the public knows as well? Well, no, it doesn't.
Put yourself in the position of the voter in last week's election. In Medina County there were 27 candidates major party candidates running in 14 races. (There would have been 28, but our county auditor was unopposed). Not counting the county auditor, you had 26 candidates to try and remember when you went to vote. That is a lot of information to carry around in your head. You are going to look for ways to shortcut the process. One way is by party identification, that is, only voting for candidates who are members of one political party or the other. Another way, although we don't like to discuss it, is by racial or gender identification, that is, only voting for candidates on racial or gender grounds. Usually most voters, however, don't vote for reasons of party, race, or gender. That leaves name identification, voting for the names that you know.
Sorting out candidates by name identification allows voters to go through the process of voting quickly. If they recognize the name, and if the recognition is not negative, then they are more likely than not to vote for that name. This is why incumbents have such an advantage. They have a whole term in office to get known whereas their opponents have only a few weeks, or at best, a few months.
Name identification also explains why, even in last week's anti-GOP wave in Ohio, local Republicans still won. The scandals in state government weren't scandals involving local candidates. No local Republican in Medina County got money from Bob Ney, or benefited from Coingate, or was a part of the Taft Administration. Therefore, those scandals weren't going to be as effective as Democrats may have thought in getting rid of local GOP incumbents or GOP candidates with prior ballot exposure.
What local Democratic candidates need to work on is getting better known before they run for office. At least one to two years out a person considering running for a county-wide race in a county as big as Medina County should be working on becoming known. Trying to become well known the year you run for office isn't going to work unless you have a lot of money to spend building up name identification.
With all 150 precincts counted, the unofficial results show that Ted Strickland, Sherrod Brown, Richard Cordray, Jennifer Brunner, and Marc Dann all carried Medina County. Locally Domestic Relations Judge Mary Kovack won re-election by over 7,000 votes. A complete list of the unofficial results for Medina County can be viewed here: http://www.boe.co.medina.oh.us:2000/results-1.htm
Huge Increase in Medina County Vote for Governor
Just in case you are wondering if GOTV works consider these numbers. In 2002 Tim Hagen lost Medina County by over 10,000 votes and 47.048 voters voted in that race. In 2006 Ted Strickland carries Medina County by around 13,000 votes according to the unofficial results and 64,329 voters vote for governor. That is an increase of 17281 voters for a percentage increase of 36.7%. It was that increase in voters that led to five out of six partisan state-wide candidates winning Medina County. That is why GOTV is so important and why party chairs stress it so much. Thanks to all of you who participated in GOTV in Medina County!
The Return of Good Old-Fashioned Democratic Economic Populism
Sherrod Brown's successful campaign for the U.S. Senate was an example of using economic populism to win an election. A previous post at www.mcdac.blogspot.com discussed what some Republican commentators call the rise of "Wal-Mart Republicans". http://mcdac.blogspot.com/2006/08/going-after-wal-mart-republicans.html The thesis is that Republicans use cultural issues to appear to be populists while selling out working and middle class families on economic issues. The way to counter such tactics is to do what Sherrod did: fight cultural populism with economic populism.
Speak out against unfair trade policies that care more about businesses making money from imports than saving American jobs. Speak out against a health system that is broken and not protecting American families. Speak out against a war that sends the sons and daughters of American families to die on the sands of the Middle East in support of failed policies.
Because Sherrod spoke of protecting Ohio's middle class families and because he campaigned everywhere in Ohio, he is out next United States Senator. He also deprived DeWine of the ability to turn middle class families against him on so-called "value" issues. Attempts to link Sherrod to culturally divisive issues such as abortion weren't successful. Why? Because Sherrod was giving Ohioans the choice of voting to oppose policies that are destroying the middle class. Hopefully other Ohio politicans will follow his example.
The Bullies were Beat
One of the worst things about Karl Rove's success has been the way he was praised by the national media. It wasn't just that they gave attention to a man who practices a mean brand of politics. The real harm was that Karl Rove's success encouraged other Republicans to try the same sort of tactics. Whether it was robocalls against Sherrod Brown and Ted Strickland or a nasty letter dropped on Judge Kovack the weekend before the election, the genesis was the same: a belief that all that matters is winning.
Well, here is a news flash for all the Republican bullies who model themselves on King Karl: the people are smarter than you think. You may have some short term success with those tactics, but eventually the people figure out that you are nothing more than a bully with an elephant pin.
MCDAC Report on the 2006 ElectionYear
In 2006 the Medina County Democratic Action Committee printed and distributed over 92,000 copies of Common Sense, averaging over 23,000 copies per issue. MCDAC sent over approximately 10,000 email messages per month. These messages included the weekly email Democratic Newsletter, messages on behalf of local candidates, and messages on behalf of the Medina County Democratic Party and allied organizations. None of this would have been possible without the help of our donors and volunteers. We had a great 2006 election year and look forward to being involved in the local elections of 2007.
Dem TV Project
This past summer MCDAC launched the Dem TV project. As of Saturday morning, November 4, 2006 there had been 3316 views of Dem TV video clips on You Tube. A survey of the numbers shows that shorter clips or clips involving national issues or candidates for national office are be viewed more often than other clips.
New Dem TV Clip
We have posted a new Dem TV clip called "Supreme Court Question". Check it out by going to http://www.demtv.org and then clicking on the link. If you like the clip, please forward to your friends. Please feel free to send your comments about the clip to joycekimbler@medinacountydemocraticactioncommittee.org.
Medina County's Newest Democrat?
Republican Medina County Commissioner Sharon Ray had her picture taken with Ted Strickland at some event. Then, miraculously, this picture was sent out by some newly created group that just happens to have a Republican chairperson. Apparently Sharon wanted to be identified with Ted's team and not with her own. We can certainly see why. Maybe she is thinking about a political conversion.
CNN Exit Poll for Ohio
CNN does exit polling for U.S. elections and then posts the results on the Internet. It has some very fascinating information. In Ohio, for example, Sherrod Brown took a majority of the votes from both men and women, running slightly better among women. He took a majority of the votes in all age categories. There is other information available. Check out the exit polls at http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2006/pages/results/states/US/H/00/epolls.2.html
Interesting Articles/Links
Black voters tell the GOP "it isn't the color of a candidate's skin, its what he or she stands for" by rejecting high-profile black Republican candidates such as Blackwell. http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/11/08/black.republicans.ap/index.html
In a 1999 war game played by U.S. military personnel called "Desert Crossing", the military was asked to assume that Saddam had been overthrown by a war. The goal of the game: figure out what happens next. The conclusion of the game? Even 400,000 troops wouldn't guarantee stability. How many did Rumsfeld put in Iraq? About 140,000. The incompetence of this administration would be laughable if it wasn't resulting in the deaths of Americans and Iraqis. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061105/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/iraq_war_games
The incompetence of this adminstration is breathtaking. The latest example? The Bush Administration posted documents seized from Iraq giving instructions on how to build a nuclear bomb on the Internet in Arabiac. When this was pointed out by the New York Times, they took the information off the website. Of course the reason was it was posted was because of the insistence of House and Senate Republicans who were hoping that they would find information of Iraqis WMDs. By the way, it was posted over the objections of Negroponte, the National Intelligence Director. http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/news_theswamp/2006/11/posted_by_frank.html
Democrats take control of the U.S. House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi says that the clearest way that Bush could show his desire for a change is by firing Rumsfled, Bush announces Rumsfeld's "resignation" about 30 minutes later. http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1163026213065&call_pageid=968332188492
Here's a report about how the U.S. ignored warnings from the British that invading Iraq and toppling its government would lead to "chaos". Apparently the Blair government told those making the predications to stop making them during the run-up to the U.S. led invasion in 2003. http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article1962686.ece
Was the 2006 mid-term election the "revenge of the left" or the "revenge of the center"? E. J. Dionne of the Washington Post poses that question in his analysis of what happened this past Tuesday. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/08/AR2006110802080.html
Here was the Montgomery plan: she would drop out of the race for Governor and run for Attorney General. She would be the lone survivor of the Ken Blackwell slaughter and then she would run for Governor in 2010 and take out Ted Strickland. Well, something happened to that plan and it is named Marc Dann. Apparently Montgomery is so shocked that she isn't taking questions from the media. Couldn't happen to a nicer person. http://www.cleveland.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/news/1163065365195850.xml&coll=2
This is why you fight everywhere and concede nothing to the GOP: Strickland courted rural Ohio; it paid off. Cleveland Plain Dealer. November 9, 2006.
http://www.cleveland.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/news/1163065486195850.xml&coll=2
With thousands of absentee and provisional ballots remaining to be counted, Deborah Pryce, Republican Congresswoman from Columbus wants her opponent to concede. Her opponent, Franklin County Commissioner Mary Kilroy refuses to do so pointing out that Pryce's lead is about 2,200 votes and the number of ballots left to count is around 15,000. What is with these Republicans not wanting to count all the votes? http://www.columbusdispatch.com/election/election.php?story=225307
Only 4 Days Left Until November 7th, election.
Sherrod Brown Rally in Wadsworth
On Saturday, October 28, between 125-150 Medina County Democrats rallied in Wadsworth in support of Sherrod Brown, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senator from Ohio. Before Sherrod arrived, the crowd greeted local candidates such as John Dean running for Medina County Commissioner, Judge Mary Kovack running for re-election as Medina County Domestic Relations Judge, and Attorney Clair Dickinson who is running for the Ninth District Court of Appeals. After a rousing introduction from Pam Miller, Medina County Democratic Chair, Sherrod fired up the crowd by pointing out that he is drawing sharp distinctions between his record and that of incumbent Senator Mike DeWine. Sherrod reminded the crowd that on the War in Iraq, stem cell research, outsourcing American jobs, and health care, he, and not DeWine is the candidate who represents the majority view in Ohio.
The rally was organized by Marti Hallstrom from Wadsworth and Julie Batey, head of the Wadsworth Democratic group. If you want to get involved with the Wadsworth Dems and help turn Wadsworth "blue", contact Julie at juliebatey@neo.rr.com.
Fran Strickland at Medina Dem HQ
On Wednesday evening, November 1, 60 to 70 Medina County Dems showed up at Medina County Dem HQ to greet Ohio's next first lady, Fran Strickland, as she worked the phones to get out the vote in Medina County. Fran's appearance marked the beginning of our efforts to maximize the Medina County vote for Ted Strickland, Sherrod Brown, and the rest of the Democratic ticket. There is still time to get involved with the GOTV effort. To find out how you can get involved, contact David Brown at dnbrown@zoominternet.net.
DeWine Draws Six at Medina County GOP HQ
According to a story in the October 29th edition of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Mike DeWine had six people show up at the Medina County GOP Headquarters to take part in a canvass in Medina. The DeWine event was at the same time as the Sherrod Brown rally which drew between 125 and 150. Hmm, wonder which side has the enthusiasm this election?
