Democracy for America: Winning!

It's just past 9 a.m. on a recent Saturday morning when Monique Teal addresses over 140 people in a multi-purpose room at Dickenson Elementary School in northwest Tampa.

"We're here to give progressive Floridians the power by the end of this training to know how to win," she says to an audience full of eager-looking faces. After a few more peppy moments, she asks the crowd why they've chosen to spend the bulk of the next two days and $70 with her and her colleagues.

The voices first come out tentatively, but then feed on each other: "Rick Scott." "Tired of the rich beating us up." "Ready to get organized." "Equality." "We want to turn Florida blue in 2012." After a slight pause comes a shout from an elderly gentleman who bellows, "Just plain old pissed off about what's going on," to a round of hearty laughs.

The stage has been set for what will follow: Democracy for America's Campaign Academy, a two-day session intended to help grassroots activists "take back our country" while teaching them how to manage successful campaigns or run for office themselves.

The weekend event in Tampa is the tenth such training DFA has organized this year, with at least four more planned across the country in 2011. DFA's is one of many such programs; another well-known destination for progressives is Camp Wellstone, named after the late Minnesota Democratic Senator, and there are also various conservative and business-sponsored programs, some much more expensive than DFA.

Introductions concluded, Helen Strain takes the floor sans microphone, walking from side to side to make sure she reaches everyone in the audience. Involved in Democratic campaign work for over 20 years (including Janet Reno's 2002 gubernatorial run), she's currently field director for the Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates. And she's ready to get to work.

"Your field plan is your blueprint for victory," she tells the audience, before she segues into discussing campaign fundamentals. How many voters do I need in order to win? What is the strategy? The tactics? How am I going to move my voters? How many voters do I have to get every day, every week? Every month?

Matt Blizek, national field director for DFA, is up next. The words "Calculate Your Vote Goals" are projected on a screen behind him. "Did you know we're going to do math this morning?" he asks, smiling.

The attendees then work with their tablemates to estimate turnouts, safe margins, and how to calculate their "persuasion percentage." Afternoon breakout sessions in the Obama, Roosevelt and Kennedy rooms focus on developing a campaign message, fundraising, voter contact and online organizing.

Surveying the proceedings like a proud papa all weekend long is Jim Dean, 57, the younger brother of former Vermont Governor and DNC Chair Howard Dean. Jim has been chairman of DFA since its inception in 2004.

The way Jim Dean recounts it, his brother founded the organization because he wanted a vehicle to channel the enthusiasm that his dynamic run for president had unleashed among progressives in 2003, a positive energy that threatened to die out after John Kerry's loss to George W. Bush in November of 2004.

"For us, it's about helping people take responsibility over the political process," he says. Gov. Dean is still an active part of the organization, he adds, acting as a consultant and leading campaigns such as "Stand with Dr. Dean for a Public Option" during the health care debate.

In addition to weekend campaign academies, DFA also conducts what it calls "Night School," a series of online sessions that attract about 3,000 online participants, says Dean, on topics ranging from framing a message to working with online media. And this year the organization has begun to hold "Action Summits," during which members visit communities to talk about organizing, build coalitions or have meetings with elected officials.

In the audience at Dickenson Elementary were several people who have already declared their candidacies for next year, such as Craig Latimer, currently chief of staff to Hillsborough Supervisor of Elections head Earl Lennard. Latimer will be running to succeed his boss, who has announced he won't run for office in 2012.

Kimberly Whiting is from Rockledge in Brevard County (a region she labels a "breeding ground for these Tea Party candidates"). Part of a group that drove across I-4 for the event, she's already declared for a House seat in District 31 next year. Formerly a prosecutor but now a stay-at-home mom, she was ecstatic about what she had learned after just a few hours at the DFA Training Academy.

"They've covered how to find our voters, how to reach those voters," she said. "They've covered how to do all the complicated math that makes people experts in running campaigns."

Then there's Denise White from Stuart, who says she'll decide soon whether or not to run as a Democrat in what has been House District 82, comprising parts of Martin and Port St. Lucie counties. She's been involved in campaigns since the 1980s (including Jesse Jackson's presidential campaign in San Antonio, Texas back in 1988). "People are ready for change and are tired of Republican leadership," she says of GOP domination in the region.

She says she was inspired by JFK's classic call to Americans to engage in public service, a feeling she says has been lost over the past three decades. "This focus on economics and greed, we've lost community. We've lost caring about one another," she laments, but is motivated by the training. "They gave you some very practical, logical information that you can use to determine, first of all, whether a run makes sense, and then, how you do it."

Also at the training were some local folks who just engaged in the recent municipal elections for the first time, without much formal experience.

Herald Lord, 26, was unsuccessful in his bid for the open District 5 seat on the Tampa City Council earlier this year. Lord, who previously worked in the Supervisor of Elections office, said he learned something that is considered one of the hardest things for any candidate to do: how to pick up the telephone and ask people for money.

"The greatest technique that I took was staying on the telephone, developing your call sheets, identifying individuals — your family first, your friends, key community leaders, and those who typically give to candidates," Lord says. He wishes he had taken the course before he ran for office earlier this year.

Democratic political consultant Ana Cruz, who participated in a similar program with Emily's List years ago, says that the more informed people are about how to campaign, the better. "It grooms the next generation of campaigners," she says, adding "that we have to continue to build that bench and train people." She emphasizes that with the advent of social media and cable news, the campaign business continues to evolve.

Recently elected Tampa City Councilman Mike Suarez, who also was involved in such a training a few years back, says his advice for anybody running for office is to get out and meet people — friends, business associates — because when the election comes around it could get nasty, and it's important for people to have your back.

He says it's also critical to listen to voters and to be able to adapt. "If I go in saying that the economy is the most important issue, and I find out that panhandling is, and then it switches to water bills, it's kind of a strange tidal wave that you have to ride."

DFA's Jim Dean says that one benefit the Campaign Agenda offers prospective candidates is something that goes unsaid. "We have a bunch of people who come here who are thinking of running, who go through this and say, 'I'm not going to do it.' They haven't lost their yen for politics, but they just realize that after they've gone through this thing… it's not going to be for them."

Not bad advice for the $70. Consider former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. He spent over $30 million in 2007-2008 running for president, and won one delegate. That's one delegate.

Of course, something that's not taught to prospective candidates at such seminars is the importance of having an inordinately huge ego. At last report, Giuliani is seriously considering running again this year.

This article appears in Jul 28 – Aug 3, 2011.