Posted on 01/08/2005 4:03:15 PM PST by Pharmboy
COLLEGE PARK, Ga. (AP) - Seven candidates for chairman of the Democratic National Committee promised Saturday to address the concerns of Southern voters, saying they had learned the lessons of the past two elections. "You want to know my Southern strategy, show up," said Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor who dropped out of the presidential race during last year's Democratic primaries.
Dean and the other candidates seeking to replace Terry McAuliffe as the face of the Democratic Party spoke before a Southern audience at the first of several regional caucuses to give Democratic Party officials a chance to hear from them.
"You can't compete in just 19 or 20 states," said former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb, another candidate for national party chairman. "You get better odds in Las Vegas than with that program."
Each of the candidates addressed questions on how the Democratic Party can attract women, black and minority voters. None offered to change the party's positions, but all suggested the party needs to focus the issues more.
The chairman's job will be filled in February when the Democratic National Committee holds its winter meetings.
Also running for the spot are former Texas Rep. Martin Frost, Democratic strategist Donnie Fowler, former Indiana Rep. Tim Roemer, former Ohio state Democratic Party chair David Leland and Simon Rosenberg, head of the New Democrat Network.
"It's not just about spending more money," Rosenberg said in an interview before the forum. "Money also needs to have strategy."
Roemer said if elected he would work harder to appeal to rural voters in the South and Midwest, two areas that have gone solidly to Bush in the last two elections.
"Some people think we need to steer left. Some people think I would steer the party right. It's not about that. It's about expanding the bus," Roemer said.
Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen, a fellow Democrat, told the candidates that the party needs to listen more to local officials. He said he is proof that Democrats know how to win on the statewide level in the South, and that can be translated to the presidential election with a more comprehensive strategy.
"The next time around, we want a 50-state platform. We want a 50-state party," Bredesen said to loud applause. "To my party, get out of Washington more."
Fritz Hollins is the ideal man for the job, if the progrossive party really wants to win the south.
That's the winning strategery; sell that liberal cocktail harder! See, they they still think they haven't gotten their message out. More evidence of **How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Democrats.**
Down here in Texas, we're rooting for Molly Beth Malcolm.
Easy on the eyes...shrill on the ears...and dumb as a post.
She presided over the demolition of the Texas State Democratic Party. She's capable of doing the same to the DNC.
Just ask her about abortion...
Yes. Did re-enacting. Unit was 4th Virginia.
Good for you...I'm a RevWar nut myself.
HAVE FUN IN THE SOUTH..LOL
Would never work. Fritz hollins concedes that he only won elections out of habit.
From listening to him, I get the feeling, he doesn't really personally like most of the democratic party, or even people in general.
Did you notice they guy has a CNN pin on his vest?
The Democraps have effective county organizations in most counties in the South, but they are effective locally by having nothing to do with the national party.
SO9
YES! And that is PRECISELY why I knew he wasn't a Freeper...
"War kin he-un git-uh hunt'in license?"
Dunno, prob'ly down ta the seben-eleben. Him n' his'n both.
Hope the Dems give consideration to input from Islamic terrorists, which is one of their newer constituency groups.
The rebel yell started off low and was long roar then slowly went higher in pitch, the closer the the confederate forces came to the invaders, until it reached the point as it is described by a union soldier of a "deafly loathsum, and all together frightening roar that strikes fear into my heart before every battle" -James E. Warner 30th Infintary, MI
LOL! From listening to him, I wonder how his mama ever toilet trained him-assuming that he ever was toilet trained.
Thank God(and I don't mean allah) that their newer constituency group was inelligable to vote enmasse in our election! Envision Kerry beating Bush by a billion votes. Nightmare on Main street, Elm street, every other d*mn street.
Okay, Dean.
You can have the South.
Really, you can; Bring on the DNC.
My only stipulations are that you:
Respect my private property, respect my right to keep and bear arms under the 2nd Amendment, abandon the Democratic party's systematic support for the slaughter of innocent children in their own wombs, abandon the Democratic party's systematic attacks on legitimate business and adopt capitalism and it's policies, cut taxes and lower tax rates for employers and employees alike, oppose racist and race-based discrimination policies call "affirmative action", defend America from it's enemies across the globe (your top priority in government), support military financing, recognize and oppose communism, fascism, and Islamic fundamentalism as the threats to all of mankind that they are and battle them accordingly, and denounce your past (present) affiliation with the clinically insane likes of Michael Moore, Hillary Clinton, and Ted Kennedy.
That's all you need to do really. Do this and we'll all be Democrats.
This is the sound of me holding my breath....
...holding....
....holding...
"The next time around, we want a 50-state platform. We want a 50-state party," Bredesen said to loud applause. "To my party, get out of Washington more."
This from a bunch that agrees that they need more Black, women and minority voters. Just whom do they think has been voting for them? This is a good sign. They are far from "getting it."
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