Democratic Party Chair Interviewed by SavDailyNews

By Pureterrah Witcher
SavDailyNews Staff

While on the Southeast leg of her first statewide fundraising tour, Jane Kidd, Democratic Party of Georgia Chair and former State Representative, stopped in at the Savannah Daily News Tuesday to discuss a range of topics, including the impending fight for Congressman John Barrow's (D-Savannah) seat, a new national emphasis on grassroots organizing and Georgia as a future purple state.

Savdailynews: At this point in your fundraising tour has the Democratic Party of Georgia met its goals?

Kidd: We have met our goals for the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner of $850,000. That covers our bottom line operating expenses. However we're still raising money for our efforts this summer on behalf of all democratic nominees, particularly with respect to the grassroots organizing. That takes funding.

Savdailynews: What are the Party's budget priorities?

Kidd: Our priorities are to get our candidates organized and certified. They have to meet certain requirements to certify candidates to qualify in April. It's mainly operational expense to support the county party - the staff, the website, mailings and then the DNC actually provides us with four staff members - three organizers and a county party organizer. That's part of the 50-State-Strategy, initiated by Howard Dean recently. The goal is to elevate staff, integrate communication and get out in the field. The latter of the three is called the "Neighborhood Leader Program". It's where we're recruiting neighborhood leaders who will talk to 25 of their neighbors, who they get to pick, and recruit themselves two more. There's also an online tool that they can use to find the individuals in their community, however it will be available later in April. Ultimately this requires a face-to-face contact, it's the most effective tool we have in campaigning.

Savdailynews: Who are you targeting for House and Senate seats?

Kidd: We've got 159 counties so it's a big job. But really, we've got our eyes set on 2010. This year we've got some momentum building up because of the national election we should be able to take some state house and senate and hopefully we'll be looking towards a democratic governor in Georgia. What we're looking for are places where the demographics have changed, where a lot of new people are coming in with fresh perspective. We looked at every district in the state and have a targeted list with a tier one, two and three; however we won't reveal who is on that list.

Savdailynews: What is your view of the coming Barrow re-election campaign, considering he won by just over 800 votes in the previous election?

Kidd: He's worked really hard and has convinced the skeptics that his values are closer to their values. I don't think that should hurt him. I think it'll be a close race, though it's a long, hard campaign. Though I think he'll prevail with a higher margin. He's spent more time in the district, has been a great public servant as far as constituency work is concerned, I know he's here all the time, he spend a lot of time with the veterans and retirement centers. Won't say it's a done deal, but he will have an easier go at it this time.

As far as national congressional seat, I really don't think we're going to pick up any republican seats in Georgia. It's not a highly likely scenario, but you never know someone could suddenly decide to retire or something. Currently there are six democrats and seven republicans from the state of Georgia. If we pick up one that would be huge, though I do think we will hold the ones we have. In the State Senate and House, we're looking to pick up two or three senate seats and three or four house seats then we're making progress.

Savdailynews: What's your opinion of the power struggle amongst state Republican Party power at the capital?

Kidd: It is out of control. We're basically sitting back and letting them create problems and trying to offer good solutions to the real problems. Between the Speaker and Jerry Keen and others are just battling and they're battling the governor. They weren't use to having power. What happened in Georgia is they worked for 15 years building numbers and convincing people to elect them, though they weren't ready to govern. So every time we get an opening we try to put in the right legislation, amid all the squabbling.

Healthcare and Education have been the biggest issues for democrats this year. We haven't ever fully funded education in Georgia since Governor Perdue was elected $1.5 billion out of education. And then because of No Child Left Behind the requirements and accountability is even harder to be a succeeding school. So what happens is the Speaker comes up with this great tax plan, which isn't so great, but it's because he's complaining of property taxes increasing. But the reason they're increasing is the state of Georgia isn't funding education sufficiently and so the local systems are having to push that money into education.

Savdailynews: What is the local grassroots organizing strategy about?

Kidd: As you may know, Savannah has great Democratic Party. What we want to do is support them in increasing their actual numbers. We believe people will come out the woodworks to volunteer during a presidential election year, and some may disappear afterwards, but you still try and capture that enthusiasm while you have them. And so we have the Neighborhood Leaders program, a coming online tool and a piece of software called Vote Builder, another part of the 50-State-Strategy, it helps with voter file information. Volunteers will talk with people door-to-door, update information, telephone numbers, addresses, and put all this information back into the system and so when it comes time to vote we're ready.

Savdailynews: What are your thoughts of the Florida revote?

Kidd: I wish Florida and Michigan could do a revote. It was unfortunate. They say that there could have been 400,000 people that didn't vote because they didn't think their vote would count. It could be undercounted by a great amount. I think it's going to take Howard Dean, Hillary Clinton, Barak Obama and the Chairs to decide something fair. Still it seems like the revote might be out of the question.

Savdailynews: Since elected in January "07 what are some challenges you have faced.

Kidd: Well before me, the past democratic governor was the head of the party and the chair was a ceremonial position. Right now we've flipped that model all together. We've made the county party the most important thing going on. So we're trying to build from the ground up, person-to-person, keeping the phones hot. We've got a lot of work to do. We have to win back the trust of the Democratic Party across the state. Our bottom line is to elect more democrats. I believe we'll make some gains. It won't be a blue state, but it will be a purple.