Chairman Chip
As it was reported by ACK, Chip Forrester is the new Chair of the Tennessee Democratic Party. With 42 votes, and only a few dissensions from his often publicized list of supporters (most notably Bill Owens, who had been working behind the scenes fairly hard for Forrester, but ended up voting for Bone), Chip was elected party chair with loud applause from the numerous supporters of his filling the House gallery.
Chairman Gray Sasser agreed to serve as temporary Treasurer until a new one to replace Chip can be found.
After dealing with the rest of the Exec Committee speech, Chairman Forrester gave a barn-burner of a speech excoriating the Tennessee Republican Party for their racist tendencies in certain campaigns, and promised to fight back at every turn against their wicked ways.
The question remains, were the party leaders who had endorsed Charles Robert Bone serious about plans to leave behind the Democratic Party if the Exec Committee didn't do their bidding? Or can Chip Forrester work to gain their trust and support to move forward in a unified fashion? Money will be a key factor in the success or failure of Chairman Chip's tenure, and it will be interesting to see if there is a revolt by the party big-wigs over their lack of say in who leads the party.
6 comments:
I'd predict Chairman Chip soon will be standing on an exit ramp on I-40 with his pockets inside-out asking, "Please sir, can you spare a dime?" He won't even be able to pay the gas bill. The national Democratic organizations will pull out of Tennessee. Moderate interests will abandon the TNDP. The list of abadonment will grow by the day. I hope the Chip4Chair blogset is ready to raise money because the party's future now belongs to you. Good luck.
Someone disband the TNDP executive committee while there's still something left of the state party. They are killing us. First, they steal an election, which probably cost us votes all over the state. It definitely was a distraction from other races. Now, they ignore the elected officials of the party - who, oh, by the way - raise all of the money and make this guy chairman. Did they not notice that everyone that has worked with Forrester calls him untrustworthy?
"The national Democratic organizations will pull out of Tennessee." Like who? How could the national Democratic powers-that-be be any LESS engaged in the affairs of our state? The DSCC didn't spend a dime here in 2008. Bredesen went out of his way to make it clear that Obama was persona non grata here. What magic have these "moderate interests" worked over the past two years that should make us so desperately beholden to them?
Let's see. The DLCC put in at least $800,000 in Tennessee last year. Which is why our legislative incumbents held on and why even our legislative losses were just four- or five-point losses instead of the double-digit blistering Obama took. And you can blame Bredesen all you want, but the Obama campaign took a look at Tennessee and decided not to get involved here. In the immortal words of my fellow commenter Harrison, they apparently took one look at Kerry and his/her ilk and decided, "No we can't."
Not to mention the DNC has already pulled out and probably won't come back. Kaine has said the 50-state plan will be tweaked. That means a state party without the support of its elected officials in a state that Obama lost about as badly as any state in the country will get nothing. Forrester better get his tin cup and find a street corner.
Oh please. I think Forrester will bring moderate (and hopefully more progressive) interests to the state rather than run them away. And besides, all of this is purely speculation.
We'll see how it goes, and that's that.
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