Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Well, I guess it's on now...


Who am I to criticize intraparty battles after the sweet victory of Ned Lamont last night? Tomorrow night, live from the IBEW Hall, the annual SCDP officer elections will take place. As one need NOT be a member of the ExecCom to be chair, newly-elected TDP Committeeman of District 28 Javier M. "Jay" Bailey is offering himself to the Committee as a new Chair in place of Matt Kuhn.

I present, in its entirety, the email he sent to ExecCom members tonight:

Subject: I'M ASKING FOR YOUR VOTE FOR CHAIRMAN

Dear Executive Committee Member: On tomorrow you will have an opportunity to change the direction of our party. Your vote will determine if we will continue to lose county wide races, suffer from empty campaign funds, and fall prey to cross party endorsements by party leaders. I am offering my service to this party. I pledge my support for all Democratic nominees and I will be a strong Chairman, with the experience to properly take the helm of this party. The elections of last week prove that weak leadership will continue to result in our inability to take and hold various countywide offices. Lets change directions and put a new face on our party.

There are party leaders that seem to believe that smearing my character will be a deterence to my candidacy. This is the type of tactic is part and parcel of why our party stands divided and ineffective. It is also why we lost many of the judicial races. You and I will not allow any more division and mudslinging. *Join with me and lets create a party for which we can be proud. I am calling on you to put aside our fractional differences and look ahead toward the future of our party.

TOGETHER WE CAN DO IT. * *TOGETHER WE WILL PUT THIS SHIP BACK ON COURSE.*
PLEASE OPEN THE ATTACHMENT!!!!!
-- JM Bailey


Well, he's obviously accusing Kuhn of malfeasance or nonfeasance here, but my question is this:

Mr. Bailey, what can you do differently? How can you fill the void that has been in the local party since Harold Senior moved to Miami? What would you have done differently had you been in Matt Kuhn's shoes, and I want specifics.

You know, all you have to do to know that I have had differences with Matt Kuhn is to go type his name in the blog search and read what I have written. All that aside, what has Mr. Bailey done to distinguish himself as a superior candidate?

I have one other question: why isn't David Upton, who is supporting Jay Bailey, running himself? I have worked with David in campaigns for years now, and he surely has as much or more experience in campaigns and fundraising as Jay Bailey, and surely he could articulate his own vision for where the party needs to go instead of asking someone else to run in his stead.

Well, I don't have a vote, and I've had problems with Matt Kuhn, but I am really going to have to be sold why we should change horses in mid-stream without sufficient reason, other than "He's NOT Matt Kuhn".

That smacks of "He's NOT George Bush", and we all know how well that worked for John Kerry.

2 comments:

polar donkey said...

Upton is radioactive to MSDIA and wouldn't be able to peel away enough votes from the MSDIA/Chism alliance. At least Jay got the Clinton hand jesture thing down.
Hell, why not vote for him.

If Jay wins, I sure would miss the Matt and Dell show. I know some people don't like it, but I think its great entertainment. Plus, a majority of time Dell is right. He mostly pushes for consistency in application of rules and procedures.

Steve Steffens said...

POD, I quote you now the words of my godfather, Mike Kernell (who I suspect you know as well), "Victory has many fathers; but, if the candidate loses, it's ultimately his/her fault".

Remember this as we proceed to the November elections.....Kuhn is neither responsible for the victories nor the defeats, and one would do well to remember this.

But I'm glad you're here, you're always welcome to post!