I Object

Inner Circle Party Politics Is NOT What I Wanted To Write About

In the aftermath of the shakeup in leadership at the state party, something I reviewed in my previous Substack, I confidently stated, “A New Day Dawns” at the Democratic Party of Georgia (DPG)! Let’s put a pin on that for a moment.

I was going to follow that up with a series of articles that wed concepts tied to democracy (think Timothy Snyder kind of stuff) with things that the party I’m a part of can do to help repair long-term democratic (note lower-case) degradation in American society.

The title of this upcoming article (it’s still on its way) is to be…Believe in Democracy. I’m developing that series of articles of which that will be the first, while I’m also preparing to give Votebuilder training centered around the 2025 Public Service Commission (PSC) special elections.

Oh, sweet, sweet irony.

Ok, we’ve arrived at the part where I offer an…

Last night, the Executive Committee of the DPG met, first and foremost, to set a date for the upcoming election of a new, paid Chair. Said election will be May 3rd in Atlanta, and for what it’s worth, my advise? HIRE SOMEONE WHO IS A GREAT FUNDRAISER!

Two cents deposited. But I digress.

After that date was set, more business was addressed. It was brought up that we have multiple candidates now in one of the two PSC elections, the one for District 3. Earlier in the day, I had taken note of that, and somewhat whimsically, I had mused to other party members I know that Gee, it’s great we have THREE (now FOUR) very qualified candidates in that race! It’s also a bit of a shame we couldn’t spread those great candidates around to other races because they are really strong candidates, but what you going do, right?

Well, it was proposed, seconded, and approved by a 2/3 vote last night (barely, after barely failing the first time) precisely what the leaders of the state party would like to do, and that is endorse one of those four candidates and essentially try and shut out the other three.

Sigh. Or as they might ask in The Good Place…

You may not know, but there is a bylaw in the governing state document of the party that allows the state committee to do this. It was put in place because, at times in the past, there have been either a faux Democrat running in a race, or what amounted to a “non-candidate” who just put their name on the ballot but wasn’t serious about actually running, or a “gadfly” type of candidate with no hope of winning a primary running against a well-established incumbent, but whose presence delayed the party from officially getting on with supporting the incumbent until after the primary was over. This was because, before the bylaw was added, it had been forbidden for the party to endorse one Democratic candidate over another in a primary election.

Hence, that bylaw was a necessary addition. And one that was misused last night.

NONE of those conditions listed above apply to this race. We don’t have the incumbent. All four of the candidates are Democrats in good standing, and all are very well qualified for the office. Despite that, folks on the state executive committee feel that only one of the four candidates has sufficient funding to take on the Republican incumbent, and the other three candidates don’t. And apparently, can’t…forever, I guess.

So there! A couple of dozen people decide to try and put their collective thumb on the scale, while using other digits to point to “our guy” before qualifying is even done, with the hope of trying to make the election of their candidate of choice in the party’s primary a fait accompli.

Believe in democracy, right?

Fork that I guess.

For the record, the candidate the executive committee endorsed was Daniel Blackman. And Daniel is a great candidate, well worthy of holding the office and possessing knowledge and experience applicable to being on the PSC. But so are Robert Jones, Peter Hubbard, and Keisha Waites, the other three candidates in that primary race.

For the record, in order for this endorsement to get the party’s official stamp of approval, the state committee as a whole has to approve it when they next meet.

So, I say to any state committee members out there who will vote on this…

Believe in democracy. Ok?