Subject: Re: 11:30 SC Forum Call - Agenda
From: Clay Middleton <[email-masked]>
To: Heather Stone <[email-masked]>
Cc: Adrienne Elrod <[email-masked]>, Brynne Craig <[email-masked]>, Christina Reynolds <[email-masked]>, Huma Abedin <[email-masked]>, Jake Sullivan <[email-masked]>, Jennifer Palmieri <[email-masked]>, John Podesta <[email-masked]>, Kristina Schake <[email-masked]>, Marlon Marshall <[email-masked]>, Maya Harris <[email-masked]>, Robby Mook <[email-masked]>, Sawsan Bay <[email-masked]>, Tony Carrk <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 1 Nov 2015 18:24:24 -0500

This was mentioned on the call earlier, but may have been overlooked.

There will be a panel that the DNC is having on how democrats compete in
the South. SC State Representative Gilda Cobb-Hunter is Chair of the DNC
Southern Caucus and will be leading the panel along with Jaime Harrison,
SCDP Chair.

Maddow plans to get Democratic presidential hopefuls off their talking
points
BY ANNA DOUGLAS
[email-masked]
http://www.heraldonline.com/news/local/article42150708.html

MSNBC’s primetime political news commentary star says she didn’t pick Rock
Hill to host this week’s Democratic presidential forum but the location
couldn’t be better.

“If I could do it anywhere, it would be in the South,” Rachel Maddow of
“The Rachel Maddow Show” said last week.

Maddow will host the MSNBC forum Friday at 8 p.m., live from Winthrop
University’s Byrnes Auditorium. Candidates Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders
and Martin O’Malley will attend.

The candidates, Maddow said, “better all come loaded for bear” on the
question of how they’ll help their party perform better in GOP-stronghold
states like South Carolina. The national Democratic Party, she says, needs
a better strategy to pick up policy and election victories in Southern
states.

“No party can afford to be a regional party,” Maddow said.

South Carolina’s state Democratic Party Chair Jaime Harrison also has said
the party needs to reinvest in the South. After tickets for the Winthrop
forum were snatched up quickly online earlier this month, Harrison said the
popularity of the event is an indication of Democrats gaining ground in the
Palmetto State.

Still, Democrats hold just one of seven of South Carolina’s seats in the
U.S. House, and there are no Democrats currently elected to statewide
office. South Carolina’s last Democratic governor was Jim Hodges, who left
office in 2003 after one term.

Putting “The First in the South” forum in a nearly guaranteed red state
such as South Carolina is, Maddow said, “as close to an existential
question that the Democratic Party has ... There needs to be a Southern
revival.”

But, there are some Southern states where Democrats win.

Maddow points to Kentucky where the governor’s office has been historically
dominated by Democrats and the state House is controlled by the party. That
state holds elections on Tuesday, and Democrats are favored by some polls
to win several prominent races there.

Though Maddow is a favorite among Democrats and political liberals because
of her and her network’s approach to covering current events, she says she
won’t be handling the presidential hopefuls with kid gloves at Winthrop.

“I want to get them off their talking points ... My guiding principle is
that I only want questions in which I cannot predict what their answer will
be.”

Maddow says she and her staff will brainstorm hundreds of questions to ask
Friday night. She’ll then cull the list, weeding out questions the
candidates have been asked before.

She hopes to solicit answers “that might make a difference to Democrats
trying to choose,” she said.

Maddow has previously interviewed Clinton, Sanders and O’Malley on her
show. She said she’s studied the transcripts from each, analyzing their
interview style, the length of their answers and how they’ve reacted to the
host interrupting their responses.

“I don’t tend to interrupt people (I’m interviewing),” Maddow said. “I like
them to have the chance to complete their thought.”

But, in the forum, for the sake of time and interview quality, she said, “I
may want to sort of suspend that niceness.”

Each candidate will get about 25 minutes on-stage at Winthrop, though the
exact format isn’t finalized. Due to the DNC’s rules for candidate debates,
the MSNBC broadcast will function strictly as a forum.

The format, like the location, Maddow says, was a Democratic Party
decision, not hers or MSNBC’s to make.

The lack of debate between the candidates in Rock Hill means “they won’t be
fighting each other,” she said, adding that she has a “serenity prayer”
attitude toward having a forum versus a debate. She can’t change the rules,
so she’ll accept them.

Her ideal debate design, though, would put Democrats and Republicans on the
stage together before primaries – something Sanders suggested when he
joined the race earlier this year, Maddow said. That, she said, would force
candidates from both parties to “make your case” instead of campaigning
during debates and forums “to seem more pure” compared to fellow party
contenders.

Clinton, Sanders or O’Malley could take the opportunity to criticize or
denounce their potential GOP adversaries though. And Maddow says she sees
value in giving the Democrats some talk-time on the issue.

She wants the responses to be constructive, though – a chance for the
candidates to share their strategy on winning in the general election, not
simply an opening to bash Republican frontrunners. In particular, she said,
she has “yet to hear a compelling story from (any Democratic candidate)
about reviving Democrats in the South.”

Maddow’s run-up to the forum will include “nothing fun,” she joked. “I’m
like a turtle who goes inside my shell,” to prep and research and
strategize on her performance.

She’ll arrive in Rock Hill by Thursday for a live broadcast of “The Rachel
Maddow Show” at 9 p.m. from McHale’s on Main Street. It’s unlikely she’ll
have much down-time to enjoy the area or get to know the Winthrop campus
aside from Byrnes Auditorium but, she said, “I’ve heard that it’s
beautiful.”

Maddow says she’s “beyond honored and flattered” the S.C. Democratic Party
chose her to host the forum. “I didn’t expect it ... I wasn’t lobbying for
it.”

The 42-year-old author and TV personality whose show beat CNN this month in
ratings apparently still gets stressed and a little nervous before some
broadcasts.

“I’m motivated by fear of failure,” she said in an upbeat tone last week.
“In some ways, it feels very much like a big stage on which I might screw
up.”

But any nerves won’t be nervous energy, she said. “My freak out is my
standard level of excitement.”

v/r
Clay
------------------------------------------------------------
Clay Middleton
South Carolina State Director
Hillary for America

*"Intentions Are Good, But Results Matter"*

On Sun, Nov 1, 2015 at 9:04 AM, Heather Stone <[email-masked]>
wrote:

> Below please find a proposed agenda for the call today on the SC Forum.
> Please let me know of shifts or additions.
>
> Thank you,
> Heather
>
> 1.     Meta Message - Schake
>
> 1.     what is the format
>
> 2.     what is our message going in
>
> 3.  what is our message coming out
>
> 2.     Rapid Response – Reynolds
>
> 1.     What is the incoming
>
> 2.     Spin
>
> 3.     Surrogates
>
> 3.     Political - Marlon
>
> 1.     Visibility
>
> 2.     Local Politics
>
> 3.     How are we coming out of this into Charlestown the next day
>