ncdp

The North Carolina Democratic Party is taking Senator Richard Burr to task on his right-wing, anti-jobs agenda in a new video released this morning. The video challenges Burr for skipping a crucial vote on the jobs bill to attend a campaign fundraising, siding with Jim Bunning while voting against unemployment benefits, and promising voters that...

It's been more than a week since the Progressive Democrats of North Carolina issued a statement and a letter to NCDP Chairman David Young asking him to champion a very reasonable request to clean up North Carolina fund raising.

Here's an audio clip of his response:

Andrew Whalen, the Executive Director of the North Carolina Democratic Party has released a statement. It's easiest simply to reprint it.

Today, in a unanimous vote, the State Board of Elections fully exonerated the North Carolina Democratic Party of any violations of election law.

Evidence presented during the hearing indicated that the Easley Committee solicited contributions for the Party from two donors, indicating to the donors that those contributions would be used on behalf of the Easley Committee.

It was undisputed that the Party did not participate in the solicitations and had no knowledge of the manner in which the solicitations were made. The SBOE did order the Party to disgorge $9,000 representing the two contributions.

I wanted to let you all know that May was my last month as a member of the North Carolina Democratic Party staff.

For over two years I have helped the NCDP to administer the voter file, develop online infrastructure, and engage citizens via new media. I got an excellent education in how citizens and elected officials shape our state's future on a day to day basis. It was a great privilege to work with the NCDP's diverse and talented staff in such an historic election season.

Gene Messick has found a way to reach a national audience with his rants against the NC Democratic Party. OpEdNews, a national news blog - is unwittingly serving as a platform for Gene. Thanks to OEN, Gene can now do what even his email cloaking and repetitive spamming efforts could not - reach thousands if not hundreds of thousands of readers.

Gene attacks the Progressive Dems, the NC Dems, Jerry Meek

Saturday, May 2, 2009
The Rise of Anti-democratic Democrats

First, I want to thank you and tell you what an honor and a privilege it is to be the State Chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party. I am grateful for the outpouring of support and best wishes as we begin working together to make our Party an even stronger voice for those who are counting on us the most -- the good people of North Carolina who are looking to Democrats to make their lives better.

This last week, I held a conference call with our new team of officers. They are ready to get to work on a host of issues from promoting upcoming precinct meetings to working with our party auxiliary groups. In the coming weeks, we plan to travel to every region of the state to meet with local party leaders to identify specific ways that the state party can help local parties grow and succeed.

David Young has been elected the new chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party. He was elected with a majority of the vote on the first ballot, and his election was affirmed with a voice vote. He replaces Jerry Meek, who did not run for re-election.

So tonight I received a message from Andrew Bates at the Facebook group Stop Liddy Dole 2008. The message was sent in support of David Young to be our next party chair. I happen not to support David for multiple reasons; his views on collective bargaining, workers rights and verified voting are questionable at best and I don't feel the sitting chair of the NCDP and Governor should crown anyone the new chair. That is the State Executive Committee voting body's job. I also did not feel it was appropriate to use the Dole group to send out his message and I happened to be an administrator for the group. So as I had access to send my own message I sent the following:

I just received a message from this group asking for support for David Young. I will say this...we have worked very hard to turn this state blue. All that work will go to waste if we knight David Young at the upcoming SEC meeting this weekend.

I hadn't met our North Carolina delegation until I walked in Monday night. I asked all the people in charge where the North Carolina delegation was sitting so I wouldn't have to walk in and trudge around the floor looking for them. I finally found our delegation. Thinking back, I don't know why I didn't spot them from across the floor. They were the only delegates who were on their feet, dancing, singing, waving signs and cheering and that was at the beginning of the night before any of the big name speakers were on.

Their energy and enthusiasm are infectious. The first night we had more camera crews hanging around our area than any other delegation. They just kept coming and the energy of our delegates never waned.

I wanted Jerry to be my first mutual-interview, but he was in high demand. Thankfully he made some time for me in the midst of the morning.

I love his final question to me. It's exactly the kind of moment I want to have in these mutual interviews. He asked me something that he didn't expect, but gave me the opportunity to talk about something that I'm really interested in.

I also caught up with U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge after this morning's breakfast. He was really excited to talk about engaging young voters. I think his questions to me were pretty good.

Warning: I held the camera myself and it shows! You might want to just listen to the audio. I'll try not to do this again. I bet you won't find this cross-posted on Etheridge's website!

After this morning's North Carolina Delegation breakfast, I caught up with NC Rep. Pricey Harrison. Pricey has been a great ally on two issues that are important to me: engaging young people and immigration. I started out by asking her about those issues.

This was the first vlog I taped. The audio quality is pretty poor because of the location. But it's going to be tough to find quiet spots this week!