Under our current methodology for Statewide GOTV, the County Party’s role is not really different than that of our expected friends and allies. The DPG relies on all of these groups to supply the boots on the ground to get the job done. All of these organizations partner with the DPG to one degree or another and muster the troops for early voting and Election Day.
The Congressional District chairs, who are elected from within the State Committee, theoretically “Run Point” on the efforts of County Parties in support of Statewide and Congressional campaigns: providing communication
and monitoring between the parties and the DPG high command. But the role is not operational or formal because the relationship between the DPG and the county parties is no more operational or formal than are the relationships with Labor or Civil Rights groups. County parties are simply another ally in our campaigns. The state party can make no quantitative demands on the counties and has no effective way to measure the local party’s efficacy on turnout except after the fact when the returns start rolling in.
Because of the general informality of the relationship with the 120 CPs (those closest to the voter, those closest to small dollar donors, those closest to volunteers) the DPG’s ability to strengthen the local party is substantially impeded. This casual confederation means the DPG lacks the ability to extend its presence and brand and that creates additional problem with loyalty, fundraising candidate recruitment, and mobilization. What goes for coordination fades to the background by November 8th each cycle.
Our statewide candidates are substantially hamstrung by this ineffective and inefficient GOTV Model It impedes their ability to get volunteers to knock on doors and make phone calls so they wind up going it alone and the volunteers they do muster wind up stepping on each other's toes and knocking on the same doors repeatedly rather than efficiently.
To be sure, the county parties have their own set of challenges that only exacerbates these identifiable problems. The DPG as it is presently positioned has no ability or leverage or inclination to fix what ails the County Parties. Currently, our network of county parties, our weak partnerships, is all we have to work with within the party’s structure. We need to recognize that it is not simply that the DPG is broke but rather that it is broken.
Next Stage Development of the County Party is a significant challenge
I believe in County Parties. I want them to be strong and vibrant and able to command the respect of both the local candidates and the local community.
What I am not convinced of is that the county parties can transform themselves in the short term to be a substantial and reliable partner to what the DPG is presently incapable of doing by itself. Effectively supporting statewide candidates and legislative candidates at either the state or national level.
The truth of it is there is no political will to change the essential character of the local party within the DPG and there are a myriad of reasons for that.
- There is institutional inertia.
- There is a need to fundamentally change the State Bylaws if we want to put the local parties on the DPG org chart.
- There are too many county parties to try and micromanage top down.
- The position of DPG Chair is not strong enough to transform the local parties for statewide purposes.
But I am also not convinced that a path that moves the county parties into the DPG org chart is the best long term solution either. The state party has to figure out how that is going to work. Even if it attempted to do so, the fundamental challenges would be that the Country chair would be asked to serve two masters: the County Party membership that put the local chair into power and DPG HQ telling the local party they need “X” turnout in these key precincts, Without a standard for performance and the ability to make changes in local leadership it would seem to me that the DPG would have no more authority ove county GOTV efforts then it does today. and any attempt ti overturn a locall party election is fraught with certain backlash and peril.
It would take a lot of thought, a very deliberate effort, and a very strong DPG leadership over the course of the next three to five election cycles to reorient both the DPG and the counties to effect that type of organization that can drive message and action through the county parties to the boots on the ground where it would have the impact that is necessary.
That is for the DPG to figure out. My concern, as a fiercely loyal institutional Democrat, is what to do in the meantime? Given the current capabilities of the County Parties and the State Party’s inability to effectively leverage or manage their GOTV performance, clearly a new approach is necessary.
But given the historic autonomy of the County organizations, given the inability of the state party to invest in the county parties and given the inability to use a carrot or a stick. It really does not seem to be practical or useful.
Our approach to Statewide GOTV is a Failure
Our GOTV strategies fail our statewide candidates and the party faithful time and time again because the DPG lacks the ability and capacity to command the resources necessary to claw our way back into contention. The problem facing Georgia Democrats has never been whether the voters existed to win statewide. It has been a question of how to get them to the polls. The problem is with our ability to execute the strategy.
The confederated approach which creates loose partnerships with county parties and our usual partners simply is not getting it done.
In the last 12 years, despite a huge increase in the size of the electorate; in spite a huge increase in Hispanic residents; despite our nominee for president being African American…twice. In spite of adding 520,000 net new voters in our 31 firewall counties, the net of all our efforts was closing the gap with the GOP by 662 votes. We are still 300,000 votes down. To the Democratic outsider, both the state and the local party are defined by their closed off structures. And those structures, whether by archaic design or benign neglect are not presently capable of changing outcomes.
Obviously there are other factors in play. The problem is that lacking any other institutional mechanism that could be leveraged, the DPG and by extension our candidates have no option but to rely on a largely autonomous County Party system. We need to fix the problem. Unfortunately, we have elections every two years and we never seem to get to it.
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