Today, the New York Times looks at the movement in voter registrations across the country:

For more than three years starting in 2005, there has been a reduction in the number of voters who register with the Republican Party and a rise among voters who affiliate with Democrats and, almost as often, with no party at all.

As the story notes, swings in voter registration happen all the time. Often it's reflective of nothing more than which party has the better field organization or the more heated primary. It's also true that party affiliation often does not have an impact on Election Day turnout. Plenty of registered Democrats pulled the lever for Bush in 2004, for instance.

But a sustained movement away from the GOP over a period of years is significant:

[F]or a shift away from one party to sustain itself -- the current registration trend is now in its fourth year -- is remarkable, researchers who study voting patterns say. And though comparable data are not available for the 21 states where voters do not register by party, there is evidence that an increasing number of voters in those states are also moving away from the Republican Party based on the results of recent state and Congressional elections, the researchers said.

There isn't a state in the country with a better group of online activists than Texas. The more attention I pay to their work, the more impressed I become.

First, you've got the individual efforts of many, many talented bloggers. There are a lot of states that would be fortunate to have a single, progressive site as good as Capitol Annex, Burnt Orange Report, Off the Kuff, or Greg's Opinion (a list heavily biased by the folks I read regularly but by no means exclusive). That's not even counting relatively newer bloggers who are engaging in the state (folks like Rachel -- who actually wrote an open letter to her state rep, offering to set him up with a DLCCWeb-powered site).  

Second, these folks have organized an alliance to unify the efforts of bloggers and netroots activists in the state to promote progressive ideas and candidates. They promote each others' posts, raise money for candidates, organize offline events, and have developed an advertising network.

I'm blowing the dust off of this user diary because I want to start a conversation.

There are 7,382 legislators across the country, and they represent every conceivable kind of district. Most have been using radio, television, and mail for years, but for many, the Internet remains unfamiliar. They see its potential but have reservations about its cost, complexity, and challenges.

This cycle, our committee partnered with Wired for Change to introduce a resource that reduces the barriers for campaigning online. We call it DLCCWeb.

Our goal is to make the Internet simple and affordable enough that all of our legislative candidates can build and update their own websites. They can choose from a range of templates and color schemes to create the best design for their campaigns. Blog publishing is built right into DLCCWeb, along with advocacy tools, online fundraising, and social network integration.

This cycle, more than 200 candidates in 30 states (with a whole range of technology comfort levels) are using the Internet in a way that they haven't before because of this service. To me, that represents a major step forward in participatory democracy and a big advantage for Democrats at the state level. Check out a little marketing video that Wired for Change put together about DLCCWeb here.

We are also launching a new website to practice what we preach.

DLCC.org will be a clearinghouse for news about statehouses and legislative elections. The centerpiece will be a blog, hosted right on the front page, which will be updated multiple times a day, at least five days a week. Most posts will be short and quick, though each will include some sort of commentary and context. Most content will be written by our staff, but as we move forward, we plan to encourage contributions from our elected leaders and allies.

We are ready to talk about our nation's statehouses. We want to engage you to help us identify the next generation of Democratic leaders, to set real Democratic agendas in the legislatures, and to build new majorities before the next round Congressional redistricting.

I hope you'll take a moment to visit these sites and let me know what you think.  Leave a comment here or there or send me an email at compton[at]dlcc.org. If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear from you.

Bumped from the diaries -- jonathan

Republican Tom Dempster is the Assistant Majority Leader seeking his fourth term in the South Dakota state Senate.

Obviously Dempster has some cursory knowledge of the filing process in the state, given he's been through the process three times. Or so you'd think...

The "bipartisan" California Voters First is trying to gin up signatures to get on the ballot in November.

A lot of folks--Democrats and Republicans--support nonpartisan redistricting reform.

But when in doubt, follow the money.  

Democrats won the first round of redistricting yesterday, with victories in Mississippi and Virginia.  

Democrats flipped the Virginia Senate and the Mississippi Senate and expanded our majority in the Mississippi House.  All three chambers serve four-year terms.    

"Democrats now control the first three chambers that have already elected the legislators who will serve through the redistricting process," says DLCC Executive Director Michael Sargeant.  "We look forward to continuing our success in 2008."

(cross posted at Daily Kos )

WASHINGTON, DC--I'd like to congratulate the DNC on choosing Denver as the site of the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

I agree whole-heartedly with Chairman Dean that the West is important to the future of the Democratic Party.  Democrats in the West in particular are showing that we are the party that will tackle tough problems.  We're changing the conversation in the states, and, more importantly, we're rolling up our sleeves and searching for solutions to the problems that are keeping our citizens up at night.  Here in Colorado, we rescued funding for higher education and solved a budget crisis.  We have more work to do, and we look forward to it.  I think Chairman Dean is wise to identify our success here as a key to the long-term health of our party.

In honor of the four weeks to go before the election, we thought we'd kick off our first diary entry with the four ways statehouse races matter shaping our nation and planning for long-term Democratic success:

1.)  When we flip a statehouse, the conversation in the state changes overnight
2.)  When we win at the statehouse level, we're putting Democrats in a strong position for redistricting.
3.)  We're showing Democrats can win--anywhere.
4.)  We're preparing the future national Democratic leaders.

More below--plus four things you can do to help and four key chambers.