PeterGlenshaw.com

Connecting the Grassroots with the Party (And Vice Versa)

One of the incredible challenges facing the New Hampshire Democratic Party lies in uniting the new grassroots activists with long-serving Democrats in the Granite State.

By my count, nearly a dozen new grassroots groups formed in New Hampshire since 2003. At the same time, at least half-a-dozen new progressive messengers emerged, usually via the Internet, as communicators of regular news and opinion about Democratic politics in New Hampshire (see the end of this post for specific examples of both new grassroots groups and communicators).

Here's the challenge:  we need to find a way to convince the new activists that they need the New Hampshire Democratic Party, and we need to convince the Democratic Party that they need the new grassroots activists.

It's not going to be easy, but it is essential.  And to understand why it is essential, we need to turn to our opponents, the Republican Party.

Part of what made the right-wing movement so successful from 1980 until 2006 has been the deliberate marriage of grassroots activisits and the Republican Party leadership.  In 1980, George H.W. Bush represented the Republican faithful.  Reagan was the outsider, the one who challenged a sitting Republican president in 1976 (Gerald Ford) and brought new operatives and activists like Jerry Falwell, Lee Atwater, and Grover Norquist to the Republican scene in 1980.  Reagan's victory in 1980 brought both groups together, and they have worked effectively ever since.

One of the key leaders in this effort has been Grover Norquist.  Since the early 1990s, Norquist has held a weekly meeting in Washington DC of both grassroots activists and Republican office holders.  The purpose of this meeting has been to discuss their collective agendas, and to work together to achieve their political victories.  The grassroots activists and Party leadership on the Right may argue with one another, but it's behind closed doors and then they unite behind a common purpose.

Here's a New Hampshire twist on the Norquist meetings.  I hear from reliable sources that Norquist had Tommy Thompson, son of the late NH Governor Mel Thompson (author of the horrible Pledge), visit DC to address one of his weekly meetings shortly after the disasterous November 2006 elections.  Thompson's agenda: the so-called "View Tax"  and how it can help Republicans in 2008.

New Hampshire Democrats need to do the same thing: unite the grassroots and the party leadership.  We need each other in order to win.

As a candidate for 2nd Vice Chair of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, I am uniquely qualified to work with both groups. 

As you know from my resume, I've been on the NH Democratic State Committee since 2004, and was a co-founder and first Chairman of Democracy for New Hampshire.  I'm the Chair of the Lyme Democrats and a co-founder of the Granite State Fair Tax Coalition.  I also ran as a Democrat for Grafton County Commissioner in 2006.

But let me give you a more immediate reason.  Last weekend, Ray Buckley and many of the other candidates for offices in the New Hampshire Democratic Party attended a meeting of the Grafton County Democrats. 

As part of his remarks, Ray mentioned how he loved the blog, Blue Hampshire.  He said, "I've never met them, but I love what they write."

Before Blue Hampshire was even created, I had met with two out of the three writers  that ultimately formed that blog. 

And one of my questions to the writers of Blue Hampshire was, have you ever attended a Democratic meeting in your town?  Have you ever gotten involved directly with Democrats?

Their negative answers won't surprise you, but it's nevertheless disappointing. 

The New Hampshire Democratic Party has a historic opportunity to increase the number of registered Democrats in the Granite State.  To do so, however, we must reach out to our activist base and get them involved in our Party.

With your help, I can become the next 2nd Vice Chair of the New Hampshire Democratic Party and help deliver that result for the good of all of us.

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New grassroots groups formed in 2003-2005:  Democracy for New Hampshire, Seacoast Progressive Alliance, Ladies Left of Center, Accountability Coalition, North Country Action Bulletin, Patriots United to Fight Bush, Grafton County Progressives, Women Making a Difference, Priorities New Hampshire, Swing the Vote, Citizens Action for Southern New Hampshire, and the Granite State Fair Tax Coalition.

New messengers from 2003-2006: Monica Smith, Chaz Proux, Susan Mayer (who would later go to fame and fortune and Washington DC as Carol Shea-Porter's campaign manager and now chief-of-staff), Jerry Sorlucco, Miss Laura, Keener, Yankee Doodler, and Andy Sylvia.

The Political Primary Traffic Jam of 2008

I'm writing from Silicon Valley, where I've been for much of the past week visiting high-tech companies up-and-down Highway 101 as part of my job with Dartmouth College.  The economy is booming out here, with startups and established companies competing for markets and dollars at a time of both incredible optimism and risk.  (Be certain to visit my Dartmouth blog -- www.dartmouthbiz.com -- to get my take on the booming Web 1.0 & 2.0 economy of Silicon Valley.)

One of the sure signs of boom times in Silicon Valley is an increase in traffic.  In 2001 and 2002, after the Web 1.0 bubble burst, it was easy to zip around the Valley.  On this trip and in this frothy economy, I added ten minutes to every travel time estimate from my Mapquest directions.

Unfortunately, it's not just the cars and trucks which are causing traffic problems.  California, like a lot of other states, wants a bigger part of the primary pie in 2008.  Although Democrats spent much of last year working through a terrible compromise to include a caucus in Nevada before the New Hampshire primary, that process has done little to deter states like California from moving their primary dates closer and closer to our's in the Granite State.

What a disaster.  Or, as today's San Jose Mercury News called, it's a "primary pileup."

Yesterday Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill that will move the California Primary date from its traditional date in June to February 5th -- just two weeks after the New Hampshire primary.  Joining California that day will be nine (!) other states -- Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Utah.

Did we not learn any lessons from 2004?  Or 1968?  Or 1976?

We all remember one of the lessons from the 2004 Democratic primary.  Senator Kerry put together two very impressive, come-from-behind victories in both Iowa and New Hampshire.  Because of the compressed primary schedule, those first two victories slingshoted Kerry to the Democratic nomination.  Other candidates, such as Howard Dean and John Edwards, effectively had no chance to recover and press their case for nomination to the rest of the nation. 

And, looking back, I think everyone would say that the compressed process did not help Democrats.

Which brings us to 1976.  That year Ronald Reagan, running in his second Presidential primary, lost the New Hampshire primary in January to President Gerald Ford.  Despite more than half-a-million dollars of campaign debt, he continued to campaign and ultimately won the North Carolina primary....some three months later, in April 1976. That victory propelled Reagan to several other victors in the Midwest and Western states, and he came within 100 delegates of catching Ford at the 1976 Convention.   All of which help to set the stage for Reagan four years later to win both the Republican nomination and Presidency. 

More evidence of the value of time In Presidential primary comes from the Democratic primary of 1968. 

That year President Lyndon Johnson effectively lost the New Hampshire primary in March by winning by a less-than-expected margin to Senator Eugene McCarthy of Wisconsin, 49-42%.  Bobby Kennedy entered the race a few days later and when Johnson withdrew in late March, Hubert Humphrey entered the race.  McCarthy, Kennedy, and Humphrey then spent the next two months competing for delegates, and with Kennedy's victory in the California primary two months later, the stage seemed set for him to be the eventual Democratic nominee.  Only his tragic assassination the evening of the California primary prevented that scenario from taking place.

So let's get back to the future, and ask ourselves: Does this compressed, hyper primary schedule work for us?

Is California really going to get "elevated status," as Gov. Schwarzenegger hopes it will with this new law?

I doubt it. 

Instead, on February 6th, we're going to wakeup with our heads pounding from the intense pressure some 15 primaries and caucuses over the course of 23 days, starting with the Iowa caucuses of Jan 14th.

And in our delirium, we will choose someone, anyone, just to make the pain go away.  Will it be the right person?  The best person? 

Being President is a four-year job.  It's not about a few months of winning a intense contest of Survivor. 

NH Dems 2nd Vice Chair: Why I'm Running

I'm running for 2nd Vice Chair of the New Hampshire Democratic Party because I can do a better job managing the Resolutions Committe at the State Convention, which is the one specific responsibility assigned to this position.

I think anyone who attended the 2006 Convention will remember how the resolutions were handled that day.

It was noisy and almost impossible to hear anyone debating the resolutions.  The microphones did not work well and there no loudspeakers in the back of the room.  Because vendors and candidates rented tables adjacent to where the Convention delegates sat and debated the resolutions, their conversations spilled onto the Convention floor, making it almost impossible for any delegate in the back to hear.   

There was no leadership from the stage either. The 2nd Vice Chair -- who is running again this year for the job -- did not seem to understand the rules governing the resolutions, and needed the assistance of delegates to get things running smoothly.  There also wasn't enough time allocated for the 31 resolutions offered that day.  We debated them from 11:30am until lunch, and then from 2pm to nearly 4pm.  And at least one resolution was not included in the packets which delegates got that morning and had to be hurridly distributed to delegates that afternoon.

As a result of the confusion and delays, one of the most important parts of the Convention, the County Caucuses, had to be rescheduled altogether, in some cases for weeks later.

I've spent a good portion of my 18-year career in higher education managing the logistics of high-profile events.  At Dartmouth College, for instance, I founded and help run an annual conference on entrepreneurship (Greener Ventures) that regularly attracts more than 500 registrants for a one-day conference complete with keynotes by Fortune 500 CEOs, multiple panels with business leaders, three meals, a reception, and a business plan competition. 

Greener Ventures been been running for five years now, and we've always prided ourselves on a single operating principle:  do not waste anyone's time.  So we start each event on time.  We end each event on time.  The audio and video devices work the first time.  It's a crisp operation that gets better each year because we ask every attendee to complete an online survey, and we use the information from those surveys to improve our performance.

During my career, I've also run conferences with The New Yorker magazine, nine federal appeal and Supreme Court Justices, a conference at the Sorbonne in Paris, events where police and protesters clashed, and one conference whose location had to change the night before it started because so many people suddenly showed up to attend.

For better or worse, I've learnt how to run events and conduct event planning.

So you can imagine my frustration and embarrassment at the 2006 Convention when it came time for the resolutions. 

The New Hampshire Democratic State Convention is the one time a year when the entire Democratic Party gets together.  It is crucial that this event runs well.  A well-run Convention puts energy into the Democratic Party and can help increase the time people commit to our issues and candidates.  It's simply irresponsible to have a critical portion of our Convention agenda -- the County Caucuses -- omitted altogether because of poor planning and management of the Resolutions portion of the agenda. 

I want to become the 2nd Vice Chair to make certain the Resolutions portion of the Convention work as they should.  While resolutions are not binding on any candidate for office, the Resolutions portion of the Convention is a terrific place for people to bring issues about which they care to a larger body of fellow Democrats for debate and discussion.  And if that Resolution is adopted, its author is not only an energized member of the Party, but might just think they ought to run for office as a State Representative or Senator where they can work on actual bills in Concord.

The election for the 2nd Vice Chair, and the other New Hampshire Democratic Party officers, will take place on Saturday, March 24th at the NH Institute of Politics, Saint Anselm College, in Manchester.  I ask members fo the New Hampshire Democratic State Committee for your support, and look forward to seeing you then.