Mass Dems Call for Volunteers

The Massachusetts Democratic Party has put out the call for volunteers for their "Victory '06 Campaign Team". They describe the campaign thusly:

As the great Massachusetts Congressman Tip O'Neil was famous for saying, “All politics is local.” Nothing is more important to a successful campaign than personal voter-to-voter contact, and no single person is more persuasive with voters than local neighbors like you! You know your neighborhood better than anyone because you live there, and voters will value your opinion more when they find out you are from their area. You, your neighbors, and others like you around Massachusetts will win this important election by building the real relationships with voters that are needed to persuade them, get them involved, and turn out their vote on Election Day.

We do have our work cut out for us though. Democrats have not elected a governor here in two decades. However, you will be part of one thing with the Victory '06 Campaign that every campaign since then has lacked: a full-time, dedicated grassroots machine!

We would like to give you the first opportunity to get involved in the Victory '06 Campaign--the largest Democratic grassroots campaign ever in Massachusetts and the first since Michael Dukakis won the Corner Office in 1986.

This effort to recruit Precinct and Block Captains is probably the most important thing the state party can do in preparation for 2006 -- more important, in my opinion, than selecting the candidate. Electing a Democrat in Massachusetts should be a simple matter of numbers. There are, last I checked, 1.4 million Democrats in the Commonwealth. Governor Romney received just under 1.1 million votes. That represents, if nothing else, a serious manpower advantage over Republicans. Really the only thing that's stopping Democrats from taking back the corner office is Democratic turnout. If you're interested in helping out, see their volunteer page.

Speaking of the Mass Dems, I know that their attempt at a blog didn't really go as planned, but there's another way for them to leverage the blogosphere which might be more their speed. The Maryland Democratic Party has taken Matt Stoller's advice and created their own "Blog Network". Basically, all that consists of is a list of Dem friendly blogs in Maryland that bloggers can sign up to join for regular updates from the state party. In it's simplest form, it's a mailing list that the state Dems can use to contact bloggers. The bloggers would, of course, be under no obligation to use any provided content, but this is a low-cost way for the party to both get its message out to more people and look like it's including the netroots in the conversation.