Yesterday I wrote that Governor Carney, Acting Governor Schwartzkopf and various elected Dems are on track to blow the next elections. Republicans have a organizational culture and marketing story that resonates with voters even though it has been exposed time and again as mostly economic nonsense wrapped in racism. The trouble is…Democrats, particularly Democratic office holders have no story. Trying to knit together a coherent picture of what it means to be a Democrat by looking at the gyrations of the current Den majority in Leg Hall is the definition of a mug’s game.
There are people working to change that though, and whether or not they can wrest the Dem marketing message away from vision-less dolts like Carney will tell the tale of Democratic fortunes in Delaware for the next 30 years.
These people are a new generation of Party leaders like Cassandra Marshall who fought a pitched battle to break into and become chair of the clubby and lethargic Wilmington Democratic Party.
In New Castle county the New Democratic Party Committee chair is a young(ish) and wonky Dem activist named Dave Woodside. The President of the DSEA, an organization with the ability to influence the party, is now the tireless former blogger Mike Mathews. Along with election campaign legacy groups like Delaware United this new generation of Democrat has a shot at forcing Democratic ideals and values back into the Party of preemptive Estate Tax Cuts.
It is going to be a long fight to refurbish the Democratic Party’s “brand” but the rising group of leaders are all people who I know understand the core problem. For a party that has been about nothing, that is something.
