There was a dinner before the meeting so folks were eating and meeting and greeting and milling around until Uncle Phil called the meeting to order just after 7:00 PM.
Starting off, Johnston touted the democratic victories in both the House and Senate, and naturally he was fairly bursting with pride that Democrats had regained the corner office.
The DSC business included a Treasurer’s Report with budget information for 2006 as well as the proposed budget for 2007.
Number freaks: have at it. (pdf) [page1] [page2] [page3]
There was no discussion of the budget and it was quickly passed unanimously. And when I say quickly, I mean Johnston asked for a motion, a second, “allthouseinfavorsayaye,opposed,ayeshaveit.” Yes, it was that quick.
Next up to the podium was John Walsh. Everyone stood up, clapping, and cheering. John was humble, as he always is, and everyone gave him the respect he rightfully deserves. There were many folks in that room who, at the beginning weren’t exactly on board with this “new way” of running a campaign, or with Deval Patrick, but had to give props to the man who orchestrated the most successful campaign for governor that this state has seen in a generation. John talked a bit about the transition, but said that he hadn’t had time to make up a full report so he asked “someone” to come in and give us a briefing.
That someone was the Governor-Elect himself, Deval Patrick. Everyone was on their feet again. Deval was all smiles, tailed closely now by his Trooper escort. After many hugs and handshakes, he made his way to the podium. Deval thanked John Walsh and Nancy Stolberg and all of us again for all the hard work we did. Deval stressed how unified democrats were after the primary and how that made all the difference this year. We had the money and the people-power to be competitive. Deval encouraged us to stay involved and to continue to reach out and bring new people into the process.
After Deval left there was still business to take care of. Reports were presented from various sub-committees.
- Field Services is planning to update their online manual. Activist Days are also in the works – not sure when that will be happening. The 2007 convention in May will focus on the grassroots.
- DNC Report on the success of the 50 State Strategy and rural outreach. New website myruralamerica.org
- Victory 06 Coordinator gave a report of how they worked with all the campaigns and the resources they provided such as mailers and phones. This cycle the state party did not outsource calls (I’m assuming robo-calls?) to outside vendors, but kept them in-house (I’m not clear on how this was done) Phil Johnston indicated that the calls made on behalf of the candidates for the House were paid for by Sal DiMasi.
- Labor Report on what the various labor groups did this election cycle. I had the opportunity to work with many of these folks in my senate district during the election. They made phone calls and walked precincts. The union folks were always fun to hang out with too at standouts. Great stories. Funny folks.
- John Walsh was nominated, and elected Deputy State Party Treasurer. Phil Johnston indicated that Walsh was to have more of a role in raising money for the state party. The current Deputy Treasurer (Gus? Sorry didn’t get his whole name) resigned his position and nominated Walsh.
Meeting was adjourned. Things move pretty fast at these meetings. I’m not sure if I got everything that happened. During the meeting, people move around in the back and network, chat, plot. Sometimes it’s very distracting.
The next DSC meeting is February 13 (location TBA)
What is the process for the Dem Party chairmanship? Is he in for life or will he ever resign? What’s the precedent?
He was set to resign until he kicked Mitt’s butt in 2004.
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Johnston may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but the results have been great over the last couple of cycles. I’m happy for him to stay.
I had a schedule conflict and was unable to attend. I had heard that DP might make a visit, so I was sorry to miss another chance to celebrate with the new Gov.
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Yes, the meetings can move quickly (or painfully slowly, depending on your perspective), and a lot of people come to schmooze. I find it to be an interesting mix, though. There are so many different layers of Democrats involved in the State Committee. Local activists, little old ladies, civil rights veterans, expensive suits, solidarity forever guys, behind-the-scenes-types.
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You rarely see the ex officio members who are on the committee because they hold another office. They don’t feel comfortable in this crowd – too many untamed, opinionated people.
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I am guessing that maybe the Gus whose last name you didn’t catch might have been Gus Bickford, a longtime DSC member.
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It’s nice that Walsh will move up on the MDP totem pole. The DSC will benefit from the kind of insight he brings.
That Gus would be long time Party participant and great activist, Gus Bickford. Actually it’s Augustus (Gus) Bickford.
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great guy, sorry to see him go, but I’m sure he won’t stop moving the agenda forward…..and glad, John won’t be going far…maybe he can reform the who dang state party to grass roots. Now that WOULD get me moving more for statewide agendas….
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Thanks for the update, Sue,we don’t hear out here about the what and when….But that’s a whole other blog……
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At least we will have a better idea where our donations are going with John at the money helm.
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And he will still have close ties to the Corner Office.
Susan, thanks for posting this. I was going to write this meeting up but I ran out of time.
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For the last two years, it’s been interesting to watch the evolution of the Deval Patrick campaign through the venue of the Democratic State Committee. The membership included some of his earliest and strongest supporters, and from early 2005 on, the DSC meetings have been headlined by the idea that things were going to be different this time.
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It is hard to understate how big a win this was for the DSC, because it validated so many of the processes that have been going on for the last four years, independently and then in conjunction with the Patrick campaign.
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One of the big points that either Deval or John made was how valuable it was to have the money that the state party raised so that the Patrick/Murray campaign could run TV ads the day after the primary. In that sense, it really validated the Victory 06 approach of creating a party campaign that ran in parallel to the candidates’ campaigns.
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The report on the state legislative races was interesting to me, since I come from districts which had no contested seats in November. It sounds as if Jay and the team there are moving the local campaign process forward. I talked with Jay afterwards because my state rep district potentially has a special election as Tony Verga is being considered for the Veterans Affairs post in the Patrick administration. It appears that we would have a contested Democratic primary followed by a general election, which means that we’ll have to set things up for the day after the primary, because the Democrats running will be so focused on getting the nomination (sound familiar?).
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The “Action Agenda” convention (which is the convention held in the year after the governor’s race) will focus on what we’ve learned about campaigns from Patrick and Victory 06. In March, there will be meetings around the state to gather information from Democrats about what worked, and then in May this information will be shared with the convention delegates.
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I would encourage anyone with an interest in leading local party efforts in 2007, 2008, and beyond to run as a delegate for this convention. While it will lack the outward excitement of the 2006 convention, it may prove to be a great opportunity to learn how to win.
I just wanted to correct a few things mentioned in earlier posts:
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1) The Chair of the Party is elected by the members of the DSC and the term of that office is 4 years. Technicaly Phil has 2 more years to serve out his term unless he resigns.
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2) Gus Bickford is still a member of the State Committee since he did not resign from his DNC seat. He only resigned from his position as one of the Deputy Treasurers.
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3) As usual no one was paying attention when John Walsh pulled this move. Walsh wants to oust Phil and take over as Chair and to do that he needed to be a member of the State Committee. If he is doing this for Deval … so much for openess and transparancy.
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The by-laws which can not be suspended requires that for any vacancy there must be at lest 30 days notice given and then an election needs to be held at the next State Committee hearing.
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Here they had Gus resign and John Walsh coronated/elected in one felt swoop.
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Now all they have to do is get Phil to resign so that they can push thru another quick election for Walsh.
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4) Say what you will about Phil but he has raised the money the Party needs, and under his term we have gained seats in both the House and Senate here in Massachuetts as well as got a Democrat in the corner office as well. Why we would want to change that now seems foolish to me. And let us not forget that if it wasn’t for Phil and Sue Thomson raising money thru Victory 06 Deval would have gone dark after the primary since his campaign was broke. The DSC gave Deval $400,000 so that he could go right up on the air and not loose a beat. That was in addition to the monies and resources they gave to some Reps and Senators that also had very tough races.