Tuesday, January 27th, 2009...3:15 pm
Final Thoughts on Saturday’s Meeting
So, out with the old and in with the new (cue the Gila Bend song). Folks have been asking me for my thoughts on the whole thing, because, apparently, my opinion matters.
Maybe that’s a good place to start with this whole thing. I have been a member of the State Committee for nearly twenty years, and I’ve seen some really remarkable activists and community leaders. I’ve also seen some where the “actual productive work” to “serious pain in the ass” ratio is a number so small that it necessitates the use of scientific notation. Often, it can be easy as a party staffer or political pro to lump all of these folks together as the great unwashed. In the end though, no matter how much care and attention you as staff give to favored elected officials and wealthy donors, the huddled masses of the state committee are the ones who in the end decide who your boss is. Disrespect that fact at your peril.
I didn’t find too many people who had any personal problems with Don Bivens. The main problem was his unwillingness to change the direction of the party. For those that remember, he was brought in after some elected officials, particularly Terry Goddard (who is very close to Bivens and nominated him), were dissatisfied with the party office. We were told that this would be the big break from the party being run by Janet Napolitano loyalists and a changing of the guard to a more broad based party. In the time since he’d been chosen, there were few major changes in party staff. Since November, there had been no indications that party staff would be changed (quite the opposite) and little acknowledgement that something went wrong.
One person who I thought got the shaft unfairly this weekend was Charlene Fernandez. Fernandez had only been elected First Vice Chair after Donna Branch Gilby stepped aside to run for County Supervisor last Spring. She had not been a part of decision making and was largely in the same marginalized boat as the rest of us. My sense is that she got caught up in the prop wash of Paul Eckerstrom’s election.
A piece of silliness I heard before the election was that this was somehow those crazy people in Pima County at it again. It is always funny to hear folks in the county that quadrennially re-elects Joe Arpaio saying that we are the crazy ones.
My “live blogging” seemed to have some consequences. Within minutes of Eckerstrom’s election, two people in Washington got in touch with me to ask me about it. Also, one activist who isn’t a member of the State Committee but read the news on my blog decided to come to the meeting to find out what was up.
I’ve known Paul for long enough to know that he’s got his faults (and if he isn’t nice, I’ll write about them). I also know that he’s committed to getting good folks elected. I look forward to his time as chairman.
4 Comments
January 27th, 2009 at 8:03 pm
Well said.
January 27th, 2009 at 10:51 pm
I disagree on several points, Ted.
First, I personally felt that the vote was for something and someone rather than against something or someone. I (reluctantly because I believe the job that Bivens did in building the party will bear fruit in the future) voted for Eckerstrom because his speech bore on some things I’ve felt for a long time– that in our haste to not lose we’ve not put out a strong enough message that we can win by being Democrats. The national party has clearly demonstrated they can win, and it was the messaging angle that caused me to vote for Eckerstrom. I do respect Bivens enough though that I told him why I had voted the way I did because he was as stunned as anyone and certainly deserved to know why. I disagree strongly with your portrayal of the way Bivens has run things. I felt he has helped build a much stronger and broader party, and if he’s been a successful fundraiser, why is that such a bad thing?
I also disagree with your take on Fernandez. I voted For Harriet Young at least as much as I voted against Fernandez. Let me repeat that– FOR Harriet Young. She has done an outstanding job in building the Coco Democrats, and also in extending the reach of the party onto the reservation and worked well with surrounding counties. As far as Fernandez is concerned there were two things that may have worked against her. The first is that last year she pledged to visit every county. Didn’t happen (certainly she never made it up here.) The second (I heard this after she was defeated but the person, who will remain nameless, said she had ruffled some feathers by this): she had a habit in the past of bringing dozens of proxies and swinging elections with large blocs of votes. Certainly this is legal (or at least it was then) but at the same time it caused at least the individual I spoke to (it’s a name you’d recognize and who has some pull in the party) to feel like she was abusing the system. Ergo that individual supported Young this time around.
January 28th, 2009 at 7:14 am
Another point that *might* have played a roll would be that LDs that normally get absolutely no attention from the State Party, focused the past two years recruiting more active (elected) PCs (which is what all LDs should have on their “to do” list) and for the first time they showed up with a large amount of State Committee people instead of the usual small amount and of course they felt they had been left behind (and I am not talking about LD16)
Making that point, I don’t think many new State Committee people came in THAT bitter to vote Bivens “off the island” but then again Paul gave this great empowering speech and Don still didn’t realize what was happening at that point.
At least that was my take.
I am hopeful that this new exec board can get going fast with fundraising and getting the staff/state committee/PCs/Districts pumped to go for this upcoming local elections and state elections that are coming up quick!
January 28th, 2009 at 9:27 pm
First, I know that Harriet did a fine job as chair of Coconino County. But let us not forget that Charlene (my mom) has done an amazing job of building the party and developing the grassroots as chair of Yuma County Democrats. She created an outreach program to the highly Hispanic areas in county, increased voter registration, and helped integrate young democrats into the party structure. All the while, serving in a county that has been traditionally Republican.
It is true, THERE WAS A promise to visit each county when she was elected vice chair, but we must not forget she was elected at the end of April, she was not even in office for a full 8 months (6 of those 8 months were during the election which makes it more difficult to travel around the state) and, as she said in her speech and to many state committee members, that is one of the reasons you should re-elect her to let her fulfill her promises (remember that = members are elected for 2-year terms).
The second accusation about the proxies is one that has been said so many times and each time the number and the severity of it increases. Yuma has 38 state committee members this time around, in April we had 42. Now, as everyone knows, we haven’t had a meeting closer than 3 hours to Yuma so not everyone can afford to make that trip, necessitating the use of proxies. Proxies were usually is divided between the 5 or so members who are able to come. The myth of proxy abuse was advanced by folks who aren’t willing to work with coalitions to elect officers who best reflect Arizona’s Democratic Party. We no longer have a person of color as a DNC delegate and our State will suffer in the long run.
Regardless of Eli’s arguments, my mom fought very hard to try and bring about change in state party strategy in the months proceeding the election. She did not succeed in shifting strategy, as we all know, but she was fighting an uphill battle and there were many cases where she was left out of the loop.
Harriet Young worked hard but she also used her authority as Chair to divide the party during a contested primary. Her viewpoints are not rooted in bread/butter issues but more of an academic approach to politics. My mom is the real deal and her loss is a set-back to our Party.