New Democrat Update

NATIONAL CONVERSATION COMING TO COLORADO!

On July 22nd -24th, Denver will host the 2006 National Conversation, the Democratic Leadership Council’s annual meeting, at the Hyatt Regency-Colorado Convention Center. The conference will be this year’s largest gathering of Democratic elected officials from all levels of government.

Rising stars from every corner of America will hear from leading national voices and discuss the ideas that will shape the country’s future. Governors, other statewide elected officials, legislators, mayors, county executives, council members, along with business and civic leaders, will compare notes and brainstorm innovative strategies for governing in their states and communities.

Last year, the Conversation included over 300 state and local elected leaders from around the country in Columbus, Ohio. Featured guests included DLC Chair Governor Tom Vilsack (IA), DLC Vice Chair Senator Tom Carper (DE), DLC Chair of the American Dream Initiative Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (NY), former DLC Chair Senator Evan Bayh (IN) and Governors Brad Henry (OK), Kathleen Sebelius (KS), and Mark Warner (VA).

A National Conversation in Colorado makes sense for many reasons. The state, as well as the rest of the West, is ripe with opportunity for our party. State Democrats, for example, bucked the national tide by capturing a U.S. Senate seat (the only red-state Democratic “takeaway” in the country), a rural U.S. House seat, and majority control of both the State House and Senate for the first time in 44 years.

The state is also home to some of the country’s brightest policy innovators, including Senator Ken Salazar, Congressmen John Salazar and Mark Udall, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, and House Speaker Andrew Romanoff (each of them will be playing leadership roles at the conference). Also on the cutting New Democrat edge are State Sens. Dan Grossman, Peter Groff, Jennifer Veiga and Suzanne Williams, as well as State Reps. Bernie Buescher, Terrance Carroll, Michael Garcia, Cheri Jahn, Jim Riesberg, and many more. Finally, leaders like Senators Tim Wirth and Gary Hart, Governor Roy Romer and Denver Mayor Wellington Webb have played important roles in shaping the idea- and value-based New Democrat movement since its early days.

Hickenlooper is excited about the meeting. “Hosting the DLC’s National Conversation is important for Denver not just in terms of the exposure and economic benefit the gathering will bring, but also in terms of the innovative ideas and initiatives that will be generated, shared and discussed at the event. I am looking forward to joining my fellow elected officials from across the country in exchanging ideas and best practices to make all of our communities safer, stronger, and smarter.”

As quoted in the Rocky Mountain News, Romanoff reflected on his National Conversation experience in past years. The conference "is more than just a beauty pageant for presidential wannabes. I think the DLC has been able to replace the sort of brain-dead politics of the past with a lot of new energy and new vision, new approaches to doing business."

“It is the reform movement in the Democratic Party,” said Al From, DLC founder and CEO. “New Democrats are reformers and modernizers. We honor the first principles and most cherished values of the Democratic Party by offering new ideas and modern means for furthering them. . .We will challenge Democrats to embrace a politics of hope and aspiration that talks to the dreams, not the grievances, of families trying to get ahead - to demonstrate for all to see that hope triumphs over anger in American politics.”

From went on to say, “Denver is an ideal setting for that conversation. It is the capital of the new West, a region that I believe holds much promise for Democrats. Colorado is a crucial swing state in national elections. It is a growing and diverse state - exactly the kind of red state we must win if we are to be returned to national power. It is a state that is responsive to the New Democrat message - as the elected leaders standing beside me today have demonstrated.”

Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack, chairman of the DLC, added “At a time when the Republican leadership in Washington, D.C. has failed to meet the greatest challenges facing our country, from energy independence and economic security to an ever burgeoning deficit and an inadequate national security policy, progressive Democrats from across the country will convene in Denver to exchange fresh policy ideas and political perspectives. We will focus on a positive agenda for governing America, showing our party’s unwavering commitment to leading America in a new and more hopeful direction. . . In short, we will discuss how progressives can lead and govern with new ideas grounded in the core Democratic values of security, opportunity, responsibility and community.”

Become part of the National Conversation. Help build an agenda rooted in progressive ideas, mainstream values, and new approaches to governing. For more information, contact Jim Gibson here.

OUT WITH CLASS-BASED POLITICS

Go to any meeting of Democrats and a series of sentences like the following inevitably comes up. “Why don’t we just focus on the ‘bread-and-butter’ issues like jobs, health care and education? Surely, compared to the Republican Party, class-based policies are much more in sync with the economic interests of a large majority of Americans. That is how progressives will prevail.”

The first flaw in this thinking was demonstrated in the last election (and many others). Democrats who try to ignore the national security and cultural concerns of voters only reinforce the false, negative stereotypes about our party that conservatives have spent enormous time and money building and exploiting. The second flaw is that class-based policies miss the new economic realities of most American families.

In a new Progressive Policy Institute paper entitled The Trouble With Class-Interest Populism, labor economist Stephen Rose finds that less than one-quarter of "prime-age" U.S. workers (adults between 26 and 59 years old) can rightly be characterized as having a direct, class-based interest in the policies most commonly associated with the Democratic Party, such as social safety net programs for the poor and strict business regulations.

Rose also argues that "class-interest populists" like Thomas Frank, author of What's the Matter with Kansas?, "cling to an outdated concept of workers' interests - a holdover from the New Deal-to-Great Society era, when a large blue-collar class was fighting for a fair share of the industrial economy's rewards. Today, most people work in offices or high-end service jobs, and they believe their economic interests are more closely aligned with the companies they work for."

Rose does not conclude that Democrats should abandon the interests of the poor or working families. Instead, he argues that the party needs to modernize its economic and social programs so that it speaks to the aspirations of a larger constituency - the working poor, America's broad middle-class, and people in long-term economic distress.

Now, that’s a majority.

WHAT DEMOCRATS REALLY THINK

The Colorado DLC will soon conduct a statewide poll to determine if the strengths of Colorado Democrats on particular issues match up with what voters really care about today. It will also compare the views and interests of the so-called “base” Democratic vote with independent voters and moderate Republicans, updating a Colorado DLC poll from a few years ago.

Stay tuned for the results.