A message from the DNC Treasurer

[DFW]

He is a friend of mine, and we got together briefly this evening in New York City. I was at dinner with family I have here until 6:20 and he had a dinner at 7:30, so we didn't have much time. However, he did tell me something about what they are doing in anticipation of tons of dirty Citizens United money being used to diss just about everybody.

The DNC has a TON of field offices around the country, some in States that most of us might immediately guess, some less so. I know Republicans troll this board, so I'm not going to get specific. Let them guess where and how many. I was surprised to hear some of the numbers and locations, so it's a sure bet they would be.

But be very sure that they do NOT think this election is going to be a romp for us. If it is, great, but if
it isn't, they are VERY prepared with real live people out there for GOTV efforts, including registration
help for people in states where corrupt Republicans are trying to legalize disenfranchisement of voters
who traditionally vote Democratic. They can use EVERY volunteer and every dollar they can get, and
many wealthy DNC people are donating time for free and money freely.

This is not a call to arms for those who have given neither--every individual has a different situation,
and not everyone is expected to be a healthy 30 year old billionaire with nothing but free time on his
hands. However, this is to let everyone know that the DNC at a national level is very engaged in this
election, both national and local (he just got back from the Midwest, working on a certain upcoming
recall election coming up soon there), and that they are NOT sitting on their asses and just doing
Sunday talk shows.

[demosincebirth]

1. Ok, mums the word.

[freshwest]

2. Thanks DFW for the report.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. Thank you for this excellent report, my dear DFW.

It is greatly appreciated.

[DFW]

4. I was motivated by an oral comment I heard recently

Something to the tune of "the DNC is just sitting on their asses doing nothing."

It just isn't so. In fact the opposite is so.

[freshwest]

5. Definitely not. Some need to look farther than they are to see what's going on.

[TrogL]

6. Help people get their voter ID now

[Tarheel_Dem]

7. Thanks for the update.

[DFW]

8. And by grace of good timing

The Wisconsin recall is now 50-50. This IS winnable!

[Tarheel_Dem]

10. I certainly hope you're right, and I don't want Walker to be merely beaten. I want him TROUNCED!

Of course, I don't see that happening, but it sure would be sweet.

[DFW]

12. Tatain't gonna appen, but

Just seeing him outta there would do fine. A 50.5-49.5 victory for us, after all the dirty Koch money that was poured into this recall on Walker's behalf, would amount to a trouncing. The headlines would scream about the recall victory. So would I.

[grantcart]

9. The Obama campaign has raised and spent tens of millions setting up field offices all over the

country. In the hotel I am staying is a field operative who explained that no one has ever seen anything like it and it is way way under the radar.

In Iowa, for example, the Obama campaign has hired and staffed more field offices than all of the Republican primary candidates combined.

I get calls and emails all of the time.

Romney on the other hand set up no statewide organizations in any of the states where he ran a campaign and now they go back to the state campaigns and in some cases there is no assistance whatsoever and they have to set up a shadow state organization because Ron Paul people now control the state apparatus.

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2012/05/ron-paul-wins-nevada-so-romney-and-rnc-buy-new-party/52459/#

The Las Vegas Sun's Jon Ralston reports that national Republican party, which has already called Romney the "presumptive nominee," is transferring money to the joint effort called Team Nevada, and maybe the Washoe County party, which is still in good standing with DC headquarters the and Romney's campaign. Ralston writes that the issue is that the Paul supporters are too busy trying to push their guy's chances in the nomination process. "They are still bogged down in the minutiae of whether Romney will be the presumptive nominee,” a GOP strategist told Ralston. The new shadow party will do all the traditional party stuff: identifying voters, calling them, getting them to the polls. Basically, Ralston writes, "everything the party is supposed to do, except the GOP here can’t raise money and has the inmates running the asylum."

So the Obama/DNC campaign is going to launch a juggernaut, but everything isn't rosey. The operative I talked with pointed it out that it was going to be so well organized that it was going to suck up all of the volunteers so that the congressional and state campaigns that organize later are going to find very few people available to ramp up with.

They should still benefit because of the registration and GOTV operation will be exceptionally well run but he is still worried.

Imagine that Democrats really well organized.

[DFW]

11. Democrats well organized is a realtively new phenomenon, and there is one man to thank for that

His name is Howard Dean. After running a chaotic short-lived presidential campaign where, in his own words, "we didn't know what the hell we were doing," he learned quickly and built the DNC from a footnote into an organization that brought result after result after result. Obama stumbled when he didn't beg Howard to stay on, probably figuring it would be smooth sailing after the huge victory of 2008 (oops). Howard himself said that the position of DNC chair was a much bigger deal when Democrats were in the opposition, but when your own party is in the White House, the President becomes party chairman, and the national committee chair loses a lot of its clout. Under Kaine, anyway, it sure lost its clout.

But after Citizens United, even though we have the White House and the Senate, the Republicans have the House, the Supreme Court, Fox Noise and a billion or more dirty anonymous Super-PAC dollars more than we do. We are almost in a de-facto opposition position again, irregardless of whether we have the support of a majority of America or not. The Republicans are desperately trying to make that irrelevant. Only a tight organization, clever allocation of resources and a lot of volunteering can counteract that because most billionaires that spend freely do so with the Republicans.