Mr. Jarding,

I heard you speak for James Webb at the Fifth District dinner in Forest about a month ago. My freinds from Lynchburg and I were all impressed with your passion. Do you have any plans to run for office in your home state?

Martha Hicks

Martha,

Thanks for your kind words.  The Fifth District Dinner was a great event.  The place was packed and the energy was great.  As you know, Jim Webb could not attend due to the death of his mother-in-law and I was happy to stand in -- he would have wowed the crowd as he has been doing since he got into this race. 

Right now I am doing all I can to get Jim elected.  As for me, I don't know if my home state of South Dakota or my current home in Virginia would be ready for my candidacy!  But, make no mistake, I do feel very passionate about the need to change direction in this country and the need for leaders willing to stand up to the special interest dominated political system we currently have.  Let's begin by electing Jim Webb and see where we go from there.

Steve

As a white, Southern, Christian Democrat I am more than ready to see our party break some old labels and stand up for the principles that define us - equality, justice, concern for the poor and sick. I am ready for the GOP to be run out of the south, and I am ready to see them lose their mantle as the "moral" party.

1) How do Christian Democrats proclaim their beliefs w/o having the appearance of pandering to the electorate? If a Republican rants and raves and thumps his Bible no one bats a lash. If a Democrat were to do it, I have a feeling the media would be all over him or her in a heartbeat. How do we break the myth that all Christians are Republicans?

2) In your opinion, will a progressive Democratic message make further inroads in the West or the South? Where does our future lie?

3) Is now the time to go on the offensive against the GOP, or do we sit back and "hand em' the noose" ? Should impeachment be part of the 2006 election strategy? How can we tap into the  anti-bush sentiment sweeping the country? 29% ...

Alec,

I tell people all the time that I would debate any Republican anywhere, anytime on the issue of morals and values.  These Republicans who embrace the messenger, Jesus, while obliterating His message need to be called to the carpet for their blasphemous actions.  We can all use selected Old Testement passages to make political points, but I don't think Jesus would have approved.  Indeed, most of today's politicians and their cheerleaders would be the first to get thrown out of the Temple.  My Bible told me to do unto others as I would have them do unto me.  It also told me to feed the hungry, give shelter to the homeless, tend to the sick and give clothing to the naked.  Republican policies have been devastating to the least among us -- 36 million Americans live in poverty, nearly 20 percent of our children go to bed hungry, 47 million Americans can no longer afford health insurance, the list goes on.  Democrats would be wise to take Republicans head on when it comes to this issue, but we have to redefine for people what true family values really are before we do so.  And if we do this, we can handle any media attack thrown our way.

I also believe we need a more progressive or populist message to take to the South and the Heartland and frankly to all of America.  I believe our future will be brightest when we begin speaking up for the tens of millions of Americans who have been forgotten by both political parties.  If we do that, we can and will win in all regions.

Finally, while the Republicans have been giving themselves enough rope for defeat, I do think we need to go on the offensive -- but going on the offensive exclusively against the GOP does not get the job done.  Rather, I think we need to present a coherent message to the American people that we are ready as a party to once again lead this great nation.  In the book, we propose a new contract or agenda for our party to take to the American people.  I believe we need to offer real solutions, take some risks and be honest with the American people if we are ever to win them back.

Steve 

Here's my question.  What possible pathways do you envision for getting back to a sensible economy with reasonable expectations of job security and affordable healthcare for more people in this country? 

And to be honest, that is very boring stuff.  How can we remain committed over the long haul w/o being taken in by another group of snake oil salesmen?

You rock, by the way.

My question is this:  What more can we do to prove to the American people that the Democratic party is not the reason America is hurting bc of an illegal war, the economy, a health care crisis affecting all, and an immigration policy that just doesn't work?  How do we prove that a woman's choice is something to work for to protect, regardless of a religious/personal belief?  Why can't Republicans accept science?

Mainly...how do we go about turning this country blue, and in the meantime, SMARTER in the process?

Jaime

Hi Steve,

a) How would you compare yours and Mudcat's book with Carvel's and what's his name book (with the same theme more or less)?? P.S. This may save me some reading time 'cause I'm kind of caught up in "Born Fighting".

b)What will turn the tide in the South? Democrats which put to work your principals and theories ... Or just disastrous republican failures??

c)In your 25 years of experience have you ever seen a better candidate for office than Jim Webb (be truthful no bullshitting)?

Thanks for helping the campaign and good luck with the book!!

Best regards,

Tony

of your book? :)

Are they even possible?  I mean, by 1994 many of the Democrats in Congress and in the Nation who had moderate-conservative leanings felt so alienated from the party that they left to join the Republicans.  The Democratic Alliance collapsed, and the Liberals took most of the control of the party.  Likewise, we've seen recently that the Libertarian/Religious Right coalition that Reagan built starting to collapse, and Republicans deciding to favor the Religious voters over the "small government" voters. 

Are big tent parties even possible, especially when party activists demand "purity"? (Which seems to be a trait that the average voters doesn't seem to appreciate as much as the activists.)  As a Centrist Democrat with a few Conservative leanings, this topic hold great importance to somebody like me.  Somebody who WANTS to be involved as a Democrat, but sometimes feels alienated by the more liberal base of the party.

Dan,

I believe that big tents are possible, but not if we keep electing politicians who are more concerned with their own re-elections than they are in serving the people they are supposed to serve. 

If today's politicians would understand that public service is about those who would be served rather than those who would serve, we would have a much greater nation and a much broader tent of Americans unified in a common goal.  We have to return to the belief that when we invest in our people, we thrive as a nation and when we don't -- cuts in education, health care, tax give aways to the richest of the rich, we lose.  I do not believe it an accident that the last century was known as the American century.  In it we invested in education, health care, programs for children, research and development, nutrition, housing, science, and in a host of initiatives that built wealth in our people.  And it worked.  I believe in the power of the American mind and in the American spirit.  When we invest in our people, I do not believe there is anything we cannot achieve.

Is Webb encountering resistance from state party insiders, and if so, what is being done to overcome this resistance?

Quite the contrary.  The support for Jim Webb across the state from party insiders has been nothing short of astounding.  From former Congresswoman and Lt. Gov. nominee Leslie Byrne, to Lt. Gov. candidates and legislative leaders Chap Petersen and Phil Puckett; to former Congressman Owen Pickett, to the hundreds of grassroots Democrats in Fairfax County, Harris Miller's backyard, who voted for Jim in a straw poll in which he beat Miller by a numbing 58-42 percent; to a host of county elected officials from Roanoke to Arlington to Chesapeake, to labor leaders like the Sheet Metal Workers who endorsed Jim, to a who's who of former senior staffers to Sen. Chuck Robb, Jim Webb has demonstrated a powerful list of supporters from party insiders.  He has done so because to a person they want to win and they know that the only way to beat George Allen is to nominate a man of character like Jim Webb. 

I like that type of talk.

How does the campaign plan to combat this notion that Webb may have national backing, but that Miller has the support of Virginia legislators? 

I think Webb gets Virginia and Virginians, and I hope that comes through over the next month.  But I worry that articles like the Post's piece leave people thinking that Webb is a national flash in the pan but not really the solution for our state.

(I, of course, disagree with that!)

1- Although the book talks about the South and the Heartland, I get the sense that you and Saunders place a greater emphasis on Democrats competing in the South than in the Heartland.  Your background includes races in South Dakota and Nebraska, do you believe that the South is more in play than the Heartland?

2- Recently Texas became a minority-majority state based on projections from the Census Bureau.  They've also noted that immigration of Hispanics and migration of African-Americans from the North to the suburbs of Atlanta and other cities in the South has put Mississippi and Georgia as two Southern States near the edge of becoming minority-majority.  Although your short term strategy seems to focus on reaching out to rural whites, do you think that traditional liberal Democrats that ignore your advice could have success in the South as demographics change?  Or do you see your strategy as the only way to make inroads in the South?

Thanks!

Early in the campaign, Harris Miller intentionally misrepresented Webb's views on Affirmative Action.  This misrepresentation has caused Webb some problemsl, but it has also caused some problems for Miller.  Do you know what kind of fallout there has been for Miller for this deception?  Do you think this trick has ultimately helped Miller or hurt him?

Harris Miller did intentionally misrepresent Jim Webb's position on Affirmative Action and he was wrong to do so.  It is wrong to misrepresent anyone's position but to do so on an issue in order to gain political points while dividing the electorate is particularly offensive.

Jim Webb's views on Affirmative Action are quite simple.  He supports Affirmative Action for African Americans and always has.  What he has suggested is that we increase the size of the Affirmative Action pie by including millions of whites who have been historically discriminated against as well.  With what part of that does Mr. Miller take issue?  We will see whether the misrepresentation causes Mr. Miller heartburn and ultimately votes.  Building a campaign on a foundation of lies usually means that the house of cards is soon to collapse.  The truth is that Jim Webb has attracted unbelievable support statewide and around the nation.  I think the misrepresentation was done as an act of desperation more than anything else.  We are better than that.

I am struck by the fact that within the alleged party of labor and the common man there is now a contest pitting a Jacksonian/populist Democrat (a real democrat) against a long-time Washington-insider lobbyist aligned with transnational corporations and narrow wealthy/politically powerful elites.

The stark contrast appears to be ignored by the MSM; it has largely overlooked Harris Miller's anti-worker/pro-offshore outsourcing activities, mischaracterising him as a "businessman" or "tech executive".  Miller doesn't just have "honest differences" with American labor unions; he is a proponent of worker replacement programs (offshore outsourcing and "insourcing" with H-1b/L-1 visa workers).

How can the Democratic Party possibly appeal to middle and working class Americans who are taking it on the chin from offshore outsourcing and H-1b/L-1 worker replacement programs? Isn't this contest really a fight for the soul of the Democratic Party and the economic interests of the broad American middle class?

I find in Jim Webb such a true democrat that Miller's non-democratic failings stand in such high relief that I find it inconceivable that honest, informed observers have not commented extensively on the matter. Jim Webb has not been shy about his stating his views on offshore outsourcing -- a central element of Harris Miller's lobbying career.

Amen brother.  The American worker has become a disposable commodity and that has to stop.  Jim Webb is a friend of the American worker.  The Sheet Metal Workers implored Virginians to vote for Webb so that Virginia workers had a voice they could count on.  They also singled out Harris Miller's longstanding anti-union positions as a very strong reason to oppose him.  It says a lot.

Thank you for your response.

White Collar and Blue Collar workers are now making common cause against offshore outsourcing and worker replacement programs.

The Sheet Metal Workers have endorsed Jim while the CWA and the DPE have made it clear that Miller is the enemy. The difference is minor, I assure you.

As a software engineer, an information technology professional, I've faced offshore outsourcing and "business visa" replacement workers first-hand.  The Communications Workers of America (CWA) reached out their hands to millions of people like me.

The result is that I have made common-cause with the American labor movement. They are standing up for the rights of both working class Americans and even middle/upper middle class professionals.

I believe that there are many others not presently members of unions who, presented with the facts of offshore outsourcing, will choose a real democrat like Jim Webb over anti-middle class corporate allies like Miller and Allen.
 

Thanks for taking our questions.

One of the big challenges, in VA and throughout the South, is convincing people who are now accustomed to pulling a Republican lever on election day that they might want to reconsider which party actually reflects their needs.  The GOP pushed a lot of family values and religion and fear ("we must stop the terrorists"), but at heart, I think that a vast majority of lower and middle-class Virginians would benefit more from Democrats' economic policies.  How do we shift the tone as Dems so that this huge bloc of voters understands that Dems, particularly in states like VA, are with them on values and God, but are looking out for their own economic interests?  What's the message, and how do we sell it?

We will not beat Republicans on issues like God, Gays and Guns until we quit debating them on their definitions of these issues.  I believe that Democrats made a mistake in 2004 by suggesting that voters were stupid for "voting against their own economic interests."  No, we were stupid.  If a voter is willing to vote against a pocketbook issue, the motivating factor causing that vote, must be very powerful.  We would be wise to find out what that issue is all about and address it instead of questioning the intelligence of voters.  And indeed, if the issue trumping an economic one is one about values and God, we need to get out ahead of that debate.  And why not?  Is it a family value to allow 20 percent of our children to go to bed hungry every night?  Is it a family value to allow 47 million Americans to be without health insurance and another 45 million to be without it for significant portions of the year?  Is it a family value to pay for Katrina costs by cutting programs for the poor?  Is it a family value to vote for the largest redistribution of wealth from working Americans to the richest Americans which is what these Republicans have done over the past 5 years?  Is it a family value to have 13 percent of the American public living below the poverty level -- a third of them children?  Is it a family value to support programs that have reduced wages for the past five years while corporate profits rose 40 percent?  Is it a family value to see health insurance premiums rise 70 percent in the past five years?  Shame on these Republicans for calling themselves the party of family values while obliterating programs which build wealth in families and ultimately allow families to stay together and shame on us as Democrats if we continue to allow them to do so.

Steve,

Great answer - thank you.  That's exactly the type of talk, and the type of approach philosophically, that I think our party needs.  In Virginia, in the South and ultimately nationwide.  As you stated, I think for too long, Democrats were quick to say that voters were stupid; now, it's the time to educate voters about what we offer, not just tell them that what they do is wrong.

A friend of mine was hanging out with her very Republican brother, and his very Republican friends.  They were joking around that "we like Pres. Bush, he's one of us, he's just an average guy, he doesn't know the name of the president of some random country but that's ok, because he just understands Americans."  I think Democrats lost that ability to connect with average people, and as a result, were defined as being not just personally out of touch, but out of touch on policy, too. 

Do you think Mr. Webb's message is carrying well nationally right now because it is the right message for our country (not just VA), or because Dems nationally see Mr. Webb as the only candidate who can beat Sen. Allen?

Let me say that I voted for John Kerry in the last Presidential election. Kerry would have had alot more votes - esp. in Ohio if he really had made a case against offshore outsourcing and worker replacement. He failed on this count. He flat-out told people that he would not "pander" to voters on this issue. He essentilly refused to fight on the economy/jobs issues. His history of supporting "business visa" expansion programs and "free trade" were like lead weights.

Harris Miller is in this same situation now. From the standpoint of anti-outsourcing activists, it's impossible to say Miller would be any improvement over Allen. Most anti-outsourcing activists believe Miller would be worse...

Paul Hackett would probably have won his Ohio house race if he had combined the jobs/outsourcing issue with his criticisms of the Iraq war. I think that Jim Webb has learned this lesson: don't compromise democratic principles which keep the middle and working classes glued to democrats.

Yea, I actually worked with Kerry's advisors behind the scenes for many weeks... Kerry was a big disappointment on offshore outsourcing and worker replacement.  But he was infinitely better than Miller or Allen.

Have you contacted the SEIU and the DoD private contractor unions?  I'm hoping, even though it's a primary that more unions endorse Webb due to the nature of Miller's 20+ year career lobbying for labor arbitrage.

How about Church groups?

Steve -

Kaine used almost the opposite strategy as Warner to win Virginia in 2005 - he went after the urban/suburban/exurban areas and completely ignored the rural areas.

Obviously Warner aggressively courted rural votes.

Are these two strategies mutually exclusive? Or can a Democrat go after rural "Bubbas" and retain their usual Democratic coalition in other areas?

No, these two strategies are not and need not be exclusive ones.  I believe if a candidate does his or her homework, understands the needs, fears and insecurities of their constituents -- no matter where they live, they can get people to vote for them. 

I firmly believe that with the right message, candidates can get votes everywhere.  Look at what the devastating policies of the Republicans have done to the people of the South and rural America and tell me that if we present them with a platform that addresses their needs that we cannot get them?  If we don't get them it is because we did not try.

Also I remember in your book you also mention that a rural strategy attracts rural transplants (now city dwellers) and others.

I have to run but I want to thank all of your for your questions, comments and passion for a better world.  The work is daunting but the cause is noble.  My mother always told me that the worst thing we could do in life is to look back at it on the day of our death and realize that we did not leave more  to this earth than we took away.  In an important way, you are all leaving more by pushing for a more honest and just world.  Keep fighting the good fight and thanks again.

Steve