December 07, 2005

Whither The Democracy Alliance?

The Democracy Alliance, a network of wealthy liberal fundraisers and their intellectual gurus, billed itself as a fertile field for the type of deep root structure that Dems believe the conservative movement developed in the 1970s and 80s: rich foundations at the bottom, donating to candidate/activist training schools and to start-up media and to think tanks.

The result: tight discipline, common goals, shared tactics, aggresive reaction (and pre-action) to historical and political developments, and, in general, much more cohesion.

The DA's goal is nothing short of a revolution for liberals and their ideas.

The DA's prime mover is Rob Stein, a lawyer and ex-DNC chief of staff who spent years trying to unravel the strands of the conservative movement. Stein entered his conclusions into a Power Point presentation that presented the liberal to conservative organizational deficit in a way that stunned many of the party's top fundraisers.

(Long-time movement conservatives roll their eyes at the notion that they are as organized as Stein thinks they are and dismiss much of his work as paranoid liberal fantasy.)

No matter; it's been clear for years that conservatives, whether by accident or design or voter preference, do their organizing better than liberals. Stein believed he had figured out the 'why.'

So he took the presentation across the country and quickly convinced dozens of big-name Democratic donors that the way to revive American liberalism would be to copy the institutional structure that conservatives built.

Hence the DA, which quickly secured $80 million or so in seed money spread over five years.

But many DA donors are frustrated with the pace of the project. Stein agreed to relinquish day-to-day control; DAers say he was a poor manager, better at evangelizing than motivating employeers.

To replace him as CEO, the DA hired a partner from McKinsey and Co's San Francisco office -- Judy Wade - who has no political experience.

At the last DA meeting, held in Atlanta in October, the group moved forward on its plans to raise $250K each from 1,000 individuals over five years and wrote checks to groups like the Center for American Progress and to David Brock's Media Matters.

But CAP and Media Matters (and Air America) get money from other, non-DA sources too. And labor unions remain the financial engine of the Democratic Party. And the parties themselves are raising lots more than they use to. And in 2008, prospective presidential candidates will blow through state spending limits and might raise $1 billion between them.

So just how big a role it plays in the new liberal/progressive coalition is up for debate. [MARC AMBINDER]

Posted at 12:54 PM

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