Democratic Firing Squad

Over the years I've been involved in Democratic politics and, by proximity, involved with the Arizona Democratic Party. I have never been very impressed with its organization of work or ability to prioritize the work of a state Party. The "work" is not too hard to identify: candidate recruitment, beat up Republicans being targeted for the next election, and set up a coordinated campaign. Clearly we're not talking about an exact science here.

However, the Party's structure is delivering a difficult mechanism for decision making and now is becoming responsible for inaction. The state's economy, a Republican leadership willing to make massive cuts to education in the face of polling that says voters will punish them, and endless material for attacks all offer the party the opportunity to damage Republicans seeking re-election next November. Their inaction is a disservice to the state and to the many Arizona voters that call themselves Democrats.

Now, I am not a Democrat and haven't been for around 4 years. I registered "No Party Designated" a number of years ago so that I'd begin receiving mailers from candidates and initiatives seeking to win over the "Independent" vote. Being a young, white male makes me the target of many conservative campaigns. This gives me little room to complain about a Party that I do not belong to and by design am not able to officially influence.

On the other hand, maybe I do have a right to complain a bit about their inability to leverage this situation into big 2010 gains. The Democratic Party not only has the responsibility for supporting candidates whose ideals align with the Party's platform but also to advocate for voter approval of that platform. That means an Independent like me (and 28% of voters in Arizona) are becoming the Party of Persuasion. Those with the best and most consistent message will get our votes.

Without exception, I have never identified with any relevant parts of the Republican Party though they are reaching out to me consistently. This shines a spot-light on the major gap between the message delivery necessary to win over left leaning Independent voters in the next election and the necessity to turn these low efficacy voters out to vote at a high rate in next year's General Election.