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Howard Dean's 50-State Strategy Paying Off

A new article from The Nation illustrates just how successful Democratic Chairman Howard Dean has been in putting forth his previously-criticized 50-State Strategy Plan for putting activists and ward leaders on the ground in every part of the country. Dean's plan for attacking Republicans in traditionally-red parts of the country is already paying dividends in my native South, as the article indicates how Western N.C. Democrats have galvanized in part because of Dean's strategy.

Of course, not one district, precinct or council should go uncontested, since the Republican Party has dragged this country down the wrong path, both domestically and internationally. The epic failure of the Bush administration has resulted in uprecedented opportunities for Democrats to take state legislatures, run and win Republican-held House seats, and make general incursions into previously "hostile" territory. The Democrats in the N.C. county cited in the article, for example, are organizing like never before -- now that their are field organizers in every state because of Dean's plan --, and the N.C. Dems are now trying to unseat conservative congresswoman Virginia Foxx. The author, Bob Moser, writes, "In "purple" states like North Carolina, where Democrats dominate most local and statewide elections, it's helping to turn red counties purple and purple counties blue, uncorking a new strain of progressive populism--the kind that won Senate races in Virginia for Jim Webb, Montana for Jon Tester and Ohio for Sherrod Brown."

Dean's model also provides a strategy for N.J. Democrats to unseat the remaining Republican seats, particularly the Republican-leaning parts of District 7 where Republican Mike Ferguson is enjoying his last tenure as a congressman to Ocean County, where Dems need to convince voters they stand for them and their best interests economically.

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070813/moser

posted by Michael Martin @ 8:58 AM