Splicetoday

Politics & Media
Dec 16, 2008, 07:56AM

The Once and Future Democratic Party

With all this talk about a GOP in need in a a redefinition, we're forgetting that other, lefter political party's future.

All in the list:

Clearly, the DNC  did not compete with the Obama campaign for resources, and the creation of a nationwide clean voter database with a single interface was a major step toward its evolution as a modern party. But now that the DNC has the data, and now that the party has the infrastructure, does the DNC need a change of mission? Right now, the DNC and an Obama team of political forensic examiners are conducting a ship to stern review of the party and its 2008 operations.  

If the DNC turns into a advocacy group for Obama, then it will probably have to have custody of Obama's 13 million person list.  Alternatively, if the Obama team turns the DNC into a nationwide campaign organization based on the OFA grassroots model, it might not need Obama's list -- although organizing would be much more efficient if the list was shared with the rest of the party.

Another model is to turn the DNC into the central campaign committee; instead of organizing political campaigns through the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee or the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the DNC would assume many of the central functions of those committees, including, and especially, field.

Of course, Obama's team could decide to create a hybrid DNC, with an arm dedicated to the promotion of Obama's agenda, an arm that works to build the party's grassroots capacity, and and a arm with responsibility for coordinating the 2010 elections.

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