Nov 2017 Dem wins "kept it local", took on non-Dem help. WisDems should note

If Wisconsin Democrats want to return to power in 2018, maybe they should look to other states where Democrats are winning at the state level. And the way that those Dems are winning aren't by following the advice of insiders and cynically triangulating to reach soccer moms, but by bringing the FACTS, sticking to the issues, and talking about things people from all walks of life should support.

Danica Roem made history earlier this month by becoming the first openly transgender candidate to be elected to a state legislature. And while her gender identity was attacked by the homophobic Republican candidate, she didn't take the bait and turn the race into a tribal "us vs them" affair, instead choosing to talk about health care and improving Virginia's roads.

Roem said she was of two minds about the ads. As a transgender woman, they were hurtful. But as the head of a campaign, the Republican attacks were a gift.

“That was their closer, and I’m like, ‘Okay, I can win that fight. That’s easy,’” Roem said. “So message to Republicans: Discrimination will backfire in your face. Stop doing it and start focusing on infrastructure.”

It’s a fitting summary of her campaign: a history-making candidate who tried not to dwell on the ways she’d make history, focusing exclusively on local issues in a race that captured the nation’s attention.

“You can’t just say, ‘I hate Trump, vote for me,’” Roem said. “That doesn’t win you the House of Delegates. If you can’t speak fluently about your local issues, you’re just not going to win, period.”

And I noticed the same "talk local" sentiment from Anna Langthorn, the 25-year-old leader of the Democratic Party of Oklahoma. Langthorn has helped guide the party to several legislative pickups in red seats this year, including another State Senate seat on November 7.

After that election, Langthorn went on Rachel Maddow's show on MSNBC, and said Trump hasn't been discussed in these elections, but instead their candidates have focused on the GOP's many failures in the nearly-bankrupt oil state (in typical Maddow fashion, Rachel takes 3 minutes to intro the story and Langthorn comes on around 3:15).



They are largely a referendum on the local politics here in the state of Oklahoma, which is dire....
...typically people my age not only are apolitical, they also don't necessarily believe in a bipartisan system. They don't believe that two parties is working for us, and there is some merit to that argument."

-25-year-old Anna Langthorn, Chair of Democratic Party of Oklahoma

Notice in these stories that both Roem and Langthorn don't talk about issues as "Dem vs Republican" things as much as they are "right vs wrong". I also don't hear a mention about stupid turf wars over whether it takes a Party membership card to be the only one that decides what direction the Dems should take, and who they should listen to. Voters don't care about these things, they care about how a candidate can help make their life better (or not screw it up), and last I checked VOTERS decide who gets elected to office.

Katrina Vanden Heuvel of the Nation noted this subtext behind many Democratic victories across America this November, and said that progressive organizations that weren't necessarily linked to the Democratic Party helped the Dems get a lot of people into office.

In races from Jackson, Mississippi, to Birmingham, Alabama, to Aurora, Colorado —where 23-year-old Crystal Murillo defeated a Republican incumbent to become the youngest member of the city council — Democratic candidates in state and local races have won in 2017 not by running to the center or even running against Trump, but by embracing progressive policies and, critically, working to build coalitions that transcend class and racial lines. Indeed, the elections show why the debate among Democrats between "identity politics" and economic populism presents such a false choice: Progressives win when they embrace both. And while the official party organs are more than happy to take credit, it is evident that both new and established activist groups on the left including the Working Families Party, Our Revolution and People's Action played an indispensable role in the party's victories. For instance, nearly 200 of the "progressive heroes" that WFP identified and worked to elect in local races this year, including Ayala, Guzman, Krasner and Keller, went on to win.

Just a few weeks ago, there was widespread panic that Democrats in Virginia were blowing it, so the party's jubilation today is justified. But their success doesn't mean Democrats should accept the conventional wisdom that Trumpism without Trump can't win. It proves that when they campaign on bold, progressive ideas, collaborate with the grass roots and compete everywhere — up and down the ballot — they can guarantee that it won't.

And this strategy would seem to do well in for Wisconsin Dems in 2018. The "divide and conquer" of Walkerism has failed miserably when it comes to raising living standards, and has denigrated communities through its defunding of roads and schools. Add in the rampant pay-for-play corruption and power-grabs in the GOP Capitol, and a large amount of people have been left behind and ignored. Speaking these facts to voters and connecting it to the out-of-touch Governor and GOP Legislature is something that Dems have to hit hard for the next 11 1/2 months.

The only difference is that Trump could play a role in the messaging for Wisconsin Dems , because as the Capital Times' Paul Fanlund noted recently, Walker was practicing Trumpism before Trump was ever a candidate for president, and we've seen the awful results of that arrogance and corruption.

It also helps that Walker continues to tie himself to Trumpist haters and other Bubble-Worlders.

Gov. Walker is a featured speaker alongside infamous conspiracy theorists, fake news propagators and white supremacists. You can tell a lot about someone by the company they keep... pic.twitter.com/F09lWXTLQ1

— Democratic Party WI (@WisDems) November 24, 2017

Seems fitting that a guy who mysteriously left Marquette after cheating in a student election would go on the wingnut welfare circuit to speak to the 2017 versions of Scott Walker-types preparing for their future careers as ratfuckers and political grifters. And it confirms yet again that Walker cares more about what connected elites and donors in the RW Bubble World think than he cares about the thoughts of the typical Wisconsinite that's just trying to make ends meet.

It wouldn't take much for Dems to point out the clueless arrogance and "I only care about my donors and base" mentality that comes from Governor Dropout and the ALEC crew at the Capitol, then link it to the type of disgusting "leadership" that we see from the White House. And while that connection wouldn't lose a ton of voters for Walker, it would lose more than enough (given that 48% of the state already hates this guy's guts already), and drag down the rest of the rubber stamps in the WisGOP Legislature with him in 2018.

But that should be a sidelight to what worked in states like Virginia and Oklahoma. The bottom line is that the Dems are better ON THE ISSUES than Republicans, and in Wisconsin there will be 8 years of strong evidence by 2018 that the ALEC agenda has failed the overwhelming majority of Wisconsinites. Walker's only chance to win in 2018 is to turn the race into negative, tribal mud-slinging. And while the Dems shouldn't back down from calling out Walker's and WisGOP's many failures in policy and morality, they shouldn't make that ripping the centerpiece of their post-primary campaign, no matter how much the Walker Boys deserve it.

Instead, Dems should point to a better way of governance, a removal of corruption at the Capitol, and a better quality of life for the typical Wisconsinite. It'll have the extra benefit of being true, and sticking to the issues is the best chance for Dems to get the landslide in 2018 that is needed to begin the healing process from the Fitzwalkerstani Reign of Error.