Hagan sidesteps Democratic Party turmoil
Published July 23, 2014
by Derek Willis, The Upshot, New York Times, July 22, 2014.
Having lost its grip on political power in North Carolina, the state’s Democratic Party has the chance to prove its mettle by helping Kay Hagan retain the Senate seat she won in 2008. But internal party disputes have prompted Ms. Hagan to set up an alternative party structure in Wake County to organize and turn out voters.
In March, party allies of Ms. Hagan’s helped create a joint fund-raising effort with the Democratic Party of Wake County, the location of the state’s capital, Raleigh, and of North Carolina State University. The county party has brought in more than $1 million, mostly from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Ms. Hagan’s fund-raising. In contrast, the state party has raised $547,192 for its federal committee during the first six months of this year.
Creating an entirely new committee to work on one of the most competitive Senate races in 2014 demonstrates the lack of confidence national Democrats have in the state party.
National parties prefer to work with their state counterparts, which can have stronger brands and loyalty within a state, and Senate candidates typically form such fund-raising alliances with state parties. When they instead form alliances with county ones, it is usually because the state party organization is in disarray or is not trusted by national party leaders in Washington to properly organize a statewide turnout operation.
In Nevada in 2012, national Republicans bypassed that state’s party organization, which was led by supporters of the former presidential candidate Ron Paul. Instead, it funneled money to Washoe County Republicans to spend on the Senate race in which Dean Heller, a Republican appointed to the seat, defeated Shelley Berkley, a Democratic congresswoman. That prompted an attempt by party officials loyal to Mr. Paul to remove the Washoe County party chairman, and the state party remains divided.
Although there has been sniping by some North Carolina Democrats about the state party’s leadership, there have not been open hostilities that could spill over into the Senate race. An added risk is if the turmoil continues beyond November. North Carolina is likely to again be an important state in the 2016 presidential elections, and a weakened state party would make repeating Barack Obama’s slim victory in 2008 harder for Democrats.
If there’s a North Carolina county that matters most to Democrats, a strong case can be made for Wake, which has the second-highest number of registered party members and accounts for 10 percent of statewide voters. The county is also the home of Dan Blue, the leader of the state’s Senate Democrats. Until November, it is also the base of the state Democratic Party’s operations.
“Hagan’s campaign realized early on that they need a strong ground game to mirror the grass-roots mobilization that Obama’s campaign had in the state during presidential years,” said J. Michael Bitzer, provost and professor of politics at Catawba College in Salisbury, N.C. He said sidestepping the state organization helped develop “a ground game needed for this competitive election that Hagan is facing.”
In North Carolina, the Democratic Party’s troubles include controversy over the leadership of Randy Voller, the state party chairman elected last year by a margin of 11 votes. Mr. Voller, who has resisted calls for his resignation after he fired the party’s executive director and dismissed a top fund-raiser, earlier this year described the state party as “broke.” He has backed the “Moral Mondays” protest campaign first organized by the N.A.A.C.P. and other groups in response to Republicans’ takeover of both chambers of the state legislature and the governor’s office for the first time in more than 100 years.
A shift to the left by the state party may energize the Democratic base. The Upshot’s Senate model gives Ms. Hagan an advantage over Thom Tillis, the state House Speaker, who is her Republican opponent. But she is taking no chances. Even though registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than 750,000 in North Carolina, Ms. Hagan has tried to appeal to the state’s independents and conservatives by, among other measures, sponsoring a bill that would require the federal government to keep lands open to hunting, fishing and target shooting. (That bill was blocked by Senate Republicans.)
Much of the Wake County party money has been spent quickly on salaries for campaign staff; in June the party committee spent $203,544 on salary payments to 115 people, according to Federal Election Commission records.
