2010: When Dems Ceded America to the GOP: Here's How to Win it Back.

Eye catching isn't it?

If you’re angry and frustrated that the GOP state legislatures and governors in this country have gone on a binge cutting women’s rights, civil rights, access to healthcare, and redefining history by eliminating teaching facts in public schools, while gerrymandering themselves into permanent power, while the Democrats seemingly disappeared from those states…this post is for you.

Conducting effective local political investigations is one of the most important tools when it comes to winning local elections. (Yes that's the work I did...I mention it not to pat myself on the back but to prove a point).

Political investigations help to define an opposing candidate in a way that causes voters to NOT VOTE for him. They provide info that blunt potential attacks against your own candidate by allowing you to pre-empt by shaping the message first. Political investigations provide the narrative to swiftly address and discredit unexpected allegations that crop up during an election. And prevent funders with baggage from weighting down your campaign.

SO WHY DID DEMOCRATS HOGTIE LOCALLY HANDLED PROFESSIONAL LEVEL POLITICAL INVESTIGATIONS?

That’s what happened in 2010, when the Democratic Party moved its political infrastructure to the beltway, and in the process, gutted local political operations.

For the Democratic Party, the notion that “all politics is local” disappeared overnight. 

Gone just like that 🫰.

How do I know this shift occurred? 

I lived it. First hand.

And saw the damage this shift did to Democratic election fortunes, and along with it, our freedoms, rights, and quality of life. 

From 2002-2019, I used my investigation skills to help elect hundreds of Democratic officials. National outlets like Politico Magazine, “Politics is Dirty Business. I Ought to Know”. Confessions of a Political Private Eye.(2/14/2014) and Professional Investigator Magazine, “Creating a Specialty: Investigating for Political Candidates” (Dec. 2013) sought me out for my political investigation expertise. As did the Associated Press, and local media outlets.

I’ve covered the resources I used to successfully conduct political investigations in this FREE checklist. Download it by clicking here. 

HOW I GOT STARTED WITH POLITICAL INVESTIGATIONS

In 2002, I expanded my case preparation litigation investigation business to include conducting political investigations for Democratic candidates in New Mexico where I lived at the time. 

I was approached by some attorneys familiar with my case preparation work, when the person they were using wasn’t getting it done.

From that point on, and up through 2008, I conducted political investigations for all of the the NM state House races, and many of the state Senate races too. I also did the political investigations for all of the Democrats running for statewide office. And some of the political investigations for NM Democrats running for the US House and Senate too.

2010 THE YEAR DEMOCRATS QUIT “ALL POLITICS IS LOCAL”

But in 2010, that changed. Suddenly, there was pressure on local Democratic political organizations to move the political investigations to beltway connected “op-research” consultants. 

They were told specifically who to hire if they wanted money for their campaigns (BTW…those hired were not professional investigators. In fact, most knew little about conducting investigations. But, they had something else going for them…they had political connections with those who controlled the purse, and therefore, controlled the shots).

I still ended up getting hired, though much later in the election cycle than usual leaving much less time for me to work, after the Democratic candidates saw the lack of results they were getting from the beltway folks, and then decided to hire me directly themselves.

The candidates that reached out to me were pretty pissed off about the shift to DC consultants. After all, results matter. And they were not getting any.

But, once the beltway consultants got ahold of the work, they weren’t about to let it go. $$$$$$$$$$$$$

So how did that shift away from local political infrastructure to the beltway consultants work out? 

Not well. Either for Democrats, and for our nation. 

Democrats lost close to 1000 state legislative seats, lost control of multiple state legislatures, and governorships too. Loses that have continued on through today.

Why does it matter? Because:

•  Education policy is determined at the state level. So how and what our kids are taught is determined by local elections. As are the resources provided to our educators so they can teach our kids.
•  Redistricting. The methods we used to determine the boundaries of our congressional representatives is determined at the state level. Control state legislatures. You can manipulate the political boundaries to ensure your side has the best district layout in order to win elections, and stay in power..
•  State elected officials determine operational priorities, including who benefits from those priorities, and who gets harmed by those priorities.

Pretty important stuff. Things that directly affect the quality of our lives.👇👇👇

And the results of the shift…

In New Mexico, 7 Democratic legislators lost their state house races while no GOP incumbent lost. Overall in the state house, Democrats lost 8 seats.

Despite having worked on the state governor’s race in 2002 and 2006 for the Democratic (and successful candidate), in 2010 the Democratic candidate for governor hired a beltway consulting group. 

One day, after voters had begun casting ballots for that election, I received a call from the candidate’s team. They asked to hire me for ONE HOUR of my time, to teach them how to locate information they were having trouble locating.

Yep. Those beltway consults wanted to pay me for an hour of my time, to teach them HOW TO DO THE WORK they got paid to do.

While the Democratic gubernatorial candidate went all beltway, I still did some of the statewide races (my candidates won despite the gubernatorial candidate losing), and some congressional races, and even picked up a congressional race in Missouri, where against all odds and polling, my investigation helped a Democratic incumbent eke out a win.

But, the damage was done. From that point on. The pressure remained for local Democrats to spend their resources on beltway consultants. And not just for investigation. But for polling, and get out the vote operations too.

My work shifted as a result. From primarily doing investigations for candidates, to conducting them for Democratic aligned interest groups. I still managed to work on and shape the outcomes of hundreds of races. 

Were it not for these interest groups, the losses Democrats suffered since 2010 would have been greater still.

But, it wasn’t just in New Mexico that this shift to the beltway from local operations occurred. In fact, it occurred in all 50 states.

And the results were dramatic.

•  Following the 2008 election, there were 29 Democratic state governors and 21 Republican governors. Following the 2010 election, Republicans added 11 governors in states that previously had Democratic governors. While the Democrats managed to switch less than half that number of GOP governor’s offices to their column. Now there were 29 GOP governors and only 20 Democratic governors. 
•  In 2010, Republicans took control of 19 previously Democratically held state legislative chambers. Including the first time the GOP took control of the Minnesota State Senate. 
•  And the losses for Democrats built up even more for years to come as the Democratic Party continued steering work previously done locally to DC based consultants. From 2010 to 2014, Republicans gained 900 state legislative seats.
•  In 2022, Democrats made some gains in governor’s races, but still the GOP continues to control 54.02% of state governorships while the Democrats control 44.31% Today, the GOP control both legislative chambers and the governor’s mansion in 22 states, while Democrats control all 3 in just 17.

The GOP is inflicting massive harm to people at the state and local level. And doing so without fear of losing power to Democrats. 

After all, as the lottery slogan says, “you can’t win if you don’t play.”

The time has come for Democrats to quit trying to win local elections in states by turning races over to operatives living and working in the beltway. 

Maybe pressure needs to come from the interest groups and funders, AND ABOVE ALL THE VOTERS. But, It’s time for the party to rebuild its local political infrastructure in all 50 states and in many, many counties. 

Everything from conducting political investigations, to polling, to canvassing, to media should be done locally, using local talent.

If you’d like to learn more about how to conduct political investigations, download my FREE political investigation checklist below.