The Chairman of the Tennessee Democratic Party says a grassroots effort is being organized across the state to put more Democrats in office next year.
Chip Forrester was in Smithville Tuesday night at city hall to address the party faithful during a meeting of the DeKalb County Democratic Executive Committee. Many local Democratic leaders and public officials attended.
Forrester says the mission is to launch an Obama like campaign to hold on to the Governors seat and to win back control of the State House and State Senate in the 2010 elections. “I’m here to talk about 2010 and the critical work for Democrats in this state. My job tonight was to talk to the Democrats in DeKalb County about what steps we need to take to link us altogether in 2010.”
“We’re going to adopt Barack Obama’s playbook. We saw the most incredible Presidential campaign in modern history that Barack Obama put together including the communication skills and the fundraising capabilities so we’re adopting the Barack Obama playbook and that means communicating and building a group of connected, committed Democratic activists to do this work for 2010.”
“My job right now is to work with House Caucus Chair Mike Turner to provide the boots on the ground, the trained Democratic activists to do this work for 2010. We will target eight to ten races in this next election cycle. We know State Senator Mae Beavers is not running for re-election. This is a Senate seat that we definitely can take. We have a couple of good candidates who are looking at it already. State Representative Terri Lynn Weaver’s seat is one we’re going to target. We know we can win this one back. What’s important about that is redistricting comes up in 2011 and it’s important that we assure that Democrats control that redistricting pen to make a fair and honest redistricting process take place.”
“One of the reasons people are enthused and excited is that they’ve seen what it’s like to live with a Republican controlled legislature. Of the ninety five county election commissions, they’ve all changed to Republican control and forty plus election coordinators have been fired for purely partisan reasons. We’ve seen the kind of legislation that they focused on. Governor Bredesen focused on jobs, health care, and economic development, and the Republicans focused on everything but that. So people have had a taste of what it’s like to live under a Republican controlled legislature and I think in 2010 they’re going to know that it’s important that Democrats be in the driver seat..”
(Top Photo- Tennessee Democratic Party Chairman Chip Forrester with DeKalb County Democratic Party Chair Fay Fuqua)
(Bottom Photo- left to right- State Democratic Party Chairman Chip Forrester, DeKalb County Democratic Party Vice Chairman Jim Judkins, DeKalb Junior High Young Democrats President Jordan Wilkins, 17th District State Executive Committee Member David Harper, and DeKalb Democratic Party Chair Fay Fuqua)
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