What is your local Democratic Party doing to develop candidates and drive voter turnout? [View all]

[Scuba]

In Wisconsin, the Democratic Party is organized by County. Congressional districts, State Senate districts and State Assembly districts do not follow County lines.

As a result, I volunteer at two different County Party offices, and have observed them evolving over the past few years. Disclaimer: My knowlege of how things run in the offices is admittedly superficial. If I have mis-characterized anything here my apologies in advance, and a promise of a correction/update as I learn more.

But here's what I'm observing: Both offices are under new leadership in the last two years, and both seem to be getting stronger. Meeting agendas are provided in advance and well-written minutes are reliably emailed shortly following. Timely, interesting and informative speakers and forums are being regularly scheduled, and attandance is fair to good. There's energy and enthusiasm and a sense of quiet competency.

Both offices suffer from a lack of automated organizational tools. Email, snail mail and phone lists are not automated in ways that could make them more useful. There is little to no data sharing betwen offices, or between offices and the State Party.

Both offices are struggling to figure out how to take best advantage of social medial like Facebook and Twitter.

While there are some good candidate-development programs available to Democrats in the State, the local offices don't have anything resembling an effective candidate pipeline. There's no effective ongoing coaching of candidates regarding issues, nor help for them in developing the personal skills - effective public speaking, debate, presentation techniques.

Printed materials are put together by well-meaning volunteers, not skilled advertising professionals, and lack both the visual attraction and the subliminal psychology the other side uses so very well.

Finally, and so important, voter registration is underserved.


So, what does your local Party office do? What best practices can you share? What improvements would you like to see?

How can we make our local Party offices as effective as possible? How can we develop great candidates and provide them with great turnouts?