Winning Tips from a Red County Dem

ILLUSTRATED: If you believe in our message, and present yourself well, we can win anywhere.
Ed Fleming, who has been successful at electing Democrats in heavily GOP counties in California has some tips:
-Focus on winning elections first. Once you are in power, then deal with the issues. Issue formulation in the campaign is geared toward, and subordinate to, winning the election.
-Rural areas have houses far apart with long driveways. He doesn't care! We have to talk to people.
-Even in non-partisan local elections must be won. Not only get build a farm team. Getting a seat at the table means that you can gain information about everything going on in your city.
-When you go door to door, don't start with policy initiative. Start with PERSONAL CONNECTIONS.
-A great bumper sticker in a rural area is "I'm a Gun-Owning Christian Democrat"
-When Wal-Mart wants to come to town, remind Republicans that most of their goods are from China, a communist country with a forced abortion policy.