Thread by @StevePtweets

As Democrats gear up to spend $1 billion in 2020, we need to have a candid & constructive conversation about strategy and spending. 1/ THREAD

Towards that end, I wrote a piece for @thenation where I tried to break down exactly who *is* the Democratic Party so that we could identify the decision-makers controlling the hundreds of millions of dollars 2/
thenation.com/article/democr…

Virginia’s inspiring success in taking control of all aspects of state government offers important lessons, but who — exactly — is tasked with studying and learning from those lessons? 3/

Ironically, corporate Amer has much more transparency & accountability in terms of communication with and accountability to stakeholders. Dem stakeholders often don’t know who is making decisions or why or how it’s going; 4/

What we call “the Democratic Party” is not one thing. It’s actually a constellation of 4 different entities — @TheDemocrats @dscc @dccc & @DemGovs 5/

These entities respectively, focus on candidates for White House, Senate, House, and governorships, and are chaired by @TomPerez @SenCortezMasto @RepCheri @GovRaimondo 6/

Day-to-day operation of the committees are the responsibility of @SeemaNanda Scott Fairchild, @lmguinn & @noamlee 7/

In addition to the Party Committees, there are 3 aligned SuperPACs — @prioritiesUSA @MajorityPAC & @HouseMajPAC --which also spend hundreds of millions of dollars collectively 8/

The SuperPACs are run by @guycecil & @PatrickJMcHugh (Priorities); @jbpoersch (Sen Majority) & @RobbyMook & @Acurranhorrell (House Majority) 9/

This diagram illustrates the collection of entities and their roles 10/

Further pulling back the curtain, this diagram puts names of decision-makers & scale of their spending in one place so we can get this dialog going 11/

I offer this information to foster greater communication and transparency within the Democratic ecosystem so that we can discuss and debate key strategic questions critical to victory next year. Questions such as... 12/

What is the theory of victory, what data is that theory based on, and how does the budget correspond to that theory? 13/

What is the balance between trying to persuade “Obama-Trump” voters, woo disaffected suburban whites, and inspire people of color who didn’t vote in 2016? 14/

The answers to these questions can be quantified, and those answers are found in budgets and spending decisions; 15/

I’m determined to tackle these questions earlier than I did in 2016 when I tried to point out that the Party-aligned SuperPACs had allocated $0 to Black voter mobilization (out of $200 million) 16/
thenation.com/article/are-bl…

There are already concerning signals coming from Party leaders, as we saw on election night in VA when @guycecil of @prioritiesUSA used his platform to shine a spotlight on two white-run groups, overlooking the people of color who were the bedrock of the victory; 17/

@prioritiesUSA says it plans to spend $100+ million in 2020, and if the allocation of that money similarly overlooks voters of color — as was the case in 2016 — we are likely doomed again 18/

In coming weeks, I’ll be further engaging with the Party entities & SuperPACS to better understand their thinking, plans and strategy and reporting back, and I encourage you to do the same. END