Democrats' New Campaign Headquarters Opens in Santa Cruz
The United Democratic Campaign is all about high hopes for long coattails
Story by Traci Hukill
Even in true-blue Santa Cruz County, the Democrats’ coattail fever has set in. On Wednesday, Aug. 13, the United Democratic Campaign headquarters opens at 740 Front Street in downtown Santa Cruz with the goal of uniting (get it?) support for the presidential, congressional, state and local candidates under one glorious blue donkey-tastic banner.
It’s all part of a national push by Democrats to ride long Obama coattails into office, explains Democratic Central Committee spokesman Don Morrison. The California Democratic Party is pitching in by establishing these united campaign headquarters in 51 California counties.
“A big part of what the Democratic Party in Santa Cruz, and up and down the state of California, is doing is to support the full ticket, down to the board level,” says Morrison.
At every level of government, Democrats are lighting candles for a sweep fueled by popular disgust with Republicans coupled with excitement about Obama.
Locally—well, it is Santa Cruz; Democrats have things pretty well locked up around here.
But at the state level, Dems see potential to pick up a good 10 seats. That would be enough to give Democrats an easy two-thirds majority and upset the carefully orchestrated makeup of the state legislature—and that could lead to, among other things, a break in future budget impasses.
Nationally, the pundits are talking about the likelihood of the Democrats picking up three to six more seats in the Senate—not enough to make it filibuster-proof, but almost. Achieving the magic number of 60 Democrats in those august chambers would dramatically change the dynamic in Washington. And while the coattail effect isn’t that common—the New York Observer’s Steve Kornacki points out that you have to go back to Reagan’s 1980 rout of Carter to see a big shift in Senate seats (in that case, 12 Democratic seats went to Republicans) mirroring a presidential victory—this could be one of those years. Kornacki trots out as exhibit A the likeability that Obama and Reagan share; B is the public’s disgust with the ruling party.
Back here on the Central Coast in 2008, Morrison says some unusual circumstances have led to this major effort at Democratic party unity and success. One is the way Obama is running his campaign—by giving everybody love, not just the battleground states.
“The Obama campaign is running a 50-state campaign, which has never been done,” Morrison says. “So in 2004 in Santa Cruz, as an example, and most of California, the Kerry campaign was run by the Democratic Party. Kerry did not have an organization in California in general. He didn’t put money in, he didn’t put staff in.”
A second factor is the extraordinarily heated Democratic primary—and the subsequent need to get all the Hillary and Edwards supporters fully on board.
Only time will tell whether opportunity plus need equals juggernaut. Meanwhile, the Santa Cruz County Unified Democratic Campaign headquarters opening is Aug. 13 from 5:30pm to 7pm in the Galleria, 740 Front St, Suite 250, Santa Cruz, with appearances by congressional, state and local Democrats and the band Wildsang.
