The recent DNC meeting was held in New Orleans. The city is still in shambles, though they are bouncing back strong. Here are ten points from the DNC meeting:

1. National Ground Campaign: The Democrats have a national ground campaign that will launch the last weekend of April. (that's this weekend!) The plan is to give a test run sending tens of thousands of people out walking door-to-door in all 50 states to communicate with voters and share with them the Democratic Party vision. This canvassing will take place again in July, and of course every day after Labor Day.

2. National Message: similar to the Contract on America that the GOP issued in 1994, the Democrats have a unified message heading into the mid-term elections as well. The broad themes are Honest Leadership & Open Government, Real Security, Energy Independence, Economic Prosperity and Educational Excellence, A Healthcare System that Works for Everyone, and Retirement Security.

3. Polling: there were lots of poll numbers thrown around. The most amusing poll numbers reveal that Dick Cheney is less popular than gay marriage.

4. Fighting Dems: This is a great initiative to dispell the myth that Republicans are better on national security than Democrats. Along with the creation of a new Veterans Advisory Council at the DNC, the Fighting Dems are miliary veterans who have come home to run for Congress as Democrats. Right now there are 54 military running for Congress as Democrats, and only 1 Republican. You can view the site at www.democrats.org/fightingdems

5. DNC National Convention 2008: 10 cities are bidding - Anaheim, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, New Orleans, New York, Phoenix and San Antonio. Orlando was rumored to have pulled out last weekend. Some of the big factors in selecting a site are; political support in the state, ample hotel and convention space, proximity of hotels to convention center, strong local unions, political advantages gained from that location, and which state has elected officials that can be helpful to the conveniton.

The organizations that made presentations at last weekend's meeting were Denver and Minneapolis, along with a plug for New Orleans by Governor. Blanco. This list will be narrowed down later this year and a selection will be made in 2007.

6. DNC Youth Council: an initiative to work with the existing Young Democrats of America and College Democrats of America to bring more fresh faces into the Party, both as activists and as spokespeople. Gov. Dean has appointed Edward Espinoza from California as Chair of the Council, which he will serve through the '08 elections.

7. Community Service: while in town, most members of the DNC performed some volunteer work to help clean-up the damaged area. Four different groups over a period of three days brought people in during shifts to help clean-up damaged areas, distribute food, and package goods for needy folks. One adventure was getting on bus with 30 other people and tearing up mold damage from a house in an area neighboring downtown. In the span of an afternoon, DNC members did about a full week's worth of work on one house. Felt good to help out. Here are some pics of people doing good work:

http://theedproject.typepad.com/photos/new_orleans/

8. Fundraising: Dems have more than $8 million cash on hand right now, compared to about $2 million at this time during the '02 mid-term elections. And this is with about 200 more staff members, as Gov. Dean has provided DNC-funded staff members to each Party via his 50 state project. We are not matching the Republicans just yet, but we are doing well.

9. US Senate, State Legislative and Gubernatorial races: Things look good. The next Congressional redistricting takes place in 2010, and as such efforts are being made now to start to win back state houses so that Democrats have more influence when the lines are drawn again. Without getting into too many details, Democrats have more opportunities to take Senate and Gubernatorial seats away from Republicans this year. Again, things are looking up right now.

10. New Orleans primary election for Mayor: was on Saturday, but the DNC does not get involved in primary races. And seeing as two Democrats are in the runoff, Ray Nagin and Lt. Governor Mitch Landrieu (also the brother of US Senator Mary Landrieu) it is unlikely that the DNC will get involved in the run-off as well. It is an interesting point to know that the Feds would not allow polling places to be established in Houston, St. Louis and Atlanta for New Orleans residents temporarily displaced from Katrina. Especially when one considers all of the polling places put up around the US for Iraqi nationals to vote in their elections last year. Just more food for thought on the priorities of our government these days. Hmm...