Saturday, December 02, 2006

Howard Dean's vindication

I'm at the Democratic Executive Committee's executive meeting now and it's a showcase for Howard Dean's strategy of taking the campaign where Democrats have seldom gone before.

As Democratic chairman, Dean pressed to put precious campaign resources in some unlikely places -- a strategy that brought him into conflict with some other party leaders who thought the money should be concentrated in swing congressional districts and Senate seats.

Two candidates who won House districts where Democrats weren't given much of a chance enthusiastically endorsed the Dean strategy: newly elected House members Tim Walz of Minnesota and Nancy Boyd of Kansas.

"Thank you for a vision that I know has been somewhat controversial," said Tim Walz, a newly elected House member from Minnesota. "It was a great use of resources."


To get an idea of what a risky investment it might have seemed to some party strategists, consider this: Walz, a high school geography teacher with no previous political experience, knocked off an entrenched Republican incumbent, Gil Gutknecht. And he's says he's just the second Democrat elected from the district since 1893.

Boyda, who lost her congressional race in 2004 but was successful in this year's comeback bid, credited early help from the Democratic National Committee. She said a committee staff member began working on her campaign full time in August, 2005.

Another interesting note: Boyda says she refused to "go negative" in her ad campaign and -- in sharp contrast with the popular, TV driven sound-bite strategies -- relied on bulky newspaper inserts to get her campaign message across. She believes voters are ready for meatier, more content-rich campaigns. "I think we have reached a tipping point," she says.

--kkiely

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