Democratic cronyism alive and well

[FightinNewDem]

What a revoltin' development this is:

The Return of the Smoke Filled Room

Earlier this evening, a group of self-appointed Democratic movers and shakers held a secret meeting at the Manchester law office of attorney John Kacavas. This meeting was supposed to be kept from the public, but sometimes, people have more friends than others suspect.

The convener of the meeting is Rob Werner, a lobbyist for the Lung Association, and an individual who clearly wants to be viewed as a major player in Democratic Party affairs. Evidently, Rob believes that the way to do this is to hold closed-door mettings to annoint chosen candidates without those pesky voters getting involved in the process.

If the last election taught us anything, it is that cronyism and cliqueishness makes for bad politics and bad policy. The Benson Administration's proclivity for engaging in governance-by-golfing partner wreaked havoc on our state. If we Democrats are willing to simply swap one group of backroom politicos for another, we will have ceded the moral high ground.

It is time for NH Democrats to become a party of reform, a party that is open to new faces, new ideas and new approaches to politics. Ours must be a party that embraces Deaniacs and DLCers, Teamsters and software developers. Not everyone will agree on every issue, and believe it or not, that's a good thing. Let's have a spirited debate on the issues.

The days of backroom bullying have passed. I challenge my colleagues in the Democratic Party to wake up to this reality and change their ways.

http://www.representativesullivan.blogspot.com

[PROGRESSIVE1]

1. Gee, I just can't help noticing how this blog looks just like.....

Andrew (Mediawhore) Sullivan's blog. Same backround colors and text too.

[FightinNewDem]

2. It ain't Andy's

Sullivan is the most common name in most NH phone books. Let's not get carried away.

[maxanne]

3. holy toledo

Rob just applied for a job at the organization I work for.

[Ray Buckley]

4. A good thing

As Kathy Sullivan always says "any time Democrats gather to discuss electing more Democrats in NH, it is a good thing". Encouraging discussion and positive action by Democrats whether they are elected officials, party activists or mildly interested Democrats is the only way we will become a majority party. Our party's future is not in the hands of any one person or group of persons, our party's future depends on thousands of individuals all doing everything they can to elect Democrats to office at every level in the state.

[maxanne]

5. hoo boy

I don't even know what to say about that, save for it's the biggest load of codswallop I've heard in some time.

The state party is in the hands of a very few, as you well know, if you're the real Ray Buckley.

[FightinNewDem]

7. Codswallop!!!

Maxanne is absolutely right. This is codswallop (a word which doesn't get enough use, frankly).

Raymond, you know full well that this had nothing to do with altruistic concern about the future of the Democratic Party. It had everything to do with a small clique tied to your pal Lou D'Allesandro trying to fix the deck.

You folks tried this same thing last year. I assume you remember the meeting where state senate candidates were told to get in line and support Justin Nadeau or lose any funding from the Senate PAC?

Justin's smashing 36% showed how well that worked out, didn't it?

[FightinNewDem]

6. The Thoughts of Chairman Kathy

Raymond, will Kathy's collected pearls of wisdom be available in a little red softcover edition?

[Ray Buckley]

8. Yes, It;s the Red Book

Yes Peter, Kathy's wisdom will come in a little red book - it will be printed in June. Its the Red Book, the official results of the 2004 election. Hmmm, let's see it will include: The results of the only state to go blue from red (also the first time in 40 years that a Dem. got 50% of the vote), it will include the first time a Dem. beat a first term GOP gov. (ever), the first victory in council dist 5 in 40 years, the pick up up of 2 senate seats, nearly 30 House seats including having a Democratic legislator in all ten counties for the first time in over 20 years and the first time in over 150 years a Dem. majority in Merrimack County.

And by the way, Kathy was not at nor was she invited to the Marchand/Werner meeting but Dick Swett, Paul Hodes, Jim Craig, Mike and Deb Pignatelli, Lou D'Allesandro, Maggie Hassan, Bernie Benn, Ricia McMahon, John Kacavas, Dan O'Neil, Chris Hamm and others did attend at the invitation of Marchand/Werner. I have a copy of the agenda and it is entirely about helping to build the party and elect more Democrats. Which "is a good thing" to quote (our about to be re-elected to an historic 4th term as state party chair - unopposed again) Kathy Sullivan.

And yes to anyone wondering this is Ray Buckley for real - I do not feel the need to hide my identity.

[maxanne]

9. red to blue

I don't think that the NH state party can take such fullsome credit for turning the state blue in November. Certainly there was a lot of good work done - but there were groups like ACT, MoveOn, and others in the state doing voter registration starting in the spring - knocking on doors and chatting people up. Enormous numbers of volunteers poured in from all over the country to get out the vote. It will be interesting to see what happens in 2006, and in 2008 when ACT and MoveOn aren't here.

Democratic candidates were elected to the House from all districts. Did the state party throw support and resources behind all of them? Did the state listen to the county chairs on who to back, or did it go off on it's own, chosing to put resources into candidates who had no chance of winning?

The Republicans sent out thank you notes to every Republican who ran for office in this state. I know our state party didn't do that. There is no farm team, there is no careful nurturing of candidates. And as long as that's the case, the Democrats will continue to lose.

In 2006, I predict a number of dissatisfied Dems will run as independents.