Rob Asaro-Angelo is the new Executive Director of the New Jersey Democratic State Committee. We were really glad to meet him at the 2007 DNC Winter Meeting.
Blue Jersey's JRB talks to Virginia strategist and author Dave "Mudcat" Saunders about Rutgers Football (the Scarlet *Knights*, not *Hurricanes*, but we love you anyway!). He gives a shout out to Coach Schiano.
On Friday and Saturday the candidates speak. On Thursday, there were just booths manned by campaign staff. Below the fold are some pictures I took. The Hilton in Washington is pretty posh.
My favorite event on the first day of the Winter DNC meeting was the meeting of the Rural Council. I now live in a rural part of New Jersey so I thought it would be especially relevant. I was a bit late to it. And had to navigate a large crowd to get through into the room. The reason became obvious as I heard Howard Dean's voice. He emphasized that the 50 state strategy means that the Democratic Party wants to win in all regions of the country. Even if we can't win North Dakota at the presidential level, we can compete there so we can win at the local level now, and someday in the future. The audience members thanked Chairman Dean for `fighting inside the Beltway' for funds.
I was inspired by the passion and enthusiasm of the Rural Council. Four years ago, they were brainstorming about how to reach voters. Today, they were able to compare notes on their success in the last election, and make plans for more victories. At one point, as I and Natasha of Pacific Views took notes, the chair announced `We've arrived, because the bloggers are here!'
The DNC Resolutions, co-chaired by Maria Echaveste and James J. Zogby, had a surprising atmosphere: Throughout the meeting, loud jazz music from the neighboring room made it hard to hear. I was struck that many of the resolutions could have come from the blogs: "Calling for the Restoration of Habeus Corpus," "Stressing the Need for Action in Sudan," "Supporting Accurate, Open Transparent Elections in the United States of America," "Commending Howard Dean for the 50 State Strategy," and, of course, "Expressing Deep Concern with the Bush Administration's Performance in Iraq." Well, that last was kinder than any blog title would be, but the resolution clearly condemns every aspect of Bush's policies and his attempt to escalate the war. When the resolution opposing escalation came up, the chair asked "Are there people opposed to this?" Everyone laughed.
I spent today at the 2007 DNC Winter Meeting. In the spirit of openness, the DNC has kindly invited bloggers to cover the meeting. The big event is tomorrow, when the Presidential candidates each give speeches. Blue Jersey will have Jay and Jack there to capture every detail - and perhaps record some podcasts. There were relatively few events scheduled today. Today I attended the Resolutions Committee, the Rules and Bylaws Committee, and the Rural Caucus. On the other hand, I skipped the big party with an open bar. I'll post about each of meetings, but I'd like to start with the new rules on scheduling primaries that were adopted unanimously by the Rules and Bylaws committee, since they're of great importance to New Jersey.
The rules for 2008 seek to give incentives for states to schedule their primaries later in the season. The key is that these are incentives only, so that if New Jersey moves up to February 5 we will not lose any delegates. Since our original date was in June, we would receive a 10% bonus for remaining there. (This is a reward for "good behavior.") By the way, if we moved back to June from an earlier date, we would have gotten a 30% bonus. (Somehow the Prodigal Son comes to mind.)
The co-chair started by joking that this could be a very brief meeting, or a very long one. Indeed, I noticed quite a few people with Iowa and New Hampshire on their badges in the audience, but their states were never mentioned. As it turned out this discussion was brief and not contentious at all. Matters were a bit different on a resolution related to young delegates, which I'll describe later.
I should also note that the written proposal considered a long-term solution for 2012 and beyond, although it was not clear to me whether that was approved in this meeting, since nothing was said about it. I imagine it could be changed anyway. That system gives slightly larger bonuses for moving back with respect to 2004, and penalties for moving forward from 2008. This suggests that the best move for New Jersey is go to February 5 in 2008, since we would not face any future penalties. If we schedule a late February primary in 2008, then we'd face penalties if we moved up more in 2012,.
