(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
You hate "The Consultants." Now what? [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-02-02
Everybody loves to hate “the consultants.”
Everyone in the Democratic Party—from party insiders, to elected officials, to the rank-and-file—has blamed the “consultant class” for Democrats’ disastrous defeat in 2024.
While everyone’s venting frustrations on the consultants, there is little productive conversation occurring regarding reform. For one, “The consultant class” is not some elusive conspiracy, as is often presented. It’s people who are paid to provide electoral campaign services.
For example, candidates with no social media experience hire marketing firms to run their digital media. One famous consultant is David Plouffe, who helps Democrats write communications through his firm AKPD Message and Media.
Furthermore, I don’t recall Democrats’ anger at the “consultant class” in 2018, 2020, or 2022, even though the same exact structure was in charge because those years, the “consultant class” did a good job.
Anyways, what’s your proposed alternative? “Let’s kick out all the consultants!” And replace them with what? I’m not defending “the consultants”. They failed the Democratic Party big-time in 2024, and have been a source of wasteful campaign spending. But my issue isn’t with campaign consulting, it’s the way it’s done.
Democrat consultants overcharged Democratic candidates, their spending is not public, and they aren’t held accountable for losing. So, I propose three concrete proposals to direct the rage towards “consulting” towards a more reform-minded discussion.
1) Blacklists for losing consulting firms. You lost an election? No contracts for four years.
2) Transparency. All contracts with Democratic campaigns will be made public on the Democrats website.
3) Revive Democratic Party infrastructure. The Democratic Party will recruit staff to work for them directly, eliminating the need for consultants.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/2/2/2300813/-You-hate-The-Consultants-Now-what?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
