My primary lessons
Submitted by James on Thu, 12/03/2009 - 8:31pm
Last year's US Senate primary wore the hell out of me. It was hard and ugly and full of many lessons. In a comment earlier today, Dan Besse, pointed to one of them.
Enough with the intraparty sniping! It's way too early to start that ... stuff. In fact, let's not do it at all this time. For once.
We have quality candidates. Pick your favorite and work for her or him. Speak her/his praises and tell us why she/he should be the pick. Kindly stop trashing the others. And I am speaking to all sides in the debate. Thanks.
Dan Besse
Another lesson for me as a blogger involves transparency.
In this cycle I intend to be as clear as glass on every front. Nothing is off the record with me. For example, two weeks ago I talked with Kenneth Lewis about his candidacy, over coffee. I liked what I heard. He asked me later, in a phone call, if I would support him. I said I would.
The thing I love about Kenneth is the freshness of his voice, the clarity of his purpose. He is committed to changing the conversation we call politics in a way anyone would find refreshing. And, of course, he knows full well what he's up against. I asked him how he could win, this was two weeks ago, before Etheridge was out. "There's Elaine, maybe Bob Etheridge, maybe Cal," I said. "And then there's the black guy."
He said, "I've been the black guy all my life, that doesn't bother me a bit."
Can Lewis win in a Democratic primary against Cunningham and Marshall? It might take a miracle. But isn't that just what we need these days? Go read what he has to say.
I want to clarify what I mean by support, both in my personal life and here at BlueNC.
In my personal life, I will make a contribution to Kenneth's campaign. I will introduce him to friends and neighbors at my home in January. I will encourage anyone who asks to find out more about him and attend one of his events. I will put one of his bumper stickers on my truck if I like the design.
At BlueNC, I look forward to hearing what everyone has to say about all the candidates and campaigns. I don't expect to say much, but I do reserve the right to comment when a candidate - any candidate - does something really brilliant or really dumb.
James
PS I'm new at this. Please bear with me.
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One more lesson
For me ... don't talk on the phone. Seems like that always leads to he said / she said stuff that never ever ends. I tend to like things in writing, in public.
Well Said!
Either Candidate will beat Burr! That much is clear to me and should be to anyone. Burr is the Enemy! I will focus all my attack on his SORRY VOTING RECORD!
Anthony D. Hall,
Fighting for Truth, Justice, Freedom and the American Way!
http://www.lenoircountydemocraticparty.org
http://www.hallstyle.blogspot.com
3 Wonderful Candidates
Right now I'd happily vote for any of the 3 candidates against Burr. And short of any unnecessary intra-party negativity during the primary that wont change.
I gotta call bullsh!t on this one
Hera knows I love Dan Besse, but really?
saith the man who ran in a four-way statewide primary.
Nothing in last US Senate primary went like this -- or was asked to be like this.
If you think the GOP is going to handle you with kid gloves, then get out of politics.
If you get in, learn how to take flack from lil' crazy bloggers all the way up to barrages of TV ads.
How much negativity was heaped on Hagan here in the primary?
Guess what? Some think that helped her in the general.
Politics 101: If you're the crazy left and you don't accept a candidate; everyone else will think the candidate is moderate.
It's okay to say bullshit
:)
Seriously, I thought long and hard about this. And you're right, the test of a hard-fought primary is an excellent proving ground for the general election. Intraparty sniping (for those within the party) is to be expected, it is business as usual. Further, the process of drawing sharp distinctions between individuals necessarily involves pointing to differences - and sometimes pointing to them loudly. I expect we'll see all of that and more.
We have three good candidates so far...
...and maybe more, who knows as it is still early. All of them appear to be honest, hand-working, intelligent. I lean toward Marshall because she has been elected statewide three times, including 2008 when she won 57%, second highest among all statewide candidates. But if it is not her, if it is Lewis or Cunningham or someone else, I would support whoever is nominated enthusiastically.
Some of us may not be totally happy with the candidate who emerges from the primary, but I would hope that all of us recognize that whoever is nominated will be better than Burr and get behind him or her. We have to be 100% united to defeat Burr, as it appears he will have the national winds at his back. Those winds blew Hagan in; nothing against her, but just about any credible candidate would have won in 2008 as folks were voting against Dole more than for Hagan. We won't have that this time and we won't have the turnout of blacks and young people like we did last time.
Yep, defeating Burr must be our focus
Hopefully we will not see a "primary war" so that whichever candidate comes out on top can get not only our state's dedicated democratic party's support but all of the weight of the national party as well. You are so right, this will not be 2008. Democrats will not have a popular presidential candidate running to get the vote out, as you have said. Unless there are some significant changes in the economic situation and unemployment numbers in NC, democratic candidates will have an uphill battle regardless whether or not it will be fair to "blame" them in any way.
We do have three great candidates that have now announced to defeat Burr. Defeating him has to be the focus if not for the sake of the party, for the sake of having someone representing NC that has a clue. I am now torn between Marshall and Cunningham. Ken Lewis is also an attractive candidate but to me lacks name recognition and any past experience either campaigning for office or in actually holding public office. But, of course, I'm "changeable". Marshall has name recognition, experience and elected office success in her favor. Cunningham has youth, some experience and elected office success in his favor. Yeah, I know there's more to it than that, but I'm elated we have these choices.
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“Discussion is an exchange of knowledge; argument is an exchange of ignorance" __ Robert Quillen
Mayor Foy
will not be running (Twitter) for the US Senate.
No big surprise there.
In other campaign news
In other campaign news, Lewis announced picking up an endorsement today (here is a pared down version of the e-mail they sent out):
That's what I came away with
We see with Richard Burr the cost of apathy. He spent years in Congress before coming up with even the thought of a plan for health reform. Years. It took a new president before he'd get off his corporate ass and even address the issue with his pathetically weak plan.