Wellstone Action!

posted by Jeff Blodgett

FEBRUARY 03, 2011

Since the move this month to a new "Founding Director" position at Wellstone Action with Ben Goldfarb now our Executive Director, I've had more time to read and reflect.  I've been looking closer at the results of the 2010 elections, especially at the state legislative level.  Two conclusions are clear:  indeed the election was a deep setback for progressives in many of our key movement states; and given the extent and depth of the legislative losses, there is now an enormous demand for large numbers of quality progressive candidates to step up and run in 2012 for all those seats lost in 2010.

First, the results, displayed in living (red) color here:

See the National Conference of State Legislatures for more details. 

Six states saw both houses of their legislature change from Democratic to Republican control:  Maine, Minnesota, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.   In Ohio and Michigan, Republicans added the House to their control of the Senate, and in Colorado and Iowa, power is now balanced with new Republican majorities in the House.  You add to this list new Republican Governors in New Mexico, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maine, and Iowa, and you get quite a picture of new conservative power and control in many of the key states that just two years ago were moving in a solidly progressive direction.

So it's a bad situation-and we find ourselves planning defensive strategies to stop a conservative assault against advancing the common good.  Not to mention lost opportunities to influence redistricting.  But in this volatile political time we live in, there is no reason that in 2012 the pendulum cannot swing back in our direction as dramatically as it swung away in 2010.  Of course, many things have to fall in place, but here are some potential positive factors:  Improvements in the economy; President Obama's base turns out in massive numbers as in 2008; Likely overreaching by the new conservative activist legislative leaders elected in many places in 2010.

In other words, we had better be ready in our key states to push back hard with our own wave of new, strong candidates, running excellent campaigns, communicating an alternative to the return to conservative dominance.   That means concerted, state-based efforts to recruit, train, develop and support large numbers of candidates for the legislature as well as large numbers of campaign workers and activists who help these candidates win their races.  Quality candidates running quality campaigns can be the difference, especially when elections are close!

To be ready for 2012, the training task ahead of us is enormous.   Wellstone Action is ready for the challenge.  We are working with other progressive organizations in key states throughout the country to make sure we've got the large new wave of candidates we need.  Stay tuned for more news about this effort!