The Progressive Majority-- Building A Bench, Nurturing A Farm Team

Gloria Totten is president of Progressive Majority, a group that works to elect progressives to state and local office. The GOP has completely outgunned the Beltway Democrats in this arena, and without the steady efforts Totten and her group have been exerting to recruit and train progressive candidates, the Democrats would be in even worse shape bench-wise than they already are.

Most people don't contribute to political campaigns. And most of the ones who do give to presidential candidates. Some give to Senate candidates. It becomes really slim pickings after that. Blue America works mostly in congressional races, but Progressive Majority has been busy building up a farm team in states and localities. Totten penned an OpEd for Campaign for America's Future explaining the crucial nature of their work.

This has not been a positive year in state legislatures, and there’s a good chance that, for progressives, this may be the worst session in decades.

Wisconsin imposed “right-to-work.” Nevada suspended prevailing wage rules for school construction projects. South Dakota lowered the minimum wage by a dollar an hour for workers under age 18. Many states are slashing funds for public education and social services. Several are legalizing the carrying of guns on college campuses or abolishing the 80-year-old requirement of a permit to carry a concealed firearm. Utah brought back firing squads as a means of execution. Even the Indiana “religious liberty” battle didn’t have a happy ending: the law they passed is not a good one, it’s just less bad.

The reason for the states’ lunge to the right is clear-- the GOP gained more than 300 state legislative seats in the 2014 elections. Republicans now control 69 of the 99 state legislative bodies in the U.S. (if we include Nebraska, where lawmakers are technically nonpartisan but effectively Republican), while Democrats control only 30. That’s the most legislative chambers Republicans have ever held.

Put another way, there are now 25 states where both the legislative and executive branches are entirely controlled by Republicans, if we include Nebraska and Alaska (where the governor ran as an independent but is effectively a Republican). In contrast, there are only seven states with a Democratic legislature and governor: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Vermont. In four additional states (Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, and New Jersey), Democrats control the legislature but progress is stymied by a GOP governor.

It should be obvious that progressives desperately need to engineer a strong comeback in 2016. It’s not just that 150 million Americans living in GOP states are subject to regressive rule. The longer the right wing holds power, the more “gamechanger” policies they enact-- like voter ID and union busting-- designed to rig the electoral game for the long term. Even more important, it’s nearly impossible to take back the congressional redistricting process in 2021-22 unless we start winning state legislative seats in 2016. Progressives need to put in place strong incumbents who can withstand a difficult 2018 election cycle. It would be sheer folly to wait until 2020 to try to win back legislative chambers for reapportionment.

The old saying goes, “A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.” In state politics, progressives have some very strong links indeed. Over the years, our movement has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in terrific policy research, excellent polling, and a lot of hardworking grassroots organizations and activists. But because of one glaring weak link, conservative majorities block good policies and enact bad ones. Progressive investments at the state level are stymied by a distinct lack of focus on winning elections there.

The good news is that our movement could do very well in 2016. We could conceivably move legislatures from split to Democratic control in seven states: Colorado, Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, and Washington. And we could possibly move legislatures from Republican to split control in eight others: Arizona, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Wisconsin (although half of these are longshots).

Fortunately, 2016 presents Democratic legislative candidates with a wealth of advantages:

• A lot of the seats won by the GOP are naturally blue—it’s easier to take them back;

• Turnout in 2016 will create a much more Democratic-friendly electorate;

• Conservatives’ extremism in 2015-16 can be used against them; and

• The national narrative should provide a much better environment for our candidates than the 2014 narrative-- especially if we do the work to promote a smart, state-level progressive agenda for our candidates to run on.

Can progressives recast our weak link in the coming 18 months? Absolutely, and the path to victory is straightforward. As for campaign mechanics, we need to contest every key legislative district; recruit the strongest progressive prospects to run; provide thorough training and political support to candidates and campaign managers; and funnel direct contributions to the races that count most. Given our losses in recent cycles, this is no small undertaking, but it can be done.

In addition, we need to use the rest of 2015 to design and organize around a compelling state policy agenda that energizes our base, pulls swing voters our way, and wedges the right wing. I’m talking about a real agenda—not a laundry list of policy ideas or a “narrative.” We’ve got to drive a set of robust policies in multiple states and localities that, together, illustrates an overall theme and shows explicitly that we’re on the voters’ side and conservatives are not. And we can’t wait until the summer or fall of 2016 to promote that agenda-- we need to push our policies hard in the 2016 legislative sessions, forcing the right to publicly alienate the middle.

Strong progressives tend to have their own priorities: economic equality or environmental protection or criminal justice or social justice for women, African Americans, immigrants or LGBT people. And we tend to work in silos, with some groups doing electoral work or civic engagement or voter registration and others developing policy or networking elected officials or organizing advocacy campaigns. Now, no matter our policy or political priorities, progressives need to link up in every way possible to drive toward one goal-- winning the states back for the American people. The alternative is political disaster.

As for non-federal races this year, Blue America has endorsed progressive Democrat Jim Kenney for mayor of Philadelphia, the only candidate with the guts to stand firm against the pernicious and well-funded charter school onslaught. You can contribute to his campaign here.

Blue America: 80 More Progressive Victories To Celebrate

Late yesterday the DCCC contacted their friends, supporters and... me to tell us that Democrats had just been certified winners in two more seats, MD-01, where Blue Dog Frank Kratovil beat a lunatic fringe wingnut, and VA-05, where Blue America candidate Tom Perriello came from behind a won a slim, hard fought, grassroots victory against one of Congress' worst members, corrupt bigot Virgil Goode, a former conservative "Democrat," not unlike Mr. Kratovil, who eventually, after voting with the GOP for years, crossed over to the Dark Side.

Today we're going to top the DCCC big time with another visit by one of our Progressive Majority friends, Dean Nielsen over at Firedoglake (at 11am, PT). On Wednesday I blogged about how our two Blue America guests, Matt Patten (D-OH) and Fred Clark (D-WI) had each won their uphill election battle and had each been part of turning their state legislature from red to blue. Today Dean is going to talk with us about why this is crucially important to the Democratic Party and for the progressive movement within the Democratic Party. His Blue America post:

The message couldn't be any clearer: voters wanted progressive change. They elected a new president. They put Democrats solidly in control of the Congress. And, they elected at least 84 great Progressive Majority candidates to state and local office! We expect that number to increase as votes continue to be counted.

The state and local champions Progressive Majority helped elect Tuesday will ring in a new era of leadership committed to our progressive values-- and they will be a formidable ground force to enact the change we need.

Progressive Majority is the only national organization focused solely on recruiting and electing progressive majorities at the state and local levels. As the premier candidate recruitment operation for the progressive Democratic movement, we paved the way for many of Tuesday's victories. We took control of the Wisconsin Assembly and the Ohio House of Representatives. We elected a veto-proof super-majority in the Washington State House. We increased our ranks in the Minnesota State House, Arizona Legislature and California Assembly, held onto Democratic majorities in the Colorado and Pennsylvania Houses, and we flipped control of at least six local governments.

While many races are still too close to call, we're thrilled with these key victories. In all, we put progressive Democrats in control in six of the eight states we're in! We made gains in every state where we work. We showed that progressives can win in the toughest districts in the toughest states in the country.

In a year when pundits predicted Democrats could only gain control of a few new state legislatures, Progressive Majority was key to winning two: Wisconsin and Ohio.

Wisconsin was decidedly a "toss up" state right up until Election Day. Yet, we out-organized our opponents and helped 13 Progressive Majority candidates score stunning victories to take control of the Wisconsin Assembly. This victory was the culmination of Progressive Majority's five-year strategy to take control of both chambers of the Wisconsin Legislature and put Democrats in control of redistricting.

This included Fred Clark, who was featured on Blue America in October. You can see all the Wisconsin results here.

Progressive Majority emerged victorious in Ohio, another "toss up" state where the state races were overshadowed by the national elections. A remarkable seven, and possibly eight, of our candidates won and secured the Democratic takeover of the state House of Representatives.

This included Matt Patten, who was featured on Blue America in October. And here are all the Ohio results.

So far, 84 Progressive Majority candidates in our eight states have won outright a handful are in races still too close to call. You can see all the Progressive Majority results from Tuesday at the link.

We continue to elect majorities where they matter most-- school boards and city councils, mayoral positions and statehouses. In just five short years, Progressive Majority has helped flip control of six state legislatures, 36 local governments and three statewide positions, and we’ve helped put more than 350 progressives in office.

But our work is far from finished. We can count on conservatives to retreat, regroup, and then come back swinging. We can’t let our guard down for a moment. That’s why we’re already focused on recruiting, training and electing the progressive leaders of 2009, 2010, 2011 and beyond.

So as we all celebrate the stunning victory of Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and we look forward to the possibilities of a Democratic Congress, we must remember that the progressive movement is not a top down one. It begins at the grassroots, the state and local offices where political careers are born and where decisions are made that affect voters’ quality of life. Progressives took a big step forward on Tuesday. Progressive Majority aims to carry that momentum into every state and local office across the nation, and build a lasting progressive movement that will survive and grow beyond the next four years, beyond the next eight years, into a rock-solid foundation from which the next generation of national progressive leaders will emerge.

Democrats Kicked Ass In The State Legislative Races Around The Country Last Night

In the last few weeks leading up to the election, Blue America moved away from talking to congressional candidates to talking with state legislative candidates and to state leaders of ProgressiveMajority, the folks who are building a progressive base of local officials within the Democratic Party so that we wind up with more candidates like Martin Heinrich, Debbie Cook, John Adler, Gary Peters, Judy Baker and Mark Schauer and less like Heath Shuler, Tim Mahoney and Christine Jennings, Republicans handpicked by Rahm Emanuel to advance his insidious and completely evil agenda. (Good thing he won't have much influence in the future, huh?)

So our first local candidate was Matt Patten (check out the discussion we had with him on October 18) and he won his race and helped the Democrats win a majority in the Ohio state house. Same thing happened with Fred Clark, our awesome Wisconsin candidate who won his tough race and helped deliver the State Assembly to the Democrats. Saturday we've asked Dean Nielsen of Progressive Majority to come back and talk with us about the legislative races across the country and how they play into the redrawing of congressional districts in two years.

Democrats were outspent by the Republicans and their corporate allies in Ohio two to one and still will wind up with between 51 and 54 seats in a 99 person chamber. A friend suggested looking at last night's state legislative results as part of the build up that started in 2006 to the 2010 redistricting. In that time, Democrats-- progressives in many cases-- have won majorities, and expanded majorities where they already had them, in all regions across the country. Democrats now control 60 of 98 partisan chambers. After taking over the Delaware House of Representatives (and defeating Republican Speaker Terry Spence in the process), Democrats now control every legislative chamber in the Northeast, with the exception of the Pennsylvania senate. By winning in New York (the state Senate went blue last night-- the first time that's happened in my lifetime!) and Wisconsin, they now have both houses and the governor. I'm hoping that McHugh's seat in upstate NY will cease to exist and that Peter King will find himself with some more solidly Democratic constituents on Long Island. The Nevada Senate also went Democratic and Merkley is leaving Oregon with a super-majority in the House, having helped elect 8 new members last night.

Democrats also expanded their majorities in Connecticut, Washington and Michigan and beat back close calls in New Hampshire and Maine, where the GOP nearly mustered the strength to win back control. And in California it looks like Democrats will have a net gain of 2 seats in the Assemby and maybe one in the state Senate, where Hanna-Beth Jackson is stuck in a deadlock with right-wing nut Tony Strickland. Bad news in Montana was that while Gov. Schweitzer was coasting to re-election, the state Senate flipped to the dark side. Bad news in Tennessee and Oklahoma brought ties to the Senates there, leaving them unable to keep the far right from devastating working families in those states.

Progressive Majority in Wisconsin

Last weekend we spent some time with our Progressive Majority friends and allies from Ohio and met an exceptional state legislative candidate, Matt Patten. The same way they are helping turn Ohio blue and helping turn blue Ohio progressive, they are busy in Wisconsin assisting men and women with progressive values make their ways up the political ladder. Today we're going to spend some time with  Nicholl Caruso, Wisconsin State Director of Progressive Majority, and one of the state's most promising Assembly candidates, Fred Clark of Baraboo.

Progressive Majority’s top national goal in 2008 is flipping control in the Wisconsin Assembly. All it takes is three seats. In 2006, Progressive Majority was critical in shifting power in the Wisconsin Senate with a four-seat pick up. That year they won eight more seats in the Assembly. Building on those major gains they are now poised to win the three seats needed to win Assembly control from the Republicans. 

Progressive Majority has twenty Assembly candidates either challenging a conservative or running in an open seat formerly held by a conservative. That’s twenty opportunities to win the three seats Democrats need!

One of the incredible Progressive Majority candidates working to be part of the new governing majority is Fred Clark.

Fred Clark is challenging seven-year conservative incumbent, "Doc" Hines in Assembly District 42. His district is in south-central Wisconsin and includes the Wisconsin Dells area. Fred is a small business owner and forester.  Over 12 years ago he founded Clark Forestry, a forestry consulting and land management firm. In that time Fred’s clients have included hundreds of farmers, private landowners, environmental groups, and government agencies throughout Wisconsin. Before starting his business, Fred worked as a Senior Forester for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and as an ecologist with The Nature Conservancy. 
 
Fred has worn many hats throughout his nearly twenty-year career in Wisconsin. He is a skilled facilitator, and his work frequently involves resolving issues between stakeholders, neighbors, citizens and other affected parties in natural resource projects. 
 
Fred’s work on the environment has been so impressive that he was appointed by a Republican, former Governor Thompson, to the Lower Wisconsin Riverway Board in 1998, where he served as a representative for Columbia County. In 2004 he was appointed by Governor Doyle to the Wisconsin Council on Forestry, where he serves as Chairman of the Council’s Subcommittee on Invasive Species.
 
Fred Clark was a founder of the Woodland School, a Baraboo-based educational program providing conservation training to private landowners, now in its eighth year of service.  He was also a founding member of the Baraboo Range Preservation Association, a non-profit land trust serving Sauk and Columbia counties.
 
As state Representative, Fred will be a strong conservation advocate and with a progressive majority in the Assembly, he’ll be a leader in the fight for affordable health care and job growth. He is an ouspoken advocate for both campaign finance reform and for universal health care. Not surprisingly he has been endorsed by Russ Feingold. Stick surf over to Firedoglake and join Fred and Nicoll in comments. And please consider a  donation to Fred's campaign.

Progressive Majority in Ohio

Today Blue America is proud to host our friends from Progressive Majority and Matt Patten, the Democrat running for an open red seat in Ohio's 18th state legislative district (in the Berea area). Like Barack Obama and Jesus, Matt came up as a community organizer. He's a new generation labor leader and he's exactly the kind of progressive activist the Democratic Party needs so we don't wind up with slime from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party taking over. We have more than enough Rahm Emanuels and Tim Mahoneys.
 
We asked David Dettman from Progressive Majority to introduce the program and Matt to us at Firedoglake this morning at 11AM, PT. He sent this post along in preparation:

Just four seats. That’s all that separates Democrats from a majority in the Ohio House of Representatives. And, in 2008, Progressive Majority’s number one goal in Ohio is to elect progressive champions to the House and deliver that majority.  

Progressive Majority has a slate of 11 fantastic candidates for the Ohio House ready to advance our progressive agenda. The Number 1 targeted race for the Ohio House features Matt Patten in House District 18, which includes the critical Cleveland suburbs of Strongsville, North Royalton, Berea, Olmsted Falls, and Olmsted Township. This seat is held by a term-limited conservative and the Republicans have nominated an even more conservative candidate to run against Matt. 

Matt, a long-time union and community activist, will fight for economic justice, quality education and universal access to health care. He is the grandson of Irish immigrants who has dedicated himself to improving his community and enhancing economic opportunity for Ohioans. His opponent, Colleen Grady, is an ultra-conservative member of the State Board of Education who is best known for her avid support for teaching creationism in the science classroom. She is a Sarah Palin wannabe who is spending enormous amounts of money attacking Matt in ways that have been called “dirty politics” by the local media.  

When Matt and our other candidates for the Ohio House form a Democratic majority, they’ll usher in a new era of progressive legislation and leadership, and help Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland bring to ALL Ohioans the progressive values of economic justice, civil rights, quality health care and education, a clean environment and reproductive freedom.

Progressive Majority’s winning strategy to recruit, train and elect progressive champions ensures a strong, lasting progressive base in Ohio and seven other “must-win” states across the nation.