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We've gotten a surprising number of emails from readers and friends alike asking if we could provide any insight on tomorrow's D.C. Democratic State Committee election. This only applies to those of you who are registered Democrats, but since we gather that's rather a lot of you, here's a little bit of background information to help you make your decision.
If you've consulted your voter guide already, you've noticed that there are three groups of candidates running variously for National Committeewoman, Committeeman, At-large Democratic State Committee seats, and State Committee Ward Members. These are all basically positions that represent D.C.'s Democratic voters within the national Democratic Party, as well as on the Ward and State level. If you aren't one of the 200 or so people in this city who closely follows internal D.C. Democratic Party politics, you can be forgiven for not having any idea who some of these people on your ballots are or why you should vote for one of them and not the other.
To help make things theoretically easier, the candidates have formed into three slates, with the idea being you should pick one slate and vote for all the candidates in that group. But since the three slate names are 1) Obama for Change, 2) Obama4UnityBeatsMcCain and 3) Obama for DC, the effect instead is much confusion, one could argue even deliberately so.
The Post's David Nakamura last month wrote about part of the difference between these groups: some of them were early Obama supporters but are relatively new to local party activism, while others have been involved for a long time and may or may not have been big time Clinton supporters (but who are now of course campaigning for Obama). There's a sense that the Obama4UnityBeatsMcCain slate has formed because they believe it is time, like their candidate says, for "Change." A not dissimilar event happened in 2004, when a number of enthusiastic Howard Dean supporters successfully joined the committee.
But of course, it's not as simple as saying if you're a die-hard Obama person, you should vote for the Obama4UnityBeatsMcCain slate. As with all things involving local politics, this also appears to be a clash of personalities. The current head of the D.C. Democratic State Committee is Anita Bonds, who is also the 5C ANC Commissioner. Some of the other party members clearly think it's time for her to go, and would like to install Vice Chair Jeffrey Richardson, who tops the Obama4UnityBeatsMcCain slate, in her place. This explains why people like Eugene Kinlow from DC Vote and former D.C. Council Chair Arrington Dixon have signed up with Obama4Unity as well -- these aren't all so-called "newcomers."
Bonds' group, Obama for Change, in a bit of purposeful irony, is actually the slate offering the least amount of change. She's running with colorful former D.C. Council member Vincent Orange and a handful of other longtime Ward activists (people like Don Dinan, Dave Donaldson and Jan Eichhorn) on their collective "extensive track record of accomplishments." This track record includes how the committee ended up in financial trouble a little under two years ago. CORRECTION: The debt in question, approximately $45,000, accrued due to expenses related to the 2004 convention in Boston, before Bonds was at the helm of the committee. Since Bonds took over in 2006, the committee books are back in the black.
The other group, Obama for DC, is made up of other longtime party members who apparently did not want to run alongside Bonds, but don't necessarily want Jeffrey Richardson in charge either. This includes people like Pepco exec. and UDC trustee Deborah M. Royster, running for the Committeewoman seat, experienced city and congressional staffer Aimee Occhetti, and former ANC 5C Commissioner Jim Berry.
Still can't make up your mind? The City Paper suggests generally going with Obama4UnityBeatsMcCain, but leaning to the other two slates when it comes to the National Committeewoman and man spots. It's a reasonable enough suggestion, though we suspect Loose Lips only wants to install Vincent Orange to give himself more potentially silly stuff to write about.
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oh christ no, please god don't let vincent orange get another platform from which to spew nonsense.
this time, i'm speaking as a ward 5 voter—don't vote VO back into city politics, people...
The one with Unity is the one to support. All the others are simply cronies and retreads.
So it's the sleazy old-timers versus the sleazy new-comers versus the idealistic newcomers.
I will vote for myself! Maybe!
Make your selections carefully!
Sharon Robinson of Obama 4 DC was out making racial slurs this morning, accusing one slate of hosting people "not even from this country" (referring to Linda Nguyen of the Obama4UnityBeatsMcCain Slate).
Jaw dropping.
Per the previous post, the "idealistic newcomers" are Obama4UnityBeatsMcCain. Most people don't even know what the DC Democratic State Committee is or does; that's one of there core goals--to change that.
They got the City Paper's endorsement, as well as that of the leading DC activist groups to elect Obama in November.
See http://www.obama4unitybeatsmccain.com/.
goodie, i voted for linda nguyen
guess i hate america then