I have to tell you, I was stunned. It was November 5th, and despite my joy for Barack Obama’s election, I was looking around my state at a mess. Tennessee Democrats lost the state House and Senate by a scant 8000 votes spread across several races. In the Presidential election, Tennessee went redder than it has in the past 4 cycles. Honestly, it was devastating.
What happened from there was a lot of introspection and a lively discussion between several TN progressive bloggers about what went wrong and what needed to happen. We didn’t all agree on the specifics, but we all recognized that something was broken. This was met with a good deal of rhetoric from the “grasstops” that had been running the party telling us that we just don’t get it.
On January 24th, the TNDP Executive Committee met to select a new Chairman. The choices; Chip Forrester, Treasurer of the party and an advocate for grassroots organizing, and Robert Charles Bone who was largely supported by the “Party Establishment”. Some of us had the opportunity to speak with both candidates, and to be honest, both had some great ideas, ultimately, Forrester won.
This caused a stir with some of the “establishment” people. Forrester, and his supporters were derided for going against the grain. The obituary of the TNDP has been written over and over by these nay-sayers over the past two weeks, but change, no matter how small, is coming to Tennessee.
Even though I don’t post here at Kos very often, I read the diaries and stories here every day. I see the positive change that this community has brought the nation as a whole, as well as states and cities all over this nation. It's been an inspiring thing to behold, and take a part in. There are several campaigns that I gave money to in the last cycle that I never would have known about without the help of this community. It's in the spirit of that sense of community that I’m asking for your help.
Yesterday Benintn talked about a grassroots effort to help turn Tennessee blue. In his post, he gave a great list of reasons to lend your support to this effort. I’m proud to be a part of that effort. We’ve asked the readers of our Tennessee focused blogs to Chip in to help the TNDP, and seen a great response. In less than 36 hours, with just 12 hours of planning, we managed to get 70 people to donate over $2700. The response has been so great that we’ve upped our target twice in that 36 hours.
I know a lot has been asked of this community over the 2-year marathon election cycle that we just finished. I know many people in this community have been hit hard with the economic downturn the Republicans left us with. I’m going to ask anyway.
Will you “Chip in” to help turn Tennessee blue? We’re just 30 people and $250 away from our current goal. Anything you can give to reach that goal would be greatly appreciated.
Tennessee may be a ruby red state now, but with a lot of hard work, and your support we can turn it blue. I thank you for your support, and will stick around in the comments to field any questions.