http://www.nebraskademocrats.org/...
The link above goes to the Morrill County (NE) Democratic Party Website.
Take a look, and note it hasn't been updated since 2010. (That, and it seems to have been put together by someone who knows less about Web design than I do.)
The Democratic Party has called several days in a row, hanging up each time when I answer the telephone immediately. Yesterday the person on the other end of the telephone actually spoke when I said "hello." More below the tangled orange landline.
I was really starting to get tired of being hung up on as soon as I answered the phone, but yesterday the person on the end of the telephone asked, "Is Beth ---- home?"
She'd just walked out ten minutes before, headed to work at the village Public Library.
I noted that my wife is a Libertarian Party member, but they are welcome to call back another time. I didn't think they would wrangle a donation out of her, though.
(We have some interesting political discussions around here. While my wife is still a member of the LP, she has fallen away from their ideals and has become, if not exactly a liberal or progressive, a lot more moderate on issues. She has even taken up some liberal positions, which I count as a gain.)
The person at the other end of the line then asked me if I was a Democrat. (Why hang up on me five times previously if they could have asked me the first time?)
I noted "well yes, possibly the only one in my town. Where were you guys when I was running for re-election to my village board?" (Our village board is the equivalent of a city council, but in a town of 128 people. I was re-elected by a margin of four votes over a prior Republican board member, who owns the town gun shop.)
If you haven't looked at that Website above, do so. What happened to Howard Dean's "Fifty State Strategy?" Contesting every election?
You know, I get it that a Democrat has a much better chance of being elected in a place like Boston or San Francisco than here in the Nebraska Panhandle. In the last election, every seat on my ballot was either unopposed by a Republican candidate, or was contested by more than one Republican candidate. In the entire county, my seat was the only one that was actually contested by a non-Republican. (Technically, village board seats are "non-partisan," but as small as the town is, everyone knows everyone else so party alignment is well-known.)
I live in the most conservative part of a very conservative state, where practically every person in the county knows me, driving one of two Smart cars, with an Equal Rights Campaign marriage equality sticker and "I ❤ Obamacare" sticker, an atheist, and was re-elected.
We're denigrated as a "fly-over state" and apparently not worth the trouble. Fortunately, Nebraska hasn't gone down the Kansas austerity route, but both Kansas and Nebraska used to be hotbeds of Progressive politics. What happened?
In the last election the voters of House District 2 ousted Lee Terry (R-I am going to take my pay during the government shutdown because I have kids in college and a nice house to pay for), and installed a Democrat.
Democratic Brad Ashford 49% 83,872
Republican Lee Terry Incumbent 45.7% 78,157
Libertarian Steven Laird 5.3% 9,021
How Mr. Ashford did it? He ran on President Obama's achievements in office and Mr. Terry's out-of-touch attitude, flipping a deeply red district for Team Blue.
I am supporting the Democratic Party; I am holding my own out here on the High Plains in office, though.
The Democrats need more than money. I was not asking for money; I know every last person in my town, and the town is not particularly large, so running for re-election here was not terribly difficult. What the Democrats need is more candidates, and more support for those candidates (anything from yard signs to Websites). Even a nice letter in the local newspaper would be helpful.
There should be no uncontested seats on any ballot. Uncontested seats are not how democratic republics are supposed to work. (That's how the Soviet Union worked.)
I see a lot of "get out the vote" diaries here, and "support your local Democratic Party or candidate" diaries here. Ya gotta have a local party or candidate to support first. Back to that Webpage at the top of this diary, not updated since 2010.
Where are the "get out and run for office" diaries? I understand Daily Kos's Markos is considering a run for office. Will he win? I don't know, but the seat he is running for will not be uncontested.
There are lots of seats all across the country that go up unopposed, from school board to state legislatures. If no one steps up, you can bet the Republicans will run someone, anyone, for the seat (and around here the Libertarians do too).
"I don't have time?" - make it, or at least find someone who will.
"I don't have money?" - most seats don't require it.
Getting out the vote is important. Getting out the candidates is too. If you legitimately cannot make the time to hold a local seat such as a school board, city council, county board of supervisors, or precinct captain, then find someone who can. Encourage that person.
If the Democratic Party has abandoned that "Fifty State Strategy," then perhaps the grass-roots of Progressives ought to revive it on our own. That will also give those who hold liberal political values more clout within the party.