Interesting responses. I think Dan has articulated a more clear view of what the real situation is vs. the "overselling" if you will of the "dominance" of the Democratic party in Oregon. I also liked Carol's statement about building and expanding the neighbor to neighbor approach in party building. The "viral network" type activity is a key component to building real change in state, county and yes, campaign focus.

I wish she, and other candidates were more specific about what they see as real, and concrete ways to help facilitate not just county parties, but individual activists to "plug into" campaign efforts. I have some specific ideas in my mind, but would like to hear what sort of ideas (actual proposals) which the DPO can help county parties facilitate and provide the tools to enable viral networks for communication and fundraising to build robust and non-hierarchical networks for activists, which support Democratic campaigns (I am thinking mainly about US Senate and Oregons CD-2, as well as ballot measures).

This is an important issue because as we see on the state level with the Rainy Day Fund and on the national level with the Iraq War debate having a slim majority just isn't good enough. How do we expand our successes in the districts just outside of Portland to the rest of the state? Keeping the pressure on is the only way we can have so called moderate Republicans vote with us. When the Republicans have the majority these same moderates are enablers for the hard right extremists. Developing great candidates is all 36 counties is key.

Part of what we need to do is work a bit harder to win the remaining R seats in Multnomah County.

After Minnis spent $1M+ to barely win the seat last year, its doubtful she'd be able to pull together that money again to win in 2008. So the HD 49 seat is one we should be able to take in 2008.

There's also the HD 50 seat, which we lost in 2004.

That is two seats right there that are fully within Multnomah County and in districts with a Dem registration edge.

I know many of those in other areas of the state don't understand it, but crossing I-205 in Multnomah County is almost like crossing over the Cascades -- it is a whole different place. And as such, it's been regularly labeled as red, republican, and not worth the time and effort. If Minnis had just been a state representative, and not Speaker of the House, I don't know that we'd have been able to get the effort out here that we were able to in that race in 2006. We weren't able to in 2004 -- it was thanks to Rob and all those who did help in 2004 that we were able to get some support out in east county.

I think we need to look at all the areas where we have traditionally not been, and go there. Do the research this year to find the areas we need to concentrate on in 2008. And which areas aren't quite ready yet, but it would be a perfect time to run a candidate so he/she gets the name recognition in 2008 and the experience running so we could take the seat in 2010. Howard Dean definitely understands that sometimes you have to run more than once to get the name recognition needed before you can run and win. As someone who's been through that process (in Texas, and am hoping to start again here in 2008), I understand it as well.

But you have to realize that the DPO can't do it alone. They need you. They need your time, your support, and quite frankly your money. While the Party relies heavily on volunteers, there are still things that cost money like rent, electricity, staff, food for volunteers, printing, traveling the state, etc.

Start by taking an in-depth look at the numbers for your county, legislative district, etc. Look at registration numbers, turn out, democratic performance, etc. Put together a report showing which areas you've done well in, which areas you haven't, and where you need to work. Start putting together a plan of attack for 2007 and 2008.

After all, no one knows an area better than the people who live there. And it's always easier to get help on something when you already have some idea and plans on where you need to work, what needs to be done, etc. than when you just throw your hands in the air and yell help.

It's a partnership -- the county parties and the state party. We all have to work together to succeed.

I completely understand the rural-urban divide. Having come from a rural town in Texas, I understand it from a personal level.

Many of the kids I went to school with went home each day and worked on the family farm or ranch. There were probably five cows (at least!) for every resident in the town, and who knows how many horses, chickens, and pigs.

I grew up learning how to cool off a horse after a run and muck a stall. My grandmother, who lived next door, owned a small ranch, breeding Appaloosas. I can't tell you how many all nighters I pulled, helping keep watch on a horse about to give birth.

Those kids whose parents weren't farmers or ranchers typically worked over in Texas City at one of the many oil refineries.

Our town was an oddity in the county. Many of the cities bordered I-45. As such, they were much more urban. The business done in their towns often revolved around retail or professional offices. In our town there was probably more feed and tack stores than there were non-grocery retail shops.

I made extra money each summer feeding livestock for various neighbors or friends of the family when they were out of town. Horses, pigs, sheep, chickens -- the only thing I didn't take care of around there were cows.

With the exception of the few people I've told about my time cleaning horse stalls, most of you probably never knew that about me.

We had vacation days from school on the major days of the county fair & rodeo. Why? Because more than half of the school had animals entered and/or were in the rodeo. After a few years of dealing with large levels of absenteeism on those days, they found it was better to close the school.

Because of the difference between our town and the surrounding towns, I saw first hand the difficulties with the rural-urban divide.

The county was predominately Democrat; however, our town tended to be the more conservative Democrats. They were all for prayer in schools, anti-immigrant, pro-segregation, etc. They regularly felt left out by the government, didn't see their fair share of the tax revenues come their way, etc.

But now that I've lived in an "urban" area for a few years, people always want to assume that all I know are urban areas. I've seen the same assumption around this board about others. Don't assume that based on a person's address now that they must not know or care about somewhere else. A person living in rural Oregon now may have spent the bulk of their life in an urban center. Someone living in an urban area now might have lived most of their life in a rural area.

Instead of making assumptions based on where a person lives, talk to them. Ask them questions. Find out their experience, thoughts, etc. They can only get so much into a statement when it has a limited amount of words (especially when the topic is fairly open ended).