A recent article in National Journal warned that, nationally, Democrats are running thin on talent below the presidential level. In their bid to take back the Senate, Democrats are looking to the past to rebuild its future. In states across the country, the party is recruiting candidates who lost seats in the past to try to capture them in 2016.
North Carolina is part of the trend. Party leaders are urging Kay Hagan to run for the Senate only a few months after she lost her seat in the closest contest of 2014. Her ability to raise money is part of the reason, but, as another National Journal article notes, the lack of strong Democratic bench is a factor.
For years, North Carolina Democrats kept a stream of electable and talented politicians on deck. Many of the candidates came out of the state Senate which, under the tenure of former President Pro Tem Marc Basnight, recruited and trained people to run professional and effective campaigns. They moved up the political ladder becoming members of the Council of State, Members of Congress, a Governor, and a US Senator. Today, Attorney General Roy Cooper is the last of that class that’s trying to move up.
At first glance, the future looks bleak. Democrats’ top-tier candidates came of age almost 20 years ago. If Cooper weren’t running, Democrats would have trouble finding a seasoned politician to challenge McCrory.
But scratch a little deeper and Democrats should be optimistic. At the local level, young, talented Democrats are entering the fray. In Jeff Jackson has proven that he understands how the next generation of voters communicates. And Sen. Josh Stein will be a formidable candidate for Attorney General.
There are other young people out there, too, like Boone Mayor Andy Ball. Other young people are running, or considering running, for legislative seats across the state. They are learning the game of politics and while they may need to get some experience under their belts, they provide a bright future for Democrats.
The only things more certain than death and taxes are predictions of the demise of one party or the other. In 2004, Karl Rove was creating “permanent Republican majority.” After 2008, demographics would ensure Democrats reigned for the next 20 years. The same is true for the thin bench facing Democrats nationally.
I’ll make a prediction. In North Carolina, the Democratic bench will come of age at the same time arrogance and cronyism become endemic in the Republican party. And it will happen because, as the saying goes, “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
Thomas Mills is the founder and publisher of PoliticsNC.com. Before beginning PoliticsNC, Thomas spent twenty years as a political and public affairs consultant. Learn more >
Are you sure you’re not from Chicago? This sounds an awful lot like a Cubs fan… and we’re still waiting on that bench to perform. (More than a century has passed since the Cubbies won the World Series.)
Meanwhile, as we wait for the bench to grow up and jump into key races, the NCGOP trashes education, the environment and the state as a whole. There is a sense of urgency missing from NCDems (main street or otherwise) that is astonishing, given the extreme right-wing theocracy being pushed by NCGOP.
(I am actually a White Sox fan, though very fond of the friendly confines at Wrigley Field.)
Umm….I couldn’t help noticing that all the potential candidates you cite are white–in fact, they’re all white men. Isn’t it time we started giving closer looks to viable African-American, and female candidates–and Hispanic and/or Native Americans in some areas? I recently attended the district convention as a delegate for NC District 1: admittedly, as a group we’re not as fair-skinned overall as a lot of other districts, but I met (or heard) quite a few African-American folk who looked and sounded like potential candidates to me. I’d like to see slates that can appeal to more than one constituency–and see them campaigning together as a team. We aren’t going to get the votes of hard-core Republicans, regardless of how white or male our slate may be. I think it’s time to put forth more candidates who look like the people we’re asking to vote for them: after all, we’re all in this hand-basket together.
“the Democratic bench will come of age at the same time arrogance and cronyism become endemic in the Republican party.”
So, 1964 is what you’re saying. Um, well ….
So many of us keep hoping for Democratic candidates with courage and the will to do things differently. Enough of cowards who back away from Hispanics, gun control, and the achievements of Obama. Josh Stein is a bright light. Anyone who hung with Hagan in 2014 should get out of the way. If “the Party” backs her, many of us are GONE.
Mills, the Democratic Party in NC has been failing terribly for 30 plus years as the Poo Bahs danced and pranced around. Prior to 1998, the NC Democratic Party was essentially a bunch of Dixiecrats, living on history and self perpetuating legends, run by a bunch of fatcats supported by a bunch of consultants and sycophants, including columnists. They eschewed professional management by ignoring Tom Fetzger and his ilk, preferring amateurs and cheerleaders – well they have one now. Then on Election Day, 2010, the found there was trouble in Raleigh. NC Democrats, for lack of diligence and continued meddling by certain ex-governors, have managed a record of: Republican super majorities in the NCGA which have no apparent end; redistricting which confines Democrats until 2020 or 2022, a lack of parity in county commissioners (53-47 in favor of Republicans); losses in the judiciary, including the appellate courts which will continue; loss of transactional revenues and donations; loss of governorship for long time to come; and the list continues, sadly. This crowd has not stopped to work out a real strategic plan for recovery to just parity, much less some superiority. YDs have been “placed” all over and have no experience to match their boundless energy and foolishness. Any corporation with this record would be already in receivership, and rightfully so. So, look for a number of false starts as this managerially inept
crowd focuses on two things: fundraising and GOTV, and doing both badly. First, they have to restart the donations from all the people they turned off in a fit of pique. Second, they
have to acquire experience under fire with little money – oh, forgot, Kay will bring the hotdogs.
All in all, your analysis is shallow, narrow minded and misguided. Otherwise it is a paragon of Democratic study of this day. Suggest you stop while you are ahead, but you will not.
and that time is NOW! Certainly hope you’re right, Thomas Mills!
And in NC, the “Democratic” group that ridiculously looks to the past to build the future is the “Main Street Democrats”
Just today this GOP-lite group announces that a bunch of election losers are joining and somehow this will pave the way to their goal of a GOP-lite majority.
When faced with a choice of GOP-lite or the real thing, the voters have — and will — choose the real thing.
An opposition party must offer a real choice.
This reply sounds like the proponents for the War in Vietnam and those for continuing the wars in the Middle East, to wit, “Yes, we are losing, but we just need to push harder on the pedal of our agenda.” When you are too far from the mainstream, you have two choices — either (1) move toward the mainstream, or (2) go down in flames and proudly proclaim that history will vindicate you. GOP-lite is a misnomer. A lot of voters are unhappy with the extremism of the GOP but are holding their noses and voting for their candidates because many Democratic candidates are not mainstream. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could all be confident of what the voters “will choose”?
But Sen. Jackson has demonstrated that we are NOT too far from the mainstream. When Democratic leadership actually musters up the courage to, well, be Democrats, the result is almost always wild popularity.
Those “Main Street Democrats” remind me too much of the Clintonista “New Democrats” – you know, the ones that that say we need to keep caving in to the Republican financial base on issue after issue, no matter how popular the Democratic position happens to be, so that we will somehow be more “electable” (i.e., capable of raising big money from the Republican financial base).
Whether you’re talking about Clinton surrendering on welfare reform or Obama abandoning the popular “Medicare For All” model and adopting the Republican created Romneycare as his health car “reform” model, we constantly see Democrats not just abandoning the fight they were elected to wage, but actually bringing the Republican agenda in the back door and calling it “centrism”.
The Main Street Democrat model was a disaster in the 1990’s and it will be an even bigger disaster this time around.
No hope, no change, no hope for change. Even if we win the elections, our agenda loses in the aftermath.
How long do you think this will continue before we see people abandoning democracy in favor of the “Strong Man”, as has so often happened in the past?
” because many Democratic candidates are not mainstream.” You know I have heard this remark before but have yet to understand its meaning.
1. Can you please define for me what a “mainstream” Democrat might be or is?
2. Can you please define what non-mainstream Democrats are and how they and there views are to be considered or labeled as “extremism”.
3. Can you kindly list a few or many if they exist, some “mainstream” Democrats currently active in Democratic politics or better still elected today? Please lets not harken back to 20-30 years ago.
4. Can you also list a few or many again of what you consider “extreme” Democrats or those you feel have extreme views who are active or elected office holders?
5. Finally what policies do you consider to be mainstream Democrat views and extremest Democrat views.
6. And last in the past 8-10 years in Democratic primaries how many mainstream Democrats have been nominated for office and how many of those extremist have been nominated. After all primaries are for Democrats and there nominees should reflect who Democrats are.
Agreed. Jargon is such a cop-out. Does not lead to a real discussion.
I agree whole-heartedly. You have to actually stand for or against something. It’s not enough to say, “We’re kinda-sorta. almost a lot like the Republicans, but we’re kinda-sorta not, almost, too.”
If Democrats ever want to take back the General Assembly they can’t depend on winning only in 5-10 urban counties, while the remaining 90-95 counties slowly turn red. They need to stop the bleeding from the rural counties that used to be the backbone of the Democratic base. I was under the impression that the Democratic Party was all inclusive….so if it is why do all the elected officials have to be far left? Why not have centrist democrats? Do you honestly think that folks in rural/exurban counties are going to vote for an ultra liberal candidate, be it a Democrat or (I know the prospect is laughable) Republican?
Ultra liberal candidate? In North Carolina? Come on, there are no NC utra liberal Democrats and who are the far left candidates? I have yet to see or hear of one and I live in the heart of the liberal urban Triangle . Ain’t seen one in 35 years I have lived here. The folks who seem to be labeling liberals and extremist are problematic in my view . Are you saying that non urban voters are not for healthcare, regulating the environment (air and water quality), banks and financial institutions, women’s rights, voting rights just to list a few of what those pesky liberals support? If not then yes they will likely feel more at home voting for the GOP.