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February 22, 2008
Obama's 50-state strategy and what Labour can learn
As was mentioned in the previous post, because proportional representaion has made every vote and delegate play a certain importance, Barack Obama has campaign hard in states such as Idaho, North and South Dakota, Utah and Kansas, states which are either traditional republican strongholds or just so small they are often ignored. What can Labour, a party which has often focused its campaign on floating voters in marginal constituencies learn from Obama's 50-state strategy.
1. Focusing on or campaigning in constituencies that may not be traditional Labour will help strengthen the party at the local levels of government.
In focusing campaign resources on marginals, Labour has lost support in both constituencies which were originally minorities and those which were once strongholds. For example, prior to the 1997 election, the Cambridge Labour party had 1400. With Labour focusing on other areas, the Cambridge Labour Party membership is now down to 600. Also, small drops of support in places such as Guildford, Woking, Tunbridge Wells and Tewkesbury were enough to lose the last few Labour councillors in these constituencies.
-Despite his efforts in North Dakota, Obama is unlikely to win the Republican stronghold in a general election. However, democrats in the state are confident that Obama's campaign presence in the state could help them take over the state Senate, where they currently trail by a 26-21 margin.
2. Labour must campaign in all to win an actual majority of the popular vote, not because it is necessary to win an election but because it is necessary for Labour to truly be the national party it advertises itself as.
-If he wins the nomination, Obama's 50-state strategy has set up the Democrats to steal some votes in states that are Republican strongholds, setting up the possibility for the first Democrat to win a majority of the popular vote since Lyndon B. Johnson.
-In the last election Labour won only 35 percent of the popular vote, yet gained 66 percent of the seats in the House of Commons. So while Labour is supposed to represent the UK as a whole, it fall very short. Expanding the campaign and reaching out to voters currently ignored or forgotten could help Labour gain a true majority of support in Britain.
Posted by joshloewenstein on February 22, 2008
