DELAWARE, Ohio, June 11, 2008
Democrats Try To Compete In The Exurbs
National Party Is Sending Aid Into Traditionally Republican Areas
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Video Campaign Notebook: Gas Prices Barack Obama and John McCain exchanged harsh criticism of each other's response to soaring gas prices and oil company profits. Katie Couric reports.
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Mel Corroto, co-owner of Bee Hive Books in Delaware, Ohio, talks about the Democratic Party in her the store Tuesday, April 15, 2008. "I have to be honest with you: When Barack opened his campaign right across the street first, and less than a week later Hillary opened up hers, I never thought I would see the day in Delaware County that I would see two presidential candidates in our downtown block," said Corroto. (AP)
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"It's still pretty shaky because it's a new idea. Democrats in Delaware County is a real new idea," says Linda Shearer, a gallery owner and Democratic activist. "The law of averages would point out that even if you win over one or two people, you have to start at the grass roots."
National Democrats, sensing an opportunity, have started sending campaign workers into these fast-developing areas, where Democrats got blown out in 2004.
"The exurb counties are going to be critical," says Ed Helvy, chairman of the Democratic Party here in Delaware County. Four years ago, he says, John Kerry steered clear of such areas, "thought he could just grow the base and win the election and that didn't happen."
Nationwide, exurban areas - far-flung residential areas out beyond the traditional suburbs - grew about 31 percent during the 1990s, according to a Brookings Institution analysis. That's twice the rate of their respective urban centers. Delaware County grew by two-thirds in that decade, according to the Census Bureau. Between 2000 and 2006, the county increased 43 percent.
Developers in Delaware County have bought farm fields and built compact neighborhoods of similarly designed homes on tiny lots, separated from other developments by more farmland. Mom-and-pop retailers struggle to keep up with chain stores, such as Wal-Mart and Best Buy, that pop up in the sprawling fields.
Democrats see a spread from nearby Columbus as a key to their success, as state employees roll down Interstate 71 to work during the day and return to sleep in residences on cul-de-sacs and in farmhouses at night. This town, where a main street is filled with family owned businesses and Ohio Wesleyan University students, also is home to big-box manufacturing facilities that have sprouted up in former fields.
It's like other fast-growing areas that are filled with new developments as farmers find housing tracts more valuable than corn, and families turn away from the traditional and sometimes decaying suburbs.
So Democrats in battleground states and those that are less competitive have sent resources into these places. Reliably red Indiana added a Democratic spokesman to challenge the Republicans who control the governor's office and the state House.
In Kentucky, a state President Bush carried by 20 percentage points in 2004, the Democratic National Committee funded three staffers' salaries.
"In 2006, we took back a congressional seat, against all odds, away from a 10-year Republican incumbent," said Tim Longmeyer, chairman of the Louisville Democratic Party. "If you can cut loss margins in certain areas and pull out Democratic voters in areas that haven't really been tapped in recent years and increase the margins of wins, you can flip them."
There's similar long-range planning in Mississippi, where the state party used to have just one staffer. The DNC funded four new full-time positions and took back the state Senate in 2007.
Mississippi Democrats, who saw Kerry lose by 19 points in 2004, won four of five special elections in state legislative races during the past two years but still recognize it's unlikely they will turn the state to Barack Obama.
"We've been able to go into 70 counties and do training and identify new volunteers who are willing to work for the purpose of the party and the campaigns," said Keelan Sanders, executive director of the Mississippi Democratic Party. "There are counties that people view as heavily Republican, but we're working to give them reinforcements."
Democrat Travis Childers beat Greg Davis in a special election in May to replace Mississippi Republican Roger Wicker, who served in the U.S. House since 1994 and was appointed to the U.S. Senate to fill the seat vacated by Trent Lott. Childers' win gives him the chance over the next several months left in the seat's two-year term to raise money and gain publicity as he heads into November's general election.
Some party leaders opposed investing in these GOP-heavy areas nationally and said the money should be kept in strongly Democratic areas. In 2006, the disagreement broke into open name-calling, with Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean clashing over money and strategy with New York Sen. Chuck Schumer and Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel, who ran the party's successful effort to win back control of Congress.
Republicans, who long have practiced a similar ground game focused on peeling off votes one by one, have welcomed the sniping and insisted voters won't buy what they call Democratic pandering.
"The message communicated to voters must be one that aligns with their values and beliefs," Republican National Committee spokesman Danny Diaz said. "Massive tax increases to fund bigger government, while failing to demonstrate a commitment to winning the war against radical Islamic extremism, will not result in success this fall."
Yet in central Ohio's Delaware County, where Republicans have all three county commissioners' seats, Democrats are trying to mount some form of opposition. They put forward a full slate of candidates and have a second-floor office downtown.
The long-term plans, here and nationwide, are to build a bench for Democrats: A local candidate becomes a county commissioner, who later becomes a state representative, who later is elected to the U.S. House, who later becomes a governor or U.S. senator.
The county has about 11,000 registered Democrats, yet 29,000 people cast votes in the Democratic primary. Many of them were Republicans who wanted to play a role in a competitive primary in a county that supported Republican Mike DeWine's failed U.S. Senate re-election bid in 2006 by a 16-point margin.
Yet Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton both opened offices here ahead of before Ohio's primary in March, and the Democrats see potential in similar bedroom communities.
"I have to be honest with you: When Barack opened his campaign right across the street first, and less than a week later Hillary opened up hers, I never thought I would see the day in Delaware County that I would see two presidential candidates in our downtown block," said Mel Corroto, a lifelong Democrat who owns Beehive Books along Delaware's main street.
"Obviously, it's a fierce battleground."
Tim Prindle, a music store manager in the downtown, said the election returns are going to hinge on things other than what the Democrats do. A Democrat who voted for Obama in the primary that Clinton won, he said, "I just saw a bumper sticker that said, 'When Bush took office, gas was $1.47.' Right next to an Obama sticker."
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Posted by jackbrandon7 at 12:56 PM : Jun 11, 2008
*** Why didn''t you vote for Romney or Huckabee? I could have stomached either Romney or Huckabee, because they are against amnesty for illegals. However, I can never stomach Amnesty Mccain! The best choice for president is the one that will keep us the most safe? Then Obama is your man! Angering the oil producing countries isn''t the best way to go about doing things. Besides, the best presidential choice should be the candidate that doesn''t pander to all the rich people and let them get away without paying their fair share of taxes. When Mccain said that Obama not giving rich people tax cuts will hurt the economy it made me laugh. The rich people not paying their fair share of taxes is what brought on this horrible economy. Show us what jobs those tax cuts for the wealthy created! That is what bush and mcsame need to do! Prove it! Prove that tax cuts for the wealthy creates jobs. The upper one percent in this country are walmart executives, oil execs, and wall street. Those people don''t create jobs, those tax cuts are more money in their pockets. The fact that republicans lie about those tax cuts makes me even more sick to my stomach!
Posted by perceptions5 at 01:49 PM : Jun 11, 2008
*** What "performance" has Mccain been part of? Mccain co-sponsored an amnesty bill that would have given amnesty to over 12 million illegals! Is that the kind of "performance" that conservatives want? I hope Obama wins in a landslide! And honestly, that will let conservatives get back the republican party!
What the Democrats need to do FIRST is clean up America''s "deep blue one-party cities"
Cities that have had for Decades and Generations 100% Democrat rule and control.
Control over the budgets and social programs.
Yet today we see nothing but poverty and despair in the Democrat cities.
Like the south-side of Chicago where Obama onced represented the poor people there.
He promised them HOPE and CHANGE when he ran there but the poverty ridden folks there NEVER saw the "hope and change".
Instead Obama has moved on to bigger and better things, AGAIN promising HOPE and CHANGE to the America people.
Well if American''s vote on "performance" on November 4th then McCain will win in a landslide.
If they vote based on the color of ones skin or great "feel-good" speeches than nothing will change.
Just more facts folks................
Now, it has become the ISM%u2019s time to deconstruct religious dogma of Israel belonging to the Jews as is preached in US churches and to increase the number of black churches in America that are working in %u201Csolidarity%u201D with this program. Jeremiah Wright%u2019s church is one of them. Even though the national synod of the United Church for Christ rescinded a boycott and divestment plan against Israel, a wing of the UCC church keeps trying to get it reinstated. That wing includes Reverend Wright%u2019s Trinity UCC Church in Chicago. Few people know also, that there are many Muslim members of Reverend Wright%u2019s %u201CChristian%u201D church, a close ally of Sabeel.
- by jack3213 June 11, 2008 2:25 PM EDT
- For those who think Obama would do well in choosing Clinton as VP you are dead wrong. It will not only show how weak he is, but that he could not do it without her. IT also would show that the Unity you all speak of is not only in vain, but superficial, and inaccurate- neither are qualified or experianced. Bill Clinton does not deserve to be back in the White House- as first anything- after being impeached, and Hilllary is not a wise woman for staying with the disgusting cheat. If you want your taxes raised sky high then vote for a Democrat, you will surely regret that decision. This country needs to fogive Bush and the Republicans and think clearly on how more qualified they are as a whole. The Democratic Congress made you promises two years ago and have not come through. Have you all forgotten or are you enjoying the life in the dark enough to be disenchanted next January with a man who went to a Church for 20 years that preached hatred of this country he now wants to lead? OMG- wake up. MCCAIN 2008-2012
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