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The letter below is a statement of outrage at the performance of the
Louisiana Democratic Party under its current leadership. It proposes a
course of action.
If you would like to have your name appear on this letter, contact Mike Stagg directly and he will affix your name and city to it.
The intent is to submit this letter to Mike Skinner and members of the
Louisiana Democratic State Central Committee in the near future.
Thank you for your consideration.
Mike Stagg
Lafayette, LA
mikestagg@digitallouisiana.org
Here's the text of the letter:
Mike Skinner, Chairman
Louisiana Democratic Party
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Mr. Skinner,
We are loyal Louisiana Democrats who are alarmed by the ineptitude and
favoritism displayed by the party in the recent election and the
implications that this abysmal performance holds for our party’s
future.
The election of Congressman David Vitter as Louisiana’s first
Republican United States Senator since Reconstruction constitutes an
electoral calamity for Louisiana Democrats. Based on the Louisiana
Democratic Party’s performance in that election, we call upon you and
your lieutenants Louis Rainey, Derek Wooley, and Ed Wisham among
others, to resign your positions immediately, as the necessary first
step towards renewal of the Louisiana Democratic Party.
The Vitter victory alone would justify our call for your resignation
were it the only sign of shoddy stewardship of the party under your
watch. Unfortunately it is not.
The party switch of Congressman Rodney Alexander was a bad turn of
events. But, the party transformed this into an electoral disaster by,
first, trying to void all qualifying (including that of loyal Democrat
Tisa Blakes) and, second, by failing to endorse Ms. Blakes’ candidacy
once the initial qualifying of candidates was allowed to stand.
The party has created a looming electoral calamity in the Seventh
Congressional District where the party picked up part of the cost of
printing ballots endorsing Sen. Willie Mount, snubbing Democratic Sen.
Donald Cravins.
In both the 5th and 7th Congressional districts, the party’s actions —
intended or not — constituted a direct affront to the party’s core
African American constituency. The Louisiana Democratic Party, a party
whose success depends on the ability to build reliable multi-ethnic and multi-cultural alliances, cannot afford such thoughtless and
insensitive leadership.
The party’s actions in the 5th and 7th districts are consistent with
the pattern that has come to characterize your tenure as head of the
Louisiana Democratic Party: running the organization as though it is a
private club, whose resources and support are available only to a
select group of candidates chosen by insiders.
Combined with the Vitter victory, the party’s actions in the 5th and
7th Congressional district campaigns would have been enough to warrant
your resignation had they been the only incidents of incompetence.
Unfortunately, they were not.
The failure of the Louisiana Democratic Party to rally even minimal
electoral and financial support for the Kerry/Edwards presidential
ticket contributed materially to the defeat of that ticket here and to
the Vitter primary victory.
The failure of the party’s leadership to consistently speak out
publicly in support of the Kerry/Edwards ticket and to encourage other
Democrats to do so as well materially harmed the campaign in this
state. The failure of the state party’s leadership to explain the
negative impact of Bush/Cheney administration policies in Louisiana,
and the Kerry/Edwards response to them, constituted a failure both of
imagination and of nerve.
The failure of the party to mount any semblance of a successful voter
registration drive in that campaign is further evidence of the
ineptness that has characterized the party’s recent efforts during your tenure. This failure was compounded by the failure of the party to mount an effective statewide Get Out The Vote effort on November 2,
2004.
This string of failures is a powerful indictment of your leadership and of your team.
It is clear at this juncture that the Louisiana Democratic Party has
lost its way, and that the current party leaders have no idea how to
right this situation. It is an organization where who you know still
counts for more than what you know. It is a party that has neither
vision nor passion. It is a party that is incapable of carrying out the basic tasks necessary to run successful campaigns.
Your public statements since the election, including your anemic recent performance before the Baton Rouge Press Club, indicate that you have no sense of the despair and anger the state party’s failure have caused among Democrats across Louisiana.
Combined with the party’s pathetic performance in the recent election
cycle, your denial of the depths to which the party has fallen makes it clear that new leadership is needed to revitalize the party in the
critical weeks and months ahead.
Historic calamities demand a historic response.
Therefore, we, the undersigned loyal Louisiana Democrats hereby call on you and your top lieutenants to muster the basic honor required of
sound stewardship and resign your positions immediately so that the
party we all love can begin the process of revitalization which is
absolutely essential for its survival.
Sincerely,
Mike Stagg
Lafayette, LA
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