Martin Frost is a Democrat. In the 1990's, he was chair of the DCCC for two terms, during which Democrats gained fourteen seats in the House. Also,
his voting record is really not that bad, and he certainly is not a member of
the Fainthearted Faction. However, that does not mean that he is an acceptable choice for DNC Chair.
As Anna writes:
i do give him credit for being able to stay in office as long as we did, and also for the record i fought to keep him as my representative during he redistricting fiasco. on top of that, i helped write an attack ad against pete sessions for blogpac during martin's last race.
that being said, i was ashamed of the way martin ran that campaign. he not only ran to the right of sessions, he basically put pro-bush ads on the air. i've seen the numbers for dallas county as well, and the pro-bush campaign may very well have hurt a few downticket dems.(...)
but most of all, he HATES the netroots. anybody reading this post needs to realise that martin does not value nor respect you as an activist unless his own butt is on the line. he fears you, as you represent change and reform. i have dealt with the guy's staff, i have dealt with him a few times in person, and i promise you that i'm telling the truth.
regardless, i hope this video sheds some light on why i don't support martin for the chairmanship.
Check out the video on Anna's site. You will find it on the page I linked.
Also, Kos weighs in:
Frost is a conservative Democrat, which by itself is not a disqualifying factor (at least not to me). I'm a proponent of the big tent, and we need Democrats of all stripes to take back our country from the cabal currently running it into the ground.
But I do demand that Democrats sound like Democrats, and aren't afraid to say they're Democrats. That's why Martin Frost would be a terrible choice for DNC chair.(...)
Democrats don't hold a single statewide elected office in Texas. There are plenty of races for Frost to run in if he's bored and looking for something to do.
But a Democrat who ran his race by demonizing Ted Kennedy and sucking up to Republicans has no place anywhere near the DNC chairmanship.
Considering
the Florida endorsement and
the recent polls on the DNC race, Dean's apparent edge combined with Frost's clear second place will probably result in the Anyone But Dean or an Anything But Reform movement consolidating behind Frost. This then, will become the battle.
Democrats need to know where the netroots stand on this. Our current poll, I think, makes it pretty obvious. I would also like to reiterate a few points previous made on MyDD. First, something I wrote about Roemer last month:
Unless Roemer publicly, loudly and completely repudiates his recent position on Social Security, he is utterly unacceptable as DNC chair. Mark my words: if Roemer becomes chair without doing this, I will actively encourage all progressive activists to donate and volunteer to third-party groups instead of and at the expense of the DNC. The Fainthearted Faction has no place in the Democratic leadership.
Then I clarified, after these comments appear on national TV:
And Jerome added:
That's an important clarification that's probably missed by most. What's happened with the Democratic party, with the soft money and millionaire supporters no longer able to make large sum donations to Dem orgs like the DNC/DSCC/DCCC is that they've went elsewhere, creating this whole infrastructure that is being built outside the Democratic party organizations. And, in almost every respect, these 3rd party groups are more effective than the the Democratic Party groups, and that's after only one election.
I'm convinced that the mental framework of those in the ASDC and Congress is that the small donors have merely replaced the previous large-money donors, and that we have no where else to go. What the Democratic Party leadership in DC and these states needs to realize is that the DNC relys upon the small donor as it's netroots ATM, yet the netroots does not rely upon them. We have just as much an opportunity to win campaigns by working with these outside organizations as we do by ATMing with the DNC et. al.
I would like to make a further clarification: I don't have to tell the netroots to do anything. Typically, the netroots is extremely self-starting, and it does things on its own. The MyDD poll gives Frost 3% support for DNC chair, and word is he doesn't like us either. The netroots will always work to elect Democrats and progressives, but I think it is pretty obvious that the relationship between the DNC and the netroots would be all but severed if Frost is elected DNC chair.
