Prairie Dog

Hoovering in Iowa

Reprinted with permission from the Spring 2015 issue of  The Prairie Progressive, Iowa’s oldest progressive newsletter, available only in hard copy for $12/yr.!!  Send check to PP, Box 1945, Iowa City 52244.

by Paul Deaton

The Iowa Democratic Party’s coordinated campaign has been a blessing and a curse, and it’s time to blow it up and start over.

As much as one believes progressive elected officials would provide better policy and governance for the vast majority of Iowans, the message is not getting out. Republicans are suppressing the wackiness in extreme elements of their party enough to garner substantial and winning support in the electorate.

Here’s a reminder: 2014 brought us Joni Ernst, Terry Branstad and Steve King. 2016 will be more of the same unless we change our politics.

Based on discussions with my neighbors and local progressive activists, there are four reasons the coordinated campaign should be blown up:

There is limited buy-in from local activists to the coordinated campaign. Campaign choices-locating resources like paid staff, offices, house parties and mailers-are made by others and some decisions don’t make sense. There has been a clear disconnect from precinct politics that used to be a Democratic strength. Without increased buy-in from local activists, progressive election wins are unlikely.

Republicans were surprised by the Democratic organization of the 2006 and 2008 campaigns-they caught up. I used to laugh at Team Nussle’s efforts to organize phone banks and canvasses in 2006, but no more. The 2014 general election stands as evidence that Republicans do more than take money from billionaires. They improved their ground game.

Democrats failed to articulate a coherent message. Where Republicans made significant inroads is their effectiveness of identifying stakeholders in government and offering solutions. They framed solutions as bipartisan, but the core message that won elections is the sense of belonging their campaigns helped create. The coordinated campaign’s focus on canvasses and get out the vote efforts on targeted voters, left messaging to others, and a broad sector of the electorate on the table. Republicans have been Hoovering these voters up.

Democrats don’t get the role of third party resources. As annoying as it is that Senator Ernst wears an Americans for Prosperity pin at public events, Republicans have become masters of campaign finance laws, giving them an advantage the coordinated campaign couldn’t match. Because of its structure, the coordinated campaign made poor use of third party resources. Tom Steyer’s NextGen Climate took a drubbing from liberal bloggers in 2014, and some of the criticisms were rightly placed. In a time of the Citizens United ruling, Democratic leaders must figure out how to better balance outside resources to advance Democratic issues, while walking the legal tightrope of campaigns not coordinating with third parties.

The key to winning future elections lies outside application of strategies and tactics developed in the 2000s. It is in winning the hearts and minds of our friends and neighbors, and articulating a progressive message that makes sense in the context of real lives. It has always been that way, but the coordinated campaign seems to have forgotten.