Posted on 01/16/2005 2:47:19 PM PST by nickcarraway
South Carolinian Donnie Fowler put it simply: “A Democratic Party without the South is a little bit like greens without the cornbread.”
He made the comment at a meeting of party officials who gathered last weekend in Atlanta to grill candidates for the party’s highest position — chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
Fowler, 37, a political consultant and son of a prominent South Carolina Democrat, is one of seven candidates seeking the job.
“I did this out of frustration,” he said, after seeing the party commit the same mistakes of past defeats.
Divided and battered by the second bitter presidential defeat in a row, Democrats have been seeking answers to their predicament. Nowhere has the wrangling over the party’s direction been more prominent than in the search for a new party chairman.
Of primary concern is the party’s inability to connect with enough voters to recapture the White House.
Well, you certainly don’t do it by writing off the South, said Fowler, whose dad, Don Fowler, chaired the DNC from 1995 to 1997.
“The Democratic Party has conceded so much of this country that we don’t have a lot of voters to talk to,” he said.
In addition to the South, Fowler said the party has written off the Rocky Mountain states and “religious” voters.
“At some point, the national party is going to run out of people to talk to,” he warned.
Others seeking the DNC post are former U.S. Reps Tim Roemer of Indiana and Martin Frost of Texas, Democratic activist Simon Rosenberg, former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb, former Ohio Democratic Party chairman David Leland, and former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, a 2004 Democratic presidential candidate.
The next chairman, who will replace Terry McAuliffe, will be selected by the 431 members of the DNC at its February meeting in Washington.
At the Atlanta gathering, candidates assured party officials they have no intention of writing off the South.
That’s a familiar refrain. So, after John Kerry’s crushing defeat last year, party officials have been more pointed in asking candidates how they intend to back up the rhetoric.
“It’s not just what they say. It’s what they are going to do. I want to hear specifics,” said Joe Erwin, chairman of the S.C. Democratic Party.
In 2004, Democrats proved they could win at the state and local level but not nationally.
“That tells us that Democrats can compete and win when they are not encumbered with a national message that is confusing and offensive to a great many voters,” Erwin said.
Democrats face an awesome task in trying to gain a footing in the South, which has become an electoral fortress for the Republican Party.
Few Democrats believe the party can — or needs to — be competitive at the presidential level anytime in deep South states such as South Carolina, Alabama and Mississippi.
Waring Howe, a DNC member from Charleston, said there’s no way the Democrats can win the solid South, but he stressed it can capture enough states to win the presidency.
In 1992, with Bill Clinton heading the ticket, Democrats were competitive in the South. Running a centrist campaign, Clinton won five Southern states.
“Their best hope is to split the South and deny Republicans a total sweep of the region,” said Emory University political science professor Merle Black.
The South is home to 168 electoral votes — almost two-thirds of the 270 required for election.
The key for Democrats is to pick a candidate who can seriously contest a handful of Southern states.
Rove was sweating bullets over Ohio, as was I. It was a very near thing. And for the first time in my memory, maybe for the first time ever, Ohio voted more Dem than the nation as a whole. It may well become a habit given the lay of the land.
heres an Southern strategy for them. Evacuate Northward with all due haste.
Bob Taft and the tax raising Ohio Republicans cost two people I know seats in the state Assembly they were running to replace term limited Republican assemblymen.
The state's commie belt (Cuyahoga, Summit, Lucas, and Mahoning counties) is continuing to lose population while southern Ohio (Republican) holds its own or grows. The GOP trend in Ohio, despite the 2004 blip is near irreversable as the state Dem party is dead.
Did you know Zell Miller is running for NRA Board of Directors?
Didn't Algore have one ?
And don't let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya.
I thought the Dims had a southern strategy: to breed and import non-hispanic Whites into the minority?
Check out the 2002 election results for all the statewide offices. Even the unpolpular governor won big.
Unless the National Democrat Party comes in and rebuilds the Ohio Democrat Party, a party that can't raise money or win statewide races, they will continue to be the party deeply in the minority as they have been since 1994.
They need a strategy that is effective outside about 20 large cities.
The South is not fooled by the lies, deceptions and subterfuge any longer. We all did good on election day we kept a Great President in office. Thank all you people in the North, South and other states for our victory. "We Dare Defend Our Rights." NSNR
COOL! No, I didn't know that, dono....thanks for the update!
Tom Selleck as well. But that's "off-topic."
Maybe if the wacked out left side of these Dems would stop trying to tear down and destroy Southern heritage, and all things Confederate, maybe they'd have a chance.
"I wish I were in Dixie"
"We Democrats aren't writing off the South even though they are a bunch of ignorant hayseed rubes from Jesusland who are too stupid to abort their own children and marry people of their own gender. We compassionate Democrats will tell them how to live thier lives so they won't have to think."
The Dems need a comprehensive overhaul of the same nature as the GOP undertook after Senator Goldwater took a thrashing from LBJ in 1964. It took the GOP until the mid-80's to clarify the consistency of a recurrent message that has led to their contemporary domination of the two elected branches and the dominant philosophy of the judiciary. It would be a serious matter for the present GOP policy group to adopt a sense of hubris that believes the current condition will continue without change that sees the Dems back in a majority position. History is an infallable window into the future and no party has ever dominated American politics longer than the 1932 - 1968 period.
Except when someone as loveable as Kerry runs I guess. We are talking about presidential elections here aren't we? I don't know what is in the water in Ohio, but Ohio has always had a very superior GOP organization since rocks cooled. Just ask McKinley. But these days, organization in presidential elections is of marginal benefit. Kerry made up his own organization in any event, and so will the DNC in every presidential election hence.
NOT without another Ross Perot, Merllllle. How much are they payin' ya at Emory "Carter Country" U. for such a short memory?
Rove's Ohio playbook will work just as well in '08.
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