Democrats Need to Fix This, And Fast!

All politics is local...unless you're the Democratic Party. In which case all things, especially campaign resources, flow through DC.

In a previous piece, I discussed the collapse that ensued for the Democratic Party after it quit focusing on local operations and shifted its operations to the beltway. Throughout the US, Democrats lost nearly 1000 state legislative seats. I saw this firsthand in New Mexico where I conducted political investigations. And what happened there was not an outlier. It occurred in states throughout the US. You can read it here.

In 2021, the Republican State Leadership Committee, which helps state level GOP candidates run for office took in $33,000,000 dwarfing the $21,000,000 that the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, which does the same thing for Democratic state level candidates, took in.

Why such a massive discrepancy?

Democrats steer their money to the beltway, and maybe if they're feeling generous, they will redistribute some of it back to state races.

Sounds familiar?

Kinda like TRICKLE DOWN economics.

The Democratic political philosophy is that presidential elections drive turnout, and that while people are voting for the Democratic nominee for president, they'll cast their votes for other Democrats down the ballot too.

And this strategy works about as well as trickle down economics did. 😵‍💫

Recently, Democrats decided to "fix" the loss of state offices after more than a decade of those losses getting cemented into place leading to significant damage to people's right to vote, to women's right to make decisions about her body and healthcare, and education (just a few areas that have been harmed dues to the Democrats fateful decision).

In the wilderness for more than a decade, Democrats have developed a new appreciation for supporting state candidates.

But...just like the definition of insanity, they're expecting a different result by doing the same thing over again.

In 2022, America Bridge, the Democrats BELTWAY based "op-research" firm, announced that they would start conducting research in state races on behalf of Democratic candidates. And they'd hire "trackers" and other researchers. Their press released stated that they intended to raise $10 million for this new component of its beltway operation.

And history once again repeats itself. All politics is local...unless you're the Democratic Party. 

Instead of the resources flowing directly to local operatives who know their state, who know their voters, who day in and day out track down and use information that impacts them, they hired people to work the computers from DC, or young kids to follow around candidates for hours and hours hoping and praying for another "macaca" moment***

***In 2006 George Allen, a GOP US Senator from Virginia, called out a Democratic tracker videoing him at an event with a slur while the camera rolled. When the slur was exposed Allen dug himself into a deeper hole by not simply apologizing and instead tried to claim what he said wasn't a slur.***

Secretariat. The greatest horse of all times sired over 600 horses, who themselves produced other horses from his bloodline. Yet, none have ever come close to Secretariat's talent, savvy, speed, and desire to win.

And in politics like horse racing ...

THERE'S ONLY BEEN ONE MACACA MOMENT.

It just isn't that an effective approach to winning elections. Sure it can help, but Democratic reliance upon it, instead of detailed investigation work, wreaks of a Hail Mary approach to political investigations.

Sure politicians say offensive, and what should be disqualifying things, all the time. And it's great to catch them doing it. Video is powerful.

But, many voters simply don't care what a politician says. It's how they understand the voter, and what the politician does that matters. (Policies are less important than most people understand).

The Democrats, instead of building up more beltway political infrastructure, must start developing local political infrastructure. Not just "grunts" on the ground to serve at consultants beck and call.

Local political infrastructure has a better understanding of how local people view their lives, and what matters to them. 

And local political infrastructure better understands what information will resonate more with the local public than do beltway insiders.

Time is running short for Democrats to reverse course if they want to be relevant in state elections again.

Trickle down voting doesn't work. Those coattails don't exist.

Working from the ground up is the way you built something of lasting value and effectiveness.

Want to start building up local political investigation infrastructure? Start by downloading my FREE political investigations checklist below.