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Homegrown talent

Submitted by GrayNewman on Mon, 04/16/2012 - 7:19am

One of my fellow bloggers here on BlueNC made the following statement in reference to Jay Parmley and the turmoil at Goodwin House:

When you've got hundreds of intelligent, dedicated, native Party officers from which to choose, selecting a "roving free agent" who arrived here via Oklahoma, Mississippi and South Carolina might not be the best way to motivate the grassroots

I have been making this argument for years, not just for the state party but for campaigns and other Democratic aligned groups. It seems to me that we have had a string of staffers at NCDP headquarters and our campaigns that are little more than mercenaries and hired guns.

We have many skilled and knowledgeable people within our party who are already on the ground and who have the contacts within our many small towns and communities that win elections. A friend of mine who lives in the mountains has a great line that I love to quote: "there are a lot more Canton's in NC than there are Charlotte's" and this is so true. Who better knows the people of the Cantons of this state than someone who has lived here longer than 6 months?

My favorite example of this is from the 2008 opening of the OFA headquarters here in Mecklenburg. I walked in there and the nice young lady at the front counter asked me what part of Charlotte did I live in, I told here that I don't live in Charlotte, I live in Mint Hill. Her response was: what part of Charlotte is that in? I went on to explain that Mecklenburg has 6 other towns beside Charlotte. She then said "I just got here yesterday from Chicago so I wouldn't know that". Wouldn't you think that they would have had someone who had been here more than 24 hours greeting people as they came through the door? To give the campaign credit and after I pointed this out, they did do a better job at this type of thing in the future.

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Comments

I agree completely and

Submitted by Melissa (not verified) on Mon, 04/16/2012 - 8:41am.

I agree completely and believe this s serious issue that should be addressed because
It seems to be the way too many campaigns and State Party operate today. During one election the people answering the phone at HQ's would not return a call to a well known local theatre actor who wanted to donate the proceeds from one of his shows. They were from out of state and didn't know who he was so sadly after multiple tries he just gave up trying to help the Party. Too many stories like this and still no one knowledgable answers the phone today. A complete lack of leadership from the top down.

leadership from the bottom up

Submitted by heiderose1 on Mon, 04/16/2012 - 4:46pm.

is the answer to that problem. We must organize our local parties and find ways to connect them with each other. Citizen United made political parties completely irrelevant in terms of fundraising and money laundering as big donors now give directly to Super PACS. Therefore, we have a golden opportunity to reinvent the NC Democratic Party as a genuine grassroots party based on a populist people's agenda.

Resistance is Fertile

The selection of an

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 04/16/2012 - 5:37pm.

The selection of an Democratic operative from SC, Okl, and Miss in of itself is a WTF.
Can you name or give me the number of national, or statewide Democrats holding office in any of those states? Might be talented people in NC but until such time as a selection team with a half ounce of sense is found suspect we will get a new director from Utah, or Wyoming or some other success story for the Democratic Party.