drinkers

yeah, i'm not above cheap jokes either :)

Tom Collins made his decision last week, shortly before all hell broke loose regarding the Fox debate. The Las Vegas Gleaner posted his press release on Feb 22:

    Nevada Democratic Chairman Tom Collins has decided not to run for reelection to his post as state chairman when the Democratic Central Committee elects new state officers at a meeting March 31 in Reno.

   Collins, who was elected to a one-year term as party chairman last April, will remain the chairman of the Nevada Caucus Commission, helping to raise money, coordinate and promote the Nevada Presidential Caucus, to be held Jan. 19, 2008.

   During his term, Collins oversaw the coordinated campaign that helped to elect four Democrats to statewide office, plus an additional Democrat in both the state Senate and Assembly. Democrats also picked up another seat on the Clark County Commission.

   Collins was one of the first advocates to lobby Democrats nationally to put an early presidential caucus in Nevada. Collins has argued the West is the new frontier for Democrats, and by focusing on Western states, Democrats can win the White House.

   "The Nevada Caucus is a huge undertaking, and stepping down as state chairman will give me more time to focus on my duties as one of the chairs of the Nevada Caucus Commission," Collins said. "I believe that Democrats must win in the West in order to win the White House, and I want to spend as much of my time as possible promoting the caucus and ensuring it is a success. I look forward to working with a new state chair who can bring the resources to the table to continue to build the Nevada Democratic Party and turn Nevada `blue.'"

We were 0 for 3 in Nevada last year; while Carter and Derby both had uphill battles, Hafen v. Porter was a winnable race. Maybe it's time for new blood in the Nevada Democratic Party.

Derby did very well in her race given the slant of her district; I'm hopeful that under her leadership, Nevada Democrats can beat Porter in 2008 and send the state's electoral votes to the Democratic candidate.

You might want to change the tag from "Kill Derby" to "Jill Derby"

According to John Walsh at counterpunch Jill Derby was one of Rahm Emanuel's hand pick pro-war candidates.

"U.S, must "win" in Iraq (9): John Cranely(OH); Jill Derby (NV); Tammy Duckworth (IL); Brad Ellsworth (IN): Teresa Hafen (NV); Baron Hill (IN);Ken Lucas (KY); Lois Murphy (PA); Heath Schuler (NC).

Link

Begala (Carville's side-kick) apparently stumped for her:

"...Her stance in the Iraq War has been concrete in that Americans should "win the war once and for all." She believes "career politicians in both parties have failed to craft a plan to win the war and get the job done. Now that we're there, we've got to finish what we started, honor the sacrifice of our service men and women, and built a stable peace. I'll stand up to leaders in both parties who claim we don't need a plan, and hold them accountable for success. And I'll stand up to leaders in my own party and oppose an immediate withdrawal."
Link

She apparently lost.

effective state chair for Nevada.

Not my point.

Would Derby represent the WHOLE NV state democratic party? Will her connections and favors she received from the Hillary team, when she was campaigning for Congress affect her decision-making and possible favoritism towards a 'particular' activist arm of NV politics?

Time will tell, when someone in NV will hopefully ask her about her position on the Fox News gig, and see if she sees the BLARING problem about the media 'management' of a pro-war and republican Murdoch network?

Adding, if you don't think money, campaign support, and payback is significant in politics, then you don't seem to know much about politics?

Or if you do, you are just not admitting that that money and alliances do matter.

This may be painful, but let's face it folks.  The Fox News fiasco is deeply indicative of a state party with its head where the sun don't shine.  Tom Collins wasn't the only involved here.

Harry Reid?  Well, we've already seen what a mixed bag he is.  When he's good, he's very, very good, and when he's not, he's AWOL.

Jill Derby?  Running to the right of her GOP opponent tells me all I really want to know about her.  Those who think that ideology is irrelevent in a party chair just haven't been to the right parties.  It's not so much a question of ideology directly (although that sometimes figures in), it's much more an indication of how hard and how shredly they'll fight.  Put simply, someone who is sharply ideologically opposed to the Reps is simply more likely to see the best angles to attack them on.  You don't have to be far left to do this.  But you do have to be ideologically distinguishable from them.

Then there are a number of fights they've failed to press over the years that they should damn well have fought--even if they were going to lose.  Just to show they would stand up for something.

Of course, the fact that the caucus is being held there means that things will get stirred up.  New blood will come into the party.  And, of course, the Reps are going to keep on royally scewing over the country.  So I'm not saying we can't win Nevada in 2008, and I'm certainly not saying that our prospects beyond that aren't promising.

But I am saying not to expect too much in the way of leadership from them.  They're still playing AA ball.  No telling how long till they get to the show.  And don't expect rookie of the year when they finally do.

BUT, he's still the State Chair and will be in charge of the upcoming State Party elections on March 31st, and guess what he's gonna do next?

Tom Collins is THE Chair of the 2008 Nevada Caucus - can you believe most Democrats want this guy in charge of anything?  ABSOLUTELY NOT!

Tom Collins has been publicly outed as a bully, dictator, homophobe, religious zealot, sexist and DINO!

Go to www.taylormarsh.com and scroll down to my "Guest Column" titled "Fear & Loathing in the Las Vegas Polticial Jungle!" and you all will get the back story...follow the links...read the comments from other REAL Progressive Democrats!

There is a cancer on the Nevada Democratic Party and Tom Collins is the main reason why!  In Clark County, Las Vegas, his "queen" is Liz Foley, also a DINO and the person that purged the progressives from the State Central Committee (who are the only Democrats that get to vote for the new State Party leaders - about 150 in all)!

Nothing could be sadder than what's happening in Nevada!  We need all the help we can get from the "NetRoots" to get these few DINO's out of power!