The North Carolina Democratic Party will elect new party officers on January 29, 2011 in Raleigh unfortunately the choices are stale as Thanksgiving croutons. Would you believe that most of the current NCDP party officers are seeking re-election?
I know! Stop laughing. It's true.
Stella Adams, 52, is seeking re-election as the NCDP's First Vice Chair. Delmas Parker, 73, wants to hold onto the Second Vice Chair job, again. And Tony McEwen, 31, actually wants to keep his Third Vice Chair position.
These are the same people who sat on their bureaucratic backsides while the NC legislature flopped into Republican control for the first time in over a 100 years. At least current NCDP Chair David Young had the good sense (of shame?) to announce early he won't be seeking re-election after the piss-poor results of the mid-term elections across the state. The race is now between David Parker, 54 of Statesville and Bill Faison, 64 of Efland.
According to the state party's Plan of Organization, the First Chair must be the opposite gender of the chair. Presuming no new names come up for Chair, women candidates are sorely needed to oppose Stella Adams who wants to retain her office. C'MON, ladies. Line up! We need some new blood infused into the party! Stella Adams has a history of abusing her position. Just ask the Africa-American Caucus of NC. These days, no one knows who's actually the bonafide leader since the elected president wasn't one of Adam's minions so she instigated a coup to replace the elected leader with her own puppet, Michael Lawson.
Tony McEwen did help pull together a new state auxiliary group, the Hispanic Democrats of NC. While that's all very well and good. No news as to how he might have actually helped elect any democratic candidates.
Kathy Knight is following David's lead and moving on by not seeking re-election as party Secretary. That's good news since Knight hasn't bothered to send out any meeting minutes in months.
There are some not so new names coveting the secretary's post. Both Melvin Williams, 69 of Beulaville and Kevin A. Smith, 34, of Durham, want the job. Melvin Williams is a long-time supporter of Jerry Meek, the "genius" who handpicked David Young, the current NCDP Chair. But back to Melvin, the 7th Congressional District Chair. Wonder if he'll resign that job to be secretary? This is not Kevin Smith's first run for party office. In 2009, he lost his bid for state party's Third Vice Chair despite an admirable speech. This race should prove to be interesting.
Treasurer Muriel Offerman has done an excellent job of maintaining the books and keeping the budget tidy. She hasn't announced her interest in seeking re-election. If she does seek re-election, she'd get my vote mainly because of who she endorses for chair.
The current state party officers should be embarrassed to ask to be re-elected. Their track record has been abysmal having handed over the NC legislature over to the Republicans, a first in over a century. Lets rethink who runs the party and elect competent officers focused on electing democrats, not securing their own influence.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Who should be the next NCDP Party Chair?
Every other year, a handful of the same old faces resurface to lay claim to the six officers (electable) seats of the North Carolina Democratic Party.
This year is not all that different.
Running for Party Chair are two well-liked democrats:
- David Parker, a Democratic National Committee member and NC super delegate
- Bill Faison, a NC House legislator
Insiders know David Parker is the front runner since his announcement on the heels of current NCDP chair David Young's announcement not to seek re-election. Young knew better than to run for another term after the devastating losses Democrats suffered statewide on Young's watch during the mid-term 2010 elections and the county elections. David Parker has the support of the majority of congressional district party chairs due to the tax-check-off debacle squabble over sharing funding that David Young tried to prevent.
Insiders know who's actually responsible for picking one of the worst state party boards in the NC History. David Young presided over the democratic party after being hand-picked by the out-going NCDP chair Jerry Meek. Was Meek seeking to prop up a weaker chair to make himself look good? All we know is thanks to Jerry Meek, the NCDP handed the NC Legislature over to the Republican party, giving the Republicans the upper-hand and voting majority for the FIRST TIME in 100 years!
Bill Faison seems to be a nice guy. Like David Parker, he's an attorney. Both have held elected office. But there are differences. Faison, recently elected to a fourth 2-year term to the NC House, has absolutely no experience running a political party which is a very different animal compared to running a campaign 1/100th in size of the party's responsibilities. Democrats have to ask themselves if Faison is going to have the time to continue running his law firm, serving in the legislature and deal with a nasty divorce that's been dragging on for nearly 2 years.
According to Lindy Creech, Faison's wife, Faison has stuck her with feeding and tending the 30 horses he bred and half the tax bill on the family residences. In September 2010, Mrs Faison filed a post-separation document with the Orange County courts seeking recourse to his "intentional infliction of emotional distress." Until recently, the 55-year old homemaker and mother of his six kids handled Faison's law firm advertising, leaving her with no visible income since their split. In his defense, Faison issued a press release two months ago claiming his soon-to-be ex-wife believed him to be Bill Gates, not Bill Faison. Nice. Real nice.
Why would a sitting legislator want to run the state democratic party? It's known Faison's district will evaporate under the new redistricting plans Republicans are drafting. This leaves Faison out of office and irrelevant. Running the state party would give him leverage and a way to maintain influence inside the party once he loses his legislative position. Another democrat seeking party office to stay in elected office? He wouldn't be the first one or the last to pull this sad approach.
Bottomline, the NC GOP is quietly laying in wait for the NC Democrats to screw up again. January 29, 2011 is D-Day for Democrats. That's when State Executive Committee members, super delegates and elected officials will converge in Raleigh to vote for the next leader of the NC Democratic Party. After a spate of negative press and ugly ethics accusations, Democrats need a leader who won't make headlines for all the wrong reasons.
Democrats, wake up and smell the coffee! No more intraparty conflicts. We can't afford to stroke egos while voters elect republicans. Make your vote count on January 29th and vote for David Parker for NC Democratic Party Chair.
As long as Jerry Meek and his wife, Rep. Tricia Cotham, try to control the NC Democratic Party, the Republicans are going to control NC.
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