Question thread for NC Democratic Party Chair candidates

I would ask the obvious, like how will you lead the party to victory in 2012 question, or how will you deal with a GOP in control, but I'm sure that those will get asked. So I'll ask a different question instead.

How will you ensure we embrace the big tent party attitude in the next few years? In particular I'm interested in issues like a statewide ENDA (employment non-discrimination) based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and issues like allowing anyone who grew up as a North Carolinian to seek access to higher education in public schools without regard to immigration status.

What plans do you have to encourage future elections following rules of fair play? To explain what I mean I'll borrow a quote from Katy Munger with Democracy NC on the kinds of issues they're looking at:

Do we need to fight Citizens United with every fiber of our being? Do you have any ideas as to how?

Do we need to do everything in our power to block implementation of a voter ID bill?

Should we pour our resources into protecting our public campaign financing programs?

Do we need to lay bare the connections between our state's big donors and the politicians who were elected through this largesse?

Read more: http://bluenc.com/tell-me-what-do#ixzz1AP7goVms

(if either of my big tent or fair play questions get asked, feel free to reword them if that makes them easier to ask)

First, let me make it clear I am not asking as an admin of BlueNC, but as a run-of-the-mill Democrat. So if you feel like telling me to stuff it, it won't impact the way I handle issues surrounding this race.

1) Do you agree that the gap between the Party's Platform and the behavior of elected Democrats is wide?

2) If you agree, would you be willing to demand that Democratic Party candidates for (government) office answer a yes/no checklist on Platform positions, to be published for all to see, preferably before the deadline for candidate registration (In case somebody wants to Primary them)?

how high a priority it will be to see every Republican facing a Democrat in every election instead of just giving seats away in so many races? Even in the deep red counties people need to hear the progressive voice so they know a choice must be made when they vote.

What are you and elected Democrats going to do to convince me to donate time and money?
"Fool me once, shame on, shame on you .... you fooled me you can't get fooled again." G.W. Bush

What slogan you are going to make as the key strategy for Democrats? (ex. Republicans are using "job-killing" as an adjective for all regulations and legislation pushed by Democrats over last couple of years)

What would be your attitude towards supporting candidates who choose to primary blue-dogs like Shuler and McIntyre?

You are actively campaigning for the job as NCDP Chair, much as you did for your legislative seat. Your slick mailer and web site are proof enough of that.

But one thing I don't see on the mailer is: who is paying for all this? The law requires that you tell us who is paying for your campaign for public office. Don't you feel that your SEC constituency deserves to know who is paying for your campaign for NCDP Chair?

What did the mailer cost and who is paying for it?

According to www.networksolutions.com/whois-search/billfaison.org, your website was founded on Created On:17-Dec-2010 23:31:45 UTC and registered to Adam Compton. What role is he playing in your campaign for NCDP Chair? How much is he being paid and who is paying for his salary?

Is this not the same Adam Compton that was responsible for the Wake County Democratic Party sign shop operation and for poll greeters who were not at many polling sites on Election Day?

Was he also not the same Adam Compton who was responsible for pushing IRV elections over at NCSU while a member of the student government? Who claimed about IRV: "It's kind of the future of voting...."? If Mr. Compton is on your payroll/campaign, does this mean that you also support Instant Runoff Voting?

from budget cuts? How high a priority is that for you?

I have been a democrat since 18 yrs old but i don't see unity with all inside our party such as Blue Dogs,Liberals,Yellow Dogs and Progressives so where is the compromise that each will be heard ? I don'r want to see our whole state belong to just Blue Dogs or any other types of Democrats.We have got to solve this issue before elections even begin.

at what point do democratic candidates, out of an instinctive sense of fear, quit seeking the most rightward position they can get away with and instead try to actually start moving to the electorate, who is usually far more progressive than their political leaders?

How will you build unity among all of the factions within the Party and help reach a consensus on platform and what will the process be to achieve that unity?

What steps will you take to educate the public what our platform is and why it is important?

Some legislators want to dictate the platform and since you are a member of the caucus, how will you resist that pressure, which will no doubt be applied to you?

How will you "clean up" the books of the NCDP and ensure no conflicts between and among consultants working with candidates, party?

Given the events in Tuscon on Saturday, where do you draw the line on inappropriate messages, explicit and implied, in advertising and other communication from the party and the party's candidates?

1. The Democratic Party platform and resolutions have been useless for at least the previous six years, and I suspect long before that. The platform and resolutions are not "connected" in that the platform is not driven by resolutions, which due to no format, process or control, and which vary from the vitally astute to the totally stupid. It appears not to matter since the legislators and executive seem to care less about what the resolutions and platform say. As a form of communications from bottom to top, resolutions as practiced today fail flatly and completely. As a means of communications from the NCDP (perhaps also SEC) the platform is unrelated to resolutions and includes nothing, well perhaps little, but platitudes.

Question: Both: Do you think this is a problem? How will you solve it.

2. There is a complete deafening silence concerning the relationship of NCDP and DNC since 2008. OFA came into NC in 2008 and worked hard, and did not leave most of us with names of the volunteers and activists they developed largely from NCDP County lists. Then, Obama and the DNC left that set of lists to rot, until summer of 2010 when they finally got a clue we Democrats were in deep trouble. Then, we got the Coordinated Campaign. It is more likely than not that OFA will resurge in NC and create yet again another parallel political infrastructure with little incentive to really work hard for Democrats on downballot races. After all, OFA and Obama and Kaine want as many Independent and Republican voters as they can get -- which is hampered if the real thrust of things is building the Democratic party at the grassroots and being identified as such. Will money, which would ordinarily flow from NCDP from DCNC be guided to OFA in NC, or is OFA in NC completely and totally conntected to NCDP in whole?

Question: Both: How will you deal with the DNC and the OFA question (if you understand what has happened these past two years)? Will you do the bidding of the DNC and White House even if harmful to NC Democrats? Will Party building suffer in favor of campaigning? Why?

3. The NCDP has been characterized repeatedly as a political slush fund and money laundering operation. As such, the many Democratic Parties in NC (The Governor's Democratic Party, the Democratic Legislative Party, the Democratic Grassroots Party, the Blue Dogs, the Progressives, etc.) all want some or all control over the NCDP which provides control over money. There is more than a lot of concern that having a legislator as party Chair constitutes a significant conflict of interest. It is also a likely fact that certain consultants also exercise control over the Party, some perhaps on behalf of the Governor. Bill Faison does not have an extensive experience in the NCDP, which means his learning curve will be like that of David Young--long and spotty. David Parker grew up in the NC Democratic Party through a number of useful roles and has only one job, attorney, to attend to.

Question: Bill Faison, how will you not have a conflict in your role as a legislator if elected Chair? It is apparent on its face. How much do you really know about the Grassroots Democratic Party as such and are you relying on consultants for that or related information? Does your job as an attorney and your job as a legislator allow you the time to really be a Chair, or will you have to rely entirely on a young Executive Director with no prior experience--or worse, some of the shadow consultants I am led to think actually work the party for the benefit of others?

4. The Districts appear to have been historically vitally unimportant to the NCDP, until lately when they secured the tax checkoff money for the counties, in the face of what appeared a conspiracy by the current chair and some legislators to "pack the committee" at NCDP that allocates such monies. No one seems to know who tweaked the law on tax checkoff distribution, but it came through Clodfelter's office, as did many bills. The resulting tax checkoff money helped the counties with vitally needed resources and assistance. David Parker played a role in discovery of the tweak and its final resolution in favor of Districts and Counties.

Question: Bill Faison: Are you aware of this issue and perhaps who might have tweaked the tax checkoff
distribution statute to allow the packing of the NCDP committee for such distribution? Will you support continued distribution to the Districts and counties every other year from tax checkoffs, allowing district chairs to guide the process? How will you make Districts more than ceremonial organizations? In the 6th District, as in some others, the district is gerrymandered Republican and we have a dormant district despite the efforts of some really good people.

5. The new legislature is to redistrict in 2011-12.

Question: Both: What role will you and the NCDP play in this effort? Will legislators listen to you? What resources do you think you will have for this fight?

6. Communications in the NCDP have been sorely lacking, leaving SEC members as well as counties pretty much in the dark. The website has gone from barely acceptable to miserable back to marginally acceptable. The only mail I get is for donations. The website is not a total answer to the pressing need for proactive, interesting and useful information to Party members. I have not seen us press the Republicans really hard, but they have consistently lashed out at us without an effective reply.

Question: Both: What are your specific answers for the need to totally revise communications both from NCDP and to NCDP from members, counties and districts?

7. The Plan of Organization is convoluted and often hard to use for daily guidance in NCDP and the counties. Much of the party leadership base their roles on detailed understanding of the POO while the larger majority of members seem to have no idea what it is and what it contains.

Question: Both: Do you support the revision of the POO and how extensively, and for what specific measures? Is the current POO relevant for the new minority position of the Democratic Party in NC?

Bill Franklin
Burlington, NC

Hi, all. I'm so glad to see that this race is being promoted here.

I am most interested in learning how/whether the candidates will elevate field operations in coming campaigns. What are your philosophies regarding the field?

I am also interested in how much money they think they can raise. Estimates and methods. Can we compete with Mr. Pope?

Messaging is important, of course, but without field operations and money the best message in the world won't help you.

Will repost with tonight's live-blog thread.

Thousands of NCDP volunteers canvased the streets in the 2006 and 2008 election cycles. This work created a set of data volunteered by voters that should be a resource to future campaigns.

This data was not made available to House candidates. This data was not made available to Elaine Marshall's campaign. To the best of my knowledge, this data was not made available to any Democratic candidates in 2010.

Let me be clear: I'm not talking about OFA data. I'm not talking about OFA data. I am not talking about data belonging to OFA.

This data needs to be made available to campaigns. There are smart people I respect and admire working for the NCDP; it seems unlikely that they lacked the technical expertise to make this data available. So what happened?

Here is my question for the candidates:

(And please don't answer "I will invest in technology"; I don't know what that means...)

Here is an example: My friends and I spent at least 100 hours knocking on doors for Ty Harrell in 2008, and the campaign manager probably spent another 150 hours knocking on doors.

That 250 hours of work yielded data about voters: potential volunteers, donors, teachers, gun nuts, people of faith, union members, environmentalists, hopeless republicans, loyal democrats, etc.

To my knowledge, that data was NOT made available to Chris Heagarty (Ty's successor) in 2010. This means that volunteers sweating it out in Cary's endless suburbs were wasting time talking to unpersuadable voters, and by doing so, not talking to the people whose votes were winnable.

I hope the next Chair can improve our data management.

PS: I don't ask this question to criticize anyone; I don't know what I don't know. I've been on the other side of this question and it isn't simple. Like I said, the people working for the NCDP are smart and hard-working and passionate about electing Democrats. To 2012!

my question for both of them.. i would based my question on the current situation we all have been experienced these days.. how could you help or do you have any plans to lessen the effect of climate change / global warming???