Democratic Legislative District Organization

Grassroots Mobilizing

 

Our Democratic Party is dedicated to maintaining and enhancing our American Dream, through electing office holders who will legislate and implement appropriate laws and programs.  Electing office holders requires creating public opinion favorable to our values, identifying voters who share our values and stimulating them to vote, including the least politically motivated.

 

Our Democratic party is organized at national, state, county and legislative district levels.  Of these, our legislative district organizations (LDOs) are focused upon grassroots mobilizing, which consists of canvassing voters to identify those who can be stimulated to support our candidates and activities. 

 

Legislative Districts typically contain 180 Precincts, which typically each contain 350 registered voters.  To organize canvassing, it is helpful to define about 15 Precinct Clusters which each include 10 – 15 precincts.  Each LBO can then organize a Cluster Team for each Precinct Cluster to canvass the households in its Precincts.

 

LBO Responsibilities

Key responsibilities of the Legislative District Democratic organization are to recruit, train and elect Democrats and to create an atmosphere in the District, Precinct Clusters and Precincts in which Democrats thrive and multiply.  This requires a series of activities, including

1.   clarifying their understanding of Democratic Party values and priorities,

2.   understanding their district, its resources, institutions and people,

3.   defining Precinct Clusters and organizing Cluster Teams to mobilize voters in their precincts

4.   creating a database of registered voters, which identifies core supporters, other supporters, other likely Democratic voters, unidentified voters and likely Republican voters

5.   canvassing to identify and recruit core Democrats, other activist Democrats, and likely Democratic voters

6.   communicating with, training and organizing these Democrats and Democratic supporters

7.   Identifying, recruiting, training and supporting Democratic candidates

8.   Organizing to plan and implement all of the above.

 

1. Clarifying Values and Priorities

Everything that Democrats do should be the result of their values and priorities.  They must share in deciding what these are and understand them well, in order to effectively do anything else.  Recognizing the importance of this, Hank Thomas has devoted party of each monthly meeting of the 5th Legislative District (of which he is chair) to a discussion of values.  Once it was family values.  Other values might concern constitutional (or civil) rights, role of government in regulating business, promoting justice and peace at home and abroad, environmental and conservation concerns, and many more.

 

Each Legislative District organization should create a statement of their values and priorities.  This can be used as a context for contributing to the County and State Democratic platforms, for deciding which issues and candidates to support, and be presented as a brochure when canvassing.  But having good well defined values and priorities is not enough.  Each Legislative District must seek to realize their values through the other activities listed above.

 

2. Understanding the Legislative District

Each Legislative District organization should research their district and create an almanac which describes the district, including maps; towns, demographic, social, economic and political statistics; their political history and legislators; their organization; and other information to help Democratic activists and candidates to effectively pursue their objectives.

 

3. Defining Precinct Clusters and Organizing Cluster Teams

Recruiting precinct organizers for each precinct has not been possible.  And lonely precinct organizers find it difficult to canvass their precincts.  So clusters of 10 – 20 precincts should be defined.  Precinct organizers and other Democratic activists within the cluster can then form a team to work together to do the work required in all of the precincts.  Each team should have a leader or mentor who provides training and guidance.

 

4. Creating a Database of Registered Voters

To identify and monitor the various levels of Democratic supporters, a database of all households should be created.  The occupants of each household (except vacant ones (V)) should be identified, noting their political orientation (not qualified to vote (X), Republican (R), cynical (C), or Democratic (D)).  For simplicity, all voters in a household may be assumed to have the same political orientation.  The voter record in the database should include first and last name, email address, phone number, street address, city, zip code and source of information.

 

It addition there should be two codes, one for the precinct (as thus the precinct cluster) and one for the level of involvement: (A) core, (B) activist, (C) other supporter, (D) unidentified, and (E) Republican or Cynical.  Thus for each precinct cluster, people can be identified at each of five levels of involvement.  An objective is to influence people to increase their involvement Eŕ Dŕ Cŕ Bŕ A.

 

5. Identifying and Recruiting Democrats

All households should be canvassed at least every two years to identify the political orientations of their members.  Newcomers should be canvassed as they arrive.  Besides identifying likely Democratic voters (whether they consider themselves Democrats or Independents), more passionately interested ones should be asked for their email addresses, so they can receive a regular newsletter.  The result is that each legislative District should maintain a list of (2) core supporters (including district and precinct officers and others who regularly attend meetings and become involved in activities), supporters (who are interested, but largely inactive), and (3) other likely Democratic voters.  About 30% of likely Democratic voters may be classified as supporters and about 2% as core members.

 

6. Communicating with, training and organizing Democrats

Efforts are continually made to stimulate and train likely Democratic voters to become supporters and to get supporters to become active core members.  Each legislative district organization should maintain a website and almanac with information about the district and the organization.  In addition a regular newsletter should be sent to supporters, informing them about the district and the organization’s activities and ways to get involved.  In addition regular (perhaps twice a year) training sessions should be held for people to become more active as district or precinct officers. 

 

7. Identifying, recruiting, training and supporting Democratic candidates

A skill bank should be maintained of leaders and potential leaders of voluntary organizations, local government districts, municipalities and countries.  People should be recruited, trained and supported to become leaders of these and higher offices. 

 

8. Organizing to plan and implement all of the above.

Each January, a plan and calendar of activities should be adopted which identified tactics to be implemented throughout the year for realizing the responsibilities presented above.  Besides the various standard officers, others should be defined as needed to lead the performance of these tactics.  Every three months, the plan should be reviewed, with accomplishments noted, difficulties encountered and adjustments made to the plan.  At the end of the year, reflection upon the plan should precede the creation and plan for the next year.