Disconnected criticism
Trevor Southerland's second post on the state of the Democratic Party of Georgia (or his perception of it) is rather off-base in my opinion. It's part shameless propaganda for David Poythress, for whom Southerland works, and it's other part disconnected perceptions from what actually happened.
Meshing the two into one fluid statement, Southerland notes ...
I can guarantee you, that as the Democratic Governor of Georgia, David Poythress would not stand for 102 Republican seats in the Georgia General Assembly being unopposed.
Well, that's awesome. But it fails to recognize a variety of other factors that go onto recruiting 102 Democrats to challenge incumbent Republicans in this red state. One is that we don't have a terribly deep bench to draw from, which is one reason we didn't see more challenges. Another is that, technically speaking, it isn't exactly the responsibility of the DPG to recruit candidates to run for these races. Traditionally, the House and Senate caucuses are responsible for that task, though the DPG greatly assisted in identifying candidates in the final week this year.
The point being it's fine and dandy to talk about getting this folks to run for office, but it isn't as if such efforts haven't been underway. The problem is finding enough strong candidates, and if those candidates are willing to devote the necessary time and resources to raising money, knocking on doors and doing all of the things that are essential to winning an election.
Now, one more point of contention ...
The Democratic National Committee adopted a 50 state strategy, and it worked. The Democratic Party of Georgia needs to adopt a 159 county strategy.
Southerland, who was Libertarian until yesterday and was the Tennessee coordinator for Michael Badnarik's 2004 presidential campaign, apparently doesn't know that this was one of the first things Jane Kidd did when she got to the DPG.
And, truth be told, six county parties that were non-active have been re-launched under her tenure, and 16 counties flipped from red to blue this last election cycle. That's why I don't process Southerland's criticism in that what he advocates for is actually in place and producing dividends, even if they're small ones (which is to be expected in a predominantly conservative state).
Meshing the two into one fluid statement, Southerland notes ...
I can guarantee you, that as the Democratic Governor of Georgia, David Poythress would not stand for 102 Republican seats in the Georgia General Assembly being unopposed.
Well, that's awesome. But it fails to recognize a variety of other factors that go onto recruiting 102 Democrats to challenge incumbent Republicans in this red state. One is that we don't have a terribly deep bench to draw from, which is one reason we didn't see more challenges. Another is that, technically speaking, it isn't exactly the responsibility of the DPG to recruit candidates to run for these races. Traditionally, the House and Senate caucuses are responsible for that task, though the DPG greatly assisted in identifying candidates in the final week this year.
The point being it's fine and dandy to talk about getting this folks to run for office, but it isn't as if such efforts haven't been underway. The problem is finding enough strong candidates, and if those candidates are willing to devote the necessary time and resources to raising money, knocking on doors and doing all of the things that are essential to winning an election.
Now, one more point of contention ...
The Democratic National Committee adopted a 50 state strategy, and it worked. The Democratic Party of Georgia needs to adopt a 159 county strategy.
Southerland, who was Libertarian until yesterday and was the Tennessee coordinator for Michael Badnarik's 2004 presidential campaign, apparently doesn't know that this was one of the first things Jane Kidd did when she got to the DPG.
And, truth be told, six county parties that were non-active have been re-launched under her tenure, and 16 counties flipped from red to blue this last election cycle. That's why I don't process Southerland's criticism in that what he advocates for is actually in place and producing dividends, even if they're small ones (which is to be expected in a predominantly conservative state).
posted by Jmac at 10:01 AM
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