Half-Truths, Non-Truths and the Facts

Joe Monahan has a rambling and often ill-informed piece up today on his blog about Democratic Party Chair John Wertheim, a letter sent to the Party's State Central Committee (SCC) members from a group of their colleagues and an alleged effort by ex-Albuquerque mayoral candidate Judy Espinosa to become Dem Party Chair at some point. I need to clear up some of the misconceptions communicated by Monahan.

First off, a group of SCC members (including me) did draft and send off a letter to other members expressing concerns about how the Party is functioning and where it is headed. Click to read the letter (pdf). We're following up with phone calls to these same people. We did not send the letter to bloggers or the media. We did not mention anything about the Party's actions to keep Nader off the ballot. We are not connected with any effort to have Judy Espinosa become Party Chair. We are expressing our own views as SCC members, not those of any Party staffers or officials who recently resigned. The signers of the letter are not "Deaniacs" per se. We arrived at our views from many points on the political compass.

The letter was meant to generate interest in moving the Party forward, to gauge how Party members around the state view the Party's efforts and to urge Party officers to follow the Party's rules and bylaws so our Party might function more effectively and efficiently.

This was not an effort to push a clandestine agenda or seek support for a run for chair by Judy Espinosa or anyone else. It was meant as a grassroots effort to engage more people in the discussion of where the Party should be headed -- a lively and often heated discussion that has been taking place all over the nation. We see ourselves as grassroots activists interested in various reforms and improvements that can make the Party, its candidates and its positions more representative of core Democratic values. We want to win and we strongly believe these kinds of changes can make that happen more frequently.

Unlike the Republicans, most true Democrats believe debate, brainstorming and inclusive discussions among our diverse members yield positive results. As you may have noticed, we don't favor the lockstep exclusivism and elitism that characterize Republican politics. We see ourselves as members of what has long been the Party of the People, not some club organized for wealthy movers and shakers.

We don't know who contacted Joe Monahan with the info he published, but it wasn't us. And we have absolutely nothing to do with any effort by Espinosa to take over the reins of the Party. We didn't call for Chairman Wertheim's removal.

Of course our letter expressing concerns and ways we might address them don't "pose a threat to either him [John Wertheim] or the party," a Wetheim quote included in Monahan's post. Our goals are to strengthen the Party, help improve how it operates and activate Party members around the state to become more actively engaged in developing our message and assuming the responsibilities delineated in the Party rules for SCC members.

We believe the Party's focus has been on candidates and their big personalities at the top instead of on principles and positions that come from the bottom up -- the very things that define who we are and what we stand for as a Party.  And we're willing to do the often tedious work necessary to help the Party regain its footing and once again represent what rank and file Democrats believe, not just what politicos see as good matches to poll results.

We want Party members, its staff, its officers, its candidates and its officeholders to be proactive leaders who carry a message from the grassroots up. And to communicate that message persuasively and boldly. We're part of a very large number of Democratic activists around the nation who have become precinct and ward officers, central committee members, state and county Party chairs, phonebankers and doorknockers. We believe we bring much-needed positive energies and new blood to a Party often seen as tired and stuck in the past, or cynically tied to today's big dollar donors.

Perhaps most exciting is the fact we're finding so much support and encouragement from long-time Party members here in New Mexico. Reaching out via conversations, letters and phone calls, we are finding that a majority of NM Democrats share many of our concerns about how the Party is operating today, as well as a hope for a stronger, more effective Party if we are willing to work together.

So don't believe Monahan's take on what we're doing (or that of whoever is feeding him distorted info). We're not out to toss around personal insults, trash the Party or launch a destructive attack on anyone. What we're trying to do is set the bar higher on the quality of the Party's transparency, communication, accountability, efficiency and inclusiveness. Party rules set out the duties of our officers and require SCC members to approve budgets and expenditures. They delineate clear responsibilities for the SCC and Party officers. We've decided we need to take these responsibilites seriously and we want everyone concerned to do the same. This is not a time for complacency or business as usual.

We're asking questions, expecting answers and demanding accountability. Is that a bad thing? We think it's a good thing. What do you think? --Barbara Wold

P.S. Sorry this is so long, but I felt I had to be in this case.