Democracy for Tennessee held it's bi-annual convention last Saturday, with panel discussions on a wide array of issues, combined with speakers Ned Lamont and Jim Dean, the event turned out great. Ned Lamont discussed his campaign, as well as the need for more non-politicians to run for office. He also spoke of his recent trips to El Salvador and how Iraqis can learn a lesson from them.
The day long convention started off with a speech by TNDP Chair Gray Sasser promised to strengthen the relationship with the folks at DFT to ensure that progressive politics has is promoted in Tennessee. He also spoke with a concerned citizen from Knoxville who feels that the State party had ignored parts of East Tennessee in previous election cycles. Sasser promised to work harder to meet with leaders in that area to form a stronger bond between the State party and the local Knox and other East Tennessee Democratic parties, and that he was looking forward to making his way out to that area to work with those local leaders.
Following that speech, we broke for some panels and workshops on various topics. I sat in on a Green Tennessee program led by Doug Morse and Seanna Brandmeir. Seanna, who was one of a handful of people trained by Al Gore in the Climate Project, was on hand to give a brief synopsis of the presentation about global climate change and how Co2 levels directly correlate with a rise or fall in temperatures. Although it was a brief 10 minute version of an hour presentation, she gave some compelling arguments in favor of the science being the climate change movement. Following her presentation, Jeff Barrie, director of Kilowatt Ours, spoke about his movie and specifically the amount of coal used to light up or heat an average home. Jeff spoke about ways in which individuals and cities can reduce their overall electric consumption in order to reduce the amount of coal burned and thus reducing releases of greenhouse gases. After Jeff, there was more discussion on what individuals can do to reduce their carbon footprint, along with the necessity of promoting legislation to compel the State and Local governments to be more "green".
In addition to this presentation, there were also concurrent presentations on "Vote by Mail" as well as a panel discussion on progressive values (which from what I hear wasn't without some controversial disagreements among the crowd). Both "Vote by Mail" as well as "Green Tennessee" are two of the policy initiatives DFT will be pushing for in the coming year to make our state better. The vote by mail campaign is pretty much what it sounds like, the ability to case a ballot by mail as opposed to having to go to the voting booth. If we go that route, I personally would prefer expanding that to internet as well, and apparently there was discussion about that too.
Following the panels/forums there was lunch which included speeches by Democracy for America leader Jim Dean (brother of Howard), as well as Fmr. Senate candidate Ned Lamont (who successfully defeated Lieberman in the Democratic primary). Jim Grinstead was gracious enough to setup a one-on-two meeting with myself and Dean and Lamont. I spoke with them mostly about blogging, the internet, and how it is changing politics. I asked Lamont whether he felt that the blogs, which helped get him noticed in the primary, might have hurt him in the general election (a common theme among Conservatives and Democratic statists). He didn't feel so, and credited blogs such as Daily Kos, but more importantly the local blogs like Connecticut Bob and My Left Nutmeg, for helping to get his message out. Both Dean and Lamont were impressed with the way the Democratic primary contenders are using the internet, and Lamont pointed out how Obama was getting a record number of contributors, with a large amount from the internet.
I asked how Dean and the DFA would be approaching the Democratic primary, and he said that essentially they would be focusing on pushing the candidates on the issues, especially the war. I asked Lamont if he planned on endorsing a candidate, and he said that he has said before that he thought Chris Dodd, his Senator, would make a good President. Largely because "he's right on the issues" but he also noted that he made a gutsy move in supporting his campaign for Senate. Both Dean and Lamont were a little annoyed at the way the press is creating class systems (first and second tier) for the Presidential candidates. Lamont said it was too early in the season to be deciding something like that, and both wanted the candidates to be judged on the issues, and not just their fundraising abilities.
We discussed a bit the 2006 Senate race in Tennessee, and both why Harold Ford endorsed Lieberman before and after the primary, and generally why he lost. Lamont asked how much the "Harold, Call Me" ad effected his campaign, and Mark, Jim, and I agreed that it wasn't so much an issue here as it was in the National media. Mark thought that Ford's crashing of Corker's press conference hurt him a lot because it showed him as being perhaps a bit too young or almost childish; I thought his repeating of Lincoln Davis' line about "Republicans fear the lord, Democrats love and fear the lord" probably hurt him quite a bit too.
Following my conversation with Dean and Lamont, we shuffled into the main room at the SEIU hall to have lunch and hear from Lamont, Dean, Naccarato, and Grinstead. Mark Naccarato, who has been instrumental in leading DFA Nashville as well as DFA Tennessee, announced that he was handing the reigns of the organization over to journalist and newfound political activist Jim Grinstead. Jim thanked Mark for his service, and said he would do everything in his power to carry on the legacy of his predecessor.
Jim Dean spoke before Ned Lamont, and spoke about the need to use 2007 (and off year for some) as a year to build the organization in preparation for the 2008 elections. He wanted DFA to be instrumental in pushing the Democratic candidates to remain Democratic candidates by maintaining progressive/Democratic positions. He said that he needs input from the local organizations to find out new candidates for the main group (which is a PAC) to help fund and promote, and that it was up to the people across the country to help with that task of finding and promoting quality candidates.
After Dean, Ned Lamont was received with a standing ovation for his work in trying to retire Sen. Joe Lieberman. Lamont shared with the group a recent trip he made to El Salvador where he met with local leaders, as well as toured the schools and city of San Salvador. He made some comparisons (direct and indirect) between El Salvador and Iraq. El Salvador had come out of a 15 year civil war in the early nineties, and that war had some small similarities to the Iraq civil war. Both sides in the El Salvador civil war relied heavily on outside groups to fund their efforts; the leftists via the Soviet Union, and the right-wing via Ronald Reagan. Towards the end of the 90s, but revenue sources began to dry up, and partially because of this, Lamont said that they had to come together to decide whether they were going to carry on in the same way, or come to a peaceful solution.
In addition to a conversation about El Salvador, Lamont talked also about elections and the need for non-political candidates to get more involved. Not only successful business men like himself, but doctors, teachers, laborers and others are important to the political process, and they offer a fresh set of eyes to an old set of problems.
After the speakers, we broke again for the panels. I was part of the Citizen Journalism panel with Jim Grinstead focusing on the dos and don'ts of journalism; as well as the necessity of framing. Some of what Grinstead talked about were things I though that I could incorporate with my blogging efforts, especially the need to not say more than you have to in order to get your point across. The discussion on framing was also interesting, as he showed the need for progressives to couch their discussions in the language of progressives, and not to use the language of the right (ie, inheritance tax vs death tax).
Following Jim, I gave my presentation on blogging. The crux of my argument was that people are unnecessarily afraid of "blogging". People hear the word, don't really know what it means, and get turned off. The thing is though, a blog is more or less just a set of code which enables people to post in a user-friendly way. As blogs can be used in ways ranging from pictures of kittens to political coverage, its hard to really define blogs beyond their technological similarities. I noted the need to be civil when discussing politics (and noted also that I don't always practice what I preach) and that shouting and using negative nicknames detract from the argument you are trying to make. I spoke of the need for local blogging especially, in that those political races are often the least covered in the media, and if you are willing to take the time to ask questions of candidates that most voters won't be able to, it can only help progress the political process. Following me was Jennifer Trigg who spoke about a new DFA initiative to create a statewide political blog, which should be going live within the next few weeks.
In addition to the citizen journalism panel, there were also panels on how individuals can lobby their representatives, with special guests Stewart Clifton, Rep. Briley, and Rep. Sontany; and from the report I heard afterwards it was noted that a written letter or visit is more influential than an email or phone call.
There was also an abbreviated version of the DFA "Root Camp" which trains people in how to run a grassroots campaign, with special guests Michael Gass and Freda Player of the TNDP, along with Ned Lamont and Jim Dean.
Following the forums and panels, there was a brief break before the 4 o'clock forum for the Nashville Mayoral candidates. Buck Dozier came decked out in a tuxedo, as afterwards he was on his way to officiate his nephews wedding, and the rest of the candidates were there as well, with the notable exception of former Congressman Bob Clement, who had a scheduling conflict (didn't have anything to do with the forum not meeting rule number seven of the criteria supposedly set up by the campaign for doing forums...nothing at all to do with that).
Of the 5 candidates up on the stage, four acquitted themselves well, but one truly shined; Kenneth Eaton. Unlike the other folks on the stage who are thinking small, Eaton is doing the opposite by promising to increase High School graduation rates by 10% in his first year in office; all without raising the education budget a dime. Though he didn't give the specifics of his golden proposal, he did note that he had shown said proposal to members of the school board, and they seemed to think it would work.
But getting beyond Eaton, there wasn't a whole lot of differentiation between the other candidates on the issues. All candidates support LEED standards for metro facilities, especially Briley who introduced the legislation along with Jameson, Cole, and Adkins. All candidates seemed to support Vote by Mail efforts, as well as some others, with Dean and Eaton both seeming to endorsing internet voting (something I favor as well). All candidates support in some way or fashion labor protections, with Gentry and Dean noting they had been members of a labor union at one time or another. After all was said and done I believe there was a total of four questions asked to the 5 candidates there...and this is ultimately one of the problems with such a large field of candidates, there are so many of them up there it doesn't lend itself well to an in-depth discussion on the important issues. When you've only got 1 minute to respond to a question on education, its hard to give a good in-depth response. But beyond the general issues with the Mayoral election as a whole, I thought the forum went really well and most of the candidates showed themselves to be quality candidates.
Also in attendance of the event, besides the mayoral candidates, were At Large candidates Megan Barry, Richard Exton, and Brady Banks (whom I did an interview with a while ago, which I'm putting the finishing touches on). Altogether the convention was successful and, for me at least, informative. It was a great opportunity to meet with passionate and knowledgeable political junkies, as well as learn some things I didn't know going into it. Thanks to Democracy for Tennessee, and specifically Mark Naccarato and Jim Grinstead, for being leaders in the progressive movement here in Tennessee. Looking forward to more events like this one.