When Howard Dean took the reins at the Democratic National Committee, he did so with a mandate to return the party to its members and to launch a Fifty State Strategy that competes for votes everywhere, in every state, every district, every precinct, every block. Ever since Dean's accession, the DNC has put enormous resources to work on this simple idea.

Today, this strategy makes its full debut in New York, with the release of what is probably the most advanced and most open voter contact tool ever built. The principle is simple: the DNC and NYSDC have put their voter file online, enabling every Democrat to print out walk lists in their immediate neighborhood and take charge of voter outreach themselves. It really doesn't get more grassroots, more people-powered than that.

What's really revolutionary is this: the feedback process built into this tool crowdsources the maintenance of this file to you, the voter. You now own the Democratic Party's voter outreach, not Washington (or, these days, Chicago), not Albany, not the party committees themselves. It's your party now.

In charge of the effort here in New York is one Dave Pollak, who is in my considered opinion probably the best person to have in this kind of a key position.

And where it gets really exciting is when you consider that this tool, built to get out the vote for Barack Obama, will be modified to enable you to also knock on doors for candidates further down the ballot. Given that we have four competitive House races and at least eight for the state Senate, you're looking at a way to channel the excitement for Senator Obama further down the ballot.

The size of our victory in November now rests on your shoulders, dear Democrat. Get out there.

Joe Mondello, who seems not to have quite grasped the basics of the English language yet, issued a statement today. Here's the relevant part, slightly edited for clarity:

Blah blah Democrat State Committee blah Senate Democrats blah just blah detract blah critical blah investigation blah Troopergate scandal.

The people of New York State overwhelmingly demand blah blah blah come clean blah blah under oath blah. Blah blah muddy the waters blah confuse blah partisan rhetoric blah political subterfuge blah the people of this state will not accept blah.

Joe, old man, it's Democratic. Not Democrat. You have so much to say about us, you might choose to get the basics right.

I emailed the release over to June O'Neill, the Chair of the Democrat State Committee, and here's her on-the-record response:

"There they go again! The State Republican Party, Joe Bruno and his Senate Republicans have now shown their true colors.

They are not the least bit interested in doing anything except holding on to their razor thin majority in the state Senate.

Adhering to Roger Stone's playbook, they continue their partisan, political witch hunt.

With the Attorney General's finding that no laws were broken and credible investigations in progress by the Albany county D.A. And State Ethics Commission, their "show trials" are a joke.

Their antics would be almost laughable if they weren't wasting time and the taxpayers money while refusing to deal with the real issues of importance to New York's working families.

It's past time for the GOP to stop trying to make a molehill into a mountain and get back to work."

Via the comments on The Albany Project comes something striking. First, this map:

The shades of red - pink, really - and blue represent the registration advantages of either party in the State of New York by county. Think that looks good for the republic party? It doesn't.

This map:

...shows the shift in party registration between 1996 and 2007. Credit goes to Ortcutt over at TAP, who crunched the numbers.

The republic party in New York is dying, folks. Joe Mondello is sitting shiva over a warm corpse that still twitches occasionally, but ever less frequently.

So here we are at the butt-crack of dawn, getting ready to depart for the state capital and today's Spring Meeting of the NYSDC. Joining us will be the good folks over at The Albany Project and from Rochester Turning.

Expect posts, liveblogging, guest blogging and plenty of photo material throughout the day.

And there's Liza. We're off.