Democrats release ‘autopsy report’ after 2014 election failures

[eridani]

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/democrats-release-autopsy-report-after-2014-election-failures?cid=sm_fb_msnbc

Since President Obama’s election, Democrats have lost more than 900 state legislative seats, 13 Senate seats, 69 U.S. House seats and 12 governorships. What went wrong?

But since February, she said the task force members had moved from an outside advisory role to a more internal one, aimed at implementing the changes it recommended.

The report also lays out way to improve efforts to recruit down-ballot candidates to replenish the pipeline of future Democratic leaders, through training and better support from the DNC. It also plans to create a more unified messaging operation to explain what it means to be what the party stands for.

A major emphasis of the party in the next five years will also be redistricting, the decennial process of redrawing congressional boundaries. Republicans dominated this process in 2010, and were able to win more U.S. House seats despite winning fewer actual votes in 2014.

Democrats got some good news recently when they won three seats on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which controls redirecting in the state, after Wasserman Schultz fundraised for candidates there.

Overall, the ambitions of the report are fairly limited. But that speaks to fundamental, demographic challenges the party has in midterm elections, which may have no direct solutions.

[dsc]

1. I admit to not knowing what the solution is

and apparently the experts don't either. In my region of the country it isn't just midterms we can't win statewide elections much at all. If we win LA, and while the polls look good there it should be noted they looked good in KY too, we will have two governorships among the 11 states of the old confederacy and 4 among the 15 states that border or were in the confederacy. We have the majority of no congressional delegations in this region and only 7 Senators (4 of which are in MD and VA, 1 in each of FL, WV, and MO). Gerrymandering is a problem but it isn't the entire problem. NC is the only Southern state where there is any expectation we can gain a governorship in the near term. We can't cede the fastest growing region of the country.

[peace13]

2. Aaaa...they might look at paper ballot voting and..

....and voter ID laws. In Ohio the machines were deemed easily hackable yet they have never been replaced. We have more Dems than Rethugs registered to vote yet the R's continue to dominate. We did just vote to have a bipartisan committee look at our districts. That is the one bright light.

[Gloria]

3. bring back the 50 state strategy of Howard Dean...

We had no support here against Martinez in NM. Token visit by Wasserman in ABQ, but no miney at all. NM is under attack by the TX crowd, now in So. NM, esp. In Las Cruces..2nd largest city in state. Has barely beat back 2 attempts in the last year of take over by outside $$ and business interests...

[LonePirate]

4. The lack of interest in this thread suggests DU (and Dems) don't care about a 50 state strategy

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1251&pid=799171

[Scuba]

6. Or perhaps the DNC.

[eridani]

10. I care. in 2006, DNC provided support for extra organizers for state parties

We had two tech VoteBuilder people, and now we are limping along with one.

[Scuba]

5. If the DNC honestly explains what they stand for we can expect another turnout like 2014.

[wheniwasincongress]

7. Here's a picture of it:

[jeff47]

8. Perhaps "Who else you gonna vote for?" is not as energizing as they thought.

[Iggo]

9. Howard Dean > Debbie Wasserman-Schultz

It's that simple.

Dean's a winner. Wasserman-Schultz is a loser.