Democratic leadership can no longer afford to leave millions of voters in Republican-dominated areas believing that nobody in the Democratic Party is listening to them.

Check, too, if your city has official neighborhood groups or community councils you could join. Sprawling Los Angeles, for ...

Here’s the hard truth: In local politics, most officials don’t have the ability to do much in isolation. If they want to move things forward, they’ve got to build consensus, buy-in and agreement.