"Howard Dean has done a lot of good things in our party. He's been a governor. He has been a presidential candidate who encouraged grassroots activism. I have a lot in common with that."
I cringe. What? He has been governor for 12 years? Run for President? Been elected at all?
Donnie is a bit in over his head imho.
"Dean had the oranges, but he couldn't make orange juice."
Donnie Fowler said this.
Fowler is a liar and a fraud. He doesn't have 20 years of organizing experience, he has three years of experience. He was a lobbyist for three years in CA, and he calls that 'tech' experience.
He is an enemy of the grassroots, he's as inside as they come, and he's playing us all for a ride. That's why he's saying that Dean will take us to the left, because that's how he sees this. Right versus left instead of reform versus not reform.
At the DNC Caucus in Sacto on Saturday, a friend who talked with Fowler (and liked him) intimated that Fowler had said that he would go back to work in Silicon Valley if he lost the DNC Chairmanship.
Now this is clearly just a comment that could have been misconstrued, but if true, it validates people's discomfort with Fowler's "political class" pedigree and it points out quite an interesting juxtaposition:
DEAN: lose presidential race, WORK ASS OFF for party and do it with a smile. Then give up presidential ambitions for a difficult fight to reform the party.
FOWLER: lose DNC Chair race, cut and run for the money.
I'd love it if one question asked in NYC this weekend to all of the candidates is "What will you do if you LOSE the race?" Could be quite illuminating...
Donnie --- appreciate the direct reply. One thing that can be said for your candidacy is that you actually have the balls to come on MyDD often to engage the netroots. Serious points for you (imagine Frost or Roemer coming to our blog 'hood to mix it up with the locals?).
Should you lose the race for DNC Chair, I hope you reconsider your decision to return to high tech. The party needs you full-time, and I'm sure the new Chair would love to have you on board. You pass the "Budweiser Test" in the South, so we certainly don't need you on the wine-and-cheese circuit in Silicon Valley. And, if Dean (my choice) becomes Chair, he's going to need your help figuring out how in the hell he's actually going to appeal to "guys with confederate flags on the back of their pickup trucks".
OK --- I've got two questions for you, if you have the testicular fortitude to answer them:
First, I believe that Dean and I are the only two agents of change among the seven candidates in this race. We both embrace change and innovation AND we can actually make it happen because neither one of us is dependent on DC to preserve our status or further our careers. In other words, because we have not made our careers in DC, we can say "no" to the entrenched interests with no concern about social, professional, or financial repercussions.
Second, my goal wherever I live is to move the progressive agenda forward and strengthen the Democratic Party at the state and local level where the voters actually live. I will do my duty, sir.
Donnie says he has been working with the grassroots of the party for ALMOST two decades, supporting Democratic candidates. He has encouraged grassroots activism, how is this a negative?
I am sure we all eagerly anticipate the posting from blogswarm. As always it will shed a lot of light, at least on one campaign's talking points.
the clear point is that Donnie HAS been working with the grassroots of the party for almost two decades and believes he has a demonstrable record of success from that work. i agree with him.
howard dean has a demonstrable record of success in vermont and getting people very excited everywhere else. his grassroots bona fides on the national stage are 2 years in the making. Donnie's are almost 20.
in the world of on the ground, in the trenches, with the organizers, AS an organizer, i give the edge to Donnie. a point on which reasonable people may disagree, but not an irrational conclusion.
Except that he hasn't. He went to law school, worked at the FCC, did lobbying for three years, and he's what, late thirties or something? Kos pointed this out a week ago or something.
What did he do well? If Michigan was so great, why aren't MI people endorsing him?
The guy's a fucking liar. I don't get why you don't see this.
Not only did I grow up in the Democratic Party ... and proudly so ... I have committed a significant portion of my life to it. And most of the time has been working in politics -- whether that's on a campaign, in Clinton's White House, at the FCC, or as an activist. Let me give you a list of states where I have spent at least three months on the ground working on a campaign or in service to the Democratic Party ... New Hampshire, South Carolina, Tennessee, Wyoming, California, Michigan, Mississippi, Connecticut. I have spent at least a month in many other states in addition to earning a law degree and having the chance to experience many other things.
Because of my diversity of background, I have been able to avoid being a paid political consultant and have instead worked as a staffer or a volunteer. Keeping one foot in telecom/technology and one foot in campaigns is a lucky streak that I am glad to have.
At the risk of sounding like blogswarm, I will repeat what I have said before. MI this year was no grassroots miracle. It was poorly managed, not very interested in listening to anyone not being paid to say something, and certainly not very amenable to letting localities do what they thought best given their local conditions. The GOTV plan seems not to have been planned until 3 weeks before the election, making it very difficult for those of us volunteers trying to implement the plan. Further, there seems to have been some very serious fiscal mismanamgement.
This is the closest thing Fowler has done to the DNC chair--and it doesn't resemble his platform in the least.
Now I suspect part of the reasons might be the way the Kerry campaign was run. But if that's true, some sort of explanation really ought to be part of your campaign. MI doesn't resemble your platform at all. Why should we believe your stint as DNC chair should be any different?
Barring an answer to that question, I've got to believe the (very nice sounding) platform is just hot air.
But Donnie, because he understands how to create, manage, and use the grassroots in over a dozen States, I think understands more clearly what the State Party Chairs, County Party Chairs and Executive Committees, and homegrown activists NEED from a national party to get good people elected to office.
The Dean Dozens refute that argument. DFA endorsed over 100 candidates at all levels of government and contributed to nearly 750 candidates around the country. One-third of those endorsed by DFA won their respective races, including a Democratic governor in Montana, a Democratic mayor in Salt Lake County, Utah, and an African American woman to the bench in Alabama.
Another DFA endorsement was Richard Morrison's race against Tom DeLay, which helped force DeLay to actually spend money and time campaigning in his district.
Dean was not the campaign manager, political direcor, field director, communications director, GOTV manager, or any other position in any of those campaigns. Don't pretend that because you feel strongly he should be the Chair, for very valid and compelling reasons, that his resume automatically includes all of the experiences you feel a Chair needs.
Donnie has been in the field, with the party activists and voters screaming with them that if the DNC understood what was needed to win a race they would provide x, and y, and three times as much z as we got. That experience is priceless.
