Democratic Victory Starts at Home

UPDATE Below

Upon walkiing into my polling place on November 2, I still harbored hope that Democratic candidates could pull it out.

Then I saw the ballot. And that told me Democrats were doomed.

Eighteen races were on my precinct ballot. Eleven races had only one candidate. Five republican incumbents had no Democratic challenger.

Read that again: Five incumbent republicans had no Democratic challenger. Those five included the state legislator, the county executive and the county attorney - three of the most powerful people in the county.

Five incumbent Democrats had no republican challenger. I'd like to be able to say that's the GOP's problem, but in truth those 10 races were probably trade-offs: you don't run anybody against our guy, and we won't run anybody against your guy.

That ballot was proof that Kentucky Democrats had given up on the election 10 months earlier, before the candidate filing deadline in January.

I wasn't really surprised. In April 2008, I attended my precinct's quadrennial organizing meeting, when we elect the precinct captain and two others who will, for the next four years, organize and rally the 500 Democratic voters in the precinct.

A grand total of three of us showed up. I wasn't eligible to serve, so we ended up with only 2/3 of the Democratic precinct officials we were supposed to have. That was the high point of Democratic activity in my precinct. In 17 months, I have not heard once from the precinct captain I elected, nor from any other Democratic voter in my precinct.

This is a Democratic precinct, and not just in sometimes-deceptive registration. This precinct consistently votes Democratic. Or it used to. Last month it didn't.

It's not just my precinct. Across my county, across my congressional district, across the Commonwealth, the Democratic precinct structure is moribund. You can't operate a get-out-the-vote ground game if you can't even locate Democratic voters.

In June, I posted some suggestions for the newly-appointed republican chair of the Kentucky Democratic Party. They all involve rebuilding the precinct system and making precinct and county party officials responsible for Democratic performance.

I didn't really expect them to be implemented, especially by a chair whose most significant policial experience was maxing out on donations to republican candidates. But I had hoped that one or two suggestions might be picked up by Real Democrats who aren't willing to just surrender Kentucky to the rethuglicans.

Jake has a pretty severe take-down of Jack Conway's loss, in which he includes this indictment of the KDP:

The Kentucky Democratic Party, led by its new Republican chairman, and Governor Steve Beshear are complicit in this beat down. Sure, these were tough political environs. But the Republican Party of Kentucky had 13 regional field offices that cranked out IDs for Democratic and Independent voters non-stop – something I’ve never seen that Party do successfully on such a scale. The KDP had next to no funds to help Democratic candidates and invested the bare minimum in field programs that were apparently just for show. Next to nothing was spent outside of the Golden Triangle. Instead of the governor breaking his back to help fund the Party, he focused on grazing his own cash cow and palling around with Jerry Abramson, a guy who says he will not be a full-time Lieutenant Governor (he’s already taken a full-time teaching job at Bellarmine University).

The truth is that Democratic victory starts at home. With us. Getting out of our houses and finding our Democratic neighbors. Attending county Democratic Party meetings, finding out who your precinct captain is and making sure that person does her job.

We've got 16 months until the next organizing elections in April 2012. Sixteen months to find our Democratic neighbors, get to know them and put together a precinct officer slate that will not just win election, but actually organize precinct voters. Once organizing leads to electoral success, it's just a small step to taking over the county committee, from which we can start raising hell in the state committee.

We have to start now. We have to work hard. We have to keep fighting until we win.

Because right now we're losing.

UPDATE, Dec. 5: I neglected to include this excellent post by Jake:

In May, I watched hundreds of candidates across the Commonwealth of Kentucky struggle without any support (just general, basic info – not even political help) from their respective Party. But what struck me most was the lack of service from and interaction with the Kentucky Democratic Party’s leadership.

Then Jack Conway happened. It was an epic disaster. He single-handedly, with Mark Riddle at the helm, worked against every single person who helped create his once-great machine.

That shit has gone on for long enough. Governor Steve Beshear has allowed the KDP to fall apart, turning into one of the most broken, most incompetent and disorganized political Parties in the country.

I’m tired of watching former chairs run away from Democratic, Kentuckian and American principles. I’m tired of watching the current vice chair remain absolutely invisible. I’m tired of watching Party officials play favorites when they know they’re causing irreversible damage among the rank and file. I’m also tired of watching the current sweating chair, Daniel Logsdon, be a mega-Republican contributor with no political sense while everyone else acts like it’s no big deal. And I’m tired of wondering when KDP will get its act together.

I strongly disagree with Jake's reaction - changing his voter registration to independent - because those fuckers can't get rid of me that easily. I'm staying, I'm fighting, and I'm going to beat them.