A New Day Dawns for Georgia Democrats

A Sneak Peek Into A New Path Forward

By Tom McMahan

Over the weekend, the Democratic Party of Georgia’s (DPG) state committee voted to make the position of Chair a full-time paid position and forbid a Chair from holding political office or even running for it as a candidate.

As a result, Congresswoman Nikema Williams, who also supported the move, resigned as Chair effective today (March 31st). In the next few weeks, the state executive committee, led by Vice-Chair Matt Wilson, will be busy selecting a new chair.

But simply hiring a Chair alone isn’t enough. Our state party has long needed a more coherent vision forward, a significant amount of work done to improve the party’s infrastructure, and a dedicated fundraiser at the top who can make all of that happen.

So I was pleased when I read that several hard-working folks at DPG already have the outline of a vision statement for the state party. I’ll link the pdf file here. It identifies FIVE key areas the state party needs to improve (below pic)

1. Establishing a coordinated campaign unit. The typical way “coordinated campaigns” at the state level have worked for some time is greatly in need of redesign. All too often, the coordinated campaign would get off to a slow start, mainly due to it having to be created anew every 2 years. The proposal to create a continuous coordinated campaign unit, with a staffed physical office, will eliminate the “herky-jerky” and often clunky coordinated campaigns of the past. Of course, this will have to be funded (something you’ll read me repeating a lot over the upcoming months), because Georgia is a large state, in population, size, and number of counties. Logistically, the state can be a nightmare, but having a full-time unit dedicated to the coordination of candidates at all levels has a significant chance at getting the party out front during election cycles.

2. Candidate recruitment and training. Just as with a full-time coordinated campaign, the vision statement proposes a full-time candidate recruitment and training effort. At this time, DPG has been recruiting, but has often had to rely on outside groups to do a lot of the heavy lifting, with the state party trying to coordinate. The proposal doesn’t say much more on this, but it has a much-needed “run everywhere” mindset, and we’ll wait for more specifics to emerge.

3. A Systematic Approach to Initiatives. It’s one thing to have plans and ideas for initiatives, it’s something else to carry them out…and fund them. The plan proposes the creation of a non-profit whose purpose will be to spearhead grassroots activism (something Dade and some of our neighboring counties are already doing), creating our own “media” geared to party members and activists, and working with the proposed campaign center to develop “branding” for the party and tailored for Georgia’s many sub-cultures and voting groups.

   

4. Fundraising. If anything, this should be NUMBER 1, but the proposal indicates the desire for a more “membership-based” model of fundraising. We’ll need to see more details on this, but the fundraising aspect is vital, and more than anything else, THE NEW CHAIR WILL HAVE TO BE OUR FUNDRAISER-IN-CHIEF! Democrats have developed a fantastic candidate support system, but we’ve often left our party’s infrastructure behind; this effort will be significant for the success of the other initiatives.

5. Strengthening our County Committee Structure. As a county chair of almost 16 years, and as Vice-Chair of DPG’s Rural Council, I know through experience there are many county committees in need of greater support. But the state party can and should also wed that support to a set of higher expectations from its county committees, and have the means to do something about it if its not happening. The proposal correctly sees this as an investment (money!), and its largely smaller, rural counties that need both greater support and greater expectations made from them.

   

   DPG currently has around 3 dozen of Georgia’s 159 counties without an active Democratic county committee. Investing the money and developing standard expectations and support for county committee units is long, LONG overdue.

Starting tomorrow, I’m going to publish a series of “vision” statements of my own, using the works of people like Timothy Snyder and others as sources for how we can re-invigorate our democracy in our region and state, and tie those efforts into the organization of the state party. Stay tuned!