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The Democratic Strategist

Political Strategy for a Permanent Democratic Majority

Political Strategy Notes

Jackie Calmes reports at The New York Times that “Democrats Try Wooing Ones Who Got Away: White Men” Calmes quotes TDS founding editor Ruy Teixeira: “”You can’t just give Republicans a clear field to play for the votes of white working-class men without putting up some sort of a fight because that just allows them to run the table with these voters, thereby potentially offsetting your burgeoning advantage among minorities, single women, millennials,” said Ruy Teixeira, an analyst at the left-leaning Center for American Progress.”
Pot is a big, possibly pivotal issue in the PA governor’s race. Thomas Fitzgerald of the Philly Inquirer explains why.
At HuffPo Sabrina Siddiqui takes a look at MoveOn’s billboard campaign, and notes: “MoveOn’s billboard campaign, which begins on March 3, will detail how many local residents have been denied health care coverage without the expansion. The Texas billboard, for example, takes aim at Republican Gov. Rick Perry and reads: “Welcome to Texas! Where Gov. Perry has denied 1,046,000 Texans health care and now all Texans are paying for it. It’s like a whole other country…A similar billboard in Florida knocks Republican Gov. Rick Scott, who endorsed the Medicaid expansion but went silent after the state’s GOP-led legislature rejected it. “Welcome to Florida! Where 763,000 people are denied health care because Gov. Scott won’t fight to expand Medicaid,” the sign reads.”
Half of all Republican U.S. Senators running in 2014 face primary challenges, reports Sean Sullivan at The Fix.
Jennifer L. Clark and DeNora Getachew report at MSNBC that voter suppression is finally getting some serious push-back in the states: “In fact, state legislation introduced this year shows real momentum toward improving our elections in every corner of the map. In the first three weeks of 2014 alone, at least 190 bills that would expand access to registration and voting were introduced in 31 states, compared to only 49 bills in 19 states that would restrict access, according to an analysis from the Brennan Center for Justice.”
At In These Times Sarah Jaffe reports on the emergence of the progressive Working Families Party, its successes and how it may affect Democratic prospects in key races.
From Lloyd Green’s Daily Beast post, “Republicans Better Mind the Modernity Gap To Catch Up to Clinton“: “Sasha Issenberg, the politics and tech watcher summed-up the Republicans’ tech predicament this way, “With an eager pool of academic collaborators in political science, behavioral psychology, and economics linking up with curious political operatives and hacks, the left has birthed an unexpected subculture. It now contains a full-fledged electioneering intelligentsia, focused on integrating large-scale survey research with randomized experimental methods to isolate particular populations that can be moved by political contact.” In other words, the art of electioneering is stacked in favor of the Democrats.”
At Crooks & Liars Howie Klein makes the case that the DSCC ought to be providing strong support for Maine’s Shenna Bellows in her campaign for senate against Republican Susan Collins. Klein notes that President Obama got 56 percent of the vote in Maine and Bellows is an astute progressive, much like Elizabeth Warren. Bellows’ ActBlue page is right here.
A better question than this one might be, can Democrats craft a message that resonates with both progressives and moderates?

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