An Open Letter to Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean
Dear Mr. Chairman,
Welcome to Ohio. Ohio needs your help. Ohio grassroots Democrats need your help.
Fifteen Years of Failure – For fifteen years our Ohio Democratic Party leaders have failed us. For fifteen years no Democrat has won an election for statewide political office. All we hear from Ohio Democratic officials is that eventually we will win. Hopes run high this year as well. We hear the same promises today that we have heard for the past fifteen years – that this year will be different. This year, again, we hear the Ohio Democrats will get their act together and win elections, aided by pervasive Republican corruption which includes a convicted Republican Governor. We have heard all this before.
In November 2005, with the Republican Governor convicted, with all the publicity concerning Republican corruption, with Democratic victories around the country, the political reforms on the ballot lost in Ohio. They lost big. The Ohio Democratic Party did not even take a position on the ballot issues. The Ohio Democratic Party remained neutral. The Republican Party fought fiercely against the political reforms, and the Republicans won.
This failure of leadership can no longer be tolerated.
On May 10, 2005, so-called religious leaders allied with the Republican Party held meetings with 1070 pastors. Their aim in meeting was to register voters and propagate their theocratic aims. The Ohio Democratic Party response has been silence and fear.
The Ohio Democratic Party has made no attempt to organize and rally African-Americans, people of faith, seniors, the disabled, women, the GLBT community – none of the base groups Democrats will come to just before election time asking for votes. Mr. Chairman, the Ohio Democratic Party offices are not even Americans with Disabilities Act compliant. A disabled person cannot attend meetings at the Ohio Democratic Party but Democrats will be asking for votes from the disabled. Steven Reece, a candidate for Ohio Democratic Party Chair pointed out at a public meeting with most Ohio Democratic Party officials in attendance that his wife who relies on a wheelchair cannot access Ohio Democratic Party meetings. What has been done about this – nothing.
In 2006 the citizens of Ohio will be voting on electronic voting machines. In 2005, the Democratic National Committee passed a resolution warning against use of DRE machines. The Ohio Democratic Party, after all the election irregularities in 2004 did not even bother to issue recommendations or guidelines to Democrats on local Boards of Elections regarding purchase of these machines which many Ohio Democrats view with suspicion. The people are concerned, our leaders are silent.
Instead, of ensuring full access for all at headquarters and organizing the voters needed in November the Ohio Democratic Party has opted for part-time leadership and more promises that things will improve. The promises are hollow ones thus far.
On Friday, January 6, 2006 a Republican was elected as president of the Toledo City council. The Toledo City Council, as the Toledo Blade pointed out has “an overwhelming number of Democrats”. Are Ohio’s grassroots Democrats supposed to tolerate this type of behavior? Where were our leaders? Why did this happen? Who allowed this to happen?
Office hours at Ohio Democratic Party headquarters are still a sometime thing. The last two weeks of 2005 the headquarters were mostly closed. When holidays approach it is a safe bet the offices will close early, if they open at all. Often, emails will not be responded to and phone calls will not be returned. There was no sense of urgency in 2005 that 2006 is an election year. It was business as usual.
There is new leadership in the Ohio House Democratic leadership with the election of the excellent Joyce Beatty. There have also been recent changes at the Ohio Democratic Party leadership and new promises made.
However because of the fifteen years of Ohio Democratic Party failures we have started a website (http://watchodp.blogspot.com/) to make sure this year’s batch of Democratic Party promises are kept and that reform sweeps the halls of the Ohio Democratic Party. We will monitor the hours the offices are open, request information from activists and Democratic Party workers (odpwatch@gmail.com) and catalog and publicize failures to keep promises.
What you can do Chairman Dean is help us by monitoring every expenditure of moneys the DNC sends to Ohio. Please keep strings attached in the form of an administering treasurer to any transfer of funds and make sure that someone at the DNC helps to make sure the reforms you have started at the DNC are also implemented in the Ohio Democratic Party. We must not have another year of failure.
We would also like to meet with you in Washington, D.C. where we can speak freely about why the failures have occurred and discuss ways to prevent these failures from hurting us in 2006 and 2008.
Respectfully,
ODP Watch
Welcome to Ohio. Ohio needs your help. Ohio grassroots Democrats need your help.
Fifteen Years of Failure – For fifteen years our Ohio Democratic Party leaders have failed us. For fifteen years no Democrat has won an election for statewide political office. All we hear from Ohio Democratic officials is that eventually we will win. Hopes run high this year as well. We hear the same promises today that we have heard for the past fifteen years – that this year will be different. This year, again, we hear the Ohio Democrats will get their act together and win elections, aided by pervasive Republican corruption which includes a convicted Republican Governor. We have heard all this before.
In November 2005, with the Republican Governor convicted, with all the publicity concerning Republican corruption, with Democratic victories around the country, the political reforms on the ballot lost in Ohio. They lost big. The Ohio Democratic Party did not even take a position on the ballot issues. The Ohio Democratic Party remained neutral. The Republican Party fought fiercely against the political reforms, and the Republicans won.
This failure of leadership can no longer be tolerated.
On May 10, 2005, so-called religious leaders allied with the Republican Party held meetings with 1070 pastors. Their aim in meeting was to register voters and propagate their theocratic aims. The Ohio Democratic Party response has been silence and fear.
The Ohio Democratic Party has made no attempt to organize and rally African-Americans, people of faith, seniors, the disabled, women, the GLBT community – none of the base groups Democrats will come to just before election time asking for votes. Mr. Chairman, the Ohio Democratic Party offices are not even Americans with Disabilities Act compliant. A disabled person cannot attend meetings at the Ohio Democratic Party but Democrats will be asking for votes from the disabled. Steven Reece, a candidate for Ohio Democratic Party Chair pointed out at a public meeting with most Ohio Democratic Party officials in attendance that his wife who relies on a wheelchair cannot access Ohio Democratic Party meetings. What has been done about this – nothing.
In 2006 the citizens of Ohio will be voting on electronic voting machines. In 2005, the Democratic National Committee passed a resolution warning against use of DRE machines. The Ohio Democratic Party, after all the election irregularities in 2004 did not even bother to issue recommendations or guidelines to Democrats on local Boards of Elections regarding purchase of these machines which many Ohio Democrats view with suspicion. The people are concerned, our leaders are silent.
Instead, of ensuring full access for all at headquarters and organizing the voters needed in November the Ohio Democratic Party has opted for part-time leadership and more promises that things will improve. The promises are hollow ones thus far.
On Friday, January 6, 2006 a Republican was elected as president of the Toledo City council. The Toledo City Council, as the Toledo Blade pointed out has “an overwhelming number of Democrats”. Are Ohio’s grassroots Democrats supposed to tolerate this type of behavior? Where were our leaders? Why did this happen? Who allowed this to happen?
Office hours at Ohio Democratic Party headquarters are still a sometime thing. The last two weeks of 2005 the headquarters were mostly closed. When holidays approach it is a safe bet the offices will close early, if they open at all. Often, emails will not be responded to and phone calls will not be returned. There was no sense of urgency in 2005 that 2006 is an election year. It was business as usual.
There is new leadership in the Ohio House Democratic leadership with the election of the excellent Joyce Beatty. There have also been recent changes at the Ohio Democratic Party leadership and new promises made.
However because of the fifteen years of Ohio Democratic Party failures we have started a website (http://watchodp.blogspot.com/) to make sure this year’s batch of Democratic Party promises are kept and that reform sweeps the halls of the Ohio Democratic Party. We will monitor the hours the offices are open, request information from activists and Democratic Party workers (odpwatch@gmail.com) and catalog and publicize failures to keep promises.
What you can do Chairman Dean is help us by monitoring every expenditure of moneys the DNC sends to Ohio. Please keep strings attached in the form of an administering treasurer to any transfer of funds and make sure that someone at the DNC helps to make sure the reforms you have started at the DNC are also implemented in the Ohio Democratic Party. We must not have another year of failure.
We would also like to meet with you in Washington, D.C. where we can speak freely about why the failures have occurred and discuss ways to prevent these failures from hurting us in 2006 and 2008.
Respectfully,
ODP Watch
posted by The Fool at 9:28 AM
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