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Simon Says: Rosenberg for DNC Chair
The race to succeed Terry McAuliffe as DNC chair is heating up and is getting very crowded. On December 8th, "front-runner" Howard Dean made his pitch. Today, Simon Rosenberg, president and founder of the New Democrat Network, will preview his case for leadership at the ASDC conference in Orlando. A Rosenberg candidacy to lead the Democratic National Committee is one we at Perrspectives strongly endorse.
By way of background, Perrspectives has made the argument (both before and after the electoral disaster of 2004) that Democratic weakness stems primarily from (a) the absence of a coherent worldview; (b) a corresponding lack of a policy program with new ideas for reform; and (c) an inability to articulate Democratic "brand" messages for a 21st century "infotainment" media.
With the GOP dominant and the country risking a generation of conservative dominance, Rosenberg is the right person at the right time to renew the Democratic vision, redefine its agenda, and rebuild the party's ability to compete in any race anywhere in the country.
Unlike Dean, Rosenberg is just what the doctor ordered for Democrats:
Ability to Articulate a New 21st Century Democratic Message
From national security and the new economy to America's changing demographics, Rosenberg and NDN have been in the forefront as thought leaders in progressive public policy. A key player in the 1992 Clinton campaign, Rosenberg helped lead the drive to bring the tech sector behind Democrats, leading the way for policy changes and investments in critical new technology infrastructures. With Calfornia Congressman Cal Dooley, NDN helped build the New Democrat Caucus in the House into a major force for Democratic policy.
Proven Fundraising Ability
NDN has raised millions of dollars for Democrats across the country, often tipping pivotal races in difficult districts. In 2004, NDN raised $6 million towards its Hispanic Project, an effort who targeted ads and outreach helped stem the loss of support to the GOP. His work to create a new entrepreneurial strategy for Democratic fundraising was critical to Democrats and progressive 527's in 2004.
Demonstrated Success at Cultivating a New Generation of Leaders
Under Rosenberg's leadership, NDN gave early, visible and substantial backing to a new crop of Democratic candidates nationwide. These potential new party leaders include Barack Obama (IL), Mary Landrieu (LA), Stephanie Herseth (SD), Ken Salazar (CO), Harold Ford (TN), Gavin Newsome (CA) and more. At every level and in every region of the country, Rosenberg has a proven track record of making new Democratic candidates winners.
That record, however, goes far beyond money and organization. It extends to creating a "Democratic playbook" of policies, programs and messages that candidates can consistently offer voters nationwide. As the New York Times noted:
Progressives needed more than a single think tank, like Podesta's group, to counter 30 years of well-targeted conservative philanthropy, Rosenberg argued. The same kind of donors who were willing to shell out millions for political 527's could have a greater impact if they also threw their dollars at nonprofit foundations or institutes. "If you're a 32-year-old state legislator and you're a conservative, you get to go through all these philosophical trainings," Rosenberg said. "You get all these organizations that are trying to put you through their leadership institutes. You get all these groups sending you their materials.
"Now, you're a 32-year-old Democratic state legislator, and what you do is you learn how to check boxes," he continued. "You learn how to become pro-choice. You learn how to become pro-labor. You learn how to become pro-trial lawyer. You learn how to become pro-environment. And you end up, in that process, with no broad philosophical basis. You end up with no ideas about national security. You end up with no ideas about American history and political theory. You end up, frankly, with no ideas about macroeconomics and economic policy, other than that it's scary."
Proven Appeal Across Democratic Constituencies
With an extremely fractured set of Democratic constituencies, Rosenberg is one of the few unifying, healing voices across the center and left-of-center. While Al From's DLC and Howard Dean's insurgent campaign waged a destructive war of Democratic fratricide in May 2003, Rosenberg was a voice of reason. The centrist NDN embraced (though did not endorse) the Dean candidacy, especially its innovative use of Internet techniques like blogging and Meetup to build a party of "$100 donors." As he noted then, "NDN has not endorsed Dean or embraced him, but we have given our opinion that this is a serious campaign that is going to change the party."
Rosenberg is the one figure that can unite and bring consensus to the cacophony of Democratic interests, from teachers and unions, centrists and liberals, urban minorities and suburban professionals. He can make sense out of the alphabet soup of DLC, NDN, MoveOn, NEA, NAACP, SEIU and such.
Innovator in Hispanic Outreach
Rosenberg has led the way on adopting new approaches to building up the Democratic Party at the grassroots level. In 2002, NDN unique Hispanic Project sought to entrench Democratic support among the rapidly growing Hispanic electorate. Without his efforts, Bush's improvements among Hispanic voters in 2004 may have been much more dramatic.
Rosenberg himself used a simple Hollywood analogy to describe the task ahead for Democrats:
"We will only succeed if we build an entrepreneurial culture in Democratic politics. What we are is this beleaguered group of badly funded, nonscalable nonprofits. You know, Luke Skywalker was able to kill the Death Star with his beleaguered band of warriors, but I'm not sure that that's the model we should shoot for -- shoot the thing down the middle of the tube and hope it blows up the Death Star. We need to build our own answer to the Death Star."
In our Democratic version of this epic, we all know which party is the Empire. And we certainly know who Darth Vadar is. It's time to pick a DNC chair who make the Democrats into a Force.
Update: For those of you who missed it, here is Simon Rosenberg's address to the Association of State Democratic Chairs. Also, his post-election assessment ("Where We Are") of the Democratic Party and the path forward is available on the NDN web site.
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