obama white house organizational chart word doc

You could say that for the purposes of winning elections, Democratic voters are just not efficiently distributed. Democratic voters are clumped together in urban areas. This is another problem that makes it easier for Republicans to draw congressional and state legislative districts that disadvantage Democrats. Republicans, on the other hand, make those races a top priority. Mo Elleithee, a former Democratic National Committee official, says Democrats have never put enough effort and resources into state legislative races. It's not only bad timing and gerrymandering that have hollowed out the Democratic Party. As a result of redistricting in the 2010 election, that turned around and we now have 13 Republican congressmen and five Democratic congressman.' 'When I left office in January of 2011,' says Rendell, 'there were 13 Democratic congressman and six Republican congressman. Ed Rendell remembers what happened when Republicans took over the governor's mansion and the Legislature in his state: Republicans' huge gains in the 2010 midterms put them in the driver's seat when it came time to draw new congressional districts in 2011. The Republicans' Tea Party-fueled surge in 2010 was perfectly timed to coincide with the decennial census, after which new congressional and state legislative district boundaries are drawn by governors and state legislatures. Maybe, Obama mused, because Democrats just don't think midterms are 'sexy enough.'ĭemocrats had one spectacularly bad piece of luck. Republicans manage to turn out their voters every two years, but Democrats, for some reason, only turn their voters out every four. This is something President Obama lamented when he campaigned for Democrats in the midterm elections of 20. Right now the Democrats are at a very low ebb. What's great for Republicans and bad for Democrats is that the vast majority of the governorships and state legislative seats are elected in the midterms.Īnd those positions are the seed corn for a party - they're the farm teams for higher-level offices. Then there's Midterm Election America, where the electorate is older, whiter, more rural, more church-going - in other words, more Republican. The electorate is younger, browner, more single, more secular - more Democratic. There is Presidential Election America, where turnout is diverse. There are two different electorates in America Democrats currently hold fewer elected offices nationwide than at any time since the 1920s.ġ. There are now nine fewer Democratic governors than in 2009. The number of House seats held by Democrats has shrunk from 257 to 188. When Obama took office, there were 60 Democratic senators now there are 46. During Obama's eight years in office, the Democrats have lost more House, Senate, state legislative and governors seats than under any other president. He's had many successes in office - health care reform, climate change regulations, Wall Street reform - but his legacy will also include one huge failure: a diminished Democratic Party.Įvery president sees his party lose hundreds of positions - it's the price a party holding the White House pays - but no president has come close to Obama. Part of President Obama's legacy is the health of his party. The GOP may be in the midst of an identity crisis, but the Democratic Party is also facing a political crisis that could be made a lot worse if it doesn't win the White House in November. President Obama has had many successes in office, but his legacy will also include one huge failure: a diminished Democratic Party.

Obama white house organizational chart word doc