I Have a Dream

Dave Thomas

My Dream

The following 7 visions are examples of what Legislative Districts may hope to realize. Their mission would be to realize these visions.

Benchmarks for Measuring Realization of Our Dream

These benchmarks may be varyingly applied to our legislators; state, county and legislative districts, precinct clusters and precincts. The intent is not to punish groups who don’t score well. It is to encourage progress toward better scores, through focusing attention on what strategies are successful, so these may be adopted.

1. Washington State Benefits from Realizing Our Priorities

I dream that supported by our national government, Washington Democrats make great progress in realizing our mainstream liberal priorities.

· Fair Elections and Open Government

· Fair Taxes and Competent Spending

· Investment for Productivity

· Quality Health, Education, Jobs, Income and Retirement

· Environmental Protection and Energy Independence

· Personal Security and Equal Rights

· International Cooperation and Leadership

Benchmarks

What liberal legislation have our legislators supported and what have they opposed?

What conservative legislation have our legislators supported and what have they opposed?

2. The Washington State Republican Party Is Eliminated

I dream that Conservative values are in disrepute. Unable to elect anyone to any national, state or local office in Washington, the Republican Party ceases to exist as a viable political entity. .

Benchmarks

What proportion of our legislators are Democrats?

What proportion of our votes goes to Democrats?

3. Likely Democrats Identified and Voting

I dream that 90% of our more than 2 million likely Democratic voters (both Liberal Democrats and Liberal Independents) have been identified, are in a continually updated database, with most of them stimulated to vote.

Benchmarks

What proportions of our likely Democrats voters have been identified?

(Use 2004 Kerry votes as indicator of number of likely Democratic voters)

Reaching All Likely Democratic Voters

How Many Democrats Are In Washington State?

It depends on the definition of Democrat. Imagine a series of concentric circles.

· The largest circle contains 2,000,000+ likely Democratic voters if they were all registered

· The next smaller circle contains 1,833,800 registered likely Democratic voters

· The next smaller circle contains 1,184,700 voters who voted in 2006 for Maria Cantwell

· The next smaller circle contains 781,900 Cantwell voters who consider themselves Democrats

· The next smaller circle contains 10,000? active Democrats beyond voting (PCO’s, legislative district members, caucus participants, campaign volunteers, etc.)

· The sixth circle contains 400 party insiders - officials who receive occasional Democratic Party newsletters

These numbers were derived from voter and voting statistics, generalizations concerning various ratios and personal communications.

This yields the following types of actual and potential Democrats:

· Core circle – 400 insiders

· First ring – 9,600 active Democrats, but not insiders

· Second ring – 770,000 self-identified Democratic voters who are inactive beyond voting

· Third ring – 400,000 likely Democratic voters who don’t consider themselves to be Democrats

· Fourth ring – 650,000 likely Democratic voters who didn’t vote

· Fifth ring – several hundred thousand likely Democratic voters who aren’t registered

Creating a whirlpool

We Democrats would like to create a whirlpool in which people within each ring are drawn into the rings closer to the center. We want them to register, turn out to vote, consider themselves Democrats, become active and become insiders.

How do we do this? We reach out to as many as possible to recruit and train them to be politically informed and effective, likely increasing their motivation and activity. This is what our Puget Sound Liberals is attempting with the target audience of 877,267 voters in our 12 Puget Sound counties who voted for Maria Cantwell. More realistically, we would hope to reach 250,000 (which equal the 30% that we reach in our Lake Hills Neighborhood). If successful, we will reach out to the rest of our state. Wish us well and help us by introducing your friends and colleagues to us.

4. Canvassing Teams Identify Voters and Supporters

I dream that in each legislative district, clusters of precincts have been identified, with teams recruited and trained to ensure that their clusters are places where Democrats thrive and multiply. These teams canvass to identify 90% of likely Democratic voters and identify 30% of these as active Democratic supporters. These teams stimulate these likely Democratic voters to vote. They stimulate active Democratic supporters to become involved in civic and political activities.

Benchmarks

What proportions of our Precincts have PCOs?

What proportions of our PCOs have been trained?

What proportions of our PCOs have canvassed?

Have precinct clusters been identified?

What proportions of precinct clusters have precinct teams?

What proportion of precinct teams been trained?

What proportion of precinct teams have canvassed?

What proportion of precincts have been canvassed?

5. Active Democratic Supporters Trained

I dream that through training centers, training courses and regular newsletters, active Democratic supporters become informed about our values, history, policies and political strategies. They know and understand local, state and national economic, political and social events and trends. They volunteer to serve as PCO’s, canvassers and in all the other ways that implement our Democratic Party’s mission.

Benchmarks

What proportions of likely Democratic voters have been identified as active supporters?

What proportions of active Democratic supporters receive regular newsletters?

What proportions of active Democratic supporters receive training?

What proportions of active Democratic supporters have become members of cluster teams or active in other party activities?

6. Comprehensive Communication and Cooperation

I dream that likely Democratic voters are easily able to identify, communicate, associate, and cooperate with each other independently and through involvement in Democratic Party and other general and specialized advocacy and caring organizations. Communications within organizations are down, up and across.

Benchmarks

What communication infrastructure has been created for Democratic voters to communicate with Democratic leaders and each other?

7. Cooperatively Created and Implemented Strategic Plans

I dream that Democratic Party officials, Democratic government office holders and Democratic supporters cooperate to create and implement strategic plans for realizing our values and priorities. These plans include cooperation among legislative district party organizations, continuous party building in all 49 legislative districts, including the activities described above and identifying, training and supporting political candidates. They also include providing the necessary infrastructure, such as research, information management, recruitment, fundraising, publicity, and more. Means are provided to maximize significant involvement of interested Democratic supporters.

Benchmarks

What strategic plans have been created (at state, county, legislative districts and precinct clusters) have been created?

What accountability has been created for realizing these strategic plans?