The 36 year old Mayor of South Bend, Indiana is my candidate for DNC Chair election this Saturday. He is a successful, smart (Harvard), articulate, progressive, elected millennial from a red state in the heartland. Just what we need to win back Congress and Statehouses next year.
He is seen as everyone’s second choice and an outside the Beltway generational bridge between the two deadlocked inside factions — Congressman Keith Ellison from the Sanders wing and Labor Secretary Tom Perez under President Obama.
He served ( US Navy ) two tours of duty in Afghanistan and was endorsed by former Vermont Governor and DNC Chairs, Howard Dean and MA Treasurer Steve Grossman and MD Governor Martin O’Malley.
Dean said he would not only lead a 50 state strategy but he would lead a 50 year strategy to re-build the party from the ground up ! Today, on MSNBC Mayor Pete outlined his Four F’s platform : Freedom, Families, Fairness and Future.
Call your member of Congress @ 202-224-3121 — even though they are not voting members of the DNC — to let them hear your voice on this important election for the future of our beloved Democratic Party. Some MOC can and have endorsed candidates for Chair. There are 447 voting members of the DNC and a majority is needed to win. Mayor Pete said it’s like running for Class President.
Thank you for your kind consideration.
Fred Rich LaRiccia
He represents the future of our beloved party !
Good luck, Mayor !
Fred Rich LaRiccia
I’ve never heard of him (and don’t have a vote), but having both Dean and Steve G. like him speaks well.
I’m enough of a nerd (with enough free time these days) to have watched one of the forums on C-SPAN. Bar none-he had the most compelling story and message. He’s been the most compelling “both/and” advocate of working on protecting civil rights while advancing economic equality in the Roosevelt tradition of the party. I’d be happy with any of them though.
Not judging, just curious.
ACT/AP tutor on the weekends with some after school sessions on weekends and I host occasional whiskey tastings for Koval Distillery. I didn’t want to commit to a permanent position since I’m moving back to Boston in the summer.
The only members of Congress to serve by virtue of being in Congress are the House and Senate Dem leaders plus a colleague of the opposite sex whom they each appoint. Other members may happen to serve for other reasons. The DNC membership consists basically of all “state” party chairs, two men and two women from each “state”, and the chairs and opposite-sex vice-chairs of various Dem organizations, along with various other party leaders appointed from within for specific purposes. (State is in quotes because for these purposes that means not only the 50 states, but also DC and our external territories.)
I had assumed that all Congressional electeds where ex officio voting members of the DNC.
I was wrong. Thanks for setting me str8.
Fred Rich LaRiccia
All Dem members of Congress DO have automatic convention votes. I was trying to find a list online of all the DNC members, but could not. I even called the DNC this morning to see if they could direct me to such a list and nobody answered the phone. MA members I can think of off the top of my head are Gus Bickford, Mel Poindexter, Kate Donaghue, Sue Thompson, David O’Brien, Paul Kirk, Steve Grossman, and Jim Roosevelt, but they are either accountable to the state committee or serve automatically.
As do I. Clearly the most forward thinking on tonight’s debate stage. The minor candidates are all single issue to me while Perez and Ellison have foolishly allowed their supporters to make this into a proxy fight over last years primary. These are two talented men in the wrong race. Ellison can do more in the House, Perez should run for MD Governor in 2018 which would do far more to build the party.
I’m tired of relitigating last year and want to move past 2016, past Trump and to a real progressive and populist agenda. Pete gets this and he’s the only major candidate really willing to build a 50 state party.
and a majority is needed to win.
Mayor Pete said it’s like running for Class President.
Fred Rich LaRiccia
I sat down and watched the CNN debate last night, and thought that Pete Buttigieg and Jehmu Greene were the superstars in an otherwise flawed field.
Perez was awful, and outright clumsy when he ducked the TPP question. I don’t see him connecting with and energizing the voters we need to win back across the country. Ellison has potential, but I agree with jconway when he said he can do more in the house, maybe the senate, maybe as Governor of Minnesota.
Pete and Jehmu both look like the sort of leaders who can energize the party, and do some strategic party building. They are the face of our future, aligned with the generation that trends in our direction. Let’s energize and expand the base with one of these two talented people, then make the other one the party vice-chair.
Here they are, according to DailyKos:
*Philip W. Johnston 99 Summer St. Boston, MA 02110 W:617-338-2726
Debra Kozikowski 34 White St. Chicopee, MA 01013 W:413-594-7497
Gus Bickford 95 North Main St. Westford, MA 01886 H:978-692-0012
Hon. Raymond Jordan 11 Ingersoll Grove Springfield, MA 01109 W:860-240-4800
David M. O’Brien 510 Barretts Mill Rd. Concord, MA 01742 H:978-369-4694
Diane Saxe 12 Coventry Rd. Grafton, MA 01519 W:401-455-4137
Margaret D. Xifaras 34 Piney Point Rd. Marion, MA 02738 W:508-993-9924
At Large:
James Roosevelt Jr. 14 Meadow Way Cambridge, MA 02138 W:781-466-8564
Alan Solomont One Gateway Ctr. Newton, MA 02458
W:617-630-8081
Young Democrats:
Clinton Bench 12 Boynton St. Swampscott, MA 01907 W:617-973-8853
State party executive director:
Sue Thomson Massachusetts Democratic Party
10 Granite St, 4th Floor Quincy, MA 02169 W:617-472-0637 F:617-472-4391
Crap. Kos had a 2008 list posted.
This is more current:
MASSACHUSETTS
*Mr. Gus Bickford
Ms. Kate Donaghue
Ms. Debra Kozikowski
Mr. David M O’Brien
Melvin Poindexter
Ms. Susan Thomson
Honorable Deborah Goldberg
#Honorable James Roosevelt Jr
This is the first I’m hearing she’s on the DNC. Also, Steve Grossman, Paul Kirk, and I believe there may be one other former DNC chair from MA.
She has one of two Democratic state treasurer seats/