0 for 2

In just five weeks the Nevada Democratic Party has twice failed to execute the most essential element of winning electoral politics:  efficient and organized mobilization.  And if the November post-debate Jefferson-Jackson Dinner fiasco at the Paris is thrown-in, we are really talking about 0 and 3; a record that does not instill much confidence in the party faithful moving into a general election that may well define the Democrats’ fate in the Silver State for a generation to come.  
While some of what occurred on January 19th was excusable given the caucuses’ unprecedented scope and overwhelming turnout, what happened at Bally’s on Saturday is not.  Needless to say, instead of learning from last month’s failures, the Clark County Democratic Party laid bare for all to see that it is wholly unprepared and undeserving of playing a prominent role in presidential nomination politics and it in no way resembles the well-oiled organization that it regularly trumpets. 
But hey, if the fact that over 117,000 Democrats coming out to caucus was not convincing enough evidence that the party might want to rent a room big enough for even the most low end convention turnout estimates, I do not know what would.  I am sure that the decision to save a few bucks was well worth it now that the party gets to do it all over at some point down the road.  In the mean time, rest assured that the Clark County Democratic Party will be the laughing stock of Nevada politics for some time.

            So instead of using the county convention as an occasion to heal the numerous riffs and fissures that are still reverberating from the January caucuses, the party’s lack of preparation and overall incompetence served to exacerbate these internal divisions.  Mean while, the chances that Nevada Republicans, by simply doing nothing except staying out of the Democrats way, will be able to keep the state in the red column come November get better by the day.

For the Democrats all is not lost (yet).  Nine months is an eternity in politics and provides ample opportunity for the party to get its act together assuming that the appropriate changes are made starting with these five.

1.  John Hunt needs to go.  He has repeatedly demonstrated that he is in no way up to the demands of the job of running the county Democratic operation.  Getting rid of a party leader is never easy and bad blood and future skullduggery are the inevitable consequence, but some times it needs to be done.  To wit, does anyone know a Republican who thinks that the state GOP organization would be in better shape if Paul Adams was still in charge?

2.  Put Dina Titus in control of the county organization.  Although she is a pledged super delegate to Hillary Clinton and was active in the Clinton campaign’s Nevada effort, Titus and her team know grass roots politics and campaign organization better than any other Democrats in the state.  Just ask Jim Gibson.  Of course if the Democrats are able to right the ship in Clark, the departure of Jill Derby as state director will still need to be addressed.

3.  Move rapidly into the digital age.  Many problems at the caucuses and on Saturday were a function of inefficiencies in checking participants in at the caucus and convention sites.  More effective use of the internet to handle the bureaucratic aspects of registration would cut down on the standing around and endless waiting that have plagued the Democratic events thus far, as well as provide a means to regularly interact with the party’s strongest supporters.  Nationally, the Democrats have shown themselves to be more nibble in adapting to the web; it is time that Nevada Democrats got up to speed on this front.

4.  Believe the hype in your own press releases and act accordingly.  Yes, it is true that Democrats in Clark County are fired-up and ready to deliver Nevada for the party.  The record turnout and unprecedented enthusiasm that has been a staple of the Democratic nomination season both here and nationally is a real phenomenon.  Yet other than regularly proclaiming these points to anyone who will listen the party appears to have done very little to develop an organization capable of transforming grass roots’ passion and fervor into electoral gold.

5.  Keep searching for 22k.  As I have written previously in this space, the Democrats best chances for offsetting the GOP’s turnout advantages and winning in November lie in registering and mobilizing twenty to thirty thousand additional voters in Clark County.  Clearly, the voters are out there and many of them are even willing to devote some of their spare time to further the party cause.  While grass roots energy is the most potent weapon in electoral politics, the people who are willing to come out for caucuses and conventions needed to be continually nurtured and interacted with.  And I do mean interaction in terms of two way communication.  Indeed, one of the most common and reoccurring complaints about the Democratic organization in Nevada is that it does not listen and take input from below.  Of course, another night like Saturday, and the party is likely to find that not too many people are interested any longer in listening to what it has to say.