WP: Field of Candidates for DNC Chairman Narrows to Four

[DeepModem Mom]

Field of Candidates for DNC Chairman Narrows to Four

By Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 5, 2005; Page A02


The field of potential candidates for Democratic National Committee chairman shrank by two yesterday when former White House deputy chief of staff Harold Ickes and former Dallas mayor Ron Kirk announced they had decided not to enter the competition.

Kirk, the 2002 Democratic candidate for Senate in Texas, gave a boost to former House member and fellow Texan Martin Frost by endorsing his candidacy, while Ickes, a veteran party strategist, said he would defer supporting another candidate....

***

Frost is one of four candidates definitely in the race. The others are former Denver mayor Wellington E. Webb, New Democrat Network founder Simon B. Rosenberg and party strategist Donnie Fowler.

Former Vermont governor Howard Dean is exploring a run and has recruited several staff members should he enter the race. Former Michigan governor James J. Blanchard and Timothy J. Roemer, a former Indiana congressman and member of the panel that investigated the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, also are still mulling formal entries, but their decisions could be influenced by the amount of congressional or gubernatorial support they corral....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48514-2005Jan4.html

[xultar]

1. I thought Dean was for sure in the race? It appears that he isn't

If you guys haven't go to MoveOn.org and send a note telling him to run for chair.

[RubyDuby in GA]

4. Uh, Dean is definitely running

and he'll be in Atlanta this weekend for the Southern Regional Caucus interview.

And I'll be seeing him Friday and Saturday. happy happy joy joy :bounce: :)

[Rose Siding]

10. The Hill says he hasn't confirmed a run yet

but support is coming from some interesting places.

snip>
Dean has not formally declared that he is running, but Gross said that announcement was to be expected “shortly.” Dean would mostly likely inform his supporters of his final decision electronically.

http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/010505/murtha.html

[Florida_Geek]

5. where on moveon

I looked but could not find it

Thanks

[xultar]

9. Here is a linkie poo...

http://www.moveonpac.org/dncchair/

[Rose Siding]

6. I'm tentatively hoping Dean throws in with Rosenberg

Rosenberg embraced Dean and the idea of participatory democracy during the primaries and then in a long NYT Sunday Mag piece.

He isn't perfect but if they could collaberate, that would be my choice for this reason: Dean would be the target and the fall guy of every inside power cabal. He'd have to battle all of them AND the press when he'd want to be taking charges at the repubs. He'd also be in the position of having to support every wobbly pol who carries a "D" after their name and that would dilute his strengths.

Mainly, I'm very concerned about the idea of Dean not being able to take another run at the presidency. A strong DFA and a working relationship with someone open minded in the DNC chair (of all the others, I consider Rosenberg most suited) sounds like the best outcome to me. I have great respect for Dean, so if he goes for it, I'm there but it appears he's struggling with the decision and these are the kind of things he might be considering.

*here's the Times piece I mentioned
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/25/magazine/25DEMOCRATS.html?ei=5088&en=13ada638bbe542f0&ex=1248494400&partner=rssnyt&pagewanted=print&position=

[damntexdem]

2. If it's Frost, then it;s time ...

to leave the Democratic Party on ice and find something else to occupy our time and energies. Why continue with a GOP wannabe party?

Yes, let's push for Dean. But with the DNC, I'm afraid that our push has little pull.

[struggle4progress]

13. Frost regularly defended his seat in Dallas until the GOP ...

... gerrymandered it from underneath him in order to push genuine wingnuts into Congress.

I'd bet Frost is spitting nails and ready to fight.

[SharonAnn]

3. They're lying! Frost hasn't "run and won in a Republican-dominated state"

He lost the last election! The Republicans redistricted him out of contention. He's an example of what happens when we're not fighting hard enough.

I don't think that makes him an example of anything except that in Republican leaning states the Democrats are currently being marginalized. He couldn't overcome it, Daschle couldn't overcome it, etc. They're examples of how to lose in a Republican leaning state.

The revolution doesn't start there! Same-old, same-old will get us the same-old result.

[4dsc]

7. Your thoughts about Simon B. Rosenberg??

Does he have a plan and a chance??

[Rose Siding]

11. He seems to grasp the need for long term change ala Dean

snip>
Actually, Rappaport says he may be on to an answer. Last summer, he got a call from Simon Rosenberg, president of the New Democrat Network, a fund-raising and advocacy group in Washington. Would Rappaport mind sitting down for a confidential meeting with a veteran Democratic operative named Rob Stein? Sure, Rappaport replied. What Stein showed him when they met was a PowerPoint presentation that laid out step by step, in a series of diagrams a ninth-grader could understand, how conservatives, over a period of 30 years, had managed to build a ''message machine'' that today spends more than $300 million annually to promote its agenda.

Rappaport was blown away by the half-hour-long presentation. ''Man,'' he said, ''that's all it took to buy the country?''

Stein and Rosenberg weren't asking Rappaport for money -- at least not yet. They wanted Democrats to know what they were up against, and they wanted them to stop thinking about politics only as a succession of elections. If Democrats were going to survive, Stein and Rosenberg explained, men like Rappaport were going to have to start making long-term investments in their political ideas, just as they did in their business ventures. The era of the all-powerful party was coming to an end, and political innovation, like technological innovation, would come from private-sector pioneers who were willing to take risks.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/25/magazine/25DEMOCRATS.html?ei=5088&en=13ada638bbe542f0&ex=1248494400&partner=rssnyt&pagewanted=print&position=

[pinerow]

8. The head of the Democratic Party is mostly a ceremonial one..

and while I cannot for the life of figure out why Roemer, with his anti-choice views is even being considered; I believe that Dean can help the party more by staying out of this race than staying in.

One man's opinion.

[brooklynite]

12. Fowler speaking in NYC next week.

Wednesday, January 12
7:00pm
CODA
34 E. 34th Street
New York, NY 10016

The Next DNC Chair and the Future of the Democratic Party
featuring:
Donnie Fowler, candidate for Democratic National Committee Chair

Info and RSVP address at: http://dl21c.org/

[salin]

14. Skip Blanchard

lost a race he should have won against a very marginally popular and unknown republican who had led the michigan senate... blanchard - running a "safe race"... stayed far, far away from Detroit during the campaign. The strategy was the view that (black) Detroit would "of course" vote for Blanchard - and being seen as too sympathetic to the needs of the city (which were great)... was seen to be "too controversial" for the rest of the state. As a result the oft dependable political activists of the city went completely dormant. Without the work, GOTV efforts and energy of Detroit democrats (specifically the African American community) - he (barely) lost the race to John Engler... who became a repub darling around the country and who was among the first GOP governors to start gutting the social safety net of the state (under the guise of "welfare reform" - but included programs far beyond welfare) ...

Blanchard ran an anemic race that had the an tragically awful strategy. Definitely NOT the guy we want to see take the reigns when we need a democratic reemergence/resurgence.

[JI7]

15. i thought Dean was running for the position for sure

i think he made it pretty clear he wants the job. but this is the washington post and they are often misleading either intentionally or just lazy to get their facts straight.

i think Dean will become the DNC chair as long as he wants the job based on what i have heard so far.

[truthisfreedom]

16. should we assume Dean is in and will win?

or is this still about the Dean scream?