Democrats will go the high-tech route

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Democrats will go the high-tech route

In the latest Democratic attempt to copy Republican electoral success, local Democrats will gather today at Costa Mesa's Holiday Inn Express to improve their organization using technology. Costa Mesa is the second stop on the "Blue Rising Tour," a nationwide effort by the San Diego-based 2nd Century Project.

Participants will learn about using software to create databases of volunteers and fundraising efforts, recruit party members and accept contributions online, and even restructure Democratic groups to be more organized, said Marc Baranov, a spokesman for the 2nd Century Project.

The project was born after the November 2004 elections as a way to rebuild the Democratic Party from the grass-roots level, he said.

"It's not necessarily a response to the election results, but during the election, it became obvious that Democrats were not organized at the local level, and I think it's something that's been a problem for quite a while now," Baranov said.

"The Republican Party has done a lot of these things already to organize their base and the Democratic Party is a little behind in that effort."

Local groups, including the Newport Bay Area Democratic Club and South Orange County Democrats, will attend the training session, which will be held at 6:30 tonight at the Holiday Inn Express, 2070 Newport Blvd., Costa Mesa.

From http://www.dailypilot.com/politics/story/17893p-25067c.html