ODP State Dinner Tonight
I'm headed down to Cbus again tonight to check out Hillz at the state dinner. I've yet to personally hear her speak, so I'm looking forward to seeing her delivery. Statewide polling continually shows Hillary winning the Buckeye State in matchups against Democratic competitors, but I'm still doubtful whether the democratic activists and primary voters are in line with the statewide polling (If the Cinci straw poll is any sign, the statewide polling is way off). Anyways, tonight could be a crucial night for Hillary to gain some Ohio mo' and inspire some folks into her camp. We'll see how that goes.
The Dispatch had a writeup this morning on the Dinner. Looks as if they're claiming 3,200 tickets have been sold, but the number I've heard is a little higher. Interestingly, the article brings up the '94 Burch campaign and juxtaposes the position the party is in now compared to that of 12 years ago when the ODP nearly lost major party status. A theme we'll hear for quite some time is how folks have hope and trust in the party again. Unlike the feeling imparted over 12 years ago following the Burch campaign, Ohio Dems feel strong, like we should be taken seriously now. I agree - but with a caveat.
We didn't win in '06 because of the Ohio political environment. We won because of the Ohio atmosphere, the national scene, the war, our candidates, our hard work, and because folks had legitimately been turned off from Republican philosophy and their lack of ideas to move our country forward. Some of those factors will be present in '08, some won't. The "take home" is that we're not entitled to anything right now.
The party still has a long way to go to turn out a slam dunk in Ohio for our prezzie candidate. I'd wager that's what David Wilhelm found in his audit:
David Wilhelm of Bexley, former DNC chairman and national manager for President Clinton's 1992 campaign, recently completed an audit of state party operations at the request of Redfern and Strickland. He declined to detail his findings but said Democrats can't rest on the success of the 2006 election.
The national party and campaigns have come into Ohio in the past and straight up taken over. I've heard stories about overly intrepid hoity-toity New Yorkers being bussed from out of state to hit up our rural areas, or other similar tales of misadventure when the national folks come in and ignore our people on the ground. Hell, it happened in '04. However, the party is asserting itself like crazy these days in both Ohio and National news outlets to send a clear sign to folks out of DC... "we've paid our dues, we'll be running Ohio in '08." And we deserve to run this state in the next presidential election...but we're not entitled to a win. Some folks, both bloggers and party folk, sound like they're starting to confuse these two issues. That could be a problem...seeing as we still have a lot of work to do, and '08 is going to require something more out of the ODP.
I'm getting ready to head down to Cbus now. I've been told there's wireless at the event, so I may be able to throw a few tidbits online about how things are going.
