Curious....we now have 3 people vying for NCDP Chair..
David Parker
Bill Faison
Danny Montgomery
Any comments or concerns...who would you vote for if you were a SEC member?
Curious....we now have 3 people vying for NCDP Chair..
David Parker
Bill Faison
Danny Montgomery
Any comments or concerns...who would you vote for if you were a SEC member?
Comments
David Parker
He's the guy in this race with 35 years of real party experience at every level from precinct chair to super-delegate. He's raised millions of dollars for Democrats and non-profit groups in that time, and done it across numerous platforms from phone banks to direct contact to fundraisers in his own living-room. He's the aggressive public advocate we need for the Party in these dark times, and he has a plan to bring everybody back on board before the 2012 election-- starting now.
His website is www.VoteParker.com.
David will be live-blogging here on BlueNC next Wednesday, the 12th at 9pm.
I agree with Frank
I have had the opportunity to observe David's work within the Party, and I have seen a strong, yet compasionate person who actually listens to the concerns/ideas of others.
Over the past several weeks, I have sat down with him to discuss concerns. He cares! He has a desire to energize the party from the grassroots up. David has indicated a strong desire to bring some of the core groups of the Democratic Party; like Veterans and LGBT to a more prominent role in developing our message as we move forward.
My primary concern with Bill Faison, whom I like personally and appreciate his service to the citizens of Chatham County, is that as a sitting legislator, I do not see him as being effective communicating the whole message of what we stand for, while at the same time he is working against legislative policies on Jones Street.
Finally, I don't see where having a sitting legislator, with absolutely NO power in the GA, will mean that OUR resolutions will have any chance of getting any traction. Hell, even when we had full control of the GA the elected politicians didn't give a damn what grassroots democrats wanted-they did whatever would get them maintain power.
Michael J. Gould, MS, FIOPL
Member, SEANC Board of Governors
Member, NDP SEC
Perhaps to ask very direct questions...
...and evaluate the answers?
Remember - the NCDP Chair's constituency is really only the SEC members who can vote for them.
As an SEC member, my constituency is the Wake CEC members who can vote for me.
As a precinct Chair and county party delegate, my constituency is the registered Democrats who live in my precinct.
Every officer in the Democratic Party needs to be responsible to the people who vote for them. We are their servants. We owe them answers to their questions.
One of the questions that people ask me is why we lost so big this year. In my precinct, I tell voters that we had excellent turnout, and we had Cressie Thigpen himself tell one of our poll greeters (trained by me) that she gave the best explanation of IRV he had heard. We concentrated on traditional GOTV activities that have served us well over the years.
Above the precinct level, I have different answers. When I am asked by voters in my precinct and in the county about what the NCDP Chair candidates think were some of the reasons we lost in the rest of the county, state and nation, and why our Party lacked a clear message - all I can tell the inquiring minds is that so far - NONE of the NCDP Candidates have a clue what happened. They are "listening".
Then the people ask me: "How am I supposed to decide who to ask you to vote for among candidates who don't have a clear idea of why we lost so big this year?" Can you imagine being asked to vote for someone for President who didn't have a clear plan for what they would do - they just asked for ideas? Asking for ideas doesn't imply that the person will even hear the ideas fired at them, or even institute any of the ideas sent to them.
I am just amazed that anyone running for such an important office doesn't have their ideas on what went wrong and how to fix it. Or that they can't offer up any opinion on the historic way that candidates and campaigns led the NCDP around by the nose this year - and how badly that worked out for us!
It seems like all the candidates are purposefully avoiding telling us how they will deal with the hard issues facing the Party. We are not in the majority anymore - so stop wasting my time talking about the Democratic Legislative agenda and tell us what is broke and how you will fix it!
Chris Telesca
Wake County Verified Voting
http://noirvnc.blogspot.com
http://statewideirvnc.blogspot.com
I am coming to Your house!
Joanne,
I am coming because YOU are my friend, and yes your damn cute too!
I am a seeker of knowledge, and I gain that by constant interaction with others, whether I agree/support them or not! There is an old saying that, "Iron Sharpens Iron."
This doesn't change any of my concerns. I, like many others, have expressed deep-seated concerns, especially after the: 1. Complete ass-kicking that Democrats received in NC and Wake County in particular, and 2. We have a governor who has already said, "Read my Lips-No tax hikes (or extensions of current temporary ones." My paraphrase cerca George H.W. Bush from 1998. So we have a reoccurring split between the elites of the state party and the grassroots, especially after certain Wake County House members have said that they don't want progressives actively involved, or have the party involved in message development. See ya Sunday!
Peace and All Good!
Michael J. Gould, MS, FIOPL
Member, SEANC Board of Governors
Member, NDP SEC
County
Bill represents Northern Orange and Caswell Counties. Not Chatham.
We will be lucky not to have our entire agenda REPEALED next year. I really, honestly do not understand why anyone thinks that the we can hope for anything more than preventing complete destruction of our state next year.
I will give you a for instance. There was a resolution passed last year to support expanding public financing. It is a top priority of the Republicans to ELIMINATE ALL public financing within the first month after they take over.
"Keep the Faith"
Thanks for the Correction
Appreciate it the correction on Bill's district-Got my "C" counties mixed up.
The other thing you forgot to include is the plan to put the Defense of Marriage Act on the 2012 ballot to change the state constitution. 10 days after the election, I was at an event where Majority Leader-elect Skip Stam made it absolutely clear that they will put it on there to WIN all the 2012 races.
If the House finds 4 democrats to vote with them, the House republicans will join the Senate and have the super majorities they need to do it. Add to that redistricting, and you have a nightmare scenario. In the past 4 years where the GOP has tried to get movement on the DOM bills, there have been several democrats who are still in the GA who signed on to those bills. I have done the research, and have given THAT list of names to David Parker.
Michael J. Gould, MS, FIOPL
Member, SEANC Board of Governors
Member, NDP SEC
You raise a good issue.
I feel that the Democratic Legislators will have their hands full doing whatever they can to prevent the wholesale elimination of public financing. They may not have any luck doing it.
But I still fail to see what good one of those Legislators would do not only having to work in the Legislature AND trying to lead the NCDP? Come on now - isn't that too much work for one person to do? Especially when the new Chair also has to be hiring a new ED and perhaps other staff?
No - I want effective Democratic legislators and I want an effective NCDP Chair and staff. I want a separation of powers. We won't get that with a legislator as NCDP Chair.
Chris Telesca
Wake County Verified Voting
http://noirvnc.blogspot.com
http://statewideirvnc.blogspot.com
live blogging how-to
Can some one explain how the live blogging works? How do readers participate? How do we send in questions and is it real time. I am new to this but have questions.
We'll post a "question" thread
a couple of days before the live blog. You can put your questions and comments there to give the guest a heads-up about what's on your mind.
Then on the night of the blogging session, we'll be "live" for an hour with our guests. They'll respond to earlier questions, but also to new questions and follow-up questions from anyone who wants to ask.
Typically, the hour goes by very fast ... and in the past, most guests have made it a point to stay plugged in over the days following the live-blog session to answer trailing questions and respond to comments.
Thanks for asking.
Oops! Didn't see this
What James said...
The usual process involves
posting a "question" thread days in advance of the live blog, to give the subject time to develop answers. In this particular case, you can expect that thread to be posted soon, possibly by this weekend.
We also usually allow comments to be posted during the live blog, but (understandably) there is a limit to how many impromptu and/or subjectively negative comments/questions a subject will (or can be expected to) address.
NCDP Politics blog
Got a tweet about NCDP politcs with a link to this blog about the candiddates for state party.
http://ncdppolitics.blogspot.com/
Who is "NCDP Insider"?
All I can tell from his/her blog is that he/she detests Jerry Meek and blames him for everything wrong with the NCDP. Which, if nothing else, certainly overstates Jerry's degree of influence. And, of course, it doesn't provide much in the way of coherent narrative--since two years ago while Jerry was chair a Democratic presidential candidate won NC for the first time since 1976. Personally, I don't credit our chair party chair at any given time with magical powers for either good or evil, but let's be consistent.
Dan Besse
Just ignore him
From the rhetoric, I am 99% sure it is an individual with awesome list-building and email harvesting skills who has been sending his colorful opinions via email for about four years now. He has since expanded his empire to include website use and blog postings. I'm not comfortable discussing the situation and details in public. All I'll say is that if someone is looking for information, I'd recommend getting your information from someone you know and trust or at least someone who is not anonymous.
Katy Munger,
Progress North Carolina Action
www.progressncaction.org
Lead, follow or get out of the way....
Why dance around it - the guy's a nutjob from
Rockingham County. Initials are G.M. Anyone who wants to know his name can PM me.
Sorry for comtinuing off topic.
I actively oppose gerrymandering. Do you?
I am guessing "NCDP insider"
doesn't even live in NC - lives in another state - and has finally learned how to blog - do you know who it is now?
Chris Telesca
Wake County Verified Voting
http://noirvnc.blogspot.com
http://statewideirvnc.blogspot.com
could it be........Satan?
or maybe one of his henchmen from Virginia?
hmmm
Well, Eric Cantor is from Virginia. Hmmmmm.....
Dan Besse
The prose is too clear and
The prose is too clear and has too few instances of unnecessary capitalization/bolding/font shifting/coloring to be the snake that was cast out of Eden.
Off the top of my head, it could be a former elected official, or a future inmate.
I always wanted to be the avenging cowboy hero—that lone voice in the wilderness, fighting corruption and evil wherever I found it, and standing for freedom, truth and justice. - Bill Hicks
Danny Montgomery
Is Danny Montgomery the same woman Jerry Meek backed for first chair four or so years ago who stood and gave a speech that a) expressed her anti-choice views and b) slammed people of Hispanic descent by making snarky comments about immigrants, thus inspiring Paul Leubke to stand up, walk across the podium and whisper in Jerry Meek's ear that he was ashamed of him for backing someone with those views?
I've never been so proud Paul was my rep.
If this is the same person, she definitely does not back some of the planks in the Democratic Party platform. Her opponent, Stella Adams, stood up and made a blistering speech pointing that out (Stella is an awesome public speaker) and people all over the auditorium scratched out Danny's name -- which they had filled out based on Jerry Meek's recommendation -- and put in Stella's name instead. In the end, Montgomery won the race by only five or six votes.
Thus ends another thrilling tale in "The Adventures of The NCDP."
And, no, I am definitely NOT the infamous NCDP Insider! I hightailed it out of there a few years ago. Like Little Anthony, I am now on the outside looking in:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZnRk1l_3Fk
Katy Munger,
Progress North Carolina Action
www.progressncaction.org
Lead, follow or get out of the way....
I too wondered what Jerry was thinking when he supported Dannie
Other than to somehow boost Larry Kissell for 2008. Or perhaps to avoid having to deal with someone else in 2007-2009.
Jerry's recommendation for NCDP Chair in 2009 was a real bust for the Party. We are now well behind where we were in 2009 when Jerry stepped down, and I think we are even behind where we were when Jerry took over in 2005.
So as good a job as Jerry did during his term, I just don't take much stock in his picks for NCDP Chair or other office since then. Keeping the best interests of the Party in mind that is. I am sure there are other reasons for trying to influence the selection of NCDP Chair that go well beyond the best interests of the Party and the voters of NC. I just don't really care about them right now.
Chris Telesca
Wake County Verified Voting
http://noirvnc.blogspot.com
http://statewideirvnc.blogspot.com
Why not chime in . . .
I figured I'd chime in, Chris and Katy.
I did support Dannie as my Vice-Chair in 2007. She had worked hard as Kissell's campaign Chair in the 2006 election and she continued to work hard as Vice-Chair of the State Party. As for Dannie's speech in 2007, Rep. Luebke did come up to me after the speech. But, contrary to Katy's report of what he said to me, he actually demanded that I publicly rebuke Dannie. I felt that, if a rebuke was warranted, it should be by an action of the body and not by the unilateral action of the Chair.
I did not take a position when Dannie ran for re-election in 2009. In fact, I was not even there when the vote occurred (I became very sick during the vote for Chair -- not related to the vote itself :) -- and had to leave.)
In 2009, the options for Chair were David Young, Dannie, and Luke Hyde. I was one of the overwhelming majority of the SEC who supported David. I still think he was the best of the three candidates.
Jerry
It depends on who is doing the "hailing" and...
...if the "hails" are accurate!
We may never be able to get someone who was as good a Chair as Jerry was - especially in those first two years - but that's the reason why I feel it's important to find someone who has a history of part activism and someone who isn't joined at the hip with either the Gov or the Legislature.
Chris Telesca
Wake County Verified Voting
http://noirvnc.blogspot.com
http://statewideirvnc.blogspot.com
2009
Jerry - I am not sure where you went during the vote counting for Chair, but didn't you come back and play a role in the nomination of Tony McEwen for 3rd Vice Chair?
Also, I'd be real curious to know what role you played (if any) in the selection of David Young running for NCDP Chair in 2009. David Young had no role or active interest in the NC Democratic Party other than running for State Treasurer in the May 2008 Primary. I heard that several people had been approached either by you and/or by Governor Perdue to run for NCDP Chair, but eventually they all decided not to run.
I have been trying to figure out what your objection is to David Parker. I have heard many different versions of reasons why, but haven't heard any directly from you.
David Young got the overwhelming majority of support in the 2009 SEC election because he got the endorsement of both you and the Governor. I know that David's campaign people were calling folks up and telling them that you supported David. Still don't know why - David had no experience in the NC Democratic Party - didn't seem to know how it worked.
You did so much to move this party forward from 2005 through at least June 2008 (before OFA took over when they killed "Constructing Victory") that I have to wonder what you think about the ground lost since 2008 - and I don't mean just the loss of both Houses of the General Assembly, and so many local offices around the state. I mean the loss at the grassroots level.
So after two years of moving backwards so that this party is worse off than when you became Chair in 2005, how do you really think that someone who is a sitting legislator who also has to run for re-election in 2012 will be able to do what needs to be done? I mean for Pete's sake - I've talked to the guy on the phone and all he can do is tell me about his "skill set". I've asked him specifically if he knows what went wrong in 2010 and what he feels needs to be done moving forward - and all he tells me is to let him listen to me. Good Lord!
Sorry - what this party really needs is someone who doesn't have "other responsibilities" as a sitting legislator who also works as a lawyer who also has to run a re-election campaign and take care of other "personal business" that I am sure will be brought up by the Republicans if he got elected NCDP Chair.
And on top of that - as a legislator running for re-election in 2012, Faison will no doubt be targeted by an "Alvin Greene"-type primary challenger and have to resign as NCDP Chair. Assuming that he doesn't get the Plan Of Organization changed to keep him from having to resign - is it really a good idea to allow a candidate for a public elected office to be a party officer and have that sort of advantage in a primary? That's the reason why we have that part of the "POO" in there in the first place. But what happens if we have an SEC meeting in January 2012, and then someone files against Faison at the very last minute? Then we have to hold yet another SEC meeting to replace our Party Chair right around the time when we are holding precinct meetings and county conventions. Boy - won't that be fun?
Chris Telesca
Wake County Verified Voting
http://noirvnc.blogspot.com
http://statewideirvnc.blogspot.com
yes - and am determined not to do that again
sometimes I supported others that turned out to be less/other than they seemed because I relied on the advice of friends or others who appeared to be "in the know".
But we all live - and some of us learn. So now, I do m own thinking and I ask questions. It's like doing "due diligence" when making investments. Sure - you can blame someone who gave you bad advice, but unless they outright lied to you - the responsibility is all your own. After you get burned once, you ought to do things differently.
Chris Telesca
Wake County Verified Voting
http://noirvnc.blogspot.com
http://statewideirvnc.blogspot.com
It's Dannie Montgomery
Dannie, not Danny
Durham Dem
If you only knew....
... the irony of that question! :)
Yes, I most certainly have supported someone who turned out to be less than what I thought and it was a deeply disappointing experience that sent me spiraling down into a pit of cynicism I am still climbing out of.
In many cases, though, I think people turn out to be not so much less than what you think, but simply stymied by the forces that be. Their best intentions are thwarted by the system. Power does not give up power willingly, and I know from personal experience (and have seen others go through the same thing) that it's often futile to fight against those who resist all change because they are afraid it will diminish their power somehow. It's one of the most frustrating things about being active in a political party, I suspect. Can't speak for either Dannie Montgomery, or Jerry, on that point as I dropped out of the Dem Party soon after that exec comm meeting -- but I have seen many another well-intentioned person who probably would have made a great leader end up being far less than that just because one person alone cannot fight an army.
By the way: my pride in seeing Paul Leubke take action about that particular speech came about not because I was against either Dannie or Jerry. It came because so few people ever seem to act on their principles, especially when it might be against their best interests, and seeing Paul immediately act on his renewed my faith in mankind a little.
Katy Munger,
Progress North Carolina Action
www.progressncaction.org
Lead, follow or get out of the way....