Former State Rep. Patsy Keever is the new chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party. That’s good news for Democrats. Keever understands politics, having run campaigns for Congress, state legislature and county commission. She knows the activists and the donors. She’s as qualified as anyone Democrats have had in a long time.
However, Keever still has a very difficult task. She not only needs to bring the donors back to the table and keep the activists organizing, she needs to figure out the role of the party in a post-Citizens United world. With party identification shrinking and third party groups growing, she will have to blaze a new trail.
To be successful, Keever needs support. The big donors should come back and help relieve the immediate financial pressure. The new chair is not going to misspend their money and, whether they know it or not, they need a functioning party. The past few elections should prove that.
The activists, for their part, should give her space before they start demanding time and attention. Keever needs to rebuild the party infrastructure and put competent, experienced staff in place. That won’t happen overnight, so she deserves some patience from the rank-and-file.
North Carolina Democrats are in a different place than they have ever been before. Citizens United changed the political landscape, allowing big donors to set up their own quasi-party operations that give them more control over strategic and spending decisions. The public is more skeptical of traditional institutions throughout society, leaving political parties with less support and a narrower, more ideological base. Finally, Democrats are in the minority in North Carolina for the first time in more than a hundred years.
In this environment, Keever needs to establish a road map for Democrats’ role for the future. She must find a place for the party in message development, candidate recruitment and campaign organizing. She needs to figure out how to build a bigger tent at a time when narrower ideological interests hold more sway. And she must create a voice of opposition to the majority Republicans that’s not so shrill that it will be ignored by the general public.
It’s a big job. l believe Patsy Keever is up to it. I certainly hope Democrats give her the support she needs to get it done.
Thomas Mills is the founder and publisher of PoliticsNC.com. Before beginning PoliticsNC, Thomas spent twenty years as a political and public affairs consultant. Learn more >
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Randy Voller is correct in stating that the state party must set an operating path forward that does not include the 1 to 1.5 million from tax check-offs. He failed to state they must also operate as a minority where donations by the influential has zero effect on beneficial legislation, and therefore they are likely unwilling to consider NCDP for donation purposes. Ms. Keever’s immediate concern will certainly need to be;
(1) pressing all the county parties and auxiliary arms to submit sustaining funds that has been withheld. (requires ability to force action in some cases)
(2) restrict statewide candidates ability to bypass NCDP, by directly utilizing county party services as an operational preference.
(3) finding the financial resources to hire an appropriate E.D.
Given that every needed service can now be independently acquired by statewide candidates and their managers without ever visiting Goodwin House, and no mechanism exists that would drive statewide candidates to compensate the state party, there no doubt lies a difficult, if not impossible road ahead.
If true about her, it’s about time Democrats at all levels get SOMEONE who knows how to run a campaign and win elections!
So, a retired 8th-grade social studies teacher is “a living symbol for the wealthy and aloof…” Actually, that would be progress. I mean, can you imagine if the One-Percenters looked to retired school teachers for leadership? That would be great!
Poor Bill Franklin. Bitter, twisted, out-of-touch, irrelevant. If only he actually knew Patsy Keever.
Well, The BIG FOLKS (fat cats) won. Patsy Keever, as a living symbol for the wealthy and aloof, as well as a dissident faction of the Democrats in NC, led by Jim Hunt, Nina Szlosberg and the COS, cut off funds to the NCDP deliberately to embarrass Randy Voller and make him fail, which he did not. So they invoked a second incarnation of Nina Szlosberg named Patsy Keever to take her place and bide her time until Randy left. And folks, he left, was NOT run off as was the intention of the haters and dissidents. And he left a clean slate and suggested means to help tide the Party over, only the idiots in the SEC rejected it, as did Keever. So SEC members you just rewarded the Hunt/Marshall faction by getting Keever in, making a coronation of the SEC meeting, a mockery — all predicated on her being a member of the ruling class and able to conjure up money. Be fun to see just how much she can or will conjure up because the Hunt/Marshall faction does not want the small folks back, except to tote water and chop wood in GOTVs – they will provide themselves with money, and again ownership of the Party. Folks, unity aside, this is not over. And the YDs who allied themselves with the Hunt/Marshall faction really have no idea about what democracy is about, they are interested in GOTV and jobs and whatever they are told is good – not being a really thinking crowd.
Now, it is clear that discussion of intra-party issues are all off the table, which means that discussions and debates that need to happen about where to go in the future will be suppressed from Raleigh, by the Hunt/Marshall faction. This occurs in the calls for unity, which are really calls for submission of the hoi polloi, who have now been put in their place for uppity behaviour. The only thing the NCDP can do worthwhile for the next four or so years is to build the Party and no matter the money, if you cannot get the hoi polloi to the polls, us miserable peasants, you cannot win anything. Furthermore, honesty would help but we cannot expect that from this group who previously decided it was fair game to take out Randy Voller any way they could. Stay tuned folks, many embarrassments to follow I strongly expect – and the Republicans are laughing all the way to 2022. You Democrats be sure to genuflect as you go by “the big house where Massa Jim and friends live”.
The last several leadership teams of the NC Democratic Party have served in very difficult times and I believe they did the very best they could with the “Political Environment” in which they found themselves. I was not on board with everything that happened but I fully appreciate their effort. We now find ourselves in a new world and the sooner we realize this the quicker we will climb back into power. While the people in this state, at their core, are a progressive people, a fair people, willing to continue to move forward in history to improve our state, they also need something to believe in to light the fires of action. Yes, the Tea-Party republicans took control of the State Government, redistricted the Federal and State districts far beyond what the Democrats ever had the nerve to do and allowed the Boy Mayor, Puppet Pat, to fool the voters into putting him into the Governor’s Office but most of the blame lies with us, the Democratic Party. We have been living in the past and resting on the past glory of the Party. The people today don’t care about this past, they care about the future. The Democratic Party now exists behind enemy lines, in Occupied Territory, and we must come to grips with this truth. We must act accordingly and plan to fight a gorilla action until the people once again rally to our side. We DO NOT hold the high ground! Our task is to attack the republican Barbarians at every turn, oppose their every action and never give ground in the fight. Bipartisanship is Appeasement! Do not forget that. We must fight them at every level and not let any small thing they do go unchallenged. We must sow the seeds of Discontent throughout the state! Let the Order of the Day be, “Poison the Well” so the Tea-Party republicans cannot drink of the water of NC to sustain their existence! Work for Victory! Let the Resistance Begin !!
It will take $1,000, 000 to $1,500,000 per year to make up for the loss of tax check off funds, which were considered federal dollars as opposed to non-federal dollars. The sustaining fund deficit has been approximately $140,000 per year due to the failure of the larger counties to send the monies on to the NCDP. Big donors are limited on the FEDERAL side, but can contribute unlimited contributions to NON-FEDERAL (State) accounts. The time is indeed ticking…
Not to make light of grassroots fundraising or the recurring donor program, but the last thing we need to do now is give historically large donors a false sense of security that county parties can adequately fund the state party. They can’t, and those deep-pocket donors need to understand that it’s their turn to step up to the plate, once again.
The change they were (supposedly) waiting for has happened, and the clock is ticking. If the new leadership at NCDP is to have any chance of making a difference in volunteer recruitment and nudging up Democratic voter turnout the (in some cases) few percentage points needed to flip a district here and there, not to mention giving state-wide candidates any hope of hitting 51%, Goodwin House needs to be hopping with people, each one with manageable goals.
Even though I can hardly afford it, I’m going to donate some dollars to the effort. And I hope my meager donation is lost in a flood of larger ones.
What the Democratic voters – as well as all voters, in NC. need, and it is the same need that can be seen nationwide, is transparent verification of election vote tabulations. This need is particularly urgent today as we continue witnessing improbable corporate/republican victories across the entire political spectrum that otherwise don’t quite pass the smell test. The majority of reasonably minded people would not be voting in favor of the republican/corporate agendas of: economic austerity for everyone except them; free trade agreements which exacerbate an already tenuous economic situation, absolute corporate lawlessness on both the domestic and international levels; an increased police state that allows no dissent – or even the hint of dissent, the continued threat of gutting the people’s Social Security safety net which is in dire straights due solely to Congressional misfeasance or perpetual war as a corporate profit motive. Swapping vote totals, which is easily accomplished on electronic tabulation machines, is the only explanation for the surge in right-wing extremism we are seeing in elected office holders. No democratic society would ever be so foolish as to place any one party in absolute power, particularly not the party that toes the corporate/military line ad nauseam.
Beth Woods was favorably impressed with the handling of the finances in the NCDP for the last two years, but the fact remains the NCDP needs an immediate infusion of money. I believe the Sustaining Funds from all the counties, especially the larger ones, could help. Many counties have made their contributions, but many have not, and all the counties need to support the NCDP with their obligation fully paid. The NCDP cannot operate without the minimal staff it now has working. Come November 2016, when the state and national races are run, that staff will be vital to every county.
Thomas, thank you for your post regarding the new chair Patsy Keever. The party was not misspending funds and in fact ran a pretty lean operation. To wit Auditor Beth Wood met with the compliance department and Treasurer David Bland on Friday, February 6th at the Goodwin House and reviewed the last two audits. Auditor Wood was pleased. The key issue going forward is how the party will function in not only a Citizen’s United world, but also a post tax-checkoff world. The NCGOP also has the same challenge in that regard. I am no longer chair, so I imagine that the donors should be ready to line up and provide resources. 🙂