McAuliffe's front-loaded primaries discourage grassroots campaigns.

[madfloridian]

EDIT: I am not making this post about Dean! It is about *us*, the people. I want to make that clear. This post is about the Democratic party primaries. This is not about Dean. Thanks for not making it that way.

This article from 2002 makes is important. It was in the middle of another thread, and it really needs to be read. I suspect this is why they are rushing everyone to get out. Terry wants it done by first of March.

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml%3Fi=20020121&s=nichols
Primary Predicament
by JOHN NICHOLS
From January 21, 2002 issue.

SNIP"With little public notice and no serious debate inside the party, Democratic
National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe and his allies have hatched a
plan to radically alter the schedule and character of the 2004 Democratic
presidential nominating process. If the changes McAuliffe proposes are
implemented--as is expected at a January 17-19 meeting of the full DNC--the
role of grassroots Democrats in the nomination of their party's challenger
to George W. Bush will be dramatically reduced, as will the likelihood that
the Democratic nominee will run the sort of populist, people-power campaign
that might actually pose a threat to Bush's re-election.

The change, for which McAuliffe gained approval in November from the DNC
rules subcommittee, would create a Democratic primary and caucus calendar
that permits all states to begin selecting delegates on February 3, 2004.
That new start-up date would come two weeks after the Iowa caucuses and just
one week after the traditional "first in the nation" New Hampshire primary.
Thus, the window between New Hampshire and the next primary--five weeks in
2000--would be closed. Already, says McAuliffe, South Carolina, Michigan and
Arizona Democrats have indicated they will grab early February dates, and
there is talk that California--the big enchilada in Democratic delegate
selection--will move its primary forward to take advantage of the opening.
McAuliffe's changes will collapse the nominating process into a
fast-and-furious frenzy of television advertising, tarmac-tapping photo ops
and power-broker positioning that will leave little room for the
on-the-ground organizing and campaigning that might allow dark horse
candidates or dissenting ideas to gain any kind of traction--let alone a
real role at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.END SNIP

[Cocoa]

1. the Dean campaign was a largely grassroots campaign

and it started the year with all the advantages: money and endorsements and organization.

Didn't Dean spend the most money in Iowa? He definitely was not at a disadvantage there.

He just lost.

[madfloridian]

6. You are missing my point. There was NO time to recover a loss.

It has been a rollercoaster ride all the way. The buzz word is he lost.....get over it. That was not my point.

I won't get to vote, NY won't, CA won't, because they are pressuring the backers to let him hang.

[MurikanDemocrat]

12. What do you mean you won't get to vote?

The primaries in the remaining states have not been canceled. You can still vote.

I think you mean the nominee has apparently been determined before you get to cast a vote. I do agree that is a valid frustration. I also think this is unprecedented, for a candidate to go on a winning streak like this.

I asked in another thread if this front-loaded schedule was permanent or for just this election. I thought it was just for this one but I could be wrong. I'll go see if anyone responded.

[madfloridian]

15. I mean it will probably count as much as my vote in 2000.

n/t

[MurikanDemocrat]

25. Point appreciated

Especially someone from Florida. :pals:

Nobody answered my question about the front-loaded schedule. I'm tempted to start a thread on it because I've been curious about that anyway.

[Cocoa]

17. it could have worked in Dean's favor

or any grassroots candidate, if he'd won big in Iowa.

Dean said himself that the Iowa caucuses were good for a candidate like him. Then after Iowa he still had tons of money and big endorsements and union support.

I just don't see how he was disadvantaged. If anything, he was MOST advantaged.

[Nazgul35]

23. It was more than that...

and you should be honest about it...

Dean failed because his grass roots campaign was severely under-trained in the process of political campaigning. There was no effort to provide such aid even with plaintive cries from those who were seeking such support....

What Kerry and Edwards were able to exploit was:

1) They had on the ground precinct captains who had seen many battles in the caucus system, unlike the Dean group who didn't know what to do....

2) Dean misspent his money as a result of this disorganization that resulted from a lack of coordination.

3) Don't forget the Dean seeking Gephardt and the fact that all seven of the behind runners were able to focus on Dean, while he had to fight everybody....I dare you to pick a fight with about seven 10 year olds....yeah you can kick their asses individually, but together than can overwhelm you...

these factors alone were a large part of the failure in Iowa...but that does not do anything to suggest that grass-roots movements like Dean's should somehow be discarded....that would be one of the most foolish things we have ever done as a party....

Dean's camp was also not the only grass roots movement out there...we also had Clark and Kucinich's....and it is my fervent hope that we can all get together to begin the rebuilding of the Democratic Party's grassroots that was allowed to rot away due to the scourge of soft money!!!

Don't dispel the grass roots movement because of one battle....this is a war that has just begun to take back our Party....

If you really believe that our elected officials are free to act without having to bow to a special interest...than you will never believe what we are trying to accomplish is worthwhile...

[Mad Cow Doc]

2. Why not ONE DATE????

Why do we have a multi-date primary? One Day ALL states. No front runner from Iowa. If one guy doesn't get enough delegates then pick the winner at the convention.

[Cocoa]

3. that would be a poor process, imo

there wouldn't be all of the town-hall meeting type events, it would all be in TV ads. An Arnold Schwarzenneger type phony rich media character would be advantaged.

[Dookus]

4. a one-day national primary

would force nothing but TV advertising, and all campaign activity focused in NY, California, Texas, Florida, etc.

I like having the candidates get out and meet the voters, hear about people's problems, and get to know the electorate.

[Liberal Christian]

8. When, except for Iowa and New Hampshire, does that actually happen?

It seems to me that the candidates spend huge amounts of time in two very small states, with the result that pretty much anyone in Iowa or New Hampshire who wants to can get up close and personal with the candidate.

After that, it's all speeches, rallies, tarmacs, etc. Not much grassroots, candidate-to-person stuff at all.

Might as well have the candidates take the year or two that they now spend in Iowa and New Hampshire, spread that around a bit while they're still under the radar, then blow it out big before a national primary.

I think the idea of grassroots primary campaigning is romanticized based on a very small sampling of states.

[Dookus]

14. if meeting the candidates and voting early

is your top priority, you can live in Iowa or New Hampshire.

I think a one-day national primary would suck, personally.

Yes, the early states get a lot of attention from the candidates. I'm a Californian, and I don't resent that. As I said, I like that the candidates spend a lot of time meeting real people and talking to small groups.

[KoKo]

5. And, check out here: What Joe Trippi said about Dem Primaries:

(Snip from a post of mine here today)

Joe Trippi "Down from the Mountain" speech, Jan. 19th, 2004 when he left Dean's campaign.
(Snip)
I want to talk a little bit about what you need to understand about the political system here. You guys don't understand…there's one thing I want you to understand. A guy named Jimmy Carter became president of United States, and it might surprise you to know this, but right after he became president and left around in there, the party pulled together this thing called the Hunt Commission. And the Hunt Commission's whole thing was to make damn sure that never happened again. Whatever this Jimmy Carter thing was, this guy who came out of nowhere, never bowed to the hierarchy of the Democratic party on his way to the White House, never really sort of went to the five thousand powerful people you were supposed to go to and bow to them and say, "Help me get this." He got there without any of them. And what they decided to do is, "We need to devise a system that will prevent that from happening." And this cycle…they devised this calendar on purpose. This thing, this cycle of these primaries coming faster and faster and faster and all of it being over very quickly was all designed as part of the retooling. They kept retooling it every cycle. "How do we make sure that no insurgent can possibly ever get this party's nomination?" And this system was designed to do that. And that meant that your only hope, your best hope for getting the nomination if you were an insurgent was to do everything you could to win Iowa or New Hampshire or both. If you failed to do that…this system was designed so that an establishment front runner like Kerry or Mondale or any of those guys would be rolling as soon as they got out of Iowa or New Hampshire and the nomination would be over in a week or two. And the only way that you could stop that from happening is to get big enough and strong. We are talking about insurgent here. This is like Gary Hart. Remember Gary Hart in 1984? I know this may be boring to you guys, but you need to understand this. '84: Gary Hart stumbles into Iowa, a nobody. He has got minus a hundred thousand dollars in the bank, a staff of seventeen he hasn't paid for two months. He gets 15% of the vote in Iowa, getting second, and that starts him down this road where he becomes famous. They moved up this cycle so fast this time on purpose to even prevent that, that your only hope was to become so strong and so formidable as an insurgent that you could knock out…you had to be able to knock them out in Iowa and New Hampshire, because if you did that then the system worked for you and not the establishment. That's what the Dean campaign had to do.

And you know, we did a pretty damn good job of it. We took all of us together -- and Howard Dean -- got to a place that according to the party rules it was impossible to get to. It should have been impossible for us to get to where we were three weeks before Iowa, to be ahead in every poll, to have more money than everybody. And how did that happen? And the reason is because there's no way to do that without the party apparatus and the party money and the institutions being for you. Well back then almost no institution in this party...it was all done with people, the American people --.hundreds of thousands of them -- all using the tools that were built over the Internet. That's was happened.

http://www.itconversations.com/transcript.php?id=80

To die for an idea; it is unquestionably noble. But how much nobler it would be if men died for ideas that were true!

[madfloridian]

9. Exactly! This part is very telling and dead on for our situation.

SNIP...."A guy named Jimmy Carter became president of United States, and it might surprise you to know this, but right after he became president and left around in there, the party pulled together this thing called the Hunt Commission. And the Hunt Commission's whole thing was to make damn sure that never happened again. Whatever this Jimmy Carter thing was, this guy who came out of nowhere, never bowed to the hierarchy of the Democratic party on his way to the White House, never really sort of went to the five thousand powerful people you were supposed to go to and bow to them and say, "Help me get this." He got there without any of them. And what they decided to do is, "We need to devise a system that will prevent that from happening."

Right on, Trippi.

[MurikanDemocrat]

7. Dean had every chance to BENEFIT from that schedule

Dean was certainly no dark horse - he was perceived the front-runner for the past year! He had the most money! Supposedly the organization, and he's been campaigning for 2 years! For the love of God - he stood to BENEFIT from this as much as ANYONE!

[madfloridian]

10. You missed my point. Read it. It does not bode well for *people*.

I was not making Dean the issue, as much as the people. You really need to read it.

[MurikanDemocrat]

20. You originally had some comments at the end referring to Dean

did you not? That's what gave me the impression that I had. But I'll take your word for it anyway.

[madfloridian]

26. Not at the beginning......I did at the end until things got ugly.

The whole point of my post was being lost, so I changed it. Though what I said at the beginning and the end was not really about Dean. People chose to make it that way. The post is about so much more.
It is an excellent article by Nichols.

I had a couple of comments about Edwards and Dean at the end. But folks thought I was whining. So I put EDIT in big letters.

[MurikanDemocrat]

31. I hear ya. And my apologies as well. I misinterpreted your intention

initially as well. I was mistaken.

I'm over saturated with the negativity here this weekend and jumped to conclusions before I read the entire article. My mistake.

And, after reading the article, it looks to me like this IS a permanent change, and that future primaries will adhere to this accelerated schedule. Ugh!

[madfloridian]

32. Again, thanks.

Yes, negativity is rampant. It needs to stop now.

[mopinko]

11. and all they had to do

was make sure he lost iowa and nh. easy. pull out all the stops- dirty tricks galore, knock the train off the track, and before anyone can figure out what hit them- bingo- coronation time.

[Dookus]

16. all WHO had to do?

Dean had an enormous lead and blew it. He dumped 40 million dollars and lost resoundingly. It was his to win.

[mopinko]

21. his own freakin party

dick gephardt and the fat cats behind the osama ad. and who was behind that "latte drinkin, volvo drivin" shit? i would not have had the slightest problem with those ads if the creeps behind that had signed their frlippin names to them. but they knew that they would be long gone by the time that info came out. iowa was a murder suicide. and toricelli is still around, and rakin in the bucks for kerry.

[HalfManHalfBiscuit]

13. Cry me a river

The candidate with the most votes wins.

[KoKo]

18. Not in Florida in "Selection 2000." Candidate with most votes did Not Win

n/t

[Mad Cow Doc]

24. Why no state recount?

Why didn't Gore ask for a Recount of the whole state instead of just Dade county and a few others?

[clarknyc]

19. "The candidate with the most votes wins."

Do you mean the most votes out of the first 25% to vote? That seems like a system with built-in disenfranchisement.

[madfloridian]

22. I was going to respond to a couple of posts here, but I won't.

I made a thoughtful post, and it has to do with the nature of the Democratic party in the future. It takes the party further from the people than it is already.

[MurikanDemocrat]

27. I read the whole article. You make a good point.

The front-loaded schedule limits the chances of grassroots campaigns and more progressive candidates, and favors big money, special interests, and Washington insiders.

[madfloridian]

29. Thank you.

I am just beginning to understand about it.

[arewethereyet]

28. I disagree

I think it rewards actual grassroots.

People mistake internet chatter as grassroots. It isn't.

If Dean has grassroots in Iowa he would not have required busloads of stormtroopers, he could have just used the Iowan's that supported him.

Grassroots are only real if their roots are there. You have to live in Iowa to represent Iowa grassroots.

[DebJ]

30. All states 1 day primary could work, NO TV ADS AT ALL ALLOWED,

instead ABC, CBS, NBC...non-cable full access to public networks must give 5-6 hours a week of OUR airtime,,,yes folks its supposed to be OUR airtime, for speeches, Q&A from real people, not media/slanted puppets, and REAL debates (haven't seen a debate yet this time, just Q&A's). Season starts Nov/Dec/Jan or so, but primaries all in one day in May....so candidates have half a year to tour the states, and all six months to watch non-cable tv information.
NO ADS means less money needed, more real information, more real shots of candidates instead of the crap in ads. Less negativity, because the stupid nasty stuff doesn't get said face to face.
If we don't do this, we don't have a primary anymore. Terry McAuliffe and his replacements will continue to manipulate and do what they want to do, and to hell with the millions of us out here.
This primary season was a complete farce, and we will pay, pay, pay, literally, out the nose. All the current system does is take our hard earned money, and give it to advertising agencies and media moguls. Let's blow this system out of the water. Makes me ill.