A short time ago, as many of you know, I endorsed Jeff Bell for Chairman of the Utah Democratic Party. Soon after I posted a KCPW interview with Jeff discussing what he wants to do for the party. Now, in the interest of fairness, I wanted to provide my readers with links to Wayne Holland’s campaign website and to his KCPW interview.
As we come closer and closer to the election, one issue above all else seems to be on the minds of the candidates: what is the most effective strategy to get more Democrats elected in Utah. And, indeed, I respect the strategies of both candidates. Holland takes the opinion that slow and steady wins the race – candidates must be recruited that understand that they probably will not hit it out of the park the first time at bat. Holland’s key is to have candidates become a familiar face over two or three election cycles and eventually win.
Bell, on the other hand, wants to take a more aggressive approach. True, candidates under his tenure still probably won’t win the first time they run, but Bell wants to provide them with more materials sooner so that they can have greater success – one example of this is his idea for campaign material templates: candidates, after declaring, can walk into party headquarters and choose between ten or fifteen standard logos, have letter head prepared, and signs printed. This would mean that candidates would be spending less time setting up shop, and more time doing what you need to do to win.
And that is what this election comes down to, in my mind: who will do more for the candidates. I feel that Bell, as Chairman, can do much to improve the on-the-ground needs of any particular campaign.
As a final note. People tend to think that a vote for Bell is an attack against Holland; for me this is not the case. Wayne has done a fantastic job for the party, and if he is ultimately the victor, I hope that he will incorporate some of the ideas that Jeff is putting froward. Likewise, I hope that Jeff will continue to adopt many of the strategies that Wayne has put forward to ensure that candidates know exactly where they stand when they file.
In short, I want the party to continue to grow stronger.
P.S. I encourage you to view Bell’s latest campaign video, I think it highlights my point above…though a little more aggressively than I would put it.
