New Partners teams with DLGA

Arkansas Lt. Gov. Bill Halter and Massachusetts Lt. Gov. Tim Murray Thursday announced the hiring of a full-time staffer in Washington D.C. and plans to aggressively promote a slate of current Lieutenant Governors in various campaign bids across the country. The DLGA has enlisted New Partners, a D.C. based consulting firm, and Kim Rogers, former political director for Rock the Vote, to handle their D.C. operations. Rogers will serve as financial director for the DLGA with a mission to raise enough funds to support the organization’s ambitious agenda which aims to put it on par with more visible DNC committees such as the Democratic Congressional Committee and the Democratic Senatorial Committee. “Typically, when we have gotten together in the past it has been under the umbrella of the National Lieutenant Governor’s Association and only for an hour or so,” says Murray who serves as secretary and treasurer for the DLGA. “There has been a presence with Bill’s leadership and some of the other leadership but we are trying to take that to another level.” Halter, the chair of the DLGA, says the group aims to not only elect more Democratic lieutenant governors across the country but catapult some of its current members to higher offices–namely the governorship–through campaign support and training. “I would say that we are trying to be helpful to our different colleagues and promote our different colleagues,” says Halter. “It winds up being the case that lieutenant governors in different states wind up being first in the line of succession [for governor].”Halter and Murray are using the name recognition of  DLGA’s celebrity alums such as Howard Dean, John Kerry and Harry Reid as proof-positive of the power of the lieutenant governorship, a position which varies in prominence and prestige across the country. They have already endorsed three members running for governor including Diane Denish of New Mexico, Jari Askins of Oklahoma and John Cherry of Michigan. The group has also given U.S. Senate hopefuls Lee Fisher of Ohio and Dan Mongiardo of Kentucky their stamp of approval.The DLGA kicks things off July 28 with a gala for the 20 Democratic lieutenent governors currently in office as well as hopefuls like Virginia’s Jody Wagner.