Once again, one of the more important local political stories of the day is being reported not on the front page or in the Metro section, but on the op-ed page. Joan Vennochi’s column today pretty much confirms that Phil Johnston, whose term as head of the Mass. Democratic party doesn’t expire until 2008, will step aside early to make room for John Walsh.
When the State House News Service reported this possibility Jan. 26, the account included a quote from Johnston saying he had no plans to leave. But, Johnston, 62, told me yesterday, “I’ve done my job,” and is ready to pass the torch to Walsh, 48. “I recommended him to Deval,” said Johnston. “He’s one of my closest friends. . . .We’ve been talking every day for years. There’s no way he would try to push me aside, nor would Deval.”
As everyone knows, John Walsh did a truly amazing job running Deval Patrick’s campaign. If he wants to head up the Mass. Dems, it’s a very good thing for the party.
Our thanks and gratitude also to Phil Johnston, who played a very important role in the 2006 election by having a lot of money ready for the primary winner in order to avoid the post-primary blackout that hampered Shannon O’Brien. One of the most valuable things the state party can do is serve as an ATM for its candidates. Phil did that job extremely well in this election.
I’m glad you added the part about thanking Phil. Phil is a good guy and often underappreciated.
Howard Dean’s election to DNC Chair is an important part of the reason our state party was ready for the general election. He promised to pay every state party to hire field organizers early, and he did. I think Massachusetts got 4 field organizers starting in late 2005, and if you were a precinct captain or city/town/regional organizer in Mass Victory ’06 you probably worked with one of them.
I hope that Walsh will understand what a fiasco the abuse of power at the 2005 state convention was, and without the personal connections to what happened then that Johnston has, will anull the illegally adopted party charter and allow us to vote in a legitimate charter at the 2007 convention.
Most of the caucuses will be held this weekend. Find your local caucus at the MDP Site. I hope to see many of you as fellow delegates (assuming I get elected again myself) in May.
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FYI Waltham is incorrectly listed. It states only ward 9 is at the Northeast School. In fact all wards 1-9 will meet there in different classrooms.
are available at this link for those who have not attended before or would like details on the process. Since it is a non election year, I would expect things to be pretty non-confrontational, but always good to be prepared.
Walsh ran a good campaign, propelling a candidate past a disastrous Republican in a Dem-heavy state where the right-wing vote was significantly split.
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Johnston took the best Romney could through at him in ’04 — including several campaigns in the hundreds of thousands of dollars — and threw it back in his face. Then somehow improved on that performance two years later.
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If Johnston wants to move on, then Walsh is a great replacement. But I don’t see how it’s an improvement. Of course, that’s presuming there is a general desire to keep separate the Deval movement from the Democratic Party.
first of all, Walsh’s most impressive work was done before the primary. The organization that he created leading up to the caucuses, the convention, and the primary is what put Deval in a position to be able to walk all over Kerry Healey — in the process trouncing Tom Reilly and Chris Gabrieli, either of whom according to conventional wisdom should have beaten Patrick.
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Second, what is the basis of your “presumption”? I hadn’t thought much about it either way, but it does seem to me unsurprising that a new Democratic Governor would want “his person” in charge of the party as well.
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Third, seems to me that getting local non-activist-but-interested types more engaged in their local Dem committees is not that different from what John did with the campaign, so it strikes me as a pretty good fit.
I agree Walsh did a heck of a job building something from the ground up. That has some relevance to the task now at hand, but not a huge amount. As for the caucuses, Reilly didn’t really organize, and Gabs wasn’t there. It’s easy to win a three-match against one half-strength opponent. Building and maintaining an organization take different skills — just ask Joe Trippi.
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Second, the basis of me saying “that’s presuming there is a general desire to keep separate the Deval movement from the Democratic Party.” comes from the fact that about half the party did not want Deval to be the nominee. There are large elements in this party that do not agree with much of Deval’s approach, and I don’t like the idea of the party moving away from that segment. Besides, the Republicans in this state constantly embarassed themselves by turning the party into a vehicle for gubernatorial candidatures, and I don’t want the Mass Dems to think about heading in a similar direction.
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But nowhere was I saying that John Walsh did a bad job. Rather, I am saying that Johnston has done an amazing job. Seriously, what were the odds in 2006 that the Dems would find another Senate seat to take? Walsh has a lot to offer and would be a great vice-chairman, but it feels like Johnston is being punished for the success of the Dem party, a success he helped organize.
I’ll take John Walsh over Joe Trippi every single day and twice on Sunday, in campaign management, strategy, candidate-pickin’, arm-wrestlin’, fiddle-playin’, and the 40-yard dash.
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Sabutai, love your stuff, but you have simply got to stop minimizing Patrick’s victories just because he didn’t have to go up against the Second Coming of FDR. It was a big deal.
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BTW, I had the impression that Phil was planning to leave anyway; I don’t think he’s being pushed out. Can anyone verify that?
Well, the fact that Walsh delivered when it counted and Trippi didn’t does impress me (though Walsh in a 40-yd dash?)
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I’m not minimizing Patrick’s victory, I’m trying to be fair. We’re not comparing okay and good, we’re comparing very good and great. Johnston was excellent at campaigning, and has several cycles to prove it. Put it this way: which is a more impressive victory: Patrick winning in 06, or the Democratic State House gains in 04?
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And if Phil is leaving anyway, then I agree Walsh is the natural choice to replace him — though I hope the state party has a found a place for the manager who knocked Susan Pope out of the Senate.
and not run for reelection last time, but changed his mind after a less than enthusiastic plea for him to stick around. Several expressed interest in the post, including Warren Tolman.
Do you remember before the primary when Chris Gabrieli was saying Deval wasn’t electable? I searched out an email address for Phil Johnston and sent him a message asking him to use his influence to put a stop to this kind of sniping, so as to keep from handing Kerry Healey a big fat plum to use in the general. He wrote back to me personally saying he was doing everyting he could behind the scenes to do just that, and thanked me for my activism. He went up a few notches in my opinion when I got that email.
I share in the thanks and gratitude to Phil Johnston who is easily the best Democratic Party chair in my lifetime.