So what do you do when you have a large group of committed people, money in the bank, a weblog hundreds of people visit every day, and energy to burn?
Spring is always when I start reflecting on my life and where I’m going in it. So here’s the question of the day:
What Next?
Obviously in the short term we’ve got some elections to win, a protest to go to (This Sat. 2-4 Memorial Park), early voting events, etc…
But 6, 8, 12 months from now what are our goals?
I’m not kidding on this one… I want to hear from each and every one of you.
Sound off in the comments section.
(If you’re not a member of our group just post ideas our group might want to look into)
I’ll start it off:
I think our number one goal should be to find two or three College Dems or Young Dems, and run them for the Unicameral in 2006.
I’d run but I won’t be 21 in time. Cody or Daniel could run for Matt Conneally’s seat in Decatur? Other good seats to run for in 06 include Papillion, the Crossroad’s mall area seat, the Millard seat, and there are 16 more I’m not even listing.
Tim Pendrell ran for legislature in 2002 against a pretty popular incumbant, and he did quite well.
I think we could do better in an open seat; I think we could win, if we could just find the right candidates….
(Did I just hear someone say Renner’s name?)
(or Chad’s?)
John,
I think it is important for all young and college dems to get involved in their
state and local party chapters. Caucuses are being formed everyday.
We have one for lgbt, womens, african american etc.
We need to get invovled in these caucuses and even run for office in one of them. I think we need to make sure we are in every high school in Omaha. There should not be one metro area high school that does not have a faculty representative and a club in it. I had a contact list for the high schools which I gave to yda last year. I will go so far to say that we need chapters in every jr high. We all need to attend the conference in D.C. in july. this gives us a chance to network nationally and receive some awesome training. Then we need to form alliances with every i say again every progressive group on campus.
I have some more ideas. We coud host book clubs there are sevral books that I have not read yet but I want to like “Don’t think of an elephant” and ‘Lies and the lying liars who tell them’ etc. We should plan a trip to the state capitol and meet with our senators tour the floor.
Host a political movie night. The west wing, head of state, mix comedies with dramas and documentaries too.
Lastly let’s get in the community and volunteer no I’m not talking about a campaign. Why don’t we all volunteer for habitat for humanity.
John I like the idea of Ryan or Chad running for office but I do know that Chad is registered in Iowa he didn’t switch because Iowa was a swing state.
I love the ambition John, but I think it’s important to remember that youth by itself is not a virtue. There are a lot of different ways for us to have an effective voice besides putting up a bunch of young candidates like lambs to a slaughter. To be honest, a candidate’s age doesn’t mean much to me at all, be it 22 or 82, so long as they’re looking towards the future and looking out for more than themselves (of course, the more liberal the better). If some YDs decide to run, all the power to them - I hope we’re there to back them up - but this is about our ideas and advancing a progressive agenda, not getting “our people” in office (at least, not age-wise).
Young Dems (and Dems in general) should stand with ALL those who stand with us. We can’t afford to be so parochial in our efforts.
Good point Kyle-
It’s important for us not to exclude candidates who are worthwhile but not in our age-group. But should the goal of our group be to recruit those candidates? Ultimatley I think no. That’s the job of the central comittee and Under 40s, and Democratic Divas. They each recruit from their own bases.
But as YD’s we have access to people that they don’e have access to.
And while youth, in and of itself, is not a huge asset, there are several things we have as YDs that no one else does. Boundless energy, idealism, the ability to up and change districts at will, the ability to live perfectly fine on 12k a year, the ability to tap into a giant network of young people who can be boots on the ground for a field campaign….
We know this: there will be open seats for the Unicam. in 06 and 08 that are not even challenged by a Democrat. But, were they to all be challenged by running a Dem in each seatswe could expand our voting pool, increase turnout overall, gain incredibly valuable experience running campaigns ourselves, and even win a few elections.
We have to lose only some time and energy, to gain so much.
Kyle-
you’re a smart kid with a lot of energy, chances are you even live in an open seat district for 06 or 08. Have you thought about running yet? If it is truly about advancing preogssive ideas and a progressive agenda, I can’t think of many people in YDs who could do that better than you. Can’t you just see youself on the floor of the legislature?
I wanted to let you all know that the University of Delaware Dems have a new blog: www.smartbluehens.blogspot.com hope you check it out and enjoy it!
I’m not a member of the UNO Dems, but I am Dem, and a supporter of the LGBT Caucus of Nebraska. I have to disagree with John’s statement that recruiting should be done by the central committee, the Under 40’s and the Divas. Where has that gotten us so far?
A few great candidates, and few great election wins and a lot of used up and spit out dems who were literally thrown to the wolves with little to no support. GO out and ask the average citizen who ran for governor on the dem ticket last time? The election before that? Most people won’t know the answer. Should someone of that stature (running for gov of a state) have more name recogniztion after the race?
There are some GREAT, EXCELLENT candidates out there in the LGBT, African American and Women’s caucuses. And there are some outstanding young Dems! Why shouldn’t we, why can’t we rally behind one or two or three or four in 06 and 08. Volunteer, donate, work for……and get them elected now when they are eager, supportive and ready? ANd if they get into office, do great work - then they can run other campaigns and work their way into higher positions. Voters nowadays vote for someone they know, trust and believe in what they can do.
There is a old adage - you never know if it will be successful until you try. Every candidate knows there is a chance they won’t win - but ultimately, you know what, the DEMS win. Because we gain new voters from the races, we gain new financial support from these races. So why shouldn’t we put a few new, fresh, DIVERSE, eager and willing people on the ballots?
What do we truly have to lose???? Nebraska can’t really become much more red…..
I say, lets all through a little caution to the wind…..and lets make a few gambles. We might be surprised!
Troy-
you “disagree with me” but I think we are actually saying similar things. You’re just articulating better than me. I wholeheartedly AM FOR us rallying behind candidates that are worth while, even if we may not win those races. Especially if the races are run ideologically (IE, to convert voters and not just to get name recognition for a speciic candidate- like Mike Meister’s AG run in 02).
What I’m saying is that the LGBT caucus is better at recruiting LGBT candidates than anyone else. And the central comittee as recruiting centralcom types, the divas at recruiting working and retired women, etc. WE need to be recruiting good new young candidates.
I would love it if someone at central party hq sent down a directive: “Divas you need to find 3 great candidates by 06, YDs, you need to find 3 others” and so on and so on. [Ian, Heath, did you hear that?] but until I hear something like that, I think YDs should go out and do it on its own. If we could just find a few YD candidates to rally behind early, by the time the cycle comes up we could have money in the bank, volunteers recruited, and campaign staff at the ready.
Daniell Nantkes is doing this by planning to run for the Unicam from Lincoln. She’s the new NYD prez. But do most NYDs even know that? No. She didn’t even mention it in her nominating speech, despite the fact that its the preeminent reason for her running for NYD prez in the first place.
I guess I’m arguing for an entire shift in the way we see NYDs and YDs in general. We are a recently formed 527 made up of youth. We are tied to no one, and no one holds us acountable. We have broad support, and arms that reach throughout the state. We have members who are more able to take risks, and have more energy to fight the underdog fights. In the background is Nebraska’s unique political situation. Open seats galore, all the attention on what happens to the power players leaving their seats, no attention to who fills those seats.
The first group with a plan to capitalize on this is going to pick up a lot of power in the unicam. What I’m saying, and have been saying, to each and every person who will listen, is that should be us.
If we (as YDs) ran 10 candidates in 06- and all but 2 of them lost. We’d still be in good shape. Why? Because we’d have trained people in what campaigns are really like. Because we would have recruited far more people than we burned out. Because we would have 8 experienced candidates with high name ID ready to run again in 4 or 8 years. Because we’d have a whole army of experienced campaign staff ready to run even more better candidates in 2008!
I’m sure the GOP has a plan for how to capitalize on term limits. We don’t. That’s why this is the most important thing we can be talking about.
long winded much? I apologize for writing about 2/3rds of the words in the comments section for a post that I originally wrote in order to hear what other people think.
This is a great discussion on candidate requirement. With term limits coming up in 2006, it is a once in a lifetime opportunity to win back many seats in the Unicam. I know that the NDP has been doing lots of candidate requirement across the state, building the party along the way. Just because they don’t publicize their candidate requirement work, doesn’t mean it’s not going on. NYD, as its offical youth caucus, is working with the NDP to find great candidates that can run and WIN. I cannot stress enough what a wonderful opportunity 2006 is for Democrats across the state, and I know that with everyone working together, we will make Nebraska the Good Life again!
Also, not to take from the wonderful discussion, I think we need to be careful about “outting” candidates before they are ready to declare.
Okay, so I really need to learn to type on the right keys!! My first posting on a blog ever, and I spell write requirement instead of recruitment multiple times!!
Sorry about that!! Don’t worry, that’s probably the last posting from me from now on!!
John, et al -
The Nebraska Democratic Party is working hard to make sure that we run great candidates up and down the ballot in 2006. In fact, I just got back from a several-day trip around the western part of the state, where I met with potential candidates and local activists.
We have alot of work to do before Election Day 2006, and the NYD (and its local groups, like the UNO College Democrats) are an integral part of this. It’s important that Young Democrats help us identify candidates, but we also need Young Democrats to help us with their shoeleather and their idealism: we have doors to knock, voters to register, and a state to win back in 2006.
And, if you haven’t heard: in the next few weeks we’ll be relaunching nebraskademocrats.org. It will include new grassroots organizing tools and an upgraded blog.
Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any ideas or suggestions.
Thanks for your hard work and your great blog!
Ian Russell
Field Director
Nebraska Democratic Party
First of all, I would like to congratulate you all for an outstanding semester up till now. You have reached and flew by all of our goals made at the end of last semester. As for next semester, I have a few thoughts.
First and foremost, I strongly recommend to keep the fundamental objective of the organization similar to what it is now. It´s not broke, so lets not fix it. Continue with the fundraising/recruitment campaign on campus that has brought in so much publicity and membership. Change our messages, change some products if you want (Did I hear someone say ¨Girls of the College Dems Calender¨ with Gary D as Miss December? just kidding ladies, dont be offended), but I would not let up on the recruitment effort.
Second, I think we need a hook; something to keep people coming. Last semester it was a mix of controversy, anti-Bush sentiment, the elections, etc. This semester I don´t honestly know what it is, but whatever you all are doing, it sounds like it is working. If John´s idea is plausable, that could be a great hook, something to rally around. If not, there are thousands of other things we can do as a college democrat organization that haven´t been done before. Either way, we need to give people a reason to want to be a UNO College Democrat.
My third suggestion is to maintain the closeness in our organization. I honestly feel that the group I left last winter was one of friends, not just acquaintances who visited once a week to slander the Republicans. I would do anything to make sure that the business side of the organization gets done, but not by overpowering the social side of the organization. After all, friends working together to rid the state of Republicans (a lofty goal, and no I am not talking about genocide) is a lot more effective than a group of strangers sitting around cracking elephant jokes. Believe me, I enjoy that too, but what I am trying to say is that we have an opportunity here. An opportunity to offer new members a place to go, friendships to make, and an opportunity to make a difference together in the state we live it.
Good luck with the remainder of the semester. Finish Strong. See you all in less than two months.
Chad Brakhahn
Lots of great ideas…lots of enthusiasm…more importantly, lots of work must be done in 2005 before any of these ideas can start to become a reality.
Whether you’re a member of the UNO College Dems, the UNL College Dems, County Party Central Committee member, are interested in helping the African-American Caucus or the Women’s Caucus —- always remember, there is more organizing work to do than we have people to do it.
So let people know about what they can do to help restore democracy in their neighborhoods, on their campus, in their workplace, at their social clubs, or on their online community.
Cause if you don’t organize, then who will?
If we build the Democratic Party to it’s fullest potential — organized caucuses, organized County Party Organizations, organized e-precincts, organized campuses — candidates for all offices will come, run, and win as Nebraska Democrats.
As the saying goes, “you can’t hit a triple without touching first base!”
Great discussion!
I ran for President of the Nebraska Young Democrats to serve the Nebraska Young Democrats. Period. Part of that service inlcudes an agressive campaign to recruit and train young democrats in Nebraska to work on campaigns and to run for office in 06 and beyond.
I propose that after the Lincoln and Omaha city elections (which should be the main focus of our time and energy right now) we meet to refine a statewide candidate recruitment plan.
Thanks again. Keep up the good work everyone!
Good Points everyone. I look forward to another semester, but regardless of the business we get done, I think Chad makes an excellent point by adding that we need to stay a closely knit group. Although controversy does arrise, I believe we are all strong individuals with strong friendships and no matter what happens if we all remain friends and work really hard we should get a lot accomplished. Think about the last meeting with Chad when we set goals for this semester, and look at us now, we have surpassed every goal, and as of tonight, we will actually have t-shirts!! Whatever we do we know we will keep kicking ass because that is what young democrats do!!
Where do we go from here?????? To get where we want to go as a party involves so many different areas. Many of these are areas are interelated. It doesn’t start from just one spot, it takes everyone and everything at our disposal. With that being said, I have a few observations.
I believe I have said this somewhere on another blog, but I believe that it is important for us or for any organization to stay “healthy” it needs to evolve. Clearly, the UNO Democrats have evolved. The Young Democratic Cacus has evolved. Since our groups have evolved, some of roles have changed. Part of that evolution is now possibly taking on the role of finding canidates to run for public office. I strongly believe that is role that we can take on. The only question that I have is, are we ready to take on that role? The jury is still probably out on that, but we are closer than we have ever been before.
Someone brought up the notion of a rallying point. It seems like every campaign has some sort fo rallying point. Hell, even the Kerry/Edwards ticket talked about the idea of hope is on the way. Although they were not effective in conveying that idea, there is something to having a rallying point. Another thing I have said is that I don’t want to see us (Dems) be a party of negativity and opposition. If we are truly the “progressive voice of Nebraska” we need to offer something positive and hope. We need to start rallying around positive ideas that bring hope to the nation. Being a democrat is not just about defeating republicans in elections, it is about supporting the progression of society.
There is something to be said about closeness, the bonds, and friendships that are made within in organization like the young democrats, especially among UNO Dems. This is something that we can really promote. This can be a rallying point. It can be a part of our sales pitch to recruit new democrats.
Although these thoughts may seem ideal, they are truly not that far out reach. This can be done. We can build up this party. Maybe all these thoughts, theories, discussions, and suggestions start with the city elections coming up. Everything has a beginning, it is possible that the beginning lies within the elections. Only time will tell.
Thanks everyone for continuing the discussion. I hope more people keep chiming in and repeating, arguing, discussing, refining, opinions.
Everyone who knows me knows I’m pretty passionate about the candidate recruitment and using YDs to take advantage of the way Nebraska’s politics is going to work until 2010.
I want to throw something else out… voter registration.
How many people do you think we could register over the summer? I think even passive registration drives (like setting up a table at North and South Omaha HyVees) we could pick up a lot.
I think UNOdems / YDs should set a goal to register 1000 people this summer on our own, before the fall semester even starts.
Wouldn’t it be nice to take back the registration advantage in Omaha?
I hope some democrats run so they can be humilitated in front of the state of NE