DNC: DFT Poll and the AFL-CIO Non-Endorsement
By Byron LaMasters
The organizers of the DFT poll of state convention delegates claimed that they contacted via email each state convention delegate as to their preference for DNC Chair. According to a post on Texas DNC member David Holmes's yahoo group, that was not the case:
I am writing because I am puzzled about the so-called poll of State Convention delegates. I was a delegate to the State Convention and am also chair of Travis County Precinct 326. No one has ever asked me who I support for DNC chair (that is, until yesterday when I found your poll on the txdnc yahoo group site ... which I learned about from you at the meeting Saturday). Was the claimed poll of State Convention delegates only of delegates committed to Howard Dean? I was a Kerry delegate and prefer Simon Rosenberg for DNC chair and believe that it would be a huge mistake for the Democratic Party to choose Dean (even though I agree with Dean's positions ... the problem is that most of America does not agree with those positions and the public's perception of him is very negative).
Keep up the good work!
Bill Morrow
I'm sure that if this delegate did not receive the DFT survey, then there are surely many others who did not receive the DFT poll as well. I doubt that there was a concerted effort by DFT to exclude those who did not support Dean, but it's common sense that DFT would have the most accurate contact information for DFT members, and their contact information of non-DFT members was probably significantly less accurate - thus skewing their poll heavily towards Dean.
Finally, here's a teaser... I just got word from one source that the AFL-CIO has just declined to endorse in the DNC race. Good news for Dean, bad news for Frost. Look for it to hit the AP wire soon....
Update: Ok, it's hit. The San Francisco Chronicle reports:
AFL-CIO leaders decided Tuesday not to make an endorsement in the race for Democratic National Committee chairman, a move that could make it harder for any of Howard Dean's rivals to stop his push for the party leadership.
"The AFL-CIO political committee decided Tuesday not to make an endorsement for DNC chair," said Christy Setzer, a spokeswoman for the labor group. [...]
Former Texas Rep. Martin Frost has pushed hard for labor backing that could give him a chance to derail Dean.
Posted by Byron LaMasters at February 1, 2005 12:40 PM
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Run your own poll next time then. The poll of state delegates... e-mails were sent to all those that signed in at the state convention and left their e-mail addresses. For those few that are too non-tech to have one, ok, they didn't get to vote. Same goes for those that don't check their e-mail or the chance that it went in their trash folder. It was done off of state party information, not internal DFT lists, and was verified off of the state list.
One complaint does not evidence of widespread disenfranchisement make. The point is still clear, delegates preferred Dean over Frost, give or take even 20 freaking percentage points of error. Get over it.
the problem is that most of America does not agree with those positions and the public's perception of him is very negative).
That didn't stop the country from electing George Bush. Twice. Sounds like advocation of going back to "Republican Lite" because that is where the country is, so I guess we should drift there as well. We keep losing with that strategy nationally, so why not try to create a new platform of reform that people are drawn too (instead of us being drawn to theirs). We want people to drift towards our policies in the long run, and that isn't going to happen if we operate under the Politics of Fear and give in.
