In the past few days, it has been difficult to escape electoral predictors foreseeing terrible times for the Democratic Party. Apparently, voters haven't gotten the message.

DLCC wins four state legislative special elections in last 10 days.

Here at MyDD, desmoinesdem already detailed one of the Democrats' victories, so this news doesn't come as a total surprise. But I must admit that I was not aware that even in this purportedly dreadful political environment for the Democrats that the party went an impressive four-for-four -- in the span of just 10 days -- in special legislative elections. It just goes to underscore that the current political reality is one in which voters are down on the Democrats, but they are even more down on Republicans.

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In July I wrote about five reasons to get involved in state legislative races. My reasoning was:

 1.  The 2010 census looms, to be followed by redrawing Congressional districts in most states.

  2. Many policy matters are determined at the state level.

  3. Getting progressive Democrats elected to state legislatures will build our bench for future House, Senate or gubernatorial races.

  4. You probably can find a competitive statehouse race near you, no matter where you live.

  5. Your individual actions are more likely to make a difference in a statehouse race.

In addition to donating directly to good state legislators and legislative candidates, I give to the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, which supports statehouse candidates across the country.

I was pleased to learn on Friday that the DLCC is accepting nominations for candidates to be included in its "40 essential races" program.

Dear [firstname]:
It is no easy task to pinpoint a handful of essential candidates among the thousands of competitive legislative races this year, but that is exactly is what we at the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee intend to do over the next three weeks.
Using the information and resources we've gathered so far this cycle, we will identify 40 candidates in top races all across the country who need help in this election. For our part, we will provide these candidates with strategic support and promote their races among our partners and allies.
We also know that there are plenty of strong Democrats throughout the country with the potential to win important districts whose races are just emerging -- so we are asking for your help to find them.
While we reveal the list of our targets, we will also accept nominations for an additional 10 candidates to go on our essential races list. Please submit a name:
http://www.dlcc.org/action/2008Races
And while you're on our site, will you also take a minute to make a contribution of $25 or more?
Every dollar that you give will go directly into taking the fight to the Republicans who want to control our state houses. With your help, we will elect leaders who won't let the GOP pass their radical policy agendas or redraw districts to create a permanent conservative majority. Can you support us today?
http://www.dlcc.org/action/contribute
The DLCC is committed to electing Democratic majorities all across the country, but in order to win in competitive states, we need support from friends like you.
Thank you for all that you do,
Michael Sargeant
Executive Director
Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee

I asked someone at the DLCC whether these "essential races" will mostly feature challengers or incumbents. I was told that most of the targeted races involve Democratic challengers trying to take Republican-held seats. However, some will be incumbents, and some will be challengers trying to hold Democratic seats.

I encourage progressives to get informed about the key races in your state, then go to the DLCC site and nominate the candidate of your choice for this program.

For example, strong Democratic challengers seeking Republican-held seats in Iowa include Jerry Sullivan in Iowa House district 59 and Swati Dandekar in Senate district 18 (both seats are open because of Republican retirements).

A good candidate trying to hold the open Iowa House district 29 is Nate Willems, a former regional director for Howard Dean and occasional contributor to MyDD.

Incumbents being targeted this year in Iowa include Eric Palmer in House district 75, Elesha Gayman in House district 84,  and Tom Rielly in Senate district 38.

Please let the good candidates in your state or region know about the DLCC program.

You can also set up your own ActBlue page to raise money for your favorite candidates, whether or not they are named an "essential race" by the DLCC. Century of the Common Iowan blogger noneed4thneed created this page to support Tim Hoy in House district 44, Sharon Steckman in House district 13, Gayman, Palmer, and Sullivan.

Vox Populi provides information about three good Indiana House candidates on this ActBlue page.

Remember, even if your state is not competitive in the presidential campaign and your representatives in Congress are safe incumbents, you can probably find a swing statehouse district not far from where you live.

We can't afford to neglect those down-ticket races. Donate, volunteer, and spread the word.

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Today, the New York Times looks at the movement in voter registrations across the country:

For more than three years starting in 2005, there has been a reduction in the number of voters who register with the Republican Party and a rise among voters who affiliate with Democrats and, almost as often, with no party at all.

As the story notes, swings in voter registration happen all the time. Often it's reflective of nothing more than which party has the better field organization or the more heated primary. It's also true that party affiliation often does not have an impact on Election Day turnout. Plenty of registered Democrats pulled the lever for Bush in 2004, for instance.

But a sustained movement away from the GOP over a period of years is significant:

[F]or a shift away from one party to sustain itself -- the current registration trend is now in its fourth year -- is remarkable, researchers who study voting patterns say. And though comparable data are not available for the 21 states where voters do not register by party, there is evidence that an increasing number of voters in those states are also moving away from the Republican Party based on the results of recent state and Congressional elections, the researchers said.

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There isn't a state in the country with a better group of online activists than Texas. The more attention I pay to their work, the more impressed I become.

First, you've got the individual efforts of many, many talented bloggers. There are a lot of states that would be fortunate to have a single, progressive site as good as Capitol Annex, Burnt Orange Report, Off the Kuff, or Greg's Opinion (a list heavily biased by the folks I read regularly but by no means exclusive). That's not even counting relatively newer bloggers who are engaging in the state (folks like Rachel -- who actually wrote an open letter to her state rep, offering to set him up with a DLCCWeb-powered site).  

Second, these folks have organized an alliance to unify the efforts of bloggers and netroots activists in the state to promote progressive ideas and candidates. They promote each others' posts, raise money for candidates, organize offline events, and have developed an advertising network.

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I'm blowing the dust off of this user diary because I want to start a conversation.

There are 7,382 legislators across the country, and they represent every conceivable kind of district. Most have been using radio, television, and mail for years, but for many, the Internet remains unfamiliar. They see its potential but have reservations about its cost, complexity, and challenges.

This cycle, our committee partnered with Wired for Change to introduce a resource that reduces the barriers for campaigning online. We call it DLCCWeb.

Our goal is to make the Internet simple and affordable enough that all of our legislative candidates can build and update their own websites. They can choose from a range of templates and color schemes to create the best design for their campaigns. Blog publishing is built right into DLCCWeb, along with advocacy tools, online fundraising, and social network integration.

This cycle, more than 200 candidates in 30 states (with a whole range of technology comfort levels) are using the Internet in a way that they haven't before because of this service. To me, that represents a major step forward in participatory democracy and a big advantage for Democrats at the state level. Check out a little marketing video that Wired for Change put together about DLCCWeb here.

We are also launching a new website to practice what we preach.

DLCC.org will be a clearinghouse for news about statehouses and legislative elections. The centerpiece will be a blog, hosted right on the front page, which will be updated multiple times a day, at least five days a week. Most posts will be short and quick, though each will include some sort of commentary and context. Most content will be written by our staff, but as we move forward, we plan to encourage contributions from our elected leaders and allies.

We are ready to talk about our nation's statehouses. We want to engage you to help us identify the next generation of Democratic leaders, to set real Democratic agendas in the legislatures, and to build new majorities before the next round Congressional redistricting.

I hope you'll take a moment to visit these sites and let me know what you think.  Leave a comment here or there or send me an email at compton[at]dlcc.org. If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear from you.

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