DeMarco Factor: Transforming Public Will into Political Power

by Michael Pertschuk

Vinny DeMarco might be a latter-day Don Quixote except that he tilts his lance at real obstacles to social justice: lobby-locked state legislatures and Congress, stonewalling the public will. And he makes impossible dreams come true. In twenty years of organizing campaigns in Maryland, he has led successful efforts to pass gun control laws (against National Rifle Association opposition), to hike cigarette taxes to prevent youth smoking, and to extend health care to hundreds of thousands of low-income workers. He has also built a unique alliance of mainstream and conservative faith groups, which helped secure rare bipartisan votes in Congress for the enactment in July 2009 of landmark FDA regulation of tobacco manufacture and marketing.

DeMarco's unique strategic template, developed over two decades of serial campaigning, includes momentum-building stages over a multiyear campaign; unrelenting, skillful access to the media for engaging public support; coalitions of hundreds, even thousands, of faith, community, labor, public health, and business groups; and a hard press on candidates to support legislation before elections, rather than after they are comfortably in office. As an organizer/leader, Demarco also succeeds in his campaigns through force of personality: his unquenchable exuberance and idiosyncrasies delight and madden his opponents--sometimes his allies, too.

Michael Pertschuk, himself a veteran advocate, here chronicles three of DeMarco's campaigns, each facing a different obstacle course. His deep analysis draws out strategic and leadership lessons that engaged citizens and advocates for popular causes stonewalled by powerful lobbies can put to immediate and practical use.

Genres: Politics

244 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2010

Reviews

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was interesting for learning how Vinny DeMarco does what he does. DeMarco uses advocacy and lobbying to win passage of state legislation in Maryland. He often spends multiple years to win a single reform as opposed to many advocacy organizations that have multiple reforms on their agenda in any given year. His efforts have included: Maryland Childrens Initiative which raised the tobacco tax by 30 cents; Health Care for All; Faith United Against Tobacco to get the FDA to regulate tobacco. The book covers each campaign and also uses 9 questions to explore DeMarco's strategy for public advocacy campaigns. I learned from the stories, the interviews with colleagues, and the 9 question analysis. My complaint is that Michael Pertschuk does not do more to balance out his own pro-DeMarco bias. He interviews the leading lobbyist for the tobacco industry in Maryland to provide the perspective of someone who does not admire DeMarco. However I wish he would have also included a few other perspectives. He makes dismissive comments about pro-free market policy analysts at one point, and "those who see the good as the enemy of the best" [e.g. by voting for Ralph Nader in 2000] at another point. The dismissive tone of those comments made me skeptical of his analysis of DeMarco's tactics. I wish he would have included the perspectives of pro-free market policy analysts or single payer plan supporters. Nevetheless it's a useful and instructive book with plenty of concrete examples of tactics and lessons learned. It's also an inspiring book about someone committed to making a tangible difference in people's lives.

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Must read for anyone trying to push for policy change through grassroots organizing, especially at the state level.

[O · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an excellent read on what it takes to get causes enacted into law. It’s very practical, so any layperson can take this blueprint and run with it. I think this book is required reading for anyone in public health, advocates for any cause that want to see actual change, and for the people who are “purists” and think that you don’t have to get in bed with frenemies to get things done.

This book made me think about those who wouldn’t vote for Harris because of her stance on Palestine, despite the fact her opponent has the same stance and other stances that the group opposed to Harris in theory should also be opposed to (I believe strongly the reason folks didn’t vote for Harris really had to do with her ethnicity and gender, but that’s a topic for another day). I’m thinking about the leader from the Working Families USA party that tried to explain to Amanda Seales on her podcast why they endorsed Harris and don’t regret it, and she wasn’t buying it. The difference between Seales and this leader is the difference between people who talk about it and those who do something about it. Seales is great in terms of providing information and educating folks, but folks like her don’t understand or want to do what it actually takes to get something meaningful enacted into law. The leader from the Working Families party does. More respect and understanding needs to be put on their names, and I think reading this book will get my fellow progressives/leftists there.

Also, not for nothing, I think the Project 2025/Heritage Foundation folks had this exact blueprint down to a science. I hope people start learning these lessons fast, because if not…

Highly recommend.

ETA: Bereano needs to get that hate out of his system. You lost! Get over it. Move on and do better on things that actually help people. Philip Morris will be just fine.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good, particularly the beginning and the end. Many of the examples weren't as relevant to the NZ context or alcohol harm minimisation but the more generalised information was very interesting.