Editorial: Every vote still counts

Saturday, Dec. 2, 2006 | 7:07 a.m.

It is a shame that critics have targeted Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean's effort to take his party's message to places it is rarely heard.

Dean's "50 State Strategy" includes doing what many political advisers think is a waste of money - sending organizers to Republican strongholds, such as rural Nevada. Many political insiders from both parties say it would be better to write off places such as rural Nevada because the Democrats won't win there.

Dean is running counter to the conventional political thinking - both parties regularly write off areas where they don't believe they can win, and that is an unfortunate shame of politics.

One of the beauties of democracy is that the best ideas are presented and debated and voters go to the polls with a full understanding of the candidates and issues on the ballots.

The thought that a political party can ignore an area is troublesome because the underlying message is this: If the party wins, it doesn't need, want or care about those it had written off.

We believe both parties ought to do more to reach out to those they might typically write off.

Republicans hold a 47 percent to 34 percent registration edge over Democrats in the 2nd Congressional District, yet university Regent Jill Derby, a Democrat, ran a strong race against Republican Dean Heller. Derby lost by 12,575 votes - 5 percentage points - and that's not bad given that the GOP has 48,000 more registered voters than the Democrats in the district.

The result from November's election in which Democrats ran well in what were thought of as Republican strongholds should be a clear sign that voters pay attention and have no problem acting on what they know, so the parties would be wise to put their messages out wherever they can be heard.