Last Night
Last Night. Party Unity?
Last night, I was on state Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles' (D-36) annual election debrief panel at Hales Ales in Ballard. Since I was on stage, I didn't take notes, but here's a report from memory (please note that I also had a glass of wine).
It was a big panel: Sate Sen. Ed Murray (D-43); Progressive Majority Director Noel Frame; Stranger news editor Dominic Holden; Washington State Wire reporter Erik Smith (totally my new favorite reporter thanks to his heavy lifting on the Moxie Media story); Linda Mitchell from the National Women's Political Caucus of Washington; Washington State Democratic Party Chair Dwight Pelz; moderator Nate Miles, a lobbyist for Eli Lilly; an impromptu appearance by sate Sen. Karen Keiser (D-33, Burien), who leaped up on stage part way through to talk about her complaint against secret campaign donations; and Sen. Kohl-Welles herself.
State Rep. Reuven Carlyle (D-36) also gave a loud opening speech urging Democrats to reclaim the spirit of the founding documents from the Tea Party movement.
The evening turned into a debate about the "Big Tent" theory—namely, should Democratic voters (the audience was mostly 36th District regulars) demand more progressive representation or should they try to accommodate conservatives in the party.
Sen. Murray introduced the debate, and I seconded it because my opening remarks focused on the irony that while much of the national story this election season had been about the growing pains of the GOP (Tea Partiers vs. Karl Rove), locally , this has been a year of Democrats vs. Democrats.
Frame, whose group recruits and runs progressives like newly-elected state Sen. Nick Harper (who ousted moderate incumbent Democratic state Sen. Jean Berkey, D-38, Everett) and progressive poster boy Joe Fitzgibbon (who battled it out with another Democrat, Mike Heavey), said she has a litmus test and if candidates don't support things like gay marriage it's non-negotiable. She doesn't want them.
Interestingly, both Murray and Holden, who are gay, disagreed with her. Murray made the point that U.S. Sen. Patty Murray voted for DOMA, but he wants her in the party. (This got giant applause, given that Patty Murray had just declared victory about an hour earlier.) And Holden, calling himself a "faggot," said he also thinks the party needs to make room for more conservative voices.
It's a great debate and one that is sure to hit the party this year given that the unions targeted Berkey with independent ads from a faux conservative political committee (Cut Taxes PAC ... this is the aforementioned Moxie Media story ) after lobbying her all session to vote to raise taxes. Which she did.
As the Democrats recalibrate after Tuesday's losses nationally, here are some interesting exit poll stats from reporter Kevin Drum, that show the groups making the biggest swing towards Republicans between the mid-term 2006 election and the mid-term 2010 election:
Speaking of post-election debriefs, we'll be doing one of our own at Liberty bar on Capitol Hill next Tuesday (November 9)— "A Week After." We'll have conservative commentator John Carlson in the house and Democratic Party Chair Dwight Pelz. Topic: Murray v. Rossi. We'll go from there. (More surprise guests to TBA.)
It was a big panel: Sate Sen. Ed Murray (D-43); Progressive Majority Director Noel Frame; Stranger news editor Dominic Holden; Washington State Wire reporter Erik Smith (totally my new favorite reporter thanks to his heavy lifting on the Moxie Media story); Linda Mitchell from the National Women's Political Caucus of Washington; Washington State Democratic Party Chair Dwight Pelz; moderator Nate Miles, a lobbyist for Eli Lilly; an impromptu appearance by sate Sen. Karen Keiser (D-33, Burien), who leaped up on stage part way through to talk about her complaint against secret campaign donations; and Sen. Kohl-Welles herself.
State Rep. Reuven Carlyle (D-36) also gave a loud opening speech urging Democrats to reclaim the spirit of the founding documents from the Tea Party movement.
The evening turned into a debate about the "Big Tent" theory—namely, should Democratic voters (the audience was mostly 36th District regulars) demand more progressive representation or should they try to accommodate conservatives in the party.
Sen. Murray introduced the debate, and I seconded it because my opening remarks focused on the irony that while much of the national story this election season had been about the growing pains of the GOP (Tea Partiers vs. Karl Rove), locally , this has been a year of Democrats vs. Democrats.
Frame, whose group recruits and runs progressives like newly-elected state Sen. Nick Harper (who ousted moderate incumbent Democratic state Sen. Jean Berkey, D-38, Everett) and progressive poster boy Joe Fitzgibbon (who battled it out with another Democrat, Mike Heavey), said she has a litmus test and if candidates don't support things like gay marriage it's non-negotiable. She doesn't want them.
Interestingly, both Murray and Holden, who are gay, disagreed with her. Murray made the point that U.S. Sen. Patty Murray voted for DOMA, but he wants her in the party. (This got giant applause, given that Patty Murray had just declared victory about an hour earlier.) And Holden, calling himself a "faggot," said he also thinks the party needs to make room for more conservative voices.
It's a great debate and one that is sure to hit the party this year given that the unions targeted Berkey with independent ads from a faux conservative political committee (Cut Taxes PAC ... this is the aforementioned Moxie Media story ) after lobbying her all session to vote to raise taxes. Which she did.
As the Democrats recalibrate after Tuesday's losses nationally, here are some interesting exit poll stats from reporter Kevin Drum, that show the groups making the biggest swing towards Republicans between the mid-term 2006 election and the mid-term 2010 election:
Nonvoters from 2008 (+56)
Independents (+36)
Rural voters (+25)
Northeast voters (+20)
Age 65 and older (+21)
Catholics (+21)
White voters (+19)
Income under $30,000 (+19)
Income over $200,000 (+19)
High school grads (+19)
Speaking of post-election debriefs, we'll be doing one of our own at Liberty bar on Capitol Hill next Tuesday (November 9)— "A Week After." We'll have conservative commentator John Carlson in the house and Democratic Party Chair Dwight Pelz. Topic: Murray v. Rossi. We'll go from there. (More surprise guests to TBA.)
