DNC Member blogging

Thanks to BlueNC regulars for suggesting that I post this. I should have been blogging in addition to sending out emails to all of the State Executive Committee ("SEC") Members and emailing them back about the DNC "Super-Delegate" vote. My apologies, but here's what has happened:

This has been an incredible experience. I have represented NC Democrats as a DNC Member in 1996 (as 1st Vice Chair), 2000, 2004 and, soon, in August, 2008. This is the first time anyone has had any particular interest in how I cast my vote. In fact, when in the last 3 Conventions when I had a vote, NY generally put the nominee over the majority and NC did not even get to announce its votes.

Obviously, until Obama captured the nomination, this cycle was different.

By February 26, 2008, it had become obvious that the DNC Members (who make up around 2/3 of the 800 or so "Super-Delegates" - actually "Unpledged PLEO's" -- the others are mostly Congressfolk and a few Governors and former DNC Chairs, etc) would play a larger role than in the years since 1984 (my first Convention - I went as a Page when was President of the YDNC) when Walter Mondale was actually elected by the SD's.

Consequently, I sent out an email to all of the SEC Members asking for their advice. Out of the 600+ Members, only about 50 emails came back with bad addresses. Of the 550+ that were delivered, I got back about 200 replies.

The gist of the replies and the path of my endorsement was:

(1) The initial SEC replies ran about 70% Obama in the first few weeks, although the HRC emails picked up as the NC primary drew near so that the final count was about 60% Obama, 30% HRC, and 10% sympathy notes
(2) initially, the Clinton folks wanted me to declare for HRC immediately, the Obama folks wanted me to declare for Obama after either all of the primaries or at least after the NC Primary,
(3) After Obama won a majority of the Texas delegates (HRC won the primary by 5, but Obama won the caucuses by 9 for a net win of 4 for Obama – showing organizational strength), the HRC folks wanted me to wait until after the 5/6 NC Primary and the Obama folks wanted me to come out prior to Texas and Ohio (by that time, my leanings were apparent to both sides)
(4) Once NC went so strongly for Obama on May 6 and it was obvious that Obama would help down-ballot Democrats in NC more than Hillary Clinton, the HRC folks asked me to wait until after the polls closed in Montana on 6/3/08. The Obama delegate trackers were very patient in understanding that I wanted to wait. It was, and is, my belief that having the Primaries go the distance strengthened the Democratic Parties in the remaining primary States after NC – witness, for example, the 70,000+ rally for Obama in Oregon.
(5) By June 1, I was calling the HRC campaign to confirm what they already knew concerning my plans to endorse after the polls closed in Montana. I did not announce my intentions to the Press until the polls closed (I was gigging FoxNews (yech! – but a lot of fun to poke fun at) midday national show as late as 12:30 PM on 6/3 about not announcing until 10:05 PM)

At about 9:30 PM on Tuesday, June 3, 2008, I sent out the following in an email to all the SEC Mebmers informing them that I had heard what they wanted, as their DNC Representative, from my 2-26-08 letter, and that I was following the large majorty their wishes and endorsing Obama as soon as the polls closed in Montana - at 10:05 PM EDT:

__________________________

Dear Fellow North Carolina Democratic Party State Executive Committee Member –

It is the final day of the Primaries and, like many of you, I am ready to get on with electing a President. A lot has happened since February 26, 2008 when I last wrote you – Sen. Obama carried NC 56-42, has a Pledged Delegate lead of 115±, and will very likely have enough “Super-Delegates” after tonight to claim the nomination.

I will be in that number.

More than 200 of you emailed me after my request for your advice – and your advice was fairly plain: wait until the people have spoken – do not insert yourself into the equation. I took that advice to heart and pledged that I would not endorse either candidate until the primaries were over.

During this journey, I have emailed my high school class (Raleigh Broughton, Class of ’72 – that brought a lot of divergent responses!), talked with a lot of my neighbors (my precinct, my town, my county, the Congressional District where I live and the Congressional District where I work all went for HRC), and have appeared on television to answer the Press’ questions (the CNN visits can be found at http://search.cnn.com/search?type=video&sortBy=date&intl=true&query=%22D... ; my bout with Sam Donaldson on ABC is at http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4766559 ). All in all, it has been quite an experience. I tried to answer the questions diplomatically – I can tell you that being quizzed while staring into a camera’s glass plate is quite an experience!

During the NC Primary, I talked with Senator Obama about campaigning in NC after Labor Day (I believe that he will), talking more about the economy (he assured me that he would – see his speech at Cooper Union in late March: text is at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/27/us/politics/27text-obama.html?pagewant... – it is an excellent speech with specifics on economic revival), and maintaining “institutional memory” in the DNC by keeping some of the older (read: HRC) heads on the Executive Council.

I also evaluated our responses carefully: about 60% of you were for Obama, 30% for Clinton and 10% sent me expressions of sympathy (which I appreciated). Many of the Obama supporters strongly urged me to wait until the Primaries to see the will of the people. This I have done. The primaries’ lasting so long has boosted the votes in NC, fueled a 70,000 person rally in Oregon, and given voters in Puerto Rico real access to Presidential candidates.

I am concerned about the hard feelings – but I believe strongly that we will unite against the “common enemy” – John McCain and his strange notions of foreign policy and almost total ignorance of domestic economic issues and human needs.

I still believe both candidates will make strong Presidents and I believe that both candidates can win – if they work to help each other as I believe they will. In North Carolina, however, I believe that Senator Obama will help us in winning the US Senate seat, holding our Congressional seats and carrying Larry Kissell to Congress. I also believe that having Obama on the ticket will make a difference in taking back some of our Council of State seats that we have lost – we are blessed with strong candidates and with the type of turnout that we saw in May, I think we can restore dignity to NC Agriculture, Labor and Auditor. We can also regain our standing on the Court of Appeals and Supreme Court.

Consequently, I will endorse Senator Obama tonight at 10:05PM EDT, just after the polls close in Montana.

I implore you, if you are a Hillary supporter, to not merely accept Barack Obama, but to embrace him – we will suffer needlessly through 4 more years in Iraq, a shattering economy, no respect in the world, and increasing animosity and division at home. If you are an Obama supporter, I similarly implore you to be gracious – we are family. Sometimes family members quarrel, but they must remain family to survive.

Some of you have asked about the future of our Party in North Carolina. We must be careful to maintain vigilance to keep the grassroots emphasis going. I believe that the trend of small dollar fundraising must continue – we allow “large dollar” contributors to control our Party at our peril. The DNC has shown that the “Construction” approach is far more cost and energy effective than TV, radio, print or direct mail. “Face to face” is the key.

I will run for re-election to the DNC at the June 22 meeting in New Bern. I am concerned about the meeting starting at 10AM on a Sunday and sincerely hope that you stay for the event. The Sanford-Hunt dinner promises to be terrific and I look forward to seeing you.

I will, as your DNC representative, be in Mobile, Alabama, representing North Carolina at the Southern Caucus meeting and will fly back (leaving Mobile at 6:20AM) in time to get to New Bern by about 12:30PM for the State Convention. These trips, while expensive (and all the DNC Members have the privilege of paying for the travel and hotel bills out of their own pocket), are helpful in trying to get DNC attention for North Carolina – that translates into money and staff that we will need to accomplish our goals.

If I do not see you at the Convention, I will try to let folks know where my hotel room is Saturday night so we can chat.

Lastly, for those lucky enough to be going to Denver – it looks like we will have a good hotel not too terribly far from the Pepsi Center. We will be sharing the hotel with Kansas – and I’m wondering if we shouldn’t get up a basketball team and thrash those folks! We shared a hotel with them in New York in 1992 and had a good time. We might even teach them a thing or two about what real Barbeque is about (assuming we can come to a consensus!).

Keep the faith, my friends. This is going to be a phenomenal year!
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I intend to update my website at www.voteparker.com (built when I was running for County Commissioner -- tough to win in an overhwelmingly GOP County -- and the School Board - which I won once) about my DNC re-election bid, but for now, this is a good start.

David Parker
DNC-NC
Statesville