Your prognosis for the 08 Democratic 'ground game'?

[Stinky The Clown]

NOTE: Pay attention to the topic of this thread. It is NOT about candidates for 08. It is about the Party and about you and me and the millions like us who really, deeply, give a shit.

It appears that our base was VERY charged up this cycle and that charge translated to a potentially generational power shift in Washington. Part and parcel of being charged up was the involvment of volunteers. Here in my purple county, the local county organization's ground game was the best, by several orders of magnitude, than I've seen in the 30 years I've lived here. And it paid off in wall to wall, top to bottom Democratic victories ... from county dogcatcher to US Senator.

I'd bet you saw the same thing in your area.

My concern is that a lot of what was manifested as volunteerism for the Party and the candidates may have been motivated by rage (or some other strong emotion) at the Republic Party dictatorship rather than an equally strong support for our candidates and our Party. I have absolutely no strong inclination to believe one case or the other with respect to the motivation.

My question today is ...... do you think the numbers of volunteers and the levels of their enthusiasm will hold together for the 08 cycle? Will our troops be ready to hit the ground as hard as they seem to have done this cycle?

[MuseRider]

1. Very good question

and my answer right now would be that I have not a clue. I suppose in my state if Pat Roberts decides not to retire (we are hoping he will) he might be a big factor, especially if our very popular governor decides to run against him (another rumor). That would certainly fire people up. Otherwise I just don't know. Maybe it will depend on how well the Democrats do.

Edit for clarity

[The Count]

2. Depends on the candidate. War will still be here courtesy of BFEE

If we have a candidate who never enabled this, it will be through the roof...Otherwise, I'll stay home - and not sure about how many are going to vote again for convenience for fast talking politicians...

[IA_Seth]

3. Agreed.

It will come down to the issues and how passionate the volunteers are about our candidate.

I may be biased (ha ha), but I think that if the war is still the top issue (and there is nothing to show it wont be) I think we need someone like Wes Clark to rally the volunteers. We can't expect passion from volunteers if they aren't getting any from the candidate.

[JNelson6563]

4. We are heartened by victory

I think if we had lost these mid-terms then we would have to worry about this. Considering we won (how exciting!) coupled with the fact interest is always higher during a presidential race, I would wager we will se more, not less, activity on the local level in 08.

Good post BTW.

Julie

[blondeatlast]

5. We need to organize call-in campaigns on key legislation.

Keep those volunteers engaged and enthusiastic; remember 2004 was effin' YESTERDAY (of course, I'm a few years past 20...).

It certainly can't hurt to raise some funds now and as I've said before here on DU--we need that "I am a Democrat" ad campaign and we need you and Sparkly and Sparkly Jr in them as well as a passle of "surprising" Democrats. Plenty to choose from on DU.

Put broadly, we need to be in the media constantly with our talking heads AND our grassroots.

[Stinky The Clown]

7. You know ..... as my minor, itty bitty contribution to exactly that ....

My truck now sports a balck and white oval on the back window. It has three letters, all caps: "DEM". They were giveaways from our county Dem organization when we walked the streets in our local GOTV.

It ain't a big time teevee commercial, but its real and genuine and I look like anything BUT a Democrat - particularly in my truck with the flag stickers and a few leftover candidate stickers here .... and there .... and there and there. :)

[blondeatlast]

6. Kick. nt