Progressive activists gather for campaign training with an eye toward November.
By Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
I sat there, taking in an uncanny amount of math on a rainy Saturday morning. Was this some sort of twisted flashback to my days as a student at Highland Park High School?
No, I was at the Democracy For America (DFA) grassroots training at Raritan Valley Community College, along with many other folks learning how to help progressive Democrats win in November. And, tragically for my right-brained self, math was important to this lesson. The attendees were being taught how to quantify an election campaign – in terms of time, resources and goals. The weekend was sponsored by DFA and New Jersey for Democracy.
“Normal people do not do this,” said DFA Training Coordinator Arshad Hasan, referring to the crowd in attendance. “Your skepticism doesn’t turn into cynicism, it turns into action.”
The two-day training featured workshops on working with the media, brainstorming sessions with candidates, how to build a campaign and working with volunteers. Folks came from all over New Jersey, from Cherry Hill to Union City and everywhere in between.
“We’re taking back our country from the bottom up – from dog catcher to president,” said Jeff Gardner, a member of NJ for Democracy’s executive board. “We’re trying to encourage people to run for office at every level of office.”
The Democratic party represented here was strongly anti-war and proudly grassroots. While every mention of Ned Lamont drew cheers, one could only hear crickets chirping when a participant admitted he once worked on Joe Lieberman’s vice-presidential bid.
“What separates Joe and Ned is the ground game,” Democracy for America chair Jim Dean told the crowd, emphasizing that victory can only come from organizing. “Being consultant-heavy and trying to televise our way to victory is the reason we lost for fifteen years.”
The campaigns the attendees worked on represented all reaches of New Jersey: Carol Gay’s congressional bid, Menendez’s Senate race, races for Chatham Boro Council and Lamont’s Senate run in Connecticut. But activists weren’t the only ones in attendance. Several candidates and elected officials attended, including Dana Wefer, who is running for Morris County freeholder, the recently elected Newark city councilman Ron Rice Jr. and Congressman Frank Pallone.
New Jerseyans are working hard to unseat three Republican US Congressional incumbents: Mike Ferguson in the 7th District, E. Scott Garrett in the 5th, and Christopher Smith in the 4th. Ferguson has held his seat since 2000, Garrett since 2002 and Smith since 1980. Democrats need to pick up 15 seats in November to win back the House and gain some power on the national political scene.
Ferguson, possibly NJ’s most infamous Republican, was first elected in 2000. Ferguson has earned “F”s from the National Organization for Women, the Disabled Veterans of America, NJ Citizen Action, Planned Parenthood, the League of Conservation Voters, the AFL-CIO and the American Public Health Association.
His challenger, Linda Stender, has received national attention and support, especially from the blogosphere. Her fundraising has been higher than expected, but she still lags behind Ferguson in cash. As of June 30, she had raised $899,955, compared to Ferguson’s whopping $2,047,068. Still, what Stender lacks in finances, she is making up for with an aggressive, smart campaign, and it seems she can actually turn the 7th District congressional seat Democratic for the first time in 25 years.
Democrats also hope to vote out Garrett and Smith. The Star-Ledger and The Bergen Record have both accused Garrett of being too extreme for New Jersey voters. Last year, he actually voted against emergency aid to Hurricane Katrina victims. He followed that jaw-dropper by becoming the only member of New Jersey's Congressional delegation to vote against reauthorizing the historic Voting Rights Act this summer.
Paul Aronsohn, who is a veteran of the Clinton administration State Department and was briefly Gov. McGreevey’s communications director, is running a centrist campaign to try and show how woefully out-of-touch Garrett is with the people of the 5th District. He fully supports stem-cell research, opposes Social Security privatization, is pro-choice, and advocates for an immediate “phased redeployment” of troops in Iraq.
Smith’s opponent, Carol Gay, is running on an unapologetically anti-Bush platform: she opposes the war, is against illegal wiretapping and endorses universal healthcare. She’s already picked up several union endorsements, including many CWA locals and the NJ Industrial Union Council.
Democrats are confident that New Jerseyans who disapprove of Bush’s job as president – as of a Quinnipiac poll in late March, it was 65 percent of us -- will vote out those who support his policies. As Gay’s campaign literature says: “Dump the Bush Congress!”
Congressman Pallone echoed this cautious optimism in his remarks on Saturday when he said, “We all feel things are moving in the right direction for Democrats.”
He spoke of “redeploying out of Iraq as quickly as possible,” and said that once we get our troops – and our money -- out of Iraq and repeal Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy, America can start spending money on healthcare and higher education.
“We’re going to win this thing,” he declared, reflecting the energetic optimism in the room – despite the math lesson.
On the Web:
Democracy for America
NJ for Democracy
Ugh, that math was a bear!!!!
and thinks for the shout-out to Cherry Hill!
Posted by: jay lassiter | 08/31/2006 at 08:50 AM
What a knockout piece, Elizabeth! I'm so glad you came to the Training.
Posted by: RosiEfthim | 08/31/2006 at 09:08 AM
Nice - you really captured the spirit in the room. The training was great, and I hope it produces some winners. If this helps NJ send some women to the congress - Amen!
Posted by: noweeman | 08/31/2006 at 09:41 AM
Elizabeth, it was great seeing you there, and thanks for writing this terrific article!
I just wish I'd had my laptop with Excel that day. Using my cell phone's calculator was maddening.
Posted by: Bob (NJ for Democracy) | 08/31/2006 at 10:04 AM
“What separates Joe and Ned is the ground game,” Democracy for America chair Jim Dean told the crowd, emphasizing that victory can only come from organizing. “Being consultant-heavy and trying to televise our way to victory is the reason we lost for fifteen years.”
This is the sort of Democratic Party action that's sorely needed. Is this sort of thing going on in the rest of the United States as well?
Posted by: Justiceiro | 08/31/2006 at 10:24 AM
And Viola Smith Hughes (D) who is running in NJ's 2nd district was there too! She's running against LoBiondo (R).
I've heard that Smith competes for being most infamous NJ Repug because of his opposition to contraception. Women's groups across the country know his name at least as well as Ferguson's.
Posted by: kwilkinson | 08/31/2006 at 01:29 PM