With Cos’s
post about ActBlue, that reminds me of another thing I’ve been
meaning to post about.
I had a conversation a couple of weeks ago with a friend, Nathaniel
Stinnett, who works on a project called <a
href=”http://www.nationalmajority.org”>Campaign for a National
Majority. It’s simple form is a PAC (in fact, a 527), sort of like <a
href=”http://www.emilyslist.org”>Emily’s List, “a political
network for pro-choice Democratic women”. Their goal is to seed the
country with Democratic office-holders in the
positions that tend to be upwardly mobile: mayors, governors, and
Attorneys General. Their approach is to find viable candidates with a
“high ceiling” for future advancement — especially but not exclusively
those that are likely
to be in close races — and raise money nationally for them.
(Nathaniel
says that they’re almost more satisfied when they’ve chosen a candidate
that loses a very close race than if they happen to support one that
wins in a landslide.)
CNM is partisan, supporting only Democrats, but non-ideological. They
aspire to be sort of the
Bill James of
Democratic PACs: using something like “objective analysis” to find
candidates that will strengthen the Democratic “bench”, eventually
making it easier to field excellent candidates for top-of-the-ticket
races. CNM actually does send “scouts” to events to evaluate a
candidate’s political skills, and they also vet the candidates’
organizations. (I’ve not heard that they bring a radar gun to rallies.)
The reason for this kind of approach is simple: Just as in investing or
buying consumer products, people want to spend their money effectively.
CNM aspires to use Democratic dollars for maximum electoral leverage.
Their list this year was:
class=”eventsHeader”>
Jun Choi, <span
style=”font-weight: normal;”>Mayor of Edison, NJ (victory)
Chris Coleman<span
style=”font-weight: normal;”>, Mayor of St. Paul MN (blowout victory)
Creigh Deeds, <span
style=”font-weight: normal;”>for Attorney General of
Virginia (<a
href=”http://www.roanoke.com/editorials/wb/wb/xp-44277″>still being
counted!)
Shirley
Franklin, Mayor of Atlanta (blowout
victory)
Ed Pawlowski, <span
style=”font-weight: normal;”>Mayor of Allentown PA (victory)
David Pepper, <span
style=”font-weight: normal;”><a
href=”http://www.nationalmajority.org/pepper.php”>Mayor of Cincinnati
(<a
href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Election_Results,_Mayor_of_Cincinnati,_Ohio”>close
defeat)
Julián Castro, <span
style=”font-weight: normal;”>Mayor of San Antonio TX<span
style=”font-weight: normal;”> (defeat)
Now, with the notable and strange exception of the Governor’s office,
it has seemed to me that in Massachusetts, even the Republicans are
Democrats. So CNM is not especially likely to be spending much time in
the Bay State. However, if you’re looking for a way to have an impact
beyond our borders, CNM and ActBlue are ways to do it.
Update: Changed title and post to reflect the real name of the organization. “Campaign”, not “Coalition.” Duh.
if they did it on purpose, but targeting Mayors is brilliant, especially in rural cities and smaller cities and towns. Mayors organize, and the more ornizations in place, the easier it is for future statewide and national races.
They state that they want to build the party from the bottom up, targeting executive positions, since they tend to be elected as Governors, Congresspeople, and, eventually, President. But what you say is definitely true, and coincidentally in line with the Democracy for America (ex-Dean) model of endorsements: keeping it local, and strengthening the party organization at the ground level; a definite side-benefit that may not be “side-” at all.
I went to a Campaign for a National Majority event 5-6 months ago and I must admit that I was a bit skeptical as to whether they could follow through with their ambitious research claims. Looking at their results from this last cycle, though, I’m pretty impressed. Five of their seven races were within 3% margins of victory and the Virginia race is the closest statewide race in the history of Virginia (a pretty old state… sorry, commonwealth). If I had money to spend, I might listen to them as to where to put it!
Although I certainly appreciate your kind words, we at CNM realize that our most important product is our strong (and honest) research, so I feel I must make a slight correction to your numbers, harold. We had four (not five) races that were within about 3%, but I still think that’s a pretty good track record. I am particularly proud of Jun Choi (Edison, NJ) who won 50.40% to 49.60% and Creigh Deeds (Virginia AG) who, at last count, was only down 49.96% to 49.95%. We do our best to provide good investment analysis to Democratic donors and I can only hope we do as well in the 2006 cycle. FYI: we have already begun our research of hundreds of 2006 executive races.
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Thanks to Charley for the post on my favorite blog!