The Counties are the Foundation of Our Party
The counties are the closest organization to the actual voters. Our party recognizes that voters vote for people that they know, not generic messaging from an office hundreds of miles away. If you look at our own bylaws you will notice that the counties are given the largest voice on our State Central Committee. The counties make up 132 of the possible 196 votes on the central committee. So why do they always seem like an afterthought?
The Counties are Key if We Want to Grow
When a local individual starts considering getting involved in politics or perhaps making a change in their own affiliation. The first place that they are going to go is to the internet. The majority of our counties do not have an active web presence. When you think about it what kind of message does that send to a prospective Democrat? It tells them that we don’t exist in their area. It reinforces the idea that there are no Democrats in Idaho, and they would be completely on their own. For some that might be the catalyst to get involved, but for most it just sends them looking for other options. We don’t want to be the party of 404 Not Found Errors.
So What Can We Do?
The first thing that we as a state party can do is be present and listen. Idaho is made up of 44 diverse counties with unique needs. There is no one size fits all approach, but there are many ways we can support our counties. And, while money is important we can’t ignore the ways that we can support counties beyond just direct financial support.
Some Basic County Strategy Thoughts
Our first challenge is to understand the needs of the counties. We know that there are basic things that we can do, however we must realize that not every county is at the same stage in their growth and development.
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
Our smallest, least developed counties do not have the financial resources to meet even the most basic operational expenses. Many do not have a large enough donation base to meet these basic needs and they never will without assistance. You may be surprised to learn that less than 1% of our budget is allocated to direct county support.
COUNTY TASK FORCE
Since every county is diverse with unique needs we must assemble a county task force to work directly with each county to understand their needs. This task force could be regional. Look to Region 7 as a prime example of how this could work. They meets regularly at regional meetings. In addition to a Regional Representative there is also a volunteer regional coach/trainer to assist with basic organizational needs. The task force would be made up of members of each region with the goal of identifying ways to resource the counties either with direct state support or cooperation with other counties. The goal is to actually engage with the counties to understand and meet their needs.
COOPERATIVE RESOURCES
Money is limited, that is a fact. However, we can’t ignore the cost savings for counties if we offer more cooperative services. Services such as web hosting, printing, email etc can be managed in bulk to save money and time. The county task force will help us identify needs and opportunities.
SOMETHING WE CAN ALL DO?
Show Up And Support Each Other
Every strong county borders another county, some are stronger while some are developing. Show up to each other’s events. If someone new pulls up to a Democratic picnic and sees only 5 people they are likely to keep driving. We can build our developing counties by providing bodies at events. We are all in this together.
