Paul: Return to sender. Jason Paul wants to lead the Democratic Party back to winning elections — in part by leaving people’s phones alone.Paul, a 38-year-old Massachusetts attorney and former Connecticut political consultant and pundit, has made the ballot for the upcoming Feb. 1 election to succeed outgoing Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison, overseeing efforts by 50 state parties to elect federal candidates and build local organizations. Eight candidates have qualified for the ballot. Paul is the only one from the Northeast.The election takes place amid soul-searching by the party over its future direction at a time when Republicans have captured control of the White House, both houses of Congress, the Supreme Court, and a majority of statehouses.In an interview Tuesday on WNHHFM’s ​“Dateline New Haven,” Paul called for rethinking how the party reaches out to voters. Beginning with the torrent of text messages it unleashes at election time.“The first thing that I said when I started this campaign is that we need to stop the damn texts,” Paul said. “’Give us $5, we’re gonna pass legislation that has no chance to pass. Give us $5, we’re gonna give you four new Supreme Court justices. Give us $5, Joe Biden’s gonna put Kamala Harris on the Supreme Court.’ That little bit of manipulative lying to people is bad.”He called for moving away from ​“give me money” as the ​“number-one communication” Democrats have with voters. The party still needs to raise money, of course: Paul recommended copying Netflix’s subscription model of ongoing pledged small donations. Then he’d focus on hiring 10,000 organizers to make direct contact with people in their communities. Paul cited Connecticut’s town committee structure as a model for building grassroots participation.He’d also pursue former DNC Chair Howard Dean’s 50-state strategy of supporting candidates and organizations in every state, even those not currently competitive. As with the texting strategy, he argued for a long-term structural strategy rather than focusing on maximizing immediate donations or swing-state votes in the next election.In response to questions from listener Aaron Goode, Paul came out in support of ranked-choice voting, though he cautioned against seeing it as a panacea to the party’s electoral ills. He called for moving New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation presidential primary up to December to give voters nationwide time to sift through the candidates across a more staggered schedule.Paul will have the chance to press his ideas at four upcoming official candidate forums. The DNC’s 448 members will then gather in Baltimore to cast votes to select the new chair on Feb. 1.Even if not enough people vote to elect Paul next month, he still promises not to inundate people with text messages.He said that he hopes that the eventual winner would incorporate his campaign ideas. He’d be ready to put them into practice, minus SMS bombs.“There will be no spam texts from me,” he promised. ​“They might get money, but the damage they do is not worth the money that they get.Click on the video below to watch the interview with Democratic national chair candidate Jason Paul on WNHHFM’s ​“Dateline New Haven.” Click here to subscribe or here to listen to other episodes of ​“Dateline New Haven.”