Notes on the Winter DNC meeting
(from a friend who's a DNC member):
DNC held its Winter Meeting in DC last week from Wednesday evening through Saturday afternoon. Compared to some of the recent meetings this meeting was relatively uncontroversial and free of drama. A few notes:
IWillVote Gala: The meeting started with a very successful fundraising gala headlined by Speaker Pelosi - part of a trend to link the financing component more closely with the work of the DNC. The “IWillVote” theme will continue into this cycle along with the organizing principle of investing in campaigns up and down the ballot and in all 50 states.
Strategy: After two years of rebuilding the DNC and a successful 2017/18 cycle, the strategy of 2019/20 can be summarized as follows: (1) continue to expand the data and technology reach of the Party (training, cybersecurity, analytics, data warehouse and data exchange); (2) defining and localizing Trump (Trump War Room and media / video library); (3) building state party infrastructure (continuation of the monthly state party partnership payments and incentive grant structure, training and best practices institute) and (4) managing a transparent and fair primary process. All with the aim of having a robust and well-funded party infrastructure for the eventual nominee.
Debates: The DNC has announced 12 debates over the 2019/20 cycle. The first will be in June on NBC / MSNBC / Telemundo. The second will be on CNN in July. Both of these debates will be held over two nights and broadcast in prime time. In each debate the split on candidates between the first and second night will be determined by random draw. Up to 20 candidates will be qualified to debate and there will be two methods of qualifying: (1) Polling Method: 1% or more support in three polls (national or IA, NH, SC and/or NV) or (2) Grassroots Fundraising Method: Donations from at least 65,000 unique donors and at least 200 from 20 different states.
2018 Fundraising: The DNC raised approximately $100 million in 2018, the second highest raise ever in a non-presidential election year; this included over $60 million in online / direct mail fundraising.
Data Exchange: The DNC and State Parties announced the formation of the Democratic Data Exchange (DDex). This mirrors something that the Republicans had in the last cycle - effectively facilitating the sharing, updating and swapping of data in real time between the DNC / State Parties and others in the progressive / Democratic community. This will enable the entire Democratic ecosystem to share data and leverage all of the voter contact work being undertaken by party and non-party groups. DDex will be chaired by Howard Dean.
Joint Fundraising Agreements: The DNC will enter into JFAs with Presidential candidates who wish to do so. The intention is that all of these will take the same form and will not be negotiated individually with different campaigns.
Convention: Venue should be announced by the end of February. Finalists are Houston, Miami Beach and Milwaukee. Rumors point to Milwaukee but we will see what happens. Convention will be held July 13-16 2020.
= new reply since forum marked as read
