DNC Memo: This Is The 50-State Strategy Realized

Fresh off an expansion in congressional majorities and the reclamation of the White House, the Democratic National Committee is sending around a memo that ties the success to Chairman Howard Dean's 50-state-strategy.

Noting that much of Obama's campaign principles expanded on the strategy Dean began implementing three years earlier, the memo pinpoints some of the highlights for the Party: having nearly 200 paid staffers across every state, organizing nearly 900 "pushback and bracketing events," hosting workshops across the country to train staff, and so on.

Two things in particular stand out as having truly tangible impact on Obama's victory:

Dean and the party made a strategic decision to push West, adding an early primary contest in Nevada and hosting the convention in Denver. Those two states - in addition to New Mexico - ended up flipping Obama's way. In addition, the DNC put in place a "neighbor-to-neighbor program" that gave grassroots organizers access to more voter information than they previously had. The results were a snowball effect of sorts: activists could talk to more people, gain more information, and report it back to their databases. The Obama camp took this philosophy and expanded on it, using person-to-person contact as a chief persuasion tool to recruit new voters.

The relative success of the DNC has persuaded some of Dean's early critics to re-examine their assessment, although Dean himself pleaded for eight years before grading the results of his 50-state-strategy. One of those critics - it should be noted - is Obama's new chief of staff, Rep. Rahm Emanuel who argued in 2006 that Democrats would be best suited to take their resources and devote them to winnable races rather than traditionally Republican strongholds.

Here is the Executive Summary of the DNC memorandum:

To: Interested Parties
From: DNC Communications
Date: 11/5/08
RE: A 50 State Strategy: Rebuild, Show Up, and Ask for People's Votes.

When Governor Dean became Chairman in February 2005, our Party had come through a dismal election cycle. We had just lost a national election to an incumbent president whose approval rating hovered at or below 50 percent. Republicans had gained 3 seats in the House and 4 in the Senate, leading to speculation about the possibility of a "permanent Republican majority."

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Governor Dean's first step was to assess our Party's strengths and weaknesses and put in place a strategy to address those issues. Dean developed a business plan to rebuild the Democratic Party, modernize our operations and expand the electoral map. The emphasis was on lessons learned and best practices, and it included the following key components:

· Rebuild the Infrastructure of the Party - After assessing the needs on the ground, we hired full-time permanent staff in all 50 states, trained staff and activists, introduced new measures of accountability, and developed a unified technology platform. Over the past four years we've held 140 trainings for candidates, campaign staff, organizers, Party leaders and activists in all 50 states.

· Upgrade and Improve the Party's Technology/Modernize the Way We Do Grassroots Organizing - Over the past four years the DNC has made significant investments in technology, creating a truly national voter file, improved micro-targeting models and developed 21st century campaign tools that merged traditional organizing with new technology.

· Diversify the Donor Base - Shifting the emphasis of Party fundraising to include both small donors and large donors, the DNC brought in more than 1.1 million new donors and raised more than $330 million from '05 - '08. The average contribution over the last three years was $63.88.

· Amplify Democratic Message and Improved Outreach - Created a national communications infrastructure to amplify the Democratic message and reach out to groups we haven't always talked to and expand the map to regions where Democrats have not traditionally been competitive - including the South and the West.

· Professionalize Voter Protection Efforts - Created a year-round national, state and local effort to ensure that every eligible voter has the opportunity to vote.

When Obama Became the Nominee:

As a result of those efforts, when Barack Obama became our Party's nominee, we had unprecedented resources in place, including:

· Trained, Professional Staff on the Ground in All 50 States
· A State of the Art Voter File and Micro-targeting Tools
· The Neighbor-to-Neighbor Organizing Tool
· Initial Polling on McCain
· A political roadmap for 24 states

Comments

[momuv2]

I so glad Obama listen and embraced the strategy. The Clintons were in the front of the line as Howard Deans critics. We all know the end of that story.

[Fabienne]

I would have much preferred Dean as Chief of Staff for Obama. That truly would have signalled change.

[OfficialA]

Congratulations Dr. Dean! We wouldn't be where we are without you.

[eleutheros]

Has the new White House Chief of Staff offered his mea culpa to the good doctor from Vermont?

[BlueAsh]

I just wrote a thank-you note to Dean via DNC:

http://www.democrats.org/contact.html

[sueno]

Thank you and I want to sign on!
Dean deserves a lot of credit for this win-
He was also the first Dem. with a spine
and started the push-back that brought
Obama into office. Thanks for not forgeting Dean!

[elbowroom]

Ditto.

[Ljeff79]

Howard Dean deserves so much credit in this victory.

While he certainly deserves a cabinet appointment in the new administration, I really hope that Dean remains at DNC. He has proven himself so effective, and so valuable to the party by opening up the political conversation in areas where the Democrats had never even bothered to show up.

Dean has proven that the reason the Democrats have failed over the past decade is not a matter of unshakable center-right values in the electorate, but the defeatist attitude of a politically beaten down minority party. The people have proven to be more open minded than anyone ever thought possible.

The Democrats need to keep this rolling!

Dr. Dean, if you're out there I'd like to say that you deserve so much credit and many thanks! I always thought that if you had been the nominee you would have been the winner in '04.

Please don't leave your post at the DNC! You are doing so much good!

[MarciaG]

If ever there were proof of the success of the 50 State Strategy, my state New Hampshire, is it. We were solidly Republican for over 150 years. Beginning in 2006 following Howard Dean's 50 State Strategy, we Democrats won the Governorship, the Governor's Council, the State House of Representatives, the State Senate, and for the first time in our history a woman was sent to Congress in the 1st Congressional District unseating a two term Republican incumbent.­. We also won the 2nd Congressional District. This time we gained additional seats in the House and Senate and sent the first woman Senator to Washington, DC. Howard Dean may have lost his election in 2004 but he won the Presidency and so much more in 2008 with his 50 State Strategy.

[CaptainStormfield]

Bill Bradley who blogs on Huff also mentioned that Gary Hart was actually the first to propose taking back the West. His candidacy of course got torpedoed but he still deserves a lot of credit.

[CaptainStormfield]

In many ways Im calling this election the revenge of Howard Dean. Im giving the big finger to the MSM and the Clintons for knifing him in the back in 2005. I hope he gets that HHS seat.
You rock Howard.

[BlueAsh]

Agreed!

[dpinmd]

I couldn't agree more! Thank you, Dr. Dean. With your vision and leadership, we really did TAKE OUR COUNTRY BACK!!

[jennyjen]

I want to compliment the campaign organizers on the staff training that promoted inclusion. When they opened an office in my neighborhood I went to the grand opening party to look into the volunteer opportunities.

Every single staff member at the party came up and introduced themselves. How many times have we attempted to volunteer with a group that had a core of volunteers that were cliquish and stuck up? Not on Obama and Dean's watch. There was no job that was beneath any of the paid staff. They made calls - they answered questions when they were ready to fall asleep standing up. They did dishes. They ran out for sodas which they paid for out of their own pockets which made me crazy considering that they were paid such a minimal salary.

I want to take this time to thank them all for a positive experience that I will remember forever. I will also be first in line to volunteer for Obama's next campaign.

I was not interested in doing the door knocking or the phone calls and was happy to find out that the data entry positions were considered equally valuable. It was the campaign's goal to update the database daily with the result of every call and door knock. The website was beautifully designed and maintained.

Thanks to everyone here in Denver for making us all feel welcome and valued. I look forward to a president who exemplifies those values.

[uheardme]

A lot of Clintonites (on this board) owe Gov. Dean an apology.

[planetjeffy]

This could not have been done without the most amazing political web campaign ever assembled, that raised so much money (without lots of Obama attended fundraisers) - they were able to fund a 50 state effort. They have also set in place a way for national Dems to fund local candidates who need and extra mil or two. I see great things ahead for this party.

[Tunghoy]

Gov. Dean's strategy has had a direct effect on heavy red areas like mine, which are now shading light red or light blue. He's given us staff, training and data that we never had before. The result is slow but steady gains. We've taken the GOP by surprise several times and last year became a majority on my town council for the first time in 30 years.

Dean understands that the party has to do more than just a presidential contest every 4 years. Just like a baseball team needs AAA ball to draw players from, the party needs to win down-ballot races to draw from. Today's dog catcher is tomorrow's mayor. Today's mayor is tomorrow's senator.

THANK YOU, HOWARD!

[Cinnamonape]

It's hard to see alternative possibilities with other candidates­...but it's clear that Obama was in some ways the ideal candidate to implement Dean's strategy. He brought out huge numbers of African Americans in many states that voted 95% for him. He eventually got 60%+ of Hispanic voters...h­e energized young voters in a way that I suspect Hillary could not have done. He brought back 90% of the Hillary voters, who were, after all rational policy thinkers after all (and many didn't become PUMA's at all...it was simply a ploy by the Republicans).

In the Kerry/Gore states Obama won by margins as large as, or larger, than those candidates.

We have to remember that Dean did establish field staffs in many of these States back in 2006. But Obama's campaign started to build a parallel, and independent network in the primary campaign. That network was NOT directly linked with the DNC, and could not be. When the two were merged it became the basis of a tsunami.

[Buj]

I guess a lot of huffpost's posters have to eat their own crow now that Dean's has proven himself right.