DGA conference call

by: Hopeful

Sat Dec 05, 2009 at 11:15:02 AM EST

The monthly Democratic Governors Association (DGA) Blogger Conference Call was on Thursday, and I decided to participate even though our race is over. The DGA is excited to engage in next year's elections around the country, and is pushing a new website called thegopaccountabilityproject.com. Good stuff. They also discussed how the DGA has had a four-year plan, saving up for the elections next year, and will spend an average of one million dollars per race, though they are qquick to point out there are some races where they will spend nothing. One million dollars, after all, is less than they spent here. The call, by the way, was before the exciting recruitment of Bill White in Texas.

Much of the discussion was about specific states that are off-topic for this blog, so I'll just comment on what I was interested in. Nathan Daschle, the Executive Director, introduced the new newly elected DGA chair, Governor Jack Markell of Delaware. Daschle boasted that Markell won his 2008 primary "against all odds," and Markle emphasized that he "would not be governor with the endorsement of online organizers."

So naturally I took the opportunity to ask about primaries, pointing out that his primary not only led to his victory but gave us a great candidate for the House. Did the DGA, I asked, plan to "encourage primaries?" Well, I could hardly ask it without laughing, but Governor Markell very nicely said discussed his experiences in Delaware and said that it was the DGA's principle to let the electorate decided. He called in Daschle, who pointed to the DGA's role in Virginia this year. While the primary was being sorted out there, DGA was able to go on the attack and try to define the Republicans. He also noted that Obama was strengthened by the primary process, so perhaps the value of primaries is being appreciated more."Let the electorates decide" was also his slogan. Anyway, I just wanted to push the concept.

New Jersey's Democratic Party would really benefit from primaries. As it is, primaries are avoided at all costs, and occur only when one set of political bosses can't agree, or try to pull off a coup. Then people whine to press that they should have been the candidate, or whine that it's outrageous someone else broke a secret pact to not have a primary. You know what I'm talking about.

Hopeful :: DGA conference call