Wednesday, January 05, 2011

A few comments on the Democratic party and Andrei Cherny's pursuit of its chairmanship

Perhaps I shouldn't be surprised that Cherny is pursuing the position of chairman of the Arizona Democratic party. He apparently thinks that he has a secret supply of mojo that he can add to the water supply in Arizona that will counteract the bitterness that many Arizona voters taste when presented with the option of voting for Democratic party candidates.

His 2010 campaign for state treasurer pivoted on the idea that voters should vote for the "New" Democrat who is not the same as the old Democrat. That proposition was an electoral loser when the rubber hit the road.

Doug Ducey won after a season full of polished and aggressive attacks by Cherny because he used the shield of "prudent banker" over and over again. Cherny lost because he said he was going to expand the duties and responsibilities of the Treasurer and add an extra variable to Arizona government investing.  The voters he needed to persuade weren't buying what Cherny had to sell.

Many Democrats currently believe that they can sell voters another iteration of the "New" Democrat paint job on their old Democrat jalopy. That isn't going to work in 2012. Some will try but one need only look at the bones of the Coffee party or election day 2010 to see how well that idea took off.

Cherny (or Rodney Glassman or Don Bivens) needs to recognize the necessity of adding some new ideas to the Democratic party's inbred and increasingly infirm ideological gene pool.  I'll offer a suggestion to Cherny and any other Democrats who wants to win in 2012. Call the Goldwater Institute and make an appointment with their staff to discuss how many of the 100 ideas in 100 days (from Goldwater Institute) they can embrace. 

On the federal level there are a few positions out there that would motivate voters to vote in favor of team Blue. So far in Arizona's congressional delegation only Raúl Grijalva has adopted the twin winner ideas of get the US out of Iraq/Afghanistan and audit the Fed. I am not sure that Ed Pastor and Gabriel Giffords are willing to endorse the idea of ending these overseas occupations but it is indeed possible that the next wave of challenger candidates will.

It is going to take some game changing positions to lure voters into considering voting Democratic in 2012.

[I posted another version of this article on another blog but the owner there apparently thinks that sticking one's fingers in his ears while yelling "No Labels will redeem our rejected ideas!" is going to do the trick when it comes to winning elections in 2012.]

 

Photo credit: EspressoPundit

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