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MEMBERS

City Committee Officers

Chair              Dan Barry

Vice-Chairs    Joseph Sullivan

                      Beth Goldman

Secretary       Freeman Frank

Treasurer       Sally Frank

Ward Committee Chairs

Ward 1        Susan Fagan

Ward 2        Eric Wildman

Ward 3        Toni Whitmore

Ward 4        Bob Boisselle

Ward 5        Steve Spain

Ward 6        Jim Shaer

Ward 7        Joseph Sullivan

DEMOCRATIC QUOTE OF THE MONTH

"What do we mean by patriotism in the context of our times? I venture to suggest that what we mean is a sense of national responsibility ... a patriotism which is not short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime."  Adlai Stevenson

This Month  

UPCOMING PRIMARIES

JANUARY 19, 2004
Iowa - Presidential Caucuses

JANUARY 27, 2004
New Hampshire - Presidential Primary

FEBRUARY 3, 2004
Arizona - Presidential Primary
Delaware - Presidential Primary
Missouri - Presidential Primary
New Mexico - Presidential Caucuses
Oklahoma - Presidential Primary
South Carolina - Presidential Primary

Massachusetts' Primary is March 2nd, 2004

VICTORY CARD FOR DEMOCRATS IN MASSACHUSETTS
--Toni Whitmore

Don't miss the boat to help our candidates, yourself, your City Committee, and the Massachusetts Democratic Party.  How?  By applying for the Victory credit card, a new initiative of the MDP.  If you have not signed up yet, do it today.  The Victory Master Card is issued by Juniper Bank, a partner with the MDP in this initiative.  Applications are available from your Ward or City Chair. All you have to do is fill out the application (no application fee), submit the application, and within 4-6 weeks you will receive your Victory Card (Platinum Master Card).

Why another credit card?  This one is unique.  Following your application and one purchase with the Victory Card, the Party receives $40 from Juniper Bank.  If the application is coded with the Melrose Democratic City code, the State Committee will reimburse the City Committee $10 for every application.  The Party also receives money every time you use it (.45% of each purchase is reimbursed to the MDP coffers).  This is an important initiative that could potentially earn enough money to fund the Party's operations each year and provide resources for the Party to assist local committees and candidates.  We all have too many cards now; so just cut up those other ones and onto Victory in 2004 with your Mass Dems credit card.  Questions, comments, or applications, call Toni Whitmore, Ward 3 Chair, (781.979-0098.  Sign up friends and family members over 18.  Each application means more support for our candidates. Remember - each card plus one purchase with the card equals $30 for the State + $10 for Melrose Democratic City Committee!

 A Challenge and an Opportunity for Democrats
 THE NEW DEM DAILY, 12-Nov-03

New Democrats Online: http://www.ndol.org  

A big new survey by the Pew Research Center is getting a lot of  attention among political observers, in part because of its  title: "The 2004 Political Landscape: Equally Divided and  Increasingly Polarized." And indeed, the survey richly documents that Republicans and Democrats increasingly do not see eye to eye on a variety of domestic and foreign policy issues, and especially the record of the Bush administration.

But the most striking results in the Pew survey are its verification of a longstanding trend toward an electorate that is equally divided three ways, among Democrats, Republicans and Independents, with Democrats losing an advantage in party ID that previously dated back to the New Deal. To be sure, many Independents lean strongly toward one party or the other, but their persistence in refusing partisan affiliation year after year cannot be explained away. These are voters reachable by either party under the right circumstances.

Pew's presidential trial heats show 16 percent of registered voters  undecided between George W. Bush and a "generic" Democrat, with the rest of respondents splitting evenly. These "undecideds" break sharply toward Bush when an actual Democratic candidate is named.  They are obviously a critical target audience for Democrats in 2004. And they cannot be "mobilized;" they must be persuaded.

Another way of looking at the underlying challenge for Democrats is illustrated by a new Gallup survey that confirms another longstanding political trend. According to Gallup , the ideological configuration of the electorate is now settling firmly into a pattern that's bad news for "mobilize the base" Democrats: 40 percent conservative, 40 percent moderate, and 20 percent liberal. As we've argued for some time, these numbers mean that Republicans have a much larger and more homogenous ideological base than Democrats, and that any successful Democratic candidate must win decisively among moderates (and also among Independents, given Bush's monolithic support among self-identified Republicans).

Frank Newport, editor of the Gallup Poll, put it well when he concluded that since "a significant majority of Democrats identify as conservative or moderate," whomever the Democratic nominee turns out to be "would do well to position themselves more in the middle of the road, and to avoid being typecast as a liberal. Certainly, the data suggest that a presidential candidate who appeals to conservative or moderate voters will have a larger constituency than one identified as a liberal."

Partisan "polarization" creates both a potentially negative  temptation and a potentially rewarding opportunity for Democrats. The temptation to be avoided is the seductive belief that in a 50-50 nation, an excited Democratic base can snake dance to victory through superior GOTV methods or stupid mistakes by the opposition (always possible, but never to be relied upon). The opportunity to be seized is a Republican administration that's in an unbreakable marriage with its own ideological base, leaving the vital center of American politics ready for the taking.

As we have repeatedly argued, a winning coalition in this day and age requires both energizing the party base and persuading swing voters. But against an incumbent president with every imaginable advantage in the ability to control the national agenda and raise bottomless pits of money, Democrats have zero margin for error in 2004. They must expand, not simply energize, the party base, and that means persuading many millions of Americans who are up for grabs to make a change in national leadership.

   Website Project Underway

Check out preliminary designs at http://home.comcast.net/~melrosedems/.  Have ideas for improving the design or content of the site?  Send an e-mail to Nyal Fuentes, Webmaster, at melrosedems@comcast.net.

 Save a little paper, Save a little postage…

… sign up for the Melrose Dems e-mail listserv.  You will receive the monthly newsletter and other late-breaking news by e-mail from our new address: melrosedems@comcast.net.  Just send an e-mail to that address if you are interested.  For those who don’t have access to e-mail, or don’t check regularly, US Mail will always remain an option.

  Please submit all announcements to Rebecca Fuentes at (781) 620-1150, or melrosedems@comcast.net,  for inclusion in the next newsletter.

Massachusetts Democratic Party

Democratic National Committee

CONVENTION 2004

WHY I'M A DEMOCRAT-THEODORE SORENSON

CANDIDATES

Local and State Candidates

2004 Presidential Candidates

Wesley Clark for President
www.clark04.com

Howard Dean for President
www.deanforamerica.com

John Edwards for President
www.johnedwards2004.com

Gephardt for President
www.dickgephardt2004.com

John Kerry for President
www.johnkerry.com

Kucinich for President Committee
www.kucinich.us

Joe Lieberman for President
www.joe2004.com

Carol Moseley Braun for
www.carolforpresident.com

Sharpton Explore 2004
www.sharptonexplore2004.com