OK, time for Big Shelby's Democrats to get off their butts

In case you were doing other things yesterday, the Gov-elect, Bill Haslam, swooped into town long enough to grab our Attorney General, Bill Gibbons, and take him to Nashville as the state's incoming Safety & Homeland Security Commissioner.  Deputy AG Amy Weirich, who has served as deputy since August of this year, was named to succeed AG Gibbons, and she announced right then that she would seek a full 8-year-term in 2012.

All right, Democrats, what the hell are you going to do about this?  I yelled and screamed the last time Gibbons was up that someone needed to start raising money early and get ready to run.  No one did, Gail Mathes got in at that last minute, did what she could with little cash, and was summarily squashed.

What we do NOT need is some fool getting in the AG race with no money who thinks that just having the Democratic nomination will guarantee them victory; how did that work last August?  The SCDP, RIGHT FREAKING NOW, needs to start screening candidates, even though the actual election will not be until August 2012.  They need to find good candidates who understand how to run county-wide, and can raise the money to do so.  They need to find people who are WELL-QUALIFIED for the position, and tell those who have no money and are just looking for a job to stay the hell out of the race.

Yes, they DO need to do that.  Technically speaking, Democrats make up a majority of this county, yet our county offices are almost all held by Republicans.  Why?  Because even the good candidates that we had last year (and there weren't that many of them) couldn't raise any freaking money and depended on the Party to carry them.  Again, how'd that work for them?

(Ahem.  I am certainly aware of the problems with the Election Commission.  Yes, the machines sucked.   Yes, there were enough questions that the election should have been tossed.  But that was NOT why our African-American Democratic base did not turn out, and if you think so, you are deluding yourselves.)

So, Van Turner and the ExecCom, whatcha gonna do about this?  This is EXACTLY the type of thing that you folks need to be looking into.  Start recruiting candidates and doing what it takes.  By the way, you can find more than one; your job is to get as many as you can so that the base will be EXCITED about voting, and to discourage the people who run because they need a job from running.

Find candidates who won't be afraid to go to the eastern parts of the county to campaign (and not just at the G-Town meetings, either).  Find candidates who will do targeted mailings and knock on doors and not just go to rallies in the home areas.

Happy Holidays, SCDP, you have a big job to do, and you need to start NOW.