Rebuild county bases, state Democrats told

— The Democratic Party of Arkansas must rebuild its county organizations to retake control of the state Legislature and elect a Democratic governor, the party chairman said Saturday.

The first Democratic state committee meeting of the year was held Saturday morning in Hot Springs.

Party Chairman Will Bond, who was re-elected at the meeting, told the committee that rebuilding the county organizations would help Democrats rebound from Republican gains in the 2012 election.

Republicans are now in control of both the House and the Senate for the first time in 138 years in Arkansas.

“What we have to do is in each individual county continue to reach out to voters no matter where they are and make sure they understand the message of Arkansas Democrats,” Bond said after the meeting.

The committee also elected Sen. Joyce Elliott of Little Rock as the party’s first vice chairman and former state Reps. Janet Johnson-Henderson as second vice chairman and Steven Jones as secretary. Karen Garcia of Hot Springs was reelected as treasurer.

During the meeting, Bond referenced a recent New York Times Magazine article on the national parties and their use of social media and engagement to explain the importance of the tools in Arkansas.

He said committee members have to be more active on social media and not just meet with people in person and post fliers.

“The reason all these things are important is because reporters read Twitter, people who write opinion columns read Twitter. If [Republicans] are dominating Twitter and other forms of social media, they’re dominating the conversation,” Bond said.

Candace Martin, executive director of the state Democratic Party, said the party’s “Build Blue” initiative will attempt to recruit and support candidates on the local level and build the party through outreach efforts.

“It’s structured to be more of a county-building exercise that empowers members from the bottom up,” Martin said.

Party leaders addressed Medicaid, legislation to require identification when voting and immigration policy changes at the meeting.

Elliott said more Democrats should reach out to their legislators on the topics because “the other side” is being heard from at the state Capitol.

“They haven’t heard from us. ... I’m telling you they haven’t heard it. And they need to hear it - there’s no point in talking about holding people accountable if we are not actually going to hold them accountable,” Elliott said.

Arkansas, Pages 24 on 02/24/2013

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