Stagg Says Louisiana Democratic Party Leadership is Non-Existant (And My Observations)

Last weekend, former Louisiana gubernatorial candidate (and a noted champion of Lafayette’s nationally-acclaimed municipal fiber optics project) Mike Stagg hosted a conference in Lafayette about the future of the Louisiana Democratic Party. Although I could not attend, fortunately, Daniel T. Smith was able to make it, along with a number of fellow bloggers, activists, and elected officials.

In lieu of attending, I offer a few observations.

Obviously, despite the fact that the Democratic Party retained majorities in the State Senate and House, it still has a lot of explaining to do:

• The governor’s race was bungled. Four years ago, the Democratic Party knew that Bobby Jindal was likely to run again. He had personally made that much clear. It was also clear, early on, that Blanco would not be a formidable opponent. Foster Campbell announced his candidacy on March 19, 2007, one day before Blanco declared she would not be seeking re-election. Instead of coalescing around Campbell, the Democratic Party, seemingly peeved at Campbell’s early announcement (and perhaps his progressive stances on taxing foreign oil), decided to hold out on endorsing or funding him. Instead, many of them courted a New Orleans-area Republican, Walter Boasso, who quickly switched parties and ran as “Democrat Walter Boasso.” Later, when John Georges entered the race, they made it evident that they hoped Georges would become a member of the Democratic Party if he faced Jindal in a run-off. The inability to champion a single candidate cost the Democrats the election. And this is a leadership problem.
• Jim Tucker, a Republican, was coroneted Speaker of the House by Bobby Jindal. It didn’t matter that the Democrats have control of the legislature, and it didn’t matter that Don Cazayoux had the votes lined up even before the run-off elections. Leadership decided to acquiesce. And this is a leadership problem.
• The commercial about Bobby Jindal’s religion was stupid. Sure, his conversion is an interesting story; it made USA Today yesterday. But this commercial didn’t address the issues; it relied on fear-mongering. And this is a leadership problem.
• The LCRM and a small number of its donors, acting in their own interests, ran a calculated, statewide smear campaign against Democrats seeking offices both big and small. When these attacks were countered, it was primarily by bloggers, political action committees, and two or three members of the media (whose stories were buried). The Democratic Party failed to give public awareness to the ties between Tom DeLay’s Texans for a Republican Majority and David Vitter’s Lousiana Committee for a Republican Majority. They failed in targeting the markets that were targeted by the LCRM. And this is a leadership problem.

Mike Stagg illustrates the problem in the graphic below. PEC is Party Executive Committee:

Stagg writes:

This is not a political party. This is a club!

This fact alone should justify the dismissal of Chris Whittington as chairperson of the party and Danny Ford as executive director. They have squandered the resources given the state party by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) under chairman Howard Dean’s “50-State Strategy” program.

I hear Danny Ford has already decided to leave. Chris Whittington is said to be seeking re-election to the post.

In the real world, when a person is in charge of an operation that is an abject failure, that person usually pays for that failure with their job — unless, of course, that person is an official in the Bush administration, in which case the failure is re-spun as a success or the problems are completely denied.

Mr. Whittington should do the honorable thing and stand down from the chairmanship of the party….

What is needed now is a chairperson who will take a longer view with a focus on party building and an executive director with the energy and commitment to make that vision a reality.