Dems swing party chair vote by crashing grass-roots meeting

[Rose Siding]

Local Democratic Party members crashed a meeting of Democracy for Wisconsin after learning that the group was voting to endorse a little-known, grass-roots contender for Wisconsin Democratic Party chairman.

About 100 people packed into a small upstairs room at the Madison Public Library downtown Wednesday night. The standing-room-only crowd was more than twice the number that typically shows up for the citizen group's monthly meetings and swung the endorsement vote in their favor.

Democracy for Wisconsin and other Democracy for America groups grew out of the presidential campaign of former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean. For two years the local organization has worked to develop a network throughout the state to foster stronger, sustained participation in American democracy.
.....
"Here we are, we're a grass-roots organization. We've been meeting for over two years and we get 60 to 70 people showing up tonight who have never been to a meeting before, didn't even know what they were really here for, brought out as warm bodies to kill the intent of our group," Russel Wallace, one of the group's organizers, said afterward.

"This is the problem with the Democratic Party. The future of the Democratic Party is the grass roots, but the Democratic Party establishment is doing everything that they can to crush us," Wallace added.

http://www.madison.com/tct/news/stories/index.php?ntid=35206&ntpid=8

Time to write some by-laws :grr:

[madfloridian]

1. I saw that article and saw red.

I fear they will be trying this more places. This group was simply wanting to endorse their candidate. We need to limit who can vote, especially if they have never been to a meeting. This is scary. Did you post it at the blog or send it to Tara/

[shance]

2. But are they Democrats? That is the question*

No, of course they aren't.

How many Democrats do YOU know who would crash a DFA meeting?

Hmm.....could they be pretending to be so these so called "Democrats" can further infiltrate and divide the strongest foundation of the Democratic party? Because there is little question DFA is the strongest grass roots foundation of the Democratic party.

True Democrats wouldn't crash and wreak havoc on a DFA meeting.

Think about it.

So, here's a tough question.

Who would benefit from further attempting to separate and divide the Democrats?

You have three chances to answer correctly.

Shouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure that one out.

:)

[madfloridian]

3. Those were members of the Democratic party.

That is for sure. In some areas DFA and DEC work well, in others they consider DFA a threat. There are battles about to go on in some other states as well, one of them being Utah.

[shance]

4. What they claim to be and what they are, in my opinion are two different

things Floridian.

It's been my experience Dems would not engage in that kind of behavior and/or inciting division. At least I would hope not. I don't know a true Dem who would do something like this because it goes against the nature of being a Democrat.

I think we are more supportive and loyal than we give ourselves credit for. It would be beneficial to find out a little more about this and begin looking at who these people are and if it happens again, to ban them from DFA and even Democratic activities if necessary.

Those individuals are only igniting further division and weakening what we are trying to build. I just don't see that many Dems into pulling something like this. Creating a Krips/Blood feud within the Party would be counter productive to who we are and what we are trying to accomplish. And moreover, its just not our style. We're lovers not fighters. :)

I could be wrong but something sounds staged about the whole thing. I don't see a volatile enough issue dividing us right now to create something like this.

On the other hand, fair weathered Dems and Republican plants, would they engage in something like this?

You decide.

[madfloridian]

5. They were Democrats, part of the party there.

Many areas do not want the DFA candidates for chair to get a foothold. It is going to be unpleasant sometimes I think. Two states had a DFA candidate win over the others, I don't remember them right now. That put the others on guard.

Some areas are building their DFA cautiously, getting by-laws in place before becoming too public. Ours is still growing little each week again, so we may have to do something soon.

Tom Hughes was in Tampa last week-end for state organizing. The Tampa group is pretty active, and the South Florida group rocks. Even in our area,much smaller, we had several elected to the DEC.

[lojasmo]

8. My county chair is a person who would do just this sort of crap.

Lifelong democrat

"good" democrat

What a load of hooie.

[ProudToBeLiberal]

6. Fucking assholes. FUCK FUCK FUCK

I hope Dean can reprimand those people who did this.

[madfloridian]

7. John Nichols covers this little stunt.

http://www.madison.com/tct/opinion/index.php?ntid=35758&ntpid=1

John Nichols: Dems need to nurture, not irk, activists

SNIP..." The Democratic Party of Wisconsin has seen better days, no question about that.

On most national maps, Wisconsin still looks like a Democratic state. But those maps measure the party strength on the federal level, where Wisconsin has backed Democrats for president in every election since 1988, sent two Democrats to the U.S. Senate since 1992 and consistently given at least half the state's U.S. House seats to Democrats for decades.

The problem with those national maps is that they obscure the reality of the party's dramatic decline at the state level."

SNIP.."The hard-core Democracy for Wisconsin activists, many of whom ultimately helped John Kerry secure an exceptionally narrow win in the state, were offended. They saw the packing of their meeting as bad sportsmanship. Wineke's supporters blocked the group's intent to endorse veteran Jefferson County Democratic Party Chairman Jeff Rammelt, who is more clearly identified as a reformer and has done far more than Wineke to reach out to the Democracy for Wisconsin camp.

"In fairness to Wineke and his backers, they took advantage of the loose rules of the Madison Democracy for Wisconsin meeting, and his raiding party included several former Dean backers. And, of course, when all was said and done, he blocked an opponent - which is one of the points of an aggressive political campaign.

But before Wineke gets to celebrating too much, he might want to pause and consider the circumstances of the party he is seeking to lead. The Democrats are in sorry shape, and while they need more aggressive tactics, they also need the sort of grass-roots activists who were turned off by the takeover of the Madison meeting....."

[Larkspur]

9. Can't DFA Wisconsin hold another special meeting to overrule

this endorsement and endorse the candidate they want? If they have loose rules, then they could also override the endorsement of the chair they don't want.

And yes, they should also write some by-laws, especially about who is eligible to vote, if they are going to use a formal endorsement process.

DFA Worcester, MA, which I attend even though I'm a CT resident, doesn't have by-laws, but we don't endorse canidates formally. We just inform attendees of who local candidates are and why they should get DFA support. And of course, DFA people show up to help local candidates campaigns.