When
MyDD's Chris Bowers writes a post on Daily Kos, you recommend it. Look back over his
diary history, when he posts, it is worth recommending.
Now, blogger Chris Bowers has become candidate Chris Bowers. And again it is time to recommend him (for Committeeperson, Ward 27, Division 23 in Philly). When the best and brightest run, we need to support them. From MyDD:
It is one thing to say you want to reform the Dmeocratic Party. It is quite another thing to realize that you can just take it over because you realize very few people are participating within it. This is, indeed, something that we need to do, because a lack of a vibrant party structure has very real consequences at the ballot box.
...more...
Although I have no desire to hold public office, a realization that has become more obvious to me the more I have become involved in politics, ever since Seth Williams lost the Democratic primary for District Attorny here in Philadelphia, I have been thiking about running for party office. To be more specific, I had committeeperson in mind, which in Philadelphia is the equivalent of precinct captain. This is actually an elected position held on primary day every mid-term election year.
My desire to run for local party office stems from several factors. For starters, the Philadelphia Democratic Party is one of the most extreme examples of Unreformed Democrats I have ever encountered. Secondly, I think being a local precinct captain, if it is done well, is perhaps the best example of pure democracy anywhere in the world. Talking to your neighbors about politics, helping them register to vote, and doing GOTV work in your own 'hood is really about as good as representative government can get. Third, I just straight up love that sort of work, which is one of the reasons why I liked being a union organizer. Fourth, I really don't think any party should be in the business of bossing primaries by having the central committee structure endorse a candidate without letting the party members decide for themselves. This sort of stuff happens all the time here in Philadelphia nad Pennsylvania, and I would like to help put an end to it.
All of these reasons aside, the number one reason why I have been thinking about running for commiteeperson is that even though I have lived and been registered to vote in Philadelphia's 27th ward for five consecutive years now (and a sixth year from 1997-1998), never once has a local commiteeperson come to talk with me. ACORN has stopped by. MoveOn contacted me several times during the 2004 campaign, twice coming to my door. I have voted in this ward six times now, and not a single time was someone from the Democratic PArty standing outside my precinct distributing information. I did meet a Republican doing it once.
In other words, I wanted to run for committeperson because I have grown convinced that the local Democratic Party simply isn't doing its job. It is endorsing candidates in primaries, but it never seems to contact voters and explain why it is doing so. Enough was enough, I figured. If someone was going to stop me from becoming one of the local precinct captains (two people are elected in each division, aka precinct), then they were going to have to do so by actually contacting more voters than me. Quite frankly, that seemed perfectly fair.
Yup, that is why we love Chris Bowers. So here are the action items:
- Recommend this diary (I don't normally make such an ask, but this is for Bowers).
- Recommend Chris and get him on the DFA A-List.
- Go over to the thread on MyDD and post your ideas.
- Follow Bowers' example.
Update for spelling