Moses for Chair: The Six Benchmarks for County Party Success

My name is Moses Ross and I running for the position of Chair for the Multnomah County Democratic Party.

I feel the Multnomah County Democratic Party is at a crossroads. We must move forward into the future with a common vision of unity and purpose that our members can participate in and cooperate towards.

This requires our new Chair to look forward and establish a broad vision for a revitalized county party. A vision of a strong and healthy county party - now and in decades to come. Not just into 2006 but beyond!

This requires our new Chair to inspire and lead the party faithful, not to get caught up in the mundane housekeeping of office management which have burnt out past leaders of the party.

This requires our new Chair to not be timid of the public limelight and who is willing to take public positions that may or may not be popular, but of which the members will know are what the party represents. What it stands for.

This requires our new Chair to inspire party members throughout Multnomah County to be attracted to the party apparatus and to challenge them to get involved in the party.

This requires our new Chair to work cooperatively and collaboratively with the state Democratic Party and elected Democratic officials in Multnomah County to best serve the needs of the party and to promote the best interests of the party - and to do whatever it takes to elect Democrats to ALL elected positions throughout Multnomah County.

This requires our new Chair to nurture a county party structure that is relevant and rewarding for party members and the public at large within the county.

The Six Benchmarks for County Party Success.

It is the stated vision of the Multnomah County Democratic Party that we are "dedicated to making people's lives better". But how do we do that? How is that accomplished? How important is the role of the Chair in achieving that vision?

I see the county party as a group of individuals inside the proverbial "big tent". They are concerned and involved citizens of our community, brought together through a common vision for our county, for our state, for our nation. We are diverse and yet we are united in our vision.

We are all Democrats and we all live here in Multnomah County.

This tent is diverse, not only philosophically but also financially. Party members range from the progressive Kucinich liberals on the left to the economic and social centrists on the right. It includes the professional white collar worker making $100,000 a year to the blue collar union worker making $50,000 to the manual labor worker making $20,000.

We are all Democrats and we all live here in Multnomah County.

This tent includes independents and moderates who have been alienated by the Repubs and have been disillusioned by politics as usual. We must listen to them, respect their perspective and include and involve them in this process.

We are all Democrats and we all live here in Multnomah County.

From the farmer to the barista, from the lawyer to the layman, we are all Democrats and we all live here in Multnomah County.

I see the party as providing the common mission for this diverse group of individuals, providing training to our members so they can have the skills to be effective and also providing the structure needed to be a cohesive unit. All members, all on the same page, using the same playbook, towards the same objectives.

We are all Democrats and we all live here in Multnomah County.

If elected, I will have the honor of leading this party for one year. Normally, this is a two-year position, but the resignation of our chair created this shortened term.

I challenge party members to hold me accountable during that term by using a clear set of one-year benchmarks - a gameplan for success - by which you may judge my effectiveness.

I will refer to these points throughout my term, as the baseline of my success as chair. I encourage your feedback and discussion of these benchmarks as we move forward.

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The Six Benchmarks of County Party Success.

Benchmark #1

We will participate in and listen to our diverse local community and encourage dialogue, involvement and coordination of efforts to achieve our goal of making people's lives better.

I won't be timid in these efforts. The stated goal of the county party is to "Make People's Lives Better". We can only achieve that when we are active and visible in the community we serve, gaining a better understanding of how we can help.

I pledge to be very active in the local community and listen to and visit with a broad spectrum of groups that may or may not be our natural allies, and let them know that we are here, that we care about their issues and that we need their involvement in the county party to affect change on issues that are important to them.

Each month of my term, I will visit a unique community organization and speak to and network with their membership. I am prepared to visit Rotary Club meetings as well as nursing homes. Union shops as well as homeless shelters. Churches as well as temples. We must listen to our membership and let them know of our commitment to them and help them how we can.

A commitment to Benchmark #1 will bring success with our next benchmark,

Benchmark #2

We will increase our fundraising efforts and establish high goals that will be met to insure our financial success and stability.

I will continue and expand the current fundraising efforts our past chairs have begun. The voluntary dues program is one way we are adjusting to the new realities of raising money. The newly created Executive Ask team will focus on consistent fundraising from larger donors. But I will not stop there. We must establish consistent financial resources that allow us to plan for the future

Our county has the largest concentration of Democrats in the entire state of Oregon. Paradoxically, we raise less money than smaller counties with fewer Democrats. Why is that? I feel there are two reasons: 1) because we have not been aggressive in our fundraising efforts to the general membership and 2) we have not given them reasons to donate to us.

One way I will correct this is to establish a grassroots contribution program. This will be targeted to the general membership not just the PCPs, that will focus on smaller donations ($5 to $20) from a larger base of community members.

We will encourage members to refer others who will refer others - via the Tupperware model of marketing. We will ask all active members not only to contribute but to simply refer three others local Democrats to contribute as well. Each contributor receives their own personal multdems website where they can send their referrals (contributors).

All contributors are asked to repeat the same process.

This model is inspired by the successful and proven Howard Dean web-based fundraising model and can be easily applied to the county party. We already have the website technology in place to begin this program.

The financial stability that we will create through Benchmark #2 will work cooperatively with our next benchmark,

Benchmark #3

We will develop an organizational infrastructure plan that will be implemented with the assistance of the soon to be hired Executive Director of the county party.

As Chair, I will work closely with our leadership to fully develop and define the tasks that this position will fulfill.

I see this position acting as "overseer" for the development of our basic infrastructure, thus freeing up the time of the volunteer leadership to focus on the other tasks at hand.

This new level of coordination and internal cooperation will allow us to confidently "feed the pipeline" of new members and volunteers into the party apparatus. Those new members will be acquired via the success of the next benchmark,

Benchmark #4

We will increase the visibility of the County Party through consistent and coordinated media communication to members and to the general public.

Public exposure of the party's message will be key to our success. We must inspire confidence in members that the party is actively listening to them and is working for them, in their best interests.

We will work with the Executive Director and the Communications Secretary to maintain a consistent message to the general public and to the media. We will establish relationships with the journalists and reporters in our local market and make party spokespeople available for quotes and for interviews.

We will work with the Communications Secretary to take advantage of all earned media opportunities such as radio talk shows, local and community newspapers and cable access shows to promote the party.

We will establish a local television show on cable access and use this as our forum to promote candidates and issues important to the party.

We will develop and release monthly press releases and hold timely press conferences to educate and inform the local membership and media as to the position of the party.

We will maintain and improve our volunteer email notification list and coordinate it with timely website postings.

The development and public dissemination of the party message will attract new members and will allow for the completion of the next benchmark,

Benchmark #5

We will increase the current Precinct Committee Person count by a minimum of 25%. We will establish a database of volunteers that will complement the work of the PCPs in establishing a neighborhood presence.

It is amazing to me that the Republicans have more PCP's in Multnomah County than we do! Why is that? I feel it is because we have not inspired our base to get involved and we have not given them ways to stay involved. We must challenge local Democrats to be involved in the party apparatus and in turn, give them rewarding and relevant ways to stay involved.

Not every volunteer should become a Precinct Committee Person. Those who become PCPs should be aware of the responsibilities and duties of the position and be ready to take it seriously. This election proves this point in that the leadership of this party is being determined by a vote of the PCPs.

One way that I will suggest will be the creation of a "welcoming" committee. Their sole mission will be to welcome new volunteers and to tap them into the party apparatus, be it as a volunteer or as a PCP. This group will "interview" all new volunteers and learn of their interests and skill-set and in turn, plug them into relevant and rewarding tasks within the party structure. There is more than enough to do, we just need to find the right people to do it.

We will complement this by entering these new volunteers into our new pending database that our Technical committee is hard at work developing. We will be able to segment out our database of volunteers based on their preferred activity and by neighborhood. This will allow us better use of manpower and better use of time, both for the party and the volunteer.

This new efficiency, combined with the previous benchmarks, lead us to the final benchmark,

Benchmark #6

We will focus the party apparatus on defeating Rep. Karen Minnis (R-49) in the 2006 election cycle.

All of the other points lead to this final one. All the above points develop the strong party infrastructure we must have, to fulfill this one benchmark.

Replacing Karen Minnis in District 49 and replacing her with a Democrat should be our "raison d’être" - our reason for being - in 2006.

Karen Minnis' departure from the legislature is an important step towards revitalizing the county and the state by reaffirming that our party does in fact work to make people's lives better this year, next year and continuing into the next decade.

We will encourage positive Democratic candidates to run against her and will help them both financially and with manpower resources.

We will focus on filling ALL the open PCP positions in the district.

We will ask all PCPs, county wide, and all volunteers to commit to ONE DAY of work in our quest to remove her from that seat.

We will coordinate with affiliated groups on strategy and implementation of efforts.

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Folks, we can achieve all six of those benchmarks and we can do it in less than a year, in time for the 2006 election cycle.

It is time for the Multnomah County Democrats to step up and think BIG about the potential of the county party, what it will take to achieve its potential - now and in the future.

I pledge, that if elected, we WILL achieve all six benchmarks! I am confident we will!

You can help my campaign by encouraging all Multnomah County Precinct Committee People to vote for Moses Ross for Chair at the September 8th MCDCC general meeting.

We will lead this county party forward into the future with a combination of pride, productivity and professionalism.

We will lead this county party forward into the future with a combination of cooperation, collaboration and competence.

And with your help, we will move the county party forward with a sense of urgency tempered with our sense of mission, knowing where we are going and inspiring others to follow. We will move forward!

If you have questions about the race or would like to support my campaign, you can email me at MosesDems@NeverNeverQuit.com or call me at 503-226-0862.

Moving Forward!

Moses Ross
Candidate for Chair
Multnomah County Democratic Party