There are many reasons why I don’t belong to the Dane County Democratic Party, but here is yet another. (These are my thoughts and my thoughts only, not the position of Progressive Dane.)
When a political party endorses a candidate or makes no endorsement, wouldn’t you expect that they would then put their resources into the candidates that they endorsed? And refrain from putting resources into those candidates that did not get an endorsement? Those resources might be volunteers, lists, promotion on website and in newsletters, etc. Makes sense right?
Well, its not that way with the Dane Dems and the state Democratic Party. The Dane Dem website says that they endorsed the following candidates for Madison Common Council
Aaron Backer [1st District]
Mike Verveer (incumbent) [4th District]
Brian Solomon [10th District]
Satya Rhodes-Conway [12th District]
Julia Kerr [13th District]
Joe Clausius [17th District]
Mark Clear [19th District]
Gary Poulson [20th District]
However, they ended up doing phone banks to ID voters in several races, including for Eli Judge (8th district), Larry Palm (15th district), Troy Theil (5th district) and who knows who else.
When asked about this, their excuse was that they are “only a phone vendor”. And that it is not a “Democratic Party sponsored event”. Oh, so they’re just a phone vendor? Would they let Republican candidates use these phones?
And, when you get these calls, Democratic Party of Wisconsin shows up on your caller ID. That seems to imply a Democratic Party involvement. I wonder how all this backroom shuffling of member’s wishes plays with members of the party? Why bother showing up and voting if leaders of the party just do what they want anyways?
I have seen countless other examples of leadership thwarting the will of the membership over the years and I often wonder why people keep trying within the Democratic Party, but I admire the tenacity of those who keep trying. It’s this kind of lack of transparency and lack of democracy that cripples the organization and renders them ineffective and drives members away. Of course, that’s completely absurd given that here in Dane County, Democrats are a majority of voters.
Makes me wonder what else we have to look forward to in the last week of the campaigns? Will we see similar tactics as two years ago from Citizens for Madison’s Future or some similar Democratic Party front group? Remember when they paid to mail smear lit pieces with lies and attacks into districts to support the candidates that Democratic Party leadership has chosen, without a vote of the membership? Or do they have new tricks up their sleeves this year?
Locally, this is the worst week for campaigning, lets hope the campaigns keep it clean this year.
