Pros and Cons of Targeting Precincts

I hear much talk of targeting precincts. The Texas Democratic Party Handbook defines targeting as the "Process of determining which demographic groups and precincts that have voters who are more likely to support a favored candidate or party." That sounds harmless enough until you think about it. And, in fact, it is probably something most candidates should do. Unless a candidate has unlimited resources, he or she will have to target--go where the most likely voters are. But is it good for the Democratic Party. I don't think so. The Democratic Party is obligated to organize itself to support all Democratic Candidates--all those who file as a candidate for elective office--and those who may wish to file but can't make it on their own. In fact, the Democratic Party should organize itself to search for good candidates--not just wait until the knock on the door. But that is only part of the Party's obligations. Another major obligation is to serve the voters in the precincts, all the precincts. Every Democratic voter or prospective voter in every precinct is entitled to representation before the CEC by a precinct chair. We can not forget our Democratic voters in non-targetable precincts just because there are few of them. Collectively they can add up to that extra 10%, and possibly more, that we fail to turnout in every election. But, some say, "We can't go after every possible voter in every precinct. We don't have the resources." To them I reply, "How long has it been since you have seen a major fundraising effort by the Democratic Party here in Bexar County?" I have been here since 1972 and have never seen it happen.

In fact, all these activities can go on simultaneously. Is there any reason why I shouldn't request access to the walk lists for precincts without chairs in my vicinity and call active Democrats in those precincts asking them to help find a chair or coordinator for their precinct and, at the same time, ask them to help us raise the necessary funds for us to accomplish our purpose. One of our precinct chairs came up with the idea of asking for a dollar from every Democrat. That idea went nowhere. Let's revive it. Chapter 5, Fundraising and Financial Reporting, of the Party Handbook states that the number one reason that people give money is that they are asked. We certainly have an honorable cause and no need to be ashamed to ask for money to support that cause.

Fortunately, the kind of organization I am talking about goes hand-in-hand with getting the resources we need to do our job while we are organizing our precincts, finding and supporting candidates, finding and encouraging prospective voters and meeting all the other responsibilities placed on the CECs.

I can get sufficient information off the Website to recruit precinct chairs in my area without having to download a complete walk list. Eventually, however, each precinct chair or coordinator will need a walk list with certain information. At best, useful walk lists will cost considerable money. The CEC must carefully determine what information precinct chairs and coordinator will need to organize their precincts. The walklist of registered voters I downloaded in 2004 was 110 pages long. The list of DDD Democrats was only 29 pages long, but I found the longer list more useful and productive. This is the kind of decision the CEC must make. Just what do we need in the way of walk lists? Until the approximately 700,000 prospective Democratic voters in Bexar County give us a dollar each, we must be frugal.

The one cheer I remember from my high school days goes "Hit 'em high, hit 'em low! Come on team, let's go." Let's go and do likewise.

John McConnell,
Democratic Precinct Chair
Precinct 3047
Bexar County, Texas

This From: http://lelowry.blogspot.com/index.html