Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Voice of San Diego piece on the SDCDP

Yesterday the VoSD ran a piece by David Washburn called “Where are the Democrats?”

Points, IMHO:

• The SDCDP is working on capitalizing on the growth of Democrats, but they have coming from just about nothing three years ago whereas the Republicans have been in motion in San Diego for decades.

• Blaming the party for bad candidates is a straw man argument. Until the SDCDP is in a position to groom and foster candidates, these candidates will be self-selected. John Kern’s comments nail this issue .

• Crediting local Republican leaders for their victories is another straw man argument. The local Republicans have benefited in spite of their party organization. With the Lincoln Club and other IE’s, the candidates just need the label and little else from the party. Duane Dichiara’s comment about the Republicans just getting lucky is solid.

• Chairman Durfee’s comments were right on about the criticism being ill-informed and unfair.

• Mr. Berg’s comments about District 3 was also right on but this goes beyond the SDCDP to the general body public who will support whomever they want regardless of the “official” position because the candidates are on the same page.

• As an observer of the SDCDP, Prof. Erie’s comments ring hollow. It has come a long way since 2006 but it has a lot of catching up to do.

• Lorena Gonzalez’s observation about being alone speaks to the infrastructure which is being assembled but wasn’t available when she ran.

Growth periods are not easy, but I agree that the SD Republicans are living on borrowed time.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just looking at the number of new registrants bodes well for Democrats.

Anonymous said...

I think this article was bound to happen..The Democratic Party is made up of a diverse population with a broad range of core beliefs and attitudes. The party is an umbrella party, that welcomes people regardless of age, race, religion, or economic background. As a local Democratic activist, I am saddened to see that the local party does not reflect the above, from it's leadership and staff to its agenda. I think voices were heard this past election with new people being elected to the central committee and not even the chair of the party being elected. The local party needs to outreach to different communities and start mobilizing, because even if you register more Democrats to vote, the key here is turning those Democrats out to vote...

Anonymous said...

(sigh) This is what happens when people who are not fully informed, glean a little information and believe they are fully informed. The article was written on basis of sources who only have little if any knowledge on how the party functions and its role. With the exception of Lorena, who by the way clarified her comments to Washburn later. None of these experts have no earthly knowledge of the day-to-day functions of the Central Committee. They don't know how decisions are made or how money, if any, are allocated to the candidates. They don't even know how the leadership is selected from the Central Committee. I just wish the article was researched properly and not rely on people that don't know that much on how the organization functions before writing it

Anonymous said...

To be honest with Blue Diegan, I am a central committee member and I still don't know how funds are doled out to candidates. I am still stumped that so much money was thrown to Stephen. Our committee proudly endorsed him for District 3 in San Diego but we didn't endorse spending so much money on him.
Our leadership is chosen every year by unanimous vote. Incumbents are guaranteed re-election to their posts, there is no vigorous debate. Jess Durfee has done one hell of a job and he has changed the party big time and I love the party compared to what it was 8 years ago or even 4 years ago. But we still have a very hollow pipeline when it comes to candidates. We need to develop candidates all over the county and not just throw money on city of san diego city council races. Jess has already started addressing the problem with the creation of regions. I already see it working and I think in 6 years or 10 years we are going to see a huge difference but we still lack candidates. We need to hurry up because time flies. It has already been nearly 4 years since the election was stolen from Donna by the courts. It felt like yesterday when Donna almost kicked Murph and Roberts' asses. Time flies so we need to get moving on candidate recruitment.