Connect
Subscribe
Headlines
Shop Talk: Campaign Hand to Private Sector; DGA’s New Faces
Iowa Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal was again chosen as chairman of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, a group dedicated to electing and supporting Democratic state legislators.
Gronstal became chairman of the DLCC in 2007 after Colorado Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald stepped down to run for Congress. He served previously as the group’s vice chairman and finance chairman.
Gronstal came to the Iowa House in 1983 and to the Iowa Senate in 1985. He was introduced to the DLCC after he became Minority Leader in 1996 and went to Kansas City for a DLCC training seminar.
In addition to strategically funding campaigns for state legislatures, the DLCC also provides technical assistance for candidates, Gronstal said.
“Being at the forefront of nimble and strategic and modern campaigns, I think some people would be surprised at the level of sophistication of legislative campaigns,” Gronstal said. The DLCC offers candidates support in targeting voters, for example, or in finding someone to design their websites. In 2011, it will be mindful of redistricting efforts.
Gronstal wasn’t the only officer the group’s board of directors chose at its December meeting. Nevada Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford will be vice chairman, New Hampshire state Sen. Sylvia Larsen will be the board secretary, Pennsylvania state Rep. Mike Gerber will be treasurer and Virginia House Democratic leader Del. Ward Armstrong will be finance chairman.
The Real Prize in Tuesday's Elections
If either party can achieve what politicos call the "trifecta"—control of the governorship and both chambers of the state legislature—in a given state, it will be able to draw congressional districts within that state unencumbered by any need to compromise with the other party. That's the kind of power that creates electoral maps like the one former GOP Majority Leader Tom Delay helped bring to Texas in 2003—a map that pushed four of the state's Democrats out of their seats.
Five states bordering the Great Lakes—Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin—are the central battleground in the fight to control redistricting. Sure, the Republicans might take back the House of Representatives on election night. But winning gubernatorial and state legislative races in these five states could allow the GOP to dominate the House for much longer than the next few years.
They Who Draw the Lines
Over coffee and doughnut holes at a Tim Hortons restaurant here on a recent Saturday morning, freshman state Rep. Nancy Garland (D) assessed the consequences of her own reelection battle. “This election could determine who leads this state for the next 10, maybe 20 years,” she said. “That’s why the fight is so intense.”
Across the country, contested elections like the one in Garland’s Ohio House district, located east of Columbus, have taken on a special intensity in those states that will gain or lose congressional seats when state and federal legislative boundaries are redrawn in time for the 2012 elections. This fight to control the decennial redistricting process has been largely overshadowed by the titanic struggle for congressional control this midterm-election season, but the battles are no less intense.
Since most states allow their governors and legislatures to manage and administer the redistricting process, the outcome of these state-level elections could affect which party controls Congress for the next 10 years.
State races to redraw lines of power in Washington
At stake is the redrawing by state lawmakers of electoral districts for the House of Representatives in Washington -- an adjustment of boundaries every 10 years that tends to favor the party in charge of each state legislature.
The Democratic Party, which has gained seats at the state level since 2004, faces a Republican onslaught expected to alter the balance of power in Congress and in the states.
As Redistricting Looms, Dems Step up the Fight for State Legislatures
It's a fight Democrats have won over the past few years. The party boasts 55% of the nation's 7,382 statehouse seats — the most it has held since before the Republican rout of 1994, and enough to control 60 legislatures nationwide, including both chambers in 27 states.
...
"Our legislative majorities are the firewall for the Democratic Party," says Michael Sargeant, executive director of the DLCC, which has spent more than $10 million so far this year to defend key chambers. "If we're able to hold our majorities, we'll make sure we have fair representation in Congress."
Redistricting Battles Spur Wave of Cash
State legislatures will next year redraw congressional districts based on the 2010 census. Cutting out a wealthy suburb or looping in an ethnic neighborhood can turn a district from Republican to Democratic, or vice-versa. If done across the board, redistricting can tip a congressional delegation red or blue for a generation.
...
"The fortunes of Democratic state legislators are truly the firewall for Democrats this year," said Michael Sargeant, the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee's executive director.
The Long Game
...
On Election Day, Democrats will try to ensure they can influence the process by winning as many state chambers as they can. Even if they fail to secure majorities, Democrats can push for a reasonable compromise -- or, more likely, prepare for near-inevitable court fights over the new maps by making sure that there is a favorable legislative record of their intentions, which courts must give special consideration. These Democratic state legislators are "the firewall for the rest of the party," DLCC Executive Director Mike Sargeant says.
... "[Redistricting] is going to determine the balance of power in Congress for at least a decade."
[Redistricting] is going to determine the balance of power in Congress for at least a decade." Not, then, the best election day to stay home, or perhaps worse, get to the voting booth and fail to make it down the ballot to your state legislators. Remember: It's not just a decision about next year's vote on the Bush tax cuts, or whatever subject motivates you most. It's a decade of votes on every issue that matters. Not, then, the best election day to stay home, or perhaps worse, get to the voting booth and fail to make it down the ballot to your state legislators. Remember: It's not just a decision about next year's vote on the Bush tax cuts, or whatever subject motivates you most. It's a decade of votes on every issue that matters.
Secrets of the Census
...
Between the current GOP-drawn maps in Michigan and Pennsylvania, the Tom Delay-led Texas gerrymander of 2004, and other supposedly unfair maps around the country, the strategists at the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee—which helps Dems in state legislative battles—figure that the national House map is already tilted towards the Republicans by some 25 seats. Republicans have estimated that they could turn 25 more their way via redistricting.
If the Republicans fall just short of a majority in 2010, they could use redistricting to ensure they gain back the House in 2012. Or, if they make huge gains, they can use redistricting to lock them in. "If you care about a progressive future for the next decade, you can't allow Republicans to control this process," says Michael Sargeant, the executive director of the DLCC.
Democrats target 'essential' state races as redistricting approaches
That's the phrase used by the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee's executive director, Michael Sargeant, who has the tough job this year of overseeing Democratic efforts at the state level.
The 2010 elections are crucial to determine who will be in charge in the decennial process of redistricting, the redrawing of congressional boundaries that follows each census.
DLCC Executive Director Michael Sargeant on the Challenges and Opportunities for Democrats at the State Level
Sargeant: We work on state legislative races all the time, and we work closely with individual campaigns and leaders to run the best race possible; personalizing campaigns, localizing them. Talk to concerns of those districts, not necessarily things that don’t concern them, like larger political conversations. The DLCC works on localizing and personalizing these campaigns. State legislatures are the true firewall for the Democratic Party. The [Democratic] gains in the state legislatures preceded the Democratic “waves” of 2006 and 2008, and we had successes prior to those as well. Our leaders are going to hold strong in this cycle as well.
Sargeant: State legislatures are the firewall for the Democratic Party. We have built a strong amount of majorities over the last 6 years, and we are poised to hold onto those majorities. Whatever happens throughout the rest of the ticket, if Democrats hold state legislatures the health of the party will be strong.








