<\/a>What the hell are democratic clubs good for, anyway? I received an email recently from the one in my area, imploring me, as a member, to help get out the vote for \u201cour candidates.\u201d Then came the list of candidates I\u2019m supposed to work for. Five dandy, local candidates, from state representative and state senator to county tax assessor. But there was one glaring omission: the Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress. They must have made a mistake, right?<\/p>\n

So, I called the president of the democratic township club, noting that the Congressional candidate\u2019s name had been omitted. The answer I got spoke volumes about what\u2019s wrong with our local democratic party organization\u2014and maybe yours, too.:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe talked about him and decided not to include him, because he\u2019s not a serious candidate. He can\u2019t win, and he probably won\u2019t even get 20 percent of the vote,\u201d he said. \u201cHe\u2019s not raising money. He\u2019s in a district completely gerrymandered for the Republican. I don\u2019t know why he\u2019s even running: The only reason to file for office in this district is to draw resources away from your opponent\u2014to make her spend time and money opposing you. He hasn\u2019t accomplished that. Also, we never heard from him: He didn\u2019t contact us to make an appearance at our meetings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whoa. Let\u2019s take those \u201creasons\u201d one by one:<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not a serious candidate.\u201d<\/em> <\/strong><\/p>\n

By \u201cserious,\u201d of course, he means amassing large sums of money from fat cat donors, lobbying groups, corporate contributors and PACS\u2014the kind of \u201cserious\u201d that has wrecked our political system; the kind of \u201cserious\u201d that makes lawmakers employees of their donors, not their constituents; the kind of \u201cserious\u201d that undermines the democratic principles that the Democratic party supposedly stands for.
\nAnd, by the way, he received the endorsement of our not-insignificant metropolitan newspaper this morning. I think one might call that \u201cserious.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not raising enough money.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

See above. But be aware that this particular candidate is running a low-dollar, limited contribution campaign by design. He\u2019s trying to make a point, people. His per-person donation limit is $10.10\u2014a number that is symbolic of the proposed Federal Minimum Wage, which he supports. If the democratic committee people had read any of the candidate\u2019s literature, they would have understood that he is running on principle\u2014a principle that you\u2019d think the democratic party would applaud.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t even know why he\u2019s running\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

So, according to this small-time, narrow-thinking political hack, the only reason to run for office in a gerrymandered district is to make mischief for your opponent? Would the democratic party in my state prefer that a Republican run unopposed, simply because she has the advantage of representing a district drawn to favor her party? What about the notion that opposing views need to be aired\u2014you know, that democracy thing. The Congressional district is NOT 100 percent Republican: Democrats deserve the opportunity to vote for someone who represents their views\u2014even if they are in the minority.<\/p>\n

But, if you insist on looking at it strictly from the narrowest, lowest political viewpoint, what if the Republican candidate pulls an Akin or does something idiotic to make her candidacy implode\u2014and what if there\u2019s no democratic candidate in place. How would that feel? I am exasperated by the decades-long defeatist attitude of our state democratic party regarding this Congressional district: Should we roll over and automatically cede it to whichever Republican comes along, and not even bother to field a candidate?<\/p>\n

\u201cHe can\u2019t win. He won\u2019t even get 20 percent of the vote.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Okay, he probably won\u2019t win. I\u2019ll concede that. But it\u2019s not reasonable to predict that he\u2019ll get less than 20 percent of the vote, because he got 29 percent of the vote when he ran in 2010, and the district, as redrawn after the 2010 census, includes more democratic-leaning areas than before. Our esteemed democratic-club president didn\u2019t know that, of course, and countered that point with \u201cWell, even 40 percent would be a wipeout.\u201d So, even if a Democrat could get 40 percent of the vote, it would be a waste of time?<\/p>\n

And please note, sir, that the Republican candidate is so sure that she is going to win in a landslide that she is not even campaigning in her own district. She\u2019s spending her time, and her money, campaigning for candidates in other states. Two words: Eric Cantor.<\/p>\n

At the end of this exasperating conversation, as a way of trying to be a problem-solver, rather than just a complainer, I suggested that the club send out a correction to its letter, simply saying that the Congressional candidate\u2019s name had been \u201cinadvertently omitted\u201d from the GOTV list. \u201cWell, I didn\u2019t make the decision,\u201d said the president. \u201cI\u2019ll have to confer with the board about this. But sending out another email is a real pain, because my email server only allows me to send out 50 at a time, and I\u2019ll have to divide the list up again, and that\u2019s a lot of work.\u201d Really: Boo hoo.<\/p>\n

So, that\u2019s how the conversation went, and that\u2019s why my blood pressure spiked. The committee supposedly representing and working for Democrats dismissed a highly principled candidate because they decided that he isn\u2019t \u201cviable.\u201d I might accept a democratic club ignoring a candidate who sounds like a lunatic, with way-out-there fringe-y ideas. But this guy is not like that\u2014not by a long shot. But the issues didn\u2019t even factor in. The fact is that the committee intentionally left him out, making it clear that this was a decision, not an accident\u2014solely based on their perception that he couldn\u2019t win.<\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s reasonable to expect the democratic club to be pro-active on behalf of a candidate who has taken the initiative\u2014and the risk\u2014to put his name on the ballot on behalf of the Democratic party\u2014when the party itself has made no effort to recruit anyone.It\u2019s simply unconscionable. Isnt’ it bad enough that Republicans have a powerful propaganda network [Fox News], the Koch Brothers and Citizens United working on their behalf? For democratic organizations to behave as this one did–and be complicit in our own demise as a politial force–is shameful and unconscionable.<\/p>\n

Is this how other local democratic organizations operate?I hope not.<\/p>\n

Update:<\/strong><\/em> After I spoke with the group\u2019s president, and after I convinced a political friend of mine to call the committee-man, the club sent out another email with the corrected roster of GOTV candidates. In the end, they did the right thing, but only after we backed them into it. Sigh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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