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Tom Rinaldo

(22,912 posts)
6. I am only a low ranking officer of the Democratic Party (a Town Chair)
Fri Nov 3, 2017, 09:25 AM
Nov 2017

For the most part I concentrate on issues and on winning elections. My lowly position does however come with some responsibility for the health of our Party - so our Town Democratic Committee went on record favoring some really basic reforms to how our State Party operates (for example, not allowing the Chair of the State Party to personally appoint a majority of the members to the State Party Executive Committee). So far that reform has been shot down by the State Party. I favor moving on from blaming individuals for the past. I favor moving forward to improve how the Democratic Party operates in the future

Working to improve the functioning of the Democratic Party is not in itself divisive, although as with all things, people will divide over what is and is not an improvement. It seems to me that our National Democratic Party sees value in learning, with the advantage of hindsight, what has not worked out as well as envisioned in the past.

This is from today's Washington Post:

"...Kleeb, who along with Weaver is a member of the Democrats’ post-primary “unity commission,” said the party had made some amends under Perez’s leadership. In his campaign to run the DNC and since, Perez has chastised Wasserman Schultz for turning the party into a vehicle for the presidential campaign.

After Brazile’s book excerpt surfaced, state chairs began calling and emailing each other about a change to the DNC’s rules and bylaws that would forbid any arrangement like the one Clinton got. Buckley and other DNC members suggested that the party should also give DNC members access to its budget, which would have made it clear much earlier how the joint fundraising agreement was affecting the flow of money.

“I will co-sponsor that amendment and vote for it,” Buckley said. “There’s so much reform that has to happen.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/democrats-express-outrage-over-allegations-of-early-control-for-clinton-in-2016/2017/11/02/84e949da-c000-11e7-97d9-bdab5a0ab381_story.html?utm_term=.913dd8ce0547

More about Kleeb: "After the election, the effects of the Clinton fundraising effort hit some state parties hard. Jane Kleeb, who took over Nebraska’s Democratic Party in late 2016, discovered that the party had accrued $35,000 in debt for the Clinton campaign."

More about Buckley: "Ray Buckley, the chairman of New Hampshire’s Democratic Party, said that he first learned of the agreement while serving as DNC vice chair in 2016. “The day that Donna discovered this, she called me and I almost passed out,” Buckley said. “We were blatantly misled.”

I have no interest in trying to demonize either the Clinton campaign or Hillary herself. I can understand why prior arrangements evolved the way they did at the time, even if I do not approve of all the steps that were taken. Hind sight is 20/20. Foresight is a much more important quality, and the Democratic Party needs some now in moving forward. Learn from our mistakes, get our house in order.

Latest Discussions»General Discussion»Learn from the '16 electi...»Reply #6