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Thursday, August 25, 2005

We All Have a Stake in Midterm Elections

From the DCCC's Stakeholder:

This post is actually the kick-off for a string of guest posts from regional bloggers on opportunities in their geographical areas of expertise.

The guest poster who kicked things of was Stirling Newberry. Stirling seems to write everywhere, but he is the type of guy you must read whenever you come across him. While Stirling is a tough act to follow, I look forward to reading the other authors who contribute in this series.

While The Stakeholder can't afford to give Jesse Lee a staff member in every state, there are strong bloggers in every state willing to step up and do whatever Lee needs. This is a scalable model. Props to the Stakeholder, now go read Mr. Newberry.

Posted at 06:55 PM in 2006 Elections, 2006 Elections - House, Netroots | Technorati

Comments

Stirling's piece was an excellent overview. Now Jesse Lee needs to follow through with the "regional bloggers on opportunities in their geographical areas of expertise." IMHO he should have at least three for California: we are not one size fits all.

In a more general sense I would encourage the DCCC to do peer-to-peer grassroots strategy sessions in the various regions, with local grassroots leaders, people who are on the ground and know the state of play. In our region that pretty much excludes the "usual suspects" — members of the party establishment who are as "same old same old" as you get.

Our stupendously (if I do say so myself) successful Jefferson-Jackson Dinner in Santa Barbara a week ago (see the BE for Change website) demonstrated once again that party-building is a from-the-ground-up community effort. There was an after-party at my house with a couple of young 'Netroots strategists who must be heard. The contrast between what they had to say and what an establishment fellow (DNC member) who joined us had to say was pretty telling. The latter was all about justifying not fighting everywhere we can. The other two guys debunked the notion of "limited resources," with a software demonstration to make their points. The DNC guy was all about resources qua money. The 'Netroots guys were all about resources qua people. Quite a different mode of thinking, and I don't know if the establishment yet has a clue.

I will put you in touch with them.

Posted by: Ellen Dana Nagler at August 26, 2005 03:05 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment