Yesterday was the Michigan Democratic Party convention at Cobo Hall in Detroit. I am a , live close to Detroit, so I went to vote at the convention. There was quite a large faction that wanted a change in leadership. Like a lot of state parties, the MDP runs from the top down, hires outside, out of state consultants instead of full time employees. This means that people with experience who can work year round every year at not there. Instead, consultants swoop in later and in many cases too late.
There were three candidates for party chair. Lavora Barnes, the candidate endorsed by the current chair, the labor unions and the top elected officials. Lisa DiRado who is a grass roots organizer and made great gains in Oakland and Wayne counties especially in the 11th congressional district helping Haley Stevens win as well as other candidates giving the Democrats one of the best election years in a long time. There was a third candidate Greg Bowen from Grosse Pointe Park which is on the east side of Detroit. He was also a reform candidate. DiRado and Bowen were the progressive candidates.
Interestingly, Barnes had started to change her message, copying DiRado’s platform. It did put a scare into the old guard. The problem those of us on the ground see with the MDP is that they don’t think they can win red ares and won’t help candidates in those areas nor spend money. The seems to be a hazing phase with new candidates. If they can raise enough money, then the party may help but it’s usually very late in the game, many time too late and the candidate loses by 1 or 2 points.
They also have let good first time candidates hang in the wind after the election with no debrief and no support to run again. They reinvent the wheel every 2-4 years looking for candidates to run instead of mentoring the ones who have run and done a decent job. They don’t spend their resources wisely and in a way that will flip the state legislature.
There is no support for candidates on the township and county level. The MDP does not build a bench. So it’s doubly difficult to find good candidates for state seats. Some of the Democratic candidates who ran for county commissioner or state representative have been approached by the local republican parties to run for office on their ticket. They recognize a good candidate when they see one and some of their candidates are so guano psychotic that they are willing to run normal former Democratic candidates. They run to win not to place sacrificial lambs on the ballot.
It was a confusing process, with weighted votes in the district caucuses and weighted votes for the party chair. There was a huge change in leadership in the 11th district caucus too, which I was a part of. The former leader was AWOL the entire time. I was a volunteer for several candidates in the area besides Haley Stevens and I didn’t even know there was an 11th District organization as part of the Democratic establishment. They are supposed to raise funds and help the candidates. So hopefully, with new leadership, we will be ready for 2020.
I don’t hold out much hope for the MDP changing their ways. We will probably, with some luck and a lot of grass roots help from organizations like Indivisible, will hold onto the congressional seats won in Michigan. But I doubt they will win the majority in the state legislature. They really do not have a plan to take enough seats to do it since they do not want to spend resources in rural red areas. There aren’t enough red to purple suburban Detroit districts to win. Even with that philosophy, they didn’t support suburban candidates in those very districts and they have done nothing to keep them in the fold to run again.
My other take away is that this process is design to suppress delegates from voting. Members who live in the Upper Penisula have a difficult time getting to the the convention and have to stay overnight. It’s expensive. There should be a way to vote absentee so that all can participate.
Just my observations and two cents. Anyone else attend and have observations?
