Reader Submission: Thoughts on Medina County Dem Campaigns

A reader who is active in Democratic politics, and who has been involved in winning campaigns at the county-level sent us these six points and gave us permission to run them as an entry on our blog.

We urge all Medina Democrats who are interested in local campaigns to read our reader's suggestions on how to win local campaigns.

1. The local candidates developed a really nice joint piece for lit dropping and canvassing. An individual piece of literature, however, would be better for the absentee mailing. People who vote at home take it really seriously and like to review the lit. It would be money well spent for each candidate to do a piece to tell his or her own story for this mailing.

2. I have voted early at the BOE for 3 election cycles and did not receive one piece of lit from D or R local candidates - this means advantage incumbent. These are good voters and can't be missed. These voters can be identified because their absentee applications and the submissions of their ballots are on the same day.

3. Some local candidates targeted only Independents with their mailings. Given this was a year where so many more people than the loyal base pulled a Dem primary ballot, this probably overlooked many good and persuadable voters.

4. Only one local candidate made a case for change, but it may have been too late. The case must be made before the campaign begins. With 20,000 plus good voters voting before Nov. 4th -- the case has to be made before the early voting begins.

5. TV advertising is essential. People need to see the candidates in their homes to "know" them.

6. The cooperation was impressive this year amongst candidates, but the party needs to organize a ground game. Until there is a geographically based organizational structure that survives from year to year, this will never be a blue county. Blue counties aren't necessarily blue because everyone is left of center, but rather because these counties have infrastructure.

Former Bush Aides Plan $250 Million Dollar Political Action Committee Targeting Liberals and Democrats

FreedomWatch.org, which, according to this Washington Post article, has Ari Fleischer as its spokesman, is aiming to raise $250,000,000.00 to influence the 2008 political campaigns. It has already made its influence felt in northwest Ohio when it got involved in the special election won by Representative Del Latta. This group is being billed as the conservative answer to MoveOn.org.

The funding of this group is particularly interesting. According to the Post article, one of its main benefactors is Sheldon G. Adelson, a Las Vegas casino executive who last year pledged an unprecedented $200 million to Jewish and Israeli causes. He is joined by others who support Bush's policies in the Middle East, particularly with respect to Iran and Iraq. This is how the Post describes the origins of this FreedomWatch.org: The organization was conceived at a Florida meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition last spring with the initial aim of defending Bush's policies in Iraq and Iran. According to the Post, these are the people running the organzation: Ari Fleischer, a former Bush press secretary and a Freedom's Watch founder. The other organizers are Bradley A. Blakeman, another former Bush White House official, and Mel Sembler, a Florida strip-mall magnate who served as Bush's ambassador to Italy.

Of course, their support isn't confined to just foreign policy, as the ads they ran against Robin Weirauch show. This is how the Post described the group's ads against Weirauch: Behind a blood-red foreground, the group's ad showed Latinos hurrying under fences and being frisked by police as a narrator accused Democratic candidate Robin Weirauch and "liberals in Congress" of supporting free health care for illegal immigrants

This is the same stuff we have been getting from the Republican Party and its supporters for years. Find a hot button issue, such as immigration, that can be used to get votes from working class voters, predominantly white, and then get wealthy poeple interested in other issues, such as taxation, or in this case, supporting Israel in the Mideast, to funds ads exploiting those issues. Of course, the pay-off for the working class voters never comes and the conservatives elected not only vote against illeagal immigration, but also against workplace safety, raising the mimimum wage, against regulating corporations and for obscene tax cuts for the rich.

Washington Post Writer Lists Ohio's 16Th Congressional District as Most Likely House Seat to Change Hands

If you read the Washington Post on a regular basis, you will know that there is a Post writer,Chris Cillizza, who has a regular blog called "The Fix." He covers all kind of political races. This is how he describes his blog:
Welcome to The Fix, a new washingtonpost.com blog that aims to serve as a one-stop shop for political junkies in Washington and the wider world.

One of his regular items is called "The Line." In that part of his blog he lists the top ten races for the House, the Senate, and for governors of various states, that have the potential to change from one party to the other. In the most recent line for House seats, Cillizza ranks Ohio's 16Th Congressional District as the most likely seat to change. The Democratic nominee in that race is John Boccieri, who is currently an Ohio State Senator.

This ranking is good news for John's candidacy because it is the kind of thing that is read by Washington insiders. Such insiders can help John raise money and raising money makes the job of winning the November election a lot easier. Republicans will fight like hell to hold this seat, so if you can sign up to help John or contribute to his campaign, it would certainly be appreciated. Here is his website: http://www.johnforcongress.com/

Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Should Start Running Ads Right Now on GOP Obstructionism

If you click on the link in this entry's title you can read a report on how Bush plans to blame Congress for delays in enacting legislation. Of course this is ironic given that the reason more bills haven't made it to his desk for signature is because of Republican filibusters. As one Democratic Senate leader put it last week, "They are filibustering bills that they actually support." The reason for this is obvious, the Republicans want to make sure that Democrats are blamed for their obstructionism.

Instead of just bitching about their dilatory tactics, the DSCC should start running cable ads on the fact that Republicans are filibustering Democratic legislation. They should run such ads right now, on cable because it is less expensive and start making sure that the American people know which party is refusing to address the important problems affecting America.