Audacity of Scope: An Expanded Mission for DNC

• By Thomas Bates and Jason Carter
• Special to Roll Call
• Dec. 11, 2008, Midnight

In the 1980s, Mike McCurry, then a Democratic National Committee spokesman, went to his colleagues with the idea of turning the Democratic Party into a year-round volunteer bank for local nonprofits. Democratic volunteers could help at neighborhood cleanups or car washes for churches when they weren’t busy stuffing envelopes and making calls.