The 50 State Strategy Will Be Modified

By Kleinheider Posted on January 18, 2009 at 5:44 pm

From Open Left:

In response to both questions Kaine talks about all the ways that Virginia has gone from red to blue over the last few years and gives credit to Dean for this. I see it more as going from reddish-purple to bluish-purple but okay. He says the 50-state strategy was “really important.” Good. He says “Its success speaks for itself.” Yes.

But in both answers he says they won’t being doing exactly what they did during the last 4 years. Kaine: “You never should just do what you did yesterday” and “We may do it in different ways.” More specifically, Virginia is not, say, Idaho and therefore: “I won’t say it should apply equally in every state.” But we will continue it in “new and exciting ways.”

What will be interesting is how this adapted 50 State strategy will affect Tennessee. One would assume due to Tennessee’s rejection of Obama and the Republican state legislative surge that Tennessee will be one of the lower priority states. More Idaho than Virginia, so to speak.

The Tennessee Democratic Party has relied the past two years on funds from the DNC borne out of the strategy. Whole salary positions at the party were funded out of DNC funds.

If these funds are to dry up (and reading between the lines here it is clear that they will) how will the Tennessee Democratic Party adapt?

Most importantly, who is best able to deal with this apparent setback amongst the candidates for TNDP chair, Chip Forrester or Charles Robert Bone?

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Tags: 50 State Strategy, Charles Robert Bone, Chip Forrester, DNC, Tennessee Democratic Party, TNDP  

Kaine Is Able To Serve As DNC Chair

By Kleinheider Posted on January 4, 2009 at 6:44 pm

Via WaPo:

Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine will become chairman of the Democratic National Committee later this month, serving as the top political messenger for Barack Obama’s administration even while he finishes his final year in the governor’s mansion, several sources said.

Kaine, who emerged as one of Obama’s vice presidential finalists this summer, will operate from Richmond in a part-time capacity until January 2010, when he will become the full-time DNC chairman. Kaine is constitutionally barred from running for reelection.

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Tags: DNC, DNC chairman, Tim Kaine  

TNDP Personnel Situation Explained

By Kleinheider Posted on November 11, 2008 at 8:42 am

Ilissa Gold reported last night of a personnel massacre at the the state Democratic Party. While it true that Communications Director Wade Munday’s “last day” is December 1 and that the field director and most of the field staff will no longer be in the employ of the party, the situation is not quite that simple.

The news came down in the last week that all “State Partnership” position funding is coming to an end. These positions are currently funded by the DNC (not the TNDP) as part of Howard Dean’s 50 state strategy. Dean is stepping down as Chair of the Democratic National Committee so whether this funding continues to flow to the state party will ultimately be determined by the new chair of the National party. It could be temporary, it could be permanent.

Either way, in January, a new chairman of the Tennessee Democratic Party will also be chosen. Presumably, at that point, the new TNDP chairman will have some idea of where his funding will be coming from and whether his payroll will be benefiting from a continuation of of the Dean policy or not.

At that point he will hire up and replenish the staff. The TNDP will not go without a communications director for more than a month and the “newly hired” communications director could just as easily be Wade Munday himself as it could be whomever the new Chair decides.

Yes, Chairman Sasser and Executive Director Hayden will have their jobs past the date that Munday’s DNC funding faucet shuts down but it isn’t for long. As stated previously, a new chair will be elected in January and will choose staff to serve at his pleasure.

So while people are losing their jobs at the TNDP most of the positions are directly related to the Tennessee Victory ‘08 effort which has obviously come to a close. The others, such as Munday, have been subsidized by the DNC for the past two years with money that is no longer forthcoming from the national party for the time being.

This shedding of staff is essentially just the natural order of the campaign cycle and a symptom of the unique funding mechanisms the party has used to staff its positions — and not much more.

SEE ALSO:
Braisted
Grantham Is Talking
Newscoma
Aunt B.
R. Neal
Silence (Part II)

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Tags: 50 State Strategy, DNC, Gray Sasser, Janet Meek, Kim Sasser Hayden, Michael Gass, TNDP, Wade Munday