FYI for all you Portland liberals,

Walking 10 hours doesn't mean walking Downtown P-town. To make a real difference you actually have to leave the city and walk big and scary rural Oregon.

Also keep the medal in your face to a minimum.

Winston writes:

"Walking 10 hours doesn't mean walking Downtown P-town. To make a real difference you actually have to leave the city and walk big and scary rural Oregon."

Right On! Too bad it'll never happen.

If the DFO post is any indication, Urban Progs will never listen to rural folk. Why should they? Too busy hob-nobbing the elite and obsessing over "Queen Minnis." Never mind all of the battleground districts are well outside P-town. Uniting our issues and addressing our concerns with theirs is the last thing they want to do. Or care to do.

It's their experts, their plan, their obsessions. Not ours.

Like the last election, and the election before that, and the election before that, etc..., we will be left to fend for ourselves.

Stan,

HD 49, where the DFO people had their party, is in Gresham/Fairview land. That isn't downtown Portland.

There are many people living in areas of the state which are neither downtown Portland or Rural. For instance, Bend isn't rural. Neither is Meford. Or Albany.

Given that, I don't really understand your post.

The Oregon Summit was one of many attempts to reach out to rural Oregon.

I question whether or not Independants and Dems in rural Oregon really want to join together in this fight or if they merely want to complain and vote for the status quo?

The tent is big enough for everyone, farmer and urbanite alike. It is time that we stopped playing games and start thinking as a team.

I just wonder: once the Dems take back the House, what will they do? What is their policy agenda? (Beyond the same empty rhetoric about fully funding schools and not cutting social services.) I mean, seriously, what on earth did the Senate Dems do once they took control this year? Hell if I know. I didn't see any ground-breaking environmental reforms pass out of the Senate only to be stifled by Karen Minnis. I didn't see any "out of the box" education thinking. I just saw foi gras, Les AuCoin, and civil unions. Whoopee.

-Skeptic,

I am wondering why you didn't attend the TownHall meeting last month hosted by Senator Kate Smith and Rep Diane Rosenbaum?

The Senate actually voted to invest in bio-fuels, only to have Minnis and House Republicans add on an amendment to give bigger tax breaks to corporate polluters. Minnis left no room for negotiation on this point, so the bill was dropped.

The Senate also voted for maintaining education spending, while Minnis and the House sought to serverely cut spending.

The Senate also voted with bipartisan support for Civil Unions for gays and lesbians as a comprimise proposal. 60% of Oregonians said that they supported Civil Unions over same-sex marriage last year. A majority of the Oregon House supported this measure, but Minnis used her power to shelve it. (If you think that Civil Unions are not a big deal, then perhaps, you should take time to understand the nature of discrimination and how it is wrong to limit rights to tax paying citizens in our state.)

These are only the few that I can remember from memory.

My question to you is: Are you complaining because you do not have time to research these things OR do you not care about the responsibility of all Americans to be informed in their democracy?

Lest I forgot one of the victories that did pass both houses, parity on mental illness benefits!

Jeff;

Contact the DPO Volunteer Cordinator: [email protected]

Or call the DPO: 503-224-8200 x260 He is located in Multnomah County. You can also get on to www.dpo.org and look up your direct county contact if you do not live nearby.

-Kari,

Thanks for the website. You have successfully revised my memory with some facts! :)

Much appreciated.

Kari writes:

"a major part of the House Dems Challenge is trying to drive folks into swing districts."

I understand what is trying to be accomplished here and I appreciate that. Problem is that ain't enough.

Bussing urban canvassers into rural districts is meaningless if there is no attempt to connect with and listen to the voters there. Haven't the last two elections proven that to us?

Varner writes:

"There are many people living in areas of the state which are neither downtown Portland or Rural. For instance, Bend isn't rural. Neither is Meford. Or Albany."

True. But Republicans still hold those towns, don't they? What does that say about the urban progressive-based party message when we can't even convince our own in Bend, Medford, Albany, et. al. to vote Democratic.

The assumption here is that all Democrats are "Progressives" or specifically, the brand of progressivism you find in Portland, Corvallis, and Eugene. The assumption is false. And when the P-town based progressives venture out to the hinterland, they assume they are carrying the message that the people will embrace. Again, another false assumption. Even with saturation canvasses and bussing urban progs to rural areas and an over 95% democratic voter turnout, we still come up short in the vote tally in Bend, Medford, Albany, and yes, even Gresham.

The "Queen Minnis" message may be targeted to Gresham, but the message was developed in Portland out of an urban-centric philosophy and embraced by a party who long ago retreated behind the ramparts of urban progressivism. It will not motivate Dems outside of our urban bastions who are hungry for a party that will finally listen to them and a message they can believe in.

I understand the good intentions by all who are trying to engage Democrats and former Democrats throughout the state. But you cannot unite the party under the current banner of urban progressivism. It does not work.

Again, the answer lies in a complete overhaul of the state party structure and message. In order to do that, we have to discard the current progressive box that has yielded us nothing and build a new, all-inclusive structure from the ground up. A sort of revolution, if you will.

And developing that message requires going out to the rural constituents with a clear mind, an empty slate, and the ability to see things outside the urban progressive box.

Oh, and a closed mouth doesn't hurt either.

And developing that message requires going out to the rural constituents with a clear mind, an empty slate, and the ability to see things outside the urban progressive box. Oh, and a closed mouth doesn't hurt either.

Isn't that the purpose of the Rural Caucus which had that meeting last weekend?

I would hardly call the "Undone Dozen" list a collection of big ideas. Look, I'm not saying that Democrats don't do ANYTHING right -- of course they do. I'm just saying that we controlled the Senate AND the Governor's office, and were just a few votes away from controlling the House. Yet the Session was a paragon of missed opportunities.

Sure, the Senate passed the civil unions bill, but not until the final weeks of the Session. By then, it could only be a symbolic gesture.

Sure, the Senate passed the bio-diesel bill, but why didn't the Senate pass a much more aggressive environmental agenda?

Why didn't the Governor come out with his school funding stability plan until the final weeks of the Session? If it was good public policy at the end of session, why wasn't it good public policy at the beginning of session? We might not have won in the end, but at least Karen Minnis would not have been able to control the school funding debate for the whole session.

Democrats have been talking about stabilizing school funding in Oregon and overhauling the revenue system for a decade. That’s what we said we’d do when we took control. Well, we did control two-thirds of the law-making part of government, and I didn’t see a single school funding stabilization or big idea tax structure bill pass the Democratically controlled Senate.

And where was campaign finance reform? Particularly after the Dan Doyle fiasco.

Look, I understand that blaming Karen Minnis for everything is good PR for us -- and it's a good strategy for galvanizing our base and increasing campaign contributions. But come on -- we've got to look in the mirror just a little bit and realize that Democrats share as much blame for the debacle that was the 2005 Legislative Session as Republicans.

If the Democrats put up any decent candidates in or around Yamhill County, I will be out working for them 'til the cows come home. A clique of right wingers have a headlock on the county now, but I think they are vulnerable at least around McMinnville.

If nothing else, I'll get on the bus. The Bus Project was instrumental in putting the Democrats back in charge of the Senate.

People seem to forget that even in the reddest of counties, there are Democrats. In fact, usually 30 to 40% of the voters in red counties still vote for Democrats, or for progressive issues. I suspect also that among Republicans, there might be some old timers with a "live and let live" philosophy, which was very common among rural Rebpublicans before the social conservatives took over. These people might vote for a good Democrat over a stupid Republican.

I'm getting a little tired of the whining naysayers belittling Portland liberals who supposedly run the party. Urban, rural or suburban, most of us are in the same boat with the same pocketbook issues. Let's start looking for ways that unite us rather than divide us.

Gil,

You said:

"People seem to forget that even in the reddest of counties, there are Democrats."

Thank you for making my point. In fact, when you add up the Dems and former Dems who left the party to become independent, you get majorities in just about every district in Oregon.

And we still lose.

I do not know how instrumental the bus project really was in all three Senate wins, but I suspect that for every Senate success we failed in two or three House races and countless council, commission and school board races.

But then the P-town based bus project was designed not to develop a rural-based message for rural Dems, but to foster urban progressivism onto rural voters. Don't believe me? Just read their slogans, motto and message. It all screams urban progressivism. Other than one senate and maybe one house race, none of the victories have taken place outside of the bastions of urbania.

Ms Simonis, you may have developed the "Queen Minnis" message on your own, but the P-town based DPO embraced (stole?) it as their own. That is as far as that message has resonated, fortunately.

How do I know this? I saw Minnis on OPAN test your message outside of HD 49, and I can say that it had absolutely no impact whatsoever on her ability to win over crowds with plenty of sympathy.

She has already made herself immune to your district plan of "Queen Minnis" by immunizing herself outside of the district where people do not vote for her. Cleaver guys, those Republicans.

Nobody outside of Gresham and fortress Portland has connected to that message, and except for a handful of urban desciples, nobody ever will. Two presidential elections nationwide and one senatorial election in Oregon didn't teach you that demonizing the opponent only gets us defeated?

Hating Republicans will not do it. Been there, done that, didn't even win the tee shirt. Give the voter a reason to embrace the Democrat, irrespective of the Republican. That is what wins elections, my friends.

I fully expect to be tarred and feathered by the urban progressives for saying it, but the voting record in Oregon is very clear on this one. The urban progressive message is killing the majority of Dems outside of urbania. From 53% in 1974 to 47% in 1990 to 39% today, Democrats in mostly rural areas are leaving the party in Oregon faster than the rain.

Again, the crux of my message is simple. Others here have said it:

Stop trying to adapt the urban progressive message on the majority of Democrats and independents who are not urban progressives. Re-structure the party. Go out into the political hinterland of rural and small town Dems and Indies and re-write a message of unity that they can believe in and call their own. Listen and learn.

Or lose another round of elections. The choice is up to you.

Why must "the Democrats" (and not local residents) decide who runs for the legislature? Some of the most worthwhile and successful campaigns I was ever involved with were local residents, known in the community, deciding to run for the legislature.

Yamhill County includes District 25 (maybe a third of the district is in Yamhill County and the rest in Marion County). There is no viable (as in being convinced this person would be a great legislator) candidate in District 25.

So if Gil knows someone who might be a good legislator, now is the time to start talking about what it would take to run for House. I was just talking yesterday with the first Democrat ever elected in our House district--about how he wasn't recruited by the caucus, had local campaign manager and treasurer, didn't do lots of mailings but did do a lot of voter contact (door to door, coffees, etc).

That is a lot of work (which might concern someone without a lot of free time or a lot of energy) but nowhere is it written that the only way to be elected to the legislature is to hire a consultant, send out lots of mailings, take orders from a caucus, etc.

There are those who think our state senator was elected for sending out fewer mailings than the opponent--they had both been state rep. in the district and were equally well known.

John & Jefferson

Read the first post to see what is meant by urban progressivism.

But just in case you miss the point, let's take the subject of environmentalism. Urban progressives support preservation to the exclusion of almost all else (BM 64, BM 34, etc), and are quite nasty to those who do not share that narrow view. Those outside of the urban centers support conservation: a mix of preservation, resource management and in some cases resource exploitation for the common good (recreation, harvesting, etc).

The same can be said for state issues such as land use, economic development, transportation, taxation, state resource allocations, educational priorities, health care allocations, firearms, local control, and a host of others. In each case, urban progressives have one particularly narrow view, and the rest of the state, including rural and small town Democrats, have a slightly different yet broader point of view.

More important, urban progressives believe their point of view is right, and everyone else is wrong (including the majority of Democratic voters who refuse to support them). To them, it is a jihad.

I've heard the presentations that urban progressives have made regarding the outreach to rural voters. It is not one of observation, reflection and inclusion. There is no listening, no understanding, no attempt to accomodate their views and hear their problems. It is more like the missionery who goes out into the wilderness to convert the "heathen" and force them to become believers. The view of the native is irrelevent.

And Jefferson, are there no youth in rural and small-town Oregon to get excited? If the goal is to truly reach out to the rural voters, why only urban progressive youth exclusively? Is the intelligent youth only to be found in Portland, Corvallis and Eugene, and that rural youth are just a bunch of neo-con yay-hoos, not worthy of your time? Is that why the rural outreach project is based deep inside the walls of fortress urbania, rather than at the battlefronts in Bend, Medford and Albany?

Or is the goal of urban progressivism not to reach out, but merely to preach to, like the missionaries do?

I bet if you looked at all of the employees of the Bus Project, the DPO, and everything else associated with the Democratic Party and Progressive movement structure in Oregon, you would be hard-pressed to find someone who does not live outside of the Portland Metropolitan area, even though most Democrats live outside of P-town.

Talk about your group-think.

To Jenni, who said :

"Actually, the DPO has not used the Queen message in anything I've received."

Really? The DPO didn't use this slogan as their recent house party theme?:

"Win Back the House - Send Minnis Home!!

As most voting Democrats outside of Portland and Gresham don't know who Karen Minnis is (something like 96% according to recent polls) and who could care less about someone they will not be able to vote against, I don't understand why the DPO would develop or adopt such an insignificant strategy. Unless it appeases your obsession to make her a statewide issue.

So the strategy of the DFO and the DPO is not to go after the Republican record, district by district and voter by voter, a record that begs to be exposed for the fraud that it is. No, why should we? That would be too simple. Besides, we haven't done it in any of our previous elections. Why set a precedent now?

Instead, we'll elevate all that is wrong with the Republicans in the persona of one individual from an obscure district way up north. We'll demonize her for our past failures to capture the legislature and blame her for why we refuse to connect with the majority of rural and small-town Dems and indie voters out there who are tired of the blame game and are starving for leaders who will actually lead and get things done.

But then there is a bright side to all of this for urban progressives. When you lose yet another round of winnable seats and fail to capture the House, you can always blame Queen Minnis for your shortcomings right?

Jenny writes:

"DPO is the Democratic Party of Oregon. DFO is Democracy for Oregon."

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck...

You both are going after Minnis in a very personal manner, thus the Queen Minnis strategy. It matters not that you coined it first, you both are pursuing the same identical strategy. Most elected Democratic leaders already know that and are referring to them collectively as the "Queen Minnis Strategy." They also see it as an impending failure and most want nothing to do with such lunacy.

I think the research on that is very clear. Maybe if you studied a little campaign history here in Oregon instead of sucking up to national politicians who lost the last time around, you would see that.

You can preach all you want about how you are different from the P-town crowd, but the more you whine and insult those who have been around the block a time or two for being "idiots," the more you expose yourself as being just another one of those urban progressives attempting to reinvent the wheel for a car that broke down long ago.

It is that kind of arrogance that has cost us 25% of our party membership since 1990. Look it up.

Most outside of urbania know nothing of you and the DFA and couldn't care less. That is fortunate. You can't give them what they want anyway, that is a reason to believe. You and the rest of your urban progressives don't know how.

Before you go off and call a fellow democrat an "idiot,' you may want to heed these words: A true idiot is one who tries the same plan of failure over and over again in the hopes of getting it right.

true idiot is one who tries the same plan of failure over and over again in the hopes of getting it right.

Yes, and the true idiocy is not people in Minnis's area (her district or a neighboring district) saying they don't like her voting record and her attitude which some equate to the "Good to be Queen" merchandise from Mary Engelbreight. (I caused a young female staffer for a Republican member to go into gales of laughter by suggesting someone with money should buy the Speaker a gift--the ME website has a whole page of the "good to be Queen" merchandise.)

By the end of the 2005 session, there were Republicans who had gotten really tired of the Imperial Speaker.

True idiocy is people who don't live in a district telling the people who do live in a district how to run their election. AND, people who are on a payroll as political staffers telling Democrats something other than what Rep. Buckley has been saying. If Buckley represents caucus policy, then any staffer who says something different than Buckley to any candidate is not following caucus policy.

THAT--and not attacks on Mme Speaker--is what has been tried over and over and over and over until many of us are so disgusted we don't know who to trust anymore.