Keith Ellison's platform for the DNC

[think]

Cross Posted from Democrat's group.

KEITH'S VISION

Keith knows that Democrats win when we empower the grassroots and fight for the issues that improve people’s lives. This election cycle, Democrats failed to motivate enough people to show up at the ballot box. Voter turnout hit a 20-year low for presidential elections, following a 70-year turnout low in 2014. Since 2008, Democrats have lost some 935 legislative seats and Republicans now control two thirds of governors’ offices.

It’s time for a change.

We must energize Democratic activists across the country and give them the tools to build the Party from the bottom up. Beyond a 50-state strategy, we need a 3,143-county strategy. DNC members are on the front lines in these states and counties, and we must harness your experience and give you a meaningful voice as we set the direction for the Party. In a DNC Chair, you need a partner and an advocate who will ensure you have the resources you need to win.

We must also reclaim our history as the Party that stands with working people. We can start with our platform, the most progressive in history, which calls for a living wage, requiring the wealthy and corporations to pay their fair share, and comprehensive immigration reform. We will never stop fighting attempts by the Trump White House, Republican-controlled states, and special interests to roll back affordable health care, worker wages and protections, and a woman’s right to choose. We will stand up for people of all races, religions, genders and sexual orientations to foster a more inclusive, fair society and create an economy that works for all Americans.

Our Party is right. Our values are just. Our future depends on grassroots organizing. When Democrats champion the challenges of working families, voters will have a reason to show up at the polls in 2017, 2018 and beyond.


Why Kieth:



ORGANIZER

Keith is a career organizer. A tireless advocate, he pounds the pavement during labor strikes, has a passion for door knocking, and traveled to nearly 30 states in the last two years working for Democratic candidates at all levels. His active grassroots campaigns have helped boost voter turnout in his district to one of the highest in the country.

GRASSROOTS

Keith has strong support from an expansive national network of progressive advocates and labor leaders, and a demonstrated ability to speak to and excite Democratic activists around the country.

UNITY

Keith campaigned nonstop for Secretary Clinton in the general election after being an early supporter of Senator Sanders. He knows Democrats must be unified to push back the right wing and maximize the electoral opportunities of a Trump presidency.

PROVEN FUNDRAISER

Keith has raised millions for the DCCC, state and local parties, and Democratic candidates up and down the ticket.

Message

Keith is one of the best, most popular messengers we have. He will stand against Trump’s efforts to divide and marginalize our allies and friends, bringing a war-room mentality to the DNC to take on the Trump White House and right-wing legislatures.



KEITH'S PLAN


1. PUTTING VOTERS FIRST - We need to prioritize a grassroots focus on voter turnout.

PROGRESSIVE PARTNERS: Engage with progressive allies in party rebuilding, including vision and message development, constituency outreach, and grassroots mobilization.

ORGANIZING BEST PRACTICES: Study and disseminate best practices for effective field organizing to candidates on all levels. Resurrect DNC-led national training programs.

TURNOUT GOALS: Encourage local, state and federal candidates to set goals to boost turnout by 3-7% over the last comparable election, with separate goals for new and infrequent voters.

NATIONAL VOTER REGISTRATION: DNC-led, collaborative effort with national, state and local partners to boost registration and look for ways to streamline and improve programs.

COLLABORATIVE CAMPAIGNING: Work with party committees including DMO, DLCC, DGA, DCCC and DSCC to align priorities, reduce redundancy, improve operations, and build robust national and state coordinated tables.

VOTER ENFRANCHISEMENT: DNC-level planning to protect against voter suppression and to promote laws that encourage voter participation, including automatic voter registration, early voting and vote by mail.
2. BEYOND THE BELTWAY - Elections are won and lost on the ground in states and local communities.

STRENGTHENED STATE AND LOCAL PARTIES: Increase State Partnership Project funding to a base of $10,000/month, with additional dedicated funding available for state and local parties to apply for to build programs for core work, with metrics for success.

REDISTRICTING: Convene all interested stakeholders to develop a shared, aggressive strategy to win back state legislatures and governors for 2020 redistricting to create fair and impartial maps.

BUILD A BENCH: DNC-sponsored candidate training programs to win local races, creating diverse qualified candidates ready to run for higher office. Measure long-term performance at recruiting diverse candidates.

REGIONAL STAFF: Locate strategic DNC staff across the country to allow more interaction between staff and our candidates and party infrastructure.

STATE AND LOCAL TOOLKIT: The DNC should provide additional resources to help state and local parties succeed, including:

Planning: Assisting with development of political, field and communications plans

Communications: Daily talking points, clips and shareable graphics

Research: Rapid-response research on policy proposals that harm working Americans

Technology: Expanded tech tools like standard software apps and website templates to ensure Presidential campaign innovations make it all the way down the ballot

Fundraising: Knowledge sharing, effective donor models and shared donor research to build effective state-based fundraising programs

Vendors: Vendor database with reviews on performance, quality and price

Surrogates: Assign dedicated staff to assist state and local parties with securing surrogates for key events

3. FOCUS ON WORKING PEOPLE - Voters must know that Democrats stand for them.
LABOR AS A FULL PARTNER: Build meaningful relationships with the labor community as a strategic and tactical partner in the fight for the interests of working people. Commit to using only 100% union hotels, venues and vendors
when possible.

DIRECT ENGAGEMENT WITH WORKING VOTERS: Roundtables, listening sessions and direct voter contact in areas where Democrats underperformed in 2016 compared to previous elections.

LOW-DOLLAR FUNDRAISING: Actively pursue grassroots fundraising, setting a goal that low-dollar contributions from everyday Americans account for 33% of revenue. Boost revenues of the Dollars for Democrats and State Party Victory Fund programs, and make it easier for state parties to target effective direct mail and phone fundraising.

4. ACCOUNTABILITY & INCLUSION - DNC stakeholders must have an active voice in shaping our Party.
Group Shot (BRIGHT) (1).png

TWO-WAY COMMUNICATION: Open up lines of communication within the Party, ensuring that all have a voice in how their Party operates. This would include monthly calls with state party chairs and regional calls with county parties and local organizations.

TRANSPARENCY: Regular briefings and programmatic updates from the Chair and Department Directors to the DNC Executive Committee and state party chairs.

METRICS: Develop metrics to measure the success of DNC programs and hold ourselves accountable to achieving our goal of turning out the vote.

YOUTH VOICES: Ensure that groups like Young Democrats and College Democrats have a seat at the table, DNC financial support, and an expanded voice in decision making.

DIVERSE STAFF: DNC staff must reflect the diversity of America, with an intentional hiring process that creates a diverse applicant pool and candidate selection. The DNC should also value staff with a record of success in state and local parties in particular.

EFFECTIVE CONSTITUENCY OUTREACH: Designate an outreach and organizing staff lead for each of the constituency communities in the charter and bylaws.

BUILD CAPACITY: Where possible, the DNC should hire internally, rather than hire vendors or consultants, to build Party knowledge and infrastructure.

DIVERSE CONTRACTS: Set aggressive goals for the percentage of external vendor contracts from Rising American Electorate vendors.

NEUTRALITY: Begin development of the 2020 presidential primary debate schedule as early as practicable, and seek DNC Executive Committee endorsement of the schedule. Convene a weekly working group of presidential campaign representatives during the primary season for briefings on DNC activity. Support a successful process from the Unity Reform Commission to institute superdelegate reform.

5. TECHNOLOGY - Bring innovation and security to all levels of the Party.
POLLING AND ANALYTICS POST-MORTEM: Convene a working group to assess polling and analytics from this cycle and create an executable plan to improve performance.

CYBERSECURITY: Create a permanent cybersecurity advisory group to stay ahead of future cyberattacks. Expand membership to include technologists and policy experts from the business community and government.

DATA ACCESS: Ensure state party access to HFA data and future presidential campaign data.

INNOVATION: Open an Innovation Hub in Silicon Valley to tap the talents of our top innovators.

COST SHARING: Work to create national cost sharing and bulk purchasing opportunities for new hardware and software.

VOTER FILE ENHANCEMENTS: Work with state parties to enhance the tools and data on the voter file. Also, work closely with state parties and the National Voter File Cooperative to identify opportunities to expand work with national progressive partners.


Source and PDF download here:

https://keithfordnc.org/platform/

[Bettie]

1. I really admire him

I just want him to be spending his time fighting their agenda in the House rather than trying to do two jobs.

Unfortunately, standing against that creature and his swamp full of deplorables is going to be a full time and then some job.

[AngryAmish]

5. Every time I hear "two jobs" is sounds like code for uppity.

Probably just me.

[Bettie]

8. Well, that is not what I meant at all

What I mean is that right now, I would not support any sitting congressperson for this particular job simply because both are full time jobs at this point.

I don't make the decision, but Ellison is one of the few Dems in the House I trust to put up a fight against all of the crap that is going to be flung.

[AngryAmish]

9. I am sure you are doing this in good faith.

But with all this anti-identity talk sounds anti minority to me.

[Bettie]

12. This particular thing has nothing to do with identity

it has to do with wanting house and senate members to be working against the fuckery that is coming from those who want to destroy our social safety net.

That will be a hard fight and I want them focused on that.

No matter who they are, I believe that this position will be better served by someone who can devote all their energy to the fight that leading the DNC requires as well.

Anyway, my opinion matters not at all in this as I have zero to do with the decision making process.

I am also disappointed that my opinion that a sitting congressperson (any sitting congressperson) shouldn't split their energies at this time stamps me as anti-minority in some way.

[spanone]

2. K&R...

[Gothmog]

3. I have met and like Keith Ellison but I do not support his bid for DNC chair

We need a full time person for this job and I do not want to have a sanders supporter in this leadership position. Ellison has issues that would prevent him from being an effective leader

[think]

6. Who do you support and what are their ideas to rejuvenate the Democratic party?

Should a Clinton supporter not be considered as well or just Bernie supporters?

[killbotfactory]

7. Yes anyone tied to Sanders should be persona-non-grata in the Democratic party

He only got a 2:30 minute standing ovation at the convention when he spoke. Nobody likes what he represents.

[Gothmog]

14. I was a delegate to the national convention

We also had to deal with bernie or bust types at the convention which was no fun. It was in my delegation that a bunch a bernie delegates marched in to the delegation breakfast to condemn Hillary Clinton and to demand that we changed our votes. One of the bernie delegates who pulled this stunt had his credentials pulled. I was pleased that a most of the Sanders delegates in the Texas convention rejected this stunt and apologized for these actions.

I firmly believe that Sanders did his best in the primary to hurt Clinton's chances in the general election. I really do not want a sanders ally to be DNC chair and I am not alone.

[geek tragedy]

4. He's got a lot of great ideas here.

If he can execute them, we'll be on the winning track.

"If" is the biggest word in the English language.

[think]

11. Yes. Getting ideas transformed into actions is never as easy as the ideas are themselves.

Still it's nice to see him putting forth a strong outline for his plans.

Ellison speaks of not only a 50 state strategy but a 3,143-county strategy. Basically getting to the very roots of the American voting public. This won't be easy and it requires the multitudes to get involved. Yet if successful would be such a winner for the Democratic party.

It also seems that Ellison understands the importance of social media and creating tools so voters are better informed on the issues and the Democratic candidates in their area that support those issues.

I'm sure we'll see others plans soon. I like Ellison but am open to others. Hopefully they'll have some great plans as well. We need a healthy discussion about the direction of the party.

[heaven05]

10. I am so very glad to read this

after all the anti-muslim demonizing going on here about Mr. Ellison. Thank you. From the comments here on Mr. Ellison so far as DNC chair, people don't want substance they want another Wasserman.

[think]

13. It's been disappointing for me as well. We need to be discussing the future of the Democratic party.

It would be nice to see more of a meaningful discussion on ideas to get the party on track and winning.

I'm so glad Chuck Schumer isn't concerned and supports Ellison.

Others may want someone else for the chair but hopefully their reasoning reaches far beyond these attempts to impugn Ellison's character.