As many of you may know,
wmtriallawyer and
my wife are running for primary-elected 4-year terms on our local
County Democratic Central Committee. Last night, I once again witnessed the reasons they're running. The committee spent more time grilling a state party staffer about why there are more non-Marylanders working on the coordinated campaign and how many helium tanks to order for the county fair than they spent discussing how to
actually win elections.
Much like in other counties nationwide, our party seems to be slowly dying and there's one reason for it that sticks out like a sore thumb: A complete and utter lack of active and effective leadership.
However, there is something we can do about it. Here's a case-study...
The Problem:
In 2002, then Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Ehrlich beat his Democratic opponent in Anne Arundel County, Maryland by a 2-to-1 margin despite a 125K-to-108K Democratic registration advantage. Back in 1994 and 1998, Democratic Governor Parris Glendening came closer but still lost the county to his Republican opponent by a 4-to-3 margin despite similarly favorable registration totals.
Despite this track record, the committee members seem to think that things are in great shape and looking squarely upward as we lurch towards November. We're currently staring down the barrel of another losing election, and our county party leadership is busy drinking Kool-Aid faster than a thirsty chicano who was chased thirty miles to Nogales by the Minutemen.
The most disconcerting episode of incompetence recently was the revelation following the July 3rd candidate filing deadline that while the Republicans had managed to file candidates for all offices county-wide, Democrats had failed to file candidates for Orphan's Court judge and all four Council Seats held by Republicans. I'm going to repeat that--ALL FOUR REPUBLICAN COUNCIL INCUMBENTS (including the district I live in).
Following this, a number of articles were written noting this insufficiency by the Annapolis Capital and Baltimore Sun, including the not-so-flattering cartoon on the left.
The failure to field more council candidates by last Monday's filing deadline has set Ann Marie Remillard, the leader of the county's Democratic Central Committee, hunting for contenders who would have not only the uphill task of running against sitting officials, but the disadvantage of starting less than four months before November's general election.
"I just called someone and said, 'Are you willing to fall on the sword?'" Remillard said.
I think we can all agree that one of the most central responsibilities of a county central committee is to ensure that strong candidates are recruited for all races and that those candidates receive the support they need to compete effectively. If a committee can't even handle that, they may as well pack it up and forget about it.
The county committee does have until the 19th to designate nominees, and did wind up finding candidates to run against two of the Republican councilmembers as of last night's meeting. But these two candidates are without any campaign apparatus or funding at this point and are going up against established incumbents.
Why should people have to "fall on the sword" for the central committee? Why didn't members of the committee make sure that there were candidates for every race? Because there was no leadership actively organizing and recruiting candidates from the party's support base.
The Solution:
We've formed a small slate of central committee candidates (currently at four, including two friends from DFA-Annapolis) to run against incumbents in an attempt to inject new ideas, new energy and practicality to the county party. Even if our four candidates don't win, they'll have put the county committee members on notice--there are activists out here who are unhappy with the current direction, and they are willing to go to the mat to change it.
The reaction so far to the slate has been noticably hostile. They've been called "adolescents," "insurgents," "arrogant" and "ageist" (despite one of the members having grey hair). In my wife's case, one of the three members in our district that she is running against has told her that the established local machine will "crush her." We've been excluded from the District's Democratic Club's email list and ignored when candidates are recognized at meetings.
Last night, I was invited to speak on behalf of my wife who was away on a business trip when candidates were introduced. I took the opportunity to note that one of the reasons for which she's running is to make sure that a debacle like the current candidate search never happens again, by cultivating local leaders on the grassroots level on a precinct-by-precint basis (I think some guy named Dean said something about this recently...). Well, the look I got from the members running against her could've been ion heat-rays.
I accomplished my goal. They're on notice. They may think that the backing of the local state Senator is all they need to cruise to their 4th terms (that's right--16 years!) on the committee, but that notion is about to be shattered.
But to win, they need your help. Here's how you can support them:
1. Contact Steve or Jen and tell them you'd like to help them contact voters not only to make change on the committee, but also to find new grassroots leadership that is ready to be cultivated in the county. We're currently trying to recruit precinct captains for November, and we're going to train them on how to get their local Democrats to the polls on election day.
2. Write a letter to the editor at the Annapolis Capital and Baltimore Sun about how disappointed you are that the Anne Arundel County Democratic Committee couldn't fill their slate of candidates. Remember that you can't endorse any candidates in your letter, but you can point out your dismay at the current committee's incompetence and the need for a change.
3. Contribute to their campaigns here and here. $20.01 goes a long ways towards palm cards that we can hand to people as we knock their doors and ask for their support in turning things around.
4. Run for party leadership yourself! Get involved! It's easy to say "screw 'em", but unfortunately we've got to become part of the apparatus to change it. If it's not too late to sign up for your local party's election/nomination process, do it! Then, write a diary here about it so we can hear the horror stories.