Why I can no longer stay involved in local politics...

[fancypantselitist]

Forgive me if this is rather long, but I was offended and am venting...

It's coming up on election time in our county... most local offices are up for grabs (and, of course, there will be congressional seats to be filled as well - but our local Party's Chairman has made it clear he's only interested in the local election and really doesn't plan on doing anything about the state/national elections until after the local ones are over, which won't be until August). Our local Party has rented a storefront and is getting ready to open a Democrat headquarters. At the January Women's Club meeting the Chairman came to talk... he was supposed to discuss plans for these headquarters and how we (the Women's Club) could help, but frankly, he was so vague that most of us were unclear about his plans and expectations...

During the course of his "talk" questions were asked... "how much money will we be allocated to furnish and decorate the headquarters?" (nearly nothing) which led to more questions "how much money does the local party have?" and "where does the Party get it's money?".

It seems our funds are pretty low at this time... we get our money primarily from donations (we're a poor county, so there aren't many), fundraisers (we've only done one of these in the year I've been involved), and candidate filing fees (the source most relied upon). Since the deadline for filing is in mid-February, at the time of the meeting, few, if any, candidates had submitted their fees, so funds were very low. This headquarters will be opened on a shoestring.

Meanwhile, since it is an election year here, we have more people attending our Women's Club meetings. I don't mean to sound cynical, but there's a large number of people who only put in an appearance when either they (or a family member) are up for election - otherwise we never see them. At this particular meeting, these rare attendees included the wife and daughter of the County Mayor.

I need to sidetrack to a brief bit of recent local history - a couple of months ago our Party Chairman did something that offended the County Mayor (supposedly a Democrat, but from what I can see he's one of those ultra-conservative-may-as-well-be-a-Republican kind of Democrats. I think of them as "Faux Democrats"). After much public pouting and posturing on the part of the Mayor and grovelling and apologizing on the part of the Chairman, the Mayor made the magnanimous announcement (sarcasm intended) that, since the bible tells us to forgive, he'd forgive the Chairman.

So back to the meeting. Since the recent alleged "insult" and insincere "forgivness" was so fresh in everyone's memory, the Chairman practically fell over himself trying to be solicitous to the Mayor's wife and daughter at the Women's club meeting. When the subject of Party money was discussed, it was brought up there was another man who had stated his intention to run for County Mayor, as a Democrat... so he would be running against the Democrat incumbent in the Primary.

Now, we're not supposed to endorse any one candidate over another until after the Primary is over, however, when it was mentioned that this new candidate had not submitted his filing fee (and as I said, nearly none of the candidates have yet), the Chairman's wife got upset and started loudly telling the Chairman, in rather graphic and vulgar language, that he needed to "grow a pair" and collect that man's filing fee. The Chairman assured her that he would, adding that once he had his money the man would be "dust under our shoes".

Dust under our shoes.

I was appalled. Is that anyway for a representative of the Democrat Party to talk about a potential candidate?

If this was the first time this sort of thing had happened, I'd have written it off as just the Chairman's rather pitiful attempt to ingratiate himself with the Mayor's family after his earlier faux pas. But it wasn't.

Shortly after that meeting another member and I quit the local Women's club. I told them I didn't think I was a good "fit" and that my focus was more on national issues, however, when asked in an e-mail, I told the sender exactly what I thought of the behavior of the local Party. Needless to say they're ticked off at me.

I'm not sure where to go from here. I believe in the Democrat Platform. I'm horrified when I see what's going on in Washington and know we need a change in this country. I want to be a force for that change. To be sure, there are a few good Democrat candidates here on a County/City level, and they have my vote, but I don't want to be associated with this local group. If I wanted to promote hypocritical self-serving behavior, I'd be a Republican.

[4_TN_TITANS]

1. Okay... I'll ask.

Where are we talking about? I certainly can relate - I jumped headfirst into the local party after disgust at the 2000 & 2004 elections. It's amazing how big a deal small town TN politics are to some people, they loose sight of it on a national scale. Being a Democrat here might very well mean you have a crack at state jobs, which are some of the better paying jobs in a small county. It gets involved and sticky sometimes.

[guruoo]

2. Sounds almost like Montgomery...

Mind blowing number of similarities.

[guruoo]

3. I've heard the DLC has been

muscling in on some local parties.

What's your local Democracy For America group up to?

[fancypantselitist]

4. Why I can no longer stay involved in local politics...

Well, I deliberately didn't mention the county because there are a couple of really good guys - guys who are going to need the local Party's support - running in the upcoming county elections. One, who is doing an excellent job, is running for re-election after winning his office 4 years ago - he took over a position from a Republican who'd held the office for almost 2 decades and had not only done, at best, a mediocre job, but there was some evidence of pretty questionble spending (sadly, not enough evidence to really do anything about it, since his final act before leaving was to have every almost piece of paperwork in the office shredded). The other is hoping to unseat the current sherriff who, well, needs unseating.

Our Party Chairman had already been chastised by Bob Tuke a couple of months ago (for that faux pas towards the Mayor), and I guess I feel I need to weigh the consequences of making waves over some very inappropriate comments by the Chairman against the benefits of party solidarity at election time.

Unfortunately, the closest Democracy For America group is at least 50 miles away from here. Looking at that Chapter's webpage, it's clear their focus is on issues in their town - which is fine, except that's not where my focus is.

Maybe my problem is that I grew up in a very large Northern city, transplanted to a rural Southern town about 15 years ago, and just don't "get" small town politics. But I'm not going to give up. I'm know my desire for political action will find an outlet.

[guruoo]

5. Consider taking a new approach....

''Maybe my problem is that I grew up in a very large Northern city,
transplanted to a rural Southern town about 15 years ago, and just
don't "get" small town politics. But I'm not going to give up.
I'm know my desire for political action will find an outlet.''


All politics begins and ends at the local level.
Involvement in local politics will provide the asute activist with the most effective
means by which to influence the local vote on national issues.
First, you need a mentor. Someone that knows the area, is well aquainted with
the human centers of influence, and is willing teach you the ropes of local politics.
Next, you need to develop a power base. Select a local issue to which you can
committ to becoming THE expert. What this does is make you the defacto
center of political influence on this issue, because 'he who owns the facts owns
the forum', and 'he who owns the forum owns the issue'.
And the more issues you own, the more political clout you gain.
Caviat here: There is one downside to this. After awhile, you're
going to have the politicians, party bosses, and political wannabees
ringing YOUR phone off the hook to beg for your support!

Here are a few of the quotes I live by:

"We tried to charge Washington when we should have been focusing on the states.
The real battles of concern to us are in neighborhoods, school boards,
city councils and state legislatures." Ralph Reed, Washington Post, 3/14/90

"What we have got to do is take back this country, one precinct at a time,
one neighborhood at a time, and one state at a time..."
-Ralph Reed, Religious News Service, 5/1/1990

"It's like guerrilla warfare. If you reveal your location, all it does is allow your opponent to improve his artillery bearings. It's better to move quietly, with stealth, under cover of night. You've got two choices: You can wear cammies and shimmy along on your belly, or you can put on a red coat and stand up for everyone to see. It comes down to whether you want to be the British army in the Revolutionary War or the Viet Cong. History tells us which tactic was more effective."
-Ralph Reed Los Angeles Times, 3/22/92


And now, Howard Dean, who wants to take it right back fom Ralphie,
on why he started Democracy For America:

"What we're doing, Al, is trying to get a lot of people to run for office at the county level, at the state legislature level and the school boards. We're going to teach people how to raise money from small donors all over the Democratic Party, all over America, because that's the best way to get rid of special interests, and it's also the way -- frankly, it's something like what Ralph Reed did 15 years ago. He was very, very effective in getting members of the right wing Christian Coalition to infiltrate school boards and so forth. And we need to do that. And the Democrats have no mechanism for doing that." -Howard Dean, CNN's 'Capital Gang', March 20, 2004 '
http://www.crocuta.net/Dean/Dean_Interview_CNN_CapitalGang_Mar20_2004.htm


I could go on all day about this, but I need to get ready
for some little ol' major winter storm they just issued warnings for.

Good luck!

[SharonAnn]

6. I've been involved in local Politics here in TN for about 6 years and

I've learned a few things. I'm sure I'll learn even more in the coming years. None of it has been easy and some of it has not been pleasant. Yet I have been part of making some changes, small in appearance, that are building the foundation for the future.

Feel free to PM me and we can talk about some of the things and I'd love to hear what you're thinking and doing in your county.

Yes, some people seem to do nothing for the Party until they're up for election. But that's how it is. Don't worry about it. They may (or may not) be doing lots of other things to help the party in between attendance events. In any case, the issue is more what you want to do, what you have the talent to do, and what you have the necessary support to do.

There will be lots of power structures that will be invisible to you, since you're not "from there". But there's a lot you can learn about how things work.

In some Tennessee counties, the Women's Group is the primary fund-raiser for the party. In others, there isn't one. In some Tennessee counties, candidates pay the party a fee to run as a Democrat. In others, the county party makes contributions to the candidates' campaigns. There is no one, single way that these things are handled in Tennessee.

There's some interesting reading for us "northerners" and maybe even locals, in a book called "Tennessee Government and Politics" by John R. Vile and Mark Byrnes, editors. It's great! It helped me understand why the State Democratic Party has been so weak, though it's strengthened noticeably in the last 3-4 years. There's not a history or tradition of state party structure being the umbrella for political activity. The candidate builds his/her own organization which remains linked to the candidate, particularly at the state and federal levels. If the candidate loses, the organization falls apart and the next candidate has to build one from scratch. This has left local parties a great deal of leeway to develop their own processes and they have no tradition of working with guidance from "outside".

I want to encourage you to get back involved with your local party. Find something(s) you can do and try to ignore the rest. To effect change, you have to be part of the system, you have to have a seat at the table. The absolutely biggest impact we can have is in our local areas. That's where the changes need to take place. It will not come from the top down. We can support state and federal candidates and issues, and that's important, but only WE can do the leg work on the ground at the local level. No one else can do it. We are all critically important to improving our local parties.

I've been through much of what you're describing and though I have my down days, I know that we absolutely must try to effect change locally. Change has occurred here and there's more on the way. It's not easy, but it is absolutely REAL.