North Carolina’s loss may the North Carolina Democratic Party’s gain. Former Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin, who lost re-election by less than 1%, is running for chair of the state party. Wayne brings exceptional experience to the job. He’s not only been elected statewide and served in the House of Representatives, he came up through the party apparatus beginning at a very young age.
NCDP Chair Patsy Keever leaves the party in a strong position coming off a tough election year. Keever righted the ship after several years of turmoil left the party divided and in disarray. Goodwin can build on her success and make the party the central vehicle for organizing and electoral success.
Goodwin grew up in very modest circumstances in Richmond County, a working-class county that borders South Carolina. Both he and his wife, Melanie, represented the county in the General Assembly. They understand the struggles of rural North Carolinians and Wayne has always had a populist streak. As Commissioner of Insurance, he kept car insurance rates among the lowest in the nation and pushed back against hikes in homeowners’ rates.
Wayne’s involvement in party politics began early. He’s served as President of the Teen Democrats in Richmond County and went on to serve in almost every other position available. He’s been a precinct chair, county chair, district chair, president of the North Carolina Young Democrats, Chair of both the NCDP Rules Committee and Platform Committees and a member of the State Executive Committee. Nobody can argue that he’s not committee and versed in party organization.
More importantly, though, Wayne brings the fight we need in a chair. He just lost an election so he has no illusions how far Democrats in North Carolina have to go. He wants to bring a 100-county program to the party to ensure that Democrats are competing on all fronts and strengthen our grassroots programs.
Wayne’s also got the contacts and fundraising experience to keep the party solvent. For decades, the state party could depend upon tax check off money fund operations. No more. Party chairs will need to raise all of the money to keep the parties operational. That takes a commitment and relationships. Wayne has both.
In Wayne Goodwin, Democrats will find themselves with a party leader who understands the history of the organization as well as its internal operations. He’s still got the fire-in-the-belly to take the fight to the Republicans and motivate Democrats. Goodwin is the right person at the right time to lead the North Carolina Democratic Party.
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 >
“NCDP Chair Patsy Keever leaves the party in a strong position coming off a tough election year. Keever righted the ship after several years of turmoil left the party divided and in disarray. ”
I am unclear exactly how NCDP Chair Patsy Keever left the party in a strong position coming off a tough election year. Can you elaborate on exactly how you feel she has done that?
Did she do this by hiring the right connected people to work at NCDP, or appoint them to positions in the Party to help the status quo Democratic establishment get re-trenched?
I don’t see us being in a strong position. NCDP officers follow the party rules or break them when they want to, and there is no effective and independent Council of Review as a check or a balance anywhere. They can’t even keep accurate SEC member attendance at SEC meetings. It’s not like rocket science: it’s three meetings and all you need for each of the SEC members is three things:
did you attend the meeting?
did you not attend the meeting?
if you gave your proxy to another person – who was that person, are they qualified to have your proxy?
I attended three SEC meetings since April 2015 all with a proxy from the same person – and yet NCDP records don’t show that.
If NCDP can’t follow the Plan of Organization and can’t even keep track of SEC member attendance – how can you seriously claim that Patsy left the party in a strong position and righted the ship?
No more. I don’t waste my time with people who call others “sock puppets” and “elitist slobs.” If you haven’t the wit to converse using logic and reason and facts, then don’t bother. Go back to writing screeds about how terrible, incompetent, dishonorable, unsuccessful everyone is — except yourself, of course.
And it’s none of your business where I’m registered. I’d rather you not go snooping into my life, thank you very much.
I’m hardly a gnat or a mosquito. I am a Democrat and an officer in the party at the precinct level. Also at the county party executive level. I used to be an SEC member, but even before I was elected to the SEC, former state party chair Jerry Meek asked me to write an amendment to the NCDP Plan of Organization to drop SEC members who missed two meetings. That’s because we had too many people get elected to the SEC and then not show up. People got elected to the SEC for shits and giggles, or were nominated by corporate establishment conservaDems so take seats and voices away from grassroots progressives.
Certainly not every single comment is negative and divisive. However, I don’t suffer fools gladly, and I hate incompetence. I can’t stand having to follow people who only have their jobs due to nepotism or buying their way into the job. Many people have worked hard following bad plans designed and implemented by others at the top of the party and on campaigns. I am not dismissing the dedication and hard work of the boots on the ground – I am in fact saying that the boots on the ground deserve better than the people we have had lead our party over the last 4 election cycles. We’ve been led by some people who don’t care if Democrats win, and certainly don’t care about progressive economic policies and our general welfare. Should I not call attention to Cory Booker’s offensive vote against importing lower-cost prescription drugs from Canada because that might offend some very nice person in NJ who gave up their nights and weekends to elect Cory Booker?
I’m not calling for purity – I am calling for a party run from the grassroots on up that works to elect Democrats who will in turn work to turn our party platform into public policy. Do you know that the Moral Monday March came directly from the HKonJ rallies that took place for years before the Republicans took over? Think that everything was hunky-dory for everyone in NC when the Democrats ran the Legislature, the GA, the Courts and the Council of State? HKonJ was a protest against the moderate corporate establishment conservaDems that have run this state until 2010. Do you really think that poor working people and middle class people can afford to wait for compromise when they are getting sick and can’t afford the actual cost of a doctor’s visit or of prescription drugs because the ACA did nothing to actually lower costs? Do you think that people who lost their homes can wait or can afford to compromise when Dems made deals to bail out banks but not homeowners – and when the banks took the bailout money and used it for CEO pay and to buy-up other banks and consolidate instead of helping out in the community? Do you think we can really afford to wait and compromise when for 8 years no Wall Street bankster has been arrested, tried and convicted?
Not really sure you can say our party – in our state anyway – had lost ground before 2008 to the extent we did in 2010 – unless you go back to the late 1800s. But we have Democrats who serve their funders over voters as well. And we had several Dems who supported themselves over the party or the state while Bev Perdue was still governor.
And I an not asking that Democrats are like Republicans. But I am asking that Democrats – especially party officers – follow the damned rules! Like not using party resources to support a candidate in a contested primary no matter how much you and other establishment conservaDems like them. Or at least be consistent – don’t say that you have to follow the 8 day window for county party conventions yet not provide information on SEC members and attendance for two months when the rules state clearly 30 days.
Some Democrats think for themselves – but others are no more than rubber-stamps for what their party officers and elected public leaders tell them. And you are clearly attacking others (including me by name) who think for ourselves and come up with different conclusions than you do – and who try to get a seat at the table and a voice in the party to discus, debate and vote on how the party should be run. You attack me by name when you hide behind initials (A. D.)
Actually no you do not include people who are fans of Bernie Sanders – the way you talk about Bernie and his “ideological pure vision of a virtuous public life” tells me all I need to know about how you treat the grassroots progressive wing of the Democratic Party.
You may think you include them people with different opinions – but actually I’ve seen folks at conventions shoot down resolutions calling for Single Payer and condemning the TPP because President Obama was pushing health insurance mandates and supported the TPP. Or don’t you think that people running for office to get a “D” behind their name – or electeds who already serve in public office – deserve to know where party officers stand on those issues?
The party became a shambles after 2008 – which led to the rout in 2010. Do you know why? The Pope money contributed NOTHING to the shambles the party became. The party became a shambles because we let donors, consultants and operatives convince us to dismantle the grassroots party building that took place from 2004-2008 which enabled us to elect Barack Obama in 2008 and give him a near supermajority. I know exactly what happened with OFA and the DNC and many state parties after that – which resulted in the election losses from the GA Senate runoff, through the VA and NJ gubernatorial races, leading up to the Coakely-Brown race. I know that the NCDP had to hire 5 former OFA staffers to work as Regional Field Directors in the summer of 2009, and that three of them trotted down to Charlotte (along with $750,000) because OFA and President Obama wanted Anthony Foxx to win the mayor’s race by 3K votes (when it didn’t really matter because Charlotte City Council was already controlled by a Democratic majority) – and I also know that taking such resources away from the rest of the state cost us dearly in 2009 local elections.
I also know that OFA and the DNC had us all focusing on the 2010 congressional races to defend the ACA and other Obama efforts, while anyone with half a brain knew that the Republicans would be going after the state legislative races in a midterm and a census year. Please tell me why none of the Democratic Party consultants, operatives and staffers knew that was going to happen and instead focused on the wrong contests? That’s what happens when you let big donor money and campaign operations and operatives run the Party.
I wouldn’t agree that the party is stabilized. The ass-kicking we took in 2016 isn’t the sign of a stabilized party. You don’t seem to respect the poor and working class people who voted for Trump because they have lost so much and they don’t know any better – and all the Dems could offer them was the crappy ads generated by Team Hillary that didn’t speak to any of their needs? You can’t tell people who have lost their jobs and benefits and are about ready to lose their houses that they need to compromise and wait a little while longer.
Don’t forget her largely ineffective team of staffers, consultants and operatives who were recommended to her by the whiz-kids at the DSCC. Guess where the members of the losing Hagan team went after 2014? Many went to the DSCC where they could use their influence to get their friend’s jobs on the 2016 losing campaigns.
I’m not whining about slights and perceived wrongs – they are actual major and minor screwups that effect the lives of people in NC and elsewhere. The only way to fix the problems is to acknowledge that there were problems, fix them – and then not forget how things got so screwed up and then not let them happen again. Sometimes that means not putting the same people (or their friends) back into positions in the Democratic Party where they can screw up yet again.
I am recruiting people to join the party and become active. But it seems to upset some folks because I am trying to recruit people who don’t look at our candidates as rock-stars or Gods – but as public servants who are supposed to work for US – and not for themselves and the big donors. I’m actively organizing precincts right now – but that seems to offend some folks who think that we should be nothing but rubber-stamps for the party donors, operatives and higher-up officers.
Why can’t the Haywood County Democratic Party elect party officers who will raise money and do that themselves? Why isn’t the NCDP doing that? I’m busy working on things in Wake County – where things are screwed up enough as it is. I am not trying to remake the party in my perfected image – I am trying to make the party work better than it is. Certainly after 4 straight election cycle defeats we need to get rid of the old playbook and come up with another. But our party Plan of Organization requires that we discuss this, debate it, and then vote on it. And if we can all those things – and not cheat to favor the moderate corporate establishment conservaDems – then we might actually stand a chance to beat the Republicans.
I respect an honest process, but will object to people who lie, cheat and steal – and tolerate those who do. Thats my rant!
Good luck recruiting. I really mean that: I think it would be terrific to get young, enthusiastic, energetic people involved in rebuilding and strengthening the party from the grassroots up. I do think you’ll need some luck: in my experience it’s useful to have a positive attitude about an organization one’s recruiting for, while you seem to be asking people to hop on board the Titanic.
Perhaps you could run for state party chair.
As for empathy with the white working class who have been left out, half my family spent their lives working for Champion Fibers in Canton; several more, including my dad, worked their whole lives at American Enka. A few of them voted for Richard Nixon because they felt he “understood” their anti-elitist views; without exception they later learned, to their regret, what that led to. Others also voted for Reagan and the Bushes, again resenting the “elitist” moderate Democrats Carter and Mondale and Clinton and Gore for not respecting them; and they got screwed again, and again, and again.
Having grown up with them–as one of them–I empathize perfectly well (though I don’t share it) with their tendency to ignore reality even while it’s kicking sand in their faces and pushing them down into the dirt; I don’t empathize with (in fact I really resent) their proclivity to destroy my country with their votes while whining about being ignored by “elitist, moderate Conservadems” who, in fact, have done more for them historically than anyone else.
And frankly, I don’t find anything in your rather long, tendentious comment that would attract them to join the Democratic Party, whether it’s liberal, moderate, radical, populist, or conservative and cautious. I have an Ivy League education and could scarcely make it through to the end; most of those you claim to want to reach would give up after the first few sentences. Even my patience was tested when you made spurious claims about knowing how I would treat progressive views because of my comment about Bernie’s ideological purity, or when you whine that I “hide behind initials.” My father was H. L. Reed throughout his life; I’m A. D. Reed. I know Rev. L.C. Ray and the singer k.d. laing, and I have read the authors C. S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkein: clearly using initials is not “hiding,” it’s a choice. You don’t like it? Well, good luck with recruiting anyone who thinks even slightly differently than you.
So I reiterate: Why don’t you run for state party chair? That would give you an opportunity to put your views to the test, and if you win, you’d have extensive reach to rebuild the party in a more progressive direction.
Why do elitist snobs like you who pretend to have empathy with working people hide behind initials always ask someone why they don’t run for an office if they don’t like the way someone else might do a job?
Using initials is hiding – can anyone look you up on the state board of elections voter lookup site to see if you are even registered to vote, or if you are even a real person? Sock puppets can always hide behind a made up full name – but that’s easier to track down. A real person can use initials – that is a choice. A sock puppet can also chose to hide behind initials.
Your examples of famous people who can easily be looked up and are well known like Rev. L.C. Ray and k.d. laing is silly – but it’s what I expect from you and your elitist opinions.
So what is your real first and middle name – and what county are you registered to vote in?
You do realize that in a democracy – and the Democratic Party is supposed to be run in a democratic manner – people who are officers or even delegates have a right to raise issues about how the group is being run? And especially if the group is not following their own rules? I have every right to ask officers who want to run for office how they feel about doing things a certain way – even if I can’t vote for the NCDP party officer candidates. I can certainly vote for Wake SEC members this coming April, and I can tell them how I feel about the various candidates and use their responses to determine whether or not I vote for them in April.
In the Democratic Party – you shouldn’t need to be state party chair or even a county party chair if the rules are followed. I have made motions and submitted resolutions that have become changes to the NCDP Plan of Organization that – when followed – have made the party run better and get more accomplished.
Your notion that I should run for NCDP Chair as the only way to put my views to the test is a silly and elitist notion that has no place in a political party where we can’t all be chair. We should all be able to submit motions and resolutions at our precinct meetings and county parties and have the chance to debate and discuss them while they work up the line.
You claim to have empathy with the working class folks who are family members – what are you doing to reach out to them and change their way of thinking? What is your Ivy League educational background – can you use it to help design a strategy to change their ways of looking at things and perhaps registering and voting for Democrats? Maybe you should put your education and life experience and empathy to the test and YOU should run for NCDP Chair?
I have to say that your objection to a person’s being identified by his/her initials and surname seems peculiar: are you suggesting that one has to be famous in order to use their initials rather than their full name?–and who signs with their first, middle and full name AND county of residence? I haven’t noticed your doing so. No doubt some prominent people use initials to avoid being confused with another well-known person with the same given name, but that is always the case. I began using my initials in high school, partly because I don’t care that much for my given names and partly because of a coincidence in initials that was relevant then but has no meaning now. Taking umbrage at how someone signs his/her name seems childish, if not outright paranoid..
As a rule I don’t follow the insider intraparty sniping that some people are given to, but sometimes the buzzing of gnats and mosquitoes from their keyboards really irritates me.
I don’t know too much about Chris Telesca, or care that much, but it seems to me that every single comment that comes from his fingers is negative and divisive. Going over every imagined or real slight that he has felt for the past eight or 10 years while dismissing the dedication and hard work of those who have worked for the party, progressive policies, and the general welfare is really offensive.
I’m not a precinct chair, but I have spent a lot of hours with feet on the ground getting out the vote, promoting good policies, even just writing my own screeds that focus on what I hope my fellow partisans will stand for and promote. And frankly, every time I hear a Democrat whine and belittle every moderate party member–Obama, Clinton, Keever and countless others–I have less interest than before in working with my local Democratic precinct lest it will be tainted by those who, like Telesca, seem incapable of recognizing that politics is both “the art of the possible” and a field of human endeavor that requires compromise. Such purity as he seems to demand is for religion, not self-government (in which 10 million Tar Heels will never agree on everything, no matter how much he expects us to).
There are many reasons our candidates have lost, and that the party has lost a lot of ground since 2008 (and before). And there are many productive ideas held by people from a variety of ideological positions about how to regain that ground. One reason the Republicans are as successful as they are at winning power — and such failures at governing — is that they impose iron discipline on their members, candidates, and elected officials. They sign pledges never to raise taxes, to always vote the party line, to follow the rules laid down by their party masters and the funders who own them. They dedicate themselves to supporting their party over their country (or state), and their funders over their voters.
We are not like that, Chris Telesca. We think for ourselves. We include people who are huge fans of Hillary Clinton and her lifelong track record of working for actual people rather than for ideological purity, and others who are huge fans of Bernie Sanders and his lifelong track record of working to promote his ideologically pure vision of virtuous public life. We include Democrats who think President Obama has been too conservative, too radical, too bold, too timid, too cool, too arrogant, a great success, a terrible disappointment …
Now, if you know anything about the past four, eight, twelve years–which you clearly do — you must also know what a shambles the NCDP became following the rout of 2010 — which was funded by the Kochs and Art Pope and had been in the works for half a decade. You also would know how much work it took to stabilize the party in the past two years, and to get Roy Cooper elected against headwinds that are still generated by the network of billionaires playing on the fears of the rubes that resulted in Donald Trump’s win. You should also know that one of the main reasons Kay Hagan lost her reelection bid two years ago (and I’m not a big fan of hers, as she struck me as rather ineffectual) was that a few weeks before the election, after the final pre-election reporting was due, a secret donation of nearly $5 million from a single multi-millionaire was secretly slipped into Tillis’s waiting hand, money that was used for a last-minute media blitz against her.
How about you stop whining about all the slights and slings and arrows and perceived wrongs you can dredge up, and go out and recruit people across the state to join the party, and become active? How about you send mailings to rural voters in Haywood County reminding them of what the Democrats have done for the people over the past 80 years, and what the Republicans have done TO them? How about you stop trying to remake the party in your perfected image and work with, instead of against, all the others who share your desire for a more perfect union, but who might — god forbid! — disagree with you about how to do so?
That’s my rant for the day.
I am very happy that Wayne plans to run. Years ago, before he was elected Insurance Commissioner, I had the pleasure of serving with him on several small committees of the State Executive Committee. He exercised astute judgment and common sense and listened closely and respectfully to everyone’s input. As others have stated, the performance of his duties as IC has been effective and in the best interests of the people of North Carolina. I certainly support him and urge others to do the same.
It would seem that since Wayne is willing to come here and at least answer some of the questions and concerns posed, Chris Telesca wants to hold his feet to the fire with an essay exam. I don’t see those questions or position challenges being posed to the other candidates either.
In my view, his advocacy as Insurance Commissioner speaks for itself. He has my support as Chair and for anything else he cares to run for. Not that anyone would care; I’m not a mover and shaker or a big noise in party politics. But I am a Democrat and it’s time the Republican wave hit a seawall.
Best wishes Wayne Goodwin.
Being from rural North Carolina myself, and knowing Wayne’s history, there is one thing that separates Wayne from others who might want the job. Wayne understands that you cannot build a successful party in NC by ignoring the rural voters and concentrating solely on the population centers. If the Democrats are ever going to undo the damage of the 2010 election and put the NC Legislature back in the Blue column, the party will have to reach out to rural white voters who have been ignored by the party for the past few years. The people of my home town need to be shown, clearly and powerfully, that the GOP may be promising them pie in the sky, but they are only delivering for their wealthy donors.
The GOP beat Wayne by hanging the rising cost of health insurance around his neck. The Party didn’t do enough to show voters that (A) Wayne had been stripped of almost all power over health insurance rates, and (B) that the rates were rising more in NC than in other states because our GOP Legislature turned down Medicare and Medicaid benefits under the ACA.
We need better messaging, but we need messaging that resonates with rural voters. Wayne speaks their language, knows what motivates them, and knows how to reach them. That’s why I support Wayne.
Wayne Goodwin has an exceptional record as Commissioner of Insurance for the past eight years. He has preserved an orderly market for individual and business insurance consumers, while maintaining adequate and reasonable rates and assuring the financial integrity of the insurance companies operating in the State. Given the conditions in the financial and insurance economies from 2008 when he was elected, this is a remarkable record of accomplishment. Other duties of the Commissioner include serving as the State Fire Marshall with responsibility for the Office of state Fire Marshall OSFM and its six divisions: Engineering and Codes; Manufactured Building; Risk Management; Fire and Rescue Training and Inspections; Fire and Rescue Commission; and Programs, Prevention and Grants. Goodwin’s management of his multifaceted and complex duties and responsibilities has been exemplary. It is North Carolina’s loss to that he leaves office this week.
I believe that will be on outstanding Chair of the NCDP and one who will lead us as a builder in this critical time for our party, state and nation.
Joseph. E. Johnson
Let’s take a look at the last 4 election cycles.
After the 2008 election cycle, we were told by the powers that be that we had to elect Bev Perdue’s choice for NCDP Chair because he knew how to win elections and raise money. At the national level, we got stuck with a DNC Chair who was ready for Hillary way back when on top of maneuvering the Democratic Party to be run by OFA – to the point of redesigning the DNC logo to be a small D surrounded by a larger O – implying that Obama was bigger than the Party. And the campaigns and operatives surely ran the DNC and the state parties in their own best interests.
Based on the results of every election held between November 2008 and 2010, that strategy was sure to be a losing one. And sure enough, we lost big in NC in the 2010 General elections. We also lost the US Senate election – more likely than not caused by consultants and operatives pulling for a candidate that didn’t win the primary or the runoff. We elected the same congressional delegation, but we lost the NCGA – going into the census and redistricting years.
The SEC elected David Parker as NCDP Chair. He was not the choice of the establishment Dems like Bev Perdue or the folks at the NCGA, or the operatives or the donors. And the attacks on Parker that were later proven false – merely pretext for a run on the taxpayer checkoff money by the consultants and operatives – resulted in more election loses in 2012. Republicans got a bigger majority in the NCGA, and won the Governor’s mansion and a few more Council of State seats. But even more important was the loss of US House seats in North Carolina due to redistricting.
Thanks to the consultants and operatives, Parker didn’t run in 2013. Randy Voller ran to clean up the corruption at NCDP, so the establishment consevaDems, consultants, operatives and donors first pulled for Eric Mansfield – who later dropped out. Trying to find someone to run under the establishment conservaDem banner, they drafted Dob Etheridge, who couldn’t even bother to be present to accept the nomination and who wouldn’t have been around to run the meeting had he won! Voller won in the face of lots of proxy scams which I personally witnessed, but had the consultants and operatives – and especially the Young Democrats and LGBT Dems – after him from the get-go. After running for 1st VC, Nina Slozberg Landis began bad-mouthing Voller even before she quit her post 4 months into her term – and then joined in with Hunt to encourage donors to bypass the party again and donate directly to the candidates and the caucuses/committees run by former consultants and operatives. We had decent luck in the 2013 local elections run either using the Voller strategy (as executed by Casey Mann in Charlotte), but the establishment Dems kept making such a stink about Voller to scare money and volunteers away from the party that it’s no wonder we didn’t do better in 2014. The establishment conservaDems focused more on getting rid of Voller and laundering more money through them than they did having a winning strategy (like Patsy Keever’s “Shamegate” letters) – so it’s no surprise that Kay Hagan lost in 2014.
Voller didn’t run again, and Patsy Keever won election as Chair. Sure enough, what little checks and balances were left in the party went right out the window. Patsy’s “Night of the Long Knives” (when she removed John Brooks and several other Council of Review members in violation of a ambiguous part of the POO) in order to restore Chris Hardee as 3rd Congressional District Chair (a position he lost in May 2015) meant that the COR would no longer be a check on the abuse of power of party officers – and nowhere was that change felt more than in Wake County (more on that later on my own blog).
Needless to say, the entire DNC and many state parties had been ready for Hillary Clinton 2016 since Barack Obama won his first term. The fact that Randy Voller wouldn’t condone such a rigged set up early on was undoubtedly a factor in the constant challenges to his authority by those party members who had a vested interest in getting jobs or money funneled to/through them by the Clinton campaign in 2016. So Randy had to go, and only someone who could be trusted to help Hillary and other establishment candidates could be trusted to be Chair. Sadly, that wasn’t enough in an election that proved to be more about people being pissed off at the status quo. Not only did Trump beat Hillary Clinton in NC, but we lost TONS of other races – including yet another US Senate seat. Roy Cooper won by the skin of his teeth in a race that shouldn’t have been that close had the party officers and staffers been doing the job they should have been doing.
Now we have yet another round of party officer elections, and the powers that be are trotting out candidates for party officers that supposedly know how to win elections and raise money. And they want the rubber stamps to vote for their boys and girls. When will Democrats grow up and stop listening to this drivel?
Chris, You have stated your case and we all have many times. Let’s see what Wayne and the other candidates, now have to say.
I’d really like to hear what the NCDP Chair candidates have to say about things besides the usual drivel that consultants and operatives come up with. But since this is about Wayne running for Chair, and he hasn’t called me up yet (per a text message chat we had), here’s my chance to ask him some of what I wanted to ask him in person.
Wayne – who asked you to run for Chair? How beholden will you be to the consultants, operatives and donors vs the rank and file party officers/delegates? I am especially concerned about the pull that former Governor Jim Hunt has in our party given that he donated $1000 to Republican House member Justin Burr in 2013 – who turned around and donated it to another Republican House member running in Hunt’s house district. Burr never before and never since donated to a candidate – preferring to donate to the NC GOP and to the GOP House Caucus. Yet we have a big dinner that bears Jim Hunt’s name. If I had a GOP yard sign in my front yard and otherwise supported a GOP candidate, I’d get bounced out of being a precinct Chair in a heartbeat, so why do we still put on a dinner bearing Hunt’s name and allow him to talk at the dinner?
What about partybuilding and precinct organization? We have 100 counties and some of them do not have a single precinct organized – so how do they have county party officers, delegates to the congressional and state conventions as well as SEC members? Back in 2015, I asked all 5 candidates for Chair if they knew how many precincts there were in NC – and the person who came closest was Janice Covington and she was off by 400. But she was still the closest one!
Wayne – where do you stand on getting precincts organized so that Democrats living in those precincts have a voice in the party and a seat at the table? This year we need more volunteers to help get out the vote, but we have such a short effective window for precinct organization before the county conventions that we won’t have enough time to organize precincts to allow them to have seated delegates and a weighted vote at conventions and CEC meetings!
If we organized all the precincts in the state and actually let the party be directed by officers and delegates after open discussion, debate and votes, we might actually be able to raise enough money from them so we wouldn’t be so beholden to the big donors.
Why for example do we have to have county conventions so early? Why can’t we hold them in LATE April to allow more precincts to get organized? Since we don’t have a state convention this year, why can’t we move the District Conventions until sometime in June to allow for the jurisdictional boundaries to be figured out correctly so we don’t have officers elected in districts they don’t live in?
Wayne – do you support amending the NCDP Plan of Organization at the Feb 11 SEC meeting to extend the county convention and district convention windows and do what it takes to help organize more precincts to bring more Democrats into the Democratic Party, so that we have a larger and more diverse group of Democrats who have a say in directing the party at all levels?
I’d also like to ask Wayne what he thinks about a state party that can’t even accurately keep track of attendance for the SEC members since April 2015 – or turn over those records when asked to produce them per the NCDP Plan of Organization? Wayne – will you support a better credentials and appeals process in the party at all levels, and what will you do to ensure this happens?
And what about the concentration of Young Dems and LGBT Dems who hold all the important positions in NCDP Chair committee appointments? One example is Ryan Butler who is both the President of the LGBT Caucus (and has a seat on the Executive Council that hears appeals of Council of Review decisions) – and also is the appointed Chair of the Council of Review. Wayne – what will you do about that apparent conflict of interest?
What about Matt Hughes who not only is president of the Association of County Chairs but also the Chair of the Resolution and Platform Committee. I was appalled that we put off dealing with Resolutions at one SEC meeting because Matt had to go on his honeymoon, and Patsy Keever couldn’t draft another member of the committee to fill in for Matt.
Wayne – what will you do to ensure power doesn’t continue to be concentrated in the hands of a that a few privileged Democrats that you appoint to positions after they are already elected to higher party officers?
And it’s not like the county party chairs don’t already have enough political clout in the party that they need a seat on the Exec Council – especially when I hear that NCDP is trying to keep new caucuses and auxiliaries from getting formed, and trying to gut the few new ones that have been formed after the LGBT and County Party Chairs caucuses were formed? And it’s not like we have all that many – the DNC has more caucuses than we have – they have one for rural voters, one for Native American voters, etc. We need more caucuses so that more voters can have a say in the party and won’t feel ignored except when we ask them to vote!
People that know how to win elections? After 4 successive losing election cycles, what are we doing different? These fools still claim that we are losing because the Republicans have gerrymandered the districts, but that doesn’t explain how we lost and they won in 2010 when we had the Governor’s mansion and the majority in both houses of the NCGA.
What will Wayne do differently than the current officers are doing? We’ve had the establishment conservaDems running the show for the past 4 election cycles. And the right people are still getting jobs working for the party and for campaigns – but they are losing those races. They don’t seem to be too concerned about losing their jobs or not getting hired to work on campaigns no matter how bad a job they’ve done in the last 4 election cycles. Wayne – what will you do to use better metrics to direct hiring decisions at NCDP and in the caucuses?
Chris, I’ve just called your cell phone and left a voice mail message. In the few days since our messaging each other i have been packing up and moving out of my NCDOI office, and putting many items in storage and the rest in my new office up here in North Raleigh. That process has taken longer than planned! As I’m working through my call list this week i was hoping to touch base with you. Meantime, as noted in my voice mail message for you, i will post my answer to all your posted questions for me in detail tonight after my kids have completed their dinner, homework, baths and have gone to sleep. Thank you, Chris, for your patience and friendship!
Thank you, Wayne , for your answer. so few people will ever take the time to understand what you could and could not do. Thank you again for serving our State. And I will be interested in what you have to say tonight on the conference call.
Here is PART ONE of my answers to various questions Chris T. asked of me. I will provide a PART TWO as soon as I can, perhaps late tonight or in the morning.
Q: Who asked me to run?
A: Within days after the November 8th Election I started receiving calls from friends, supporters and fellow Democrats asking me to consider running for Chair. They expressed that I could help unify disparate components of our Party, inspire, organize, fundraise, and actively hold the NCGOP accountable, and have the backs of Governor Cooper and our Democratic legislators. For several weeks I received those calls and suggestions politely and passively, particularly as I focused on transitioning out of NCDOI and on my family. In early to mid-December I decided to actively call various folks myself to gauge their thoughts on what if were to run for the post. The feedback was much more positive than anticipated. (P.S. Because some commenters here and elsewhere online have erroneously assumed that I have received a direct call to run from either Governor Roy Cooper or Governor Jim Hunt, do know that I have neither called nor spoken with either of them about this endeavor. My interest and my supporters are from Democrats (and many SEC members) across the State and from a wide spectrum within our great Party.)
Q: If elected Chairman, then what will be my relationship with consultants, operatives and donors versus the rank and file party officers/delegates?
A: As stated in my announcement for Chair, my focus is on the rank and file party officers/delegates while also being open and transparent to hear from anyone who wants to speak with me and has ideas on how we can organize my 100-county strategy, and rebuild and re-energize Democrats in areas where we as a Party are lagging, and get out our message and elect Democrats. It would be a mistake for any Chair of the NCDP to ignore any segment or group within the NCDP; accordingly, I will be mindful and relate to registered Democrats, delegates, county and other officers, candidates, legislators, donors, and everyone that I can. Every one of them is a valued and valuable person for our cause. Based on my many years of service to the Party and my service as a legislator and statewide-elected official, I am also adept at striking the appropriate balances to assure inclusivity and common ground. … Keep in mind that I’ve served at all levels of this Party — precinct chairman, county chair, Teen Dems, College Dems, Young Dems, 8th Congressional District Dems, etc. — and you know my commitment to the Platform, Resolutions, etc. from my having chaired that for the NCDP for many years. If elected Chair, I will not forsake or forget those Democrats with whom I’ve worked side by side, and will work with those Democrats who have also more recently joined our cause.
Q: Precincts?
A: For me to focus on achieving my 100-county strategy, it necessarily includes setting a goal of organizing as many precincts as possible – as a partner with precinct chairs, county chairs and district chairs. Whereas the ideal is 100% organization of all precincts, I’m realistic enough to know that we should aim for a significant percentage higher in 2017 than where we are now having concluded 2016, and then to build further on that in 2018. We must not let the perfect result be the enemy of a good or better result.
PART TWO of my answers will be forthcoming.
The precinct organization cycle this year is MUCH TOO SHORT. I did complain and it was increased by an extra week, but is there any reason why in 2017 we can’t push the county conventions back until late April or early May, and then hold the District Conventions in June after HS graduations?
We can still vote for BOE members at the county conventions (CEC meetings) even if we hold them in late April or early May. There is nothing going on at the county or district levels that requires conventions in those months.
If we really are serious about organizing precincts and giving a larger and more diverse group of Democrats a voice in the party and a seat at the table to give them more reason to work to get out the vote in their precincts, would you support moving the county conventions back a bit into late April or early May and the district conventions back into June to give counties more time to organize precincts?
Telesca, and Democratic Party attacking Bernie Sanders trash has been active sowing discontent within the NCDP for years, and that should not be of any surprise. It is politics after all
In that long winded rant, Telesca (part if the Wake Progressives that mooch off Goodwin House) attacked Senator Cory Booker for protecting our nation from poor quality poisonous pharmaceuticals from China and Russia, to denigrating OFA, and our parties retaking the Governorship in North Carolina.
As we move forward with our established system of organization, its faux democrats like Telesca, his buddy George Fisher, and client Marshall Adame that we must guard against, and even lock out.
We are stronger without them!
Selecting Wayne Goodwin would be a good step in my view – and as others have said, we should pay him a competitive salary and then hold hime accountable for producing some winning results. Time is short, we have to have a very successful run in 2018 to right this ship in NC and help show the other states how to do it – which means we really have to stop treating these elections as a spectator sport!
I was very disappointed Wayne lost his election. I’m happy to support Mr. Goodwin. As Insurance Commissioner, his office provided knowledgeable, efficient service to me as a consumer. Now that I read his experience and history, I’d be happy to see him bring that to NCDP. Good luck Mr. Goodwin.
Patsy Keever did very little to set the Party right again, and it is in as bad a shape as ever due to repetitive losses (not her fault necessarily). Wayne is already approved and stamped for Chair, the “right people” having approved, and he having an allegiance to the old guard. However, I propose that Goodwin is given a $250 K salary as chair to keep him well focused. Republicans took to paying chairs (Tom Fetzer) back in 2008, and Fetzer followed through on promise to clean out Democrats from the NCGA. The Democratic Party is in total disarray nationally and in states. It needs major surgery. I do not know if Goodwin has the stuff to maximize the opportunties in NC from now until 2022, but he better have. We have elections in 2017 which will cost money. We face elections in 2018 and those will be expensive. Then, we face 2020, where the determination of who will do redistricting will be a primary topic. The question: Can the Party, including the House and Senate caucuses pull off anything in a coordinated manner while trying not to totally bankrupt us. If they misjudge in 2017, that will impact 2018 and then 2020. I also note the absence of a study group or commission to address the losses of Democrats to Unafilliated in the past 12-14 years, and with Dems still fleeing. Why have Keever and the Party Poo Bahs ignored this totally? It is clear that GOTV with pom poms, “events” and fund raising among a burnt out set of constituents, rinse and repeat, will not work. What will bring people to the Democrats, rather than what has driven them away? And by the way, we need a commission or study group to recommend a non-partisan redistricting and putting some teeth into it. Got thousands of ideas like this, but they are anathema in Goodwin House. We got no more time for “Not Invented Here”!
Mr. Franklin, I agree with much of what your post states. I too am very concerned about the party’s future on the state and national level. As Vice Chair of a county party, we reap what our party sows. I have seen the split in our local party because of choices the DNC made by its bias toward Hillary and slight of Sanders. That split must be repaired! Can NCDP help repair and strengthen this fracture and influence what happens on the national level? Can NCDP entice people who’ve left the party to come back? I hope so.
NCDP also needs to help strengthen and support what is happening at each and every county Democratic organization. The party is not organized, which had led to being ineffectual. Just getting signs to support our candidates was a huge nightmare. The Republicans had theirs out months before we even knew that we had to order and print our own for the top candidates! We were making apologies on a daily basis to supporters who wanted to know when they could have their signs.
I think many of us who’ve been involved for awhile have ideas. I hope – even believe – you are wrong about fresh ideas not being welcomed by Mr. Goodwin. I’ve actually found him to be one of the more approachable candidates. Mr. Goodwin came out to show his support for Democrats in a very red county that others chose to ignore. Therefore, Mr. Goodwin has earned my support and the support of many Dems I’m associated with.
Lastly, I agree with you that the head of NC’s Democratic Party should be a well-paid position. We need top people who are dedicated to and can manage this complex system and that means they should be compensated well for their ability. I also think we should be voting for a Vice Chair who performs and can learn under the Chair, so that we are never left without someone qualified to manage our party.
Minor comment on the question of Democrats fleeing to the Unaffiiated in the past years. I can’t find data specific to NC, but national polling groups (Pew and Gallup primarily) data examined over several years to determine long range changes on issues (NOT candidates) shows that almost all of the growth in Independents has represented a loss to GOP registration. The latter is now at about 23% of voters, down from 31% in 1990 (26 years). In the same time period, those identifying as Democrats has decreased from 33 to 32%.
For further information on this in-depth look at 26 years of data, check the Jan. 1, 2017 issue of The Washington Spectator. Sorry but there is no link specifically to this article. Just try Washington Spectator.com published by the Public Concern Foundation. Item is a special report and most of the Jan 1 publication is devoted to this look at lots of data about attitudes, what folks do and do not support and how changes have occurred on some issues. This is a tiny publication, and generally has material I don’t see elsewhere.
Wayne Goodwin is a true North Carolina Democrat that has the knowledge, political skills, and integrity that is absolutely needed in representing Governor Cooper, moving our party forward with continued election success, and veing the good steward in managing the 1.8 million in Clinton revenue sharing funds within the NCDP coffers.
Neither Marshall Adame or Janice Covington meet enough of these simple necessities to be Mrs. Keevers successor.
I am a lifelong Democrat who voted against Goodwin for the simple reason that he let Blue Cross Blue Shield North Carolina raise their rates exorbitantly high year after year and did nothing to reign in health insurance costs. I question how strong he would be leading the party if he couldn’t manage this corporate highly profitable “non profit” giant. Isn’t there another candidate who has the backbone to lead our party to victory? Ray Cooper and the state of North Carolina deserve no less.
With all due respect, M. Reiss, both federal law (implemented by Congressional Democrats) and state law (implemented by NC General Assembly Republicans) greatly minimized my authority as state Insurance Commissioner on health insurance. If I’d been allowed the authority on health insurance that I had on auto and homeowners insurance, then we would have had much lower health insurance premiums in NC. Unfortunately, one of the greatest misunderstandings is on this subject; you and many others thought i could have rejected the health insurance filings when federal/state law precluded that. By the way, on car unsurance i issued orders that made NC the lowest average costs in the whole USA; on homeowners insurance I issued orders making NC the lowest average cost in the South. My decisions during two terms saved NC families and small businesses over $2.4 Billion. Moreover, in one area where I still had authority over health insurance companies – market regulation and compliance – I ordered the largest fine ever in NC against an insurance company and that was BCBSNC; in fact, it was in the millions of dollars and was almost twice the previous highest fine. Please let me know if you’d like additional information.
Mr. Goodwin,
I supported you in you reelection bid. Sorry that you lost. Asking you what you would do if elected the new chair for NC Dems to aggressively work to find good candidates for the 2017 and out year elections to NC state senate and house to run against any so called “Dems” that voted with GOP in special sessions and to recruit other strong Dem candidates as options for the gang of unscrupulous GOP folks that now populate the state houses? We need strong and aggressive leadership! I for one am tired of giving my hard earned money to the DNC, DSCC, DCCC and other committees and seeing it wasted. Grass roots, feet on the streets, door to door politics is what we need and the sooner the better.
Wayne,
Your most recent electoral loss just emphasizes the failure of Democrats to connect with those they most need — and indeed have likely and will/would likely benefit from Democrats (like you) continuation in office.
Your response above is a classic example of the communication failure of the party in 2016 from the Clinton camp on down.
We may like you, love you, love your NCDP record, and may think you are the most qualified on paper, BUT your loss sits there like the elephant in the room.
Democrats like Elaine Marshall were re-elected statewide and Josh Stein won election statewide.
I actually do have great confidence in you, but the response above reminds me a great deal of the NC Democratic failures of recent years and concerns me from a communications and strategic standpoint.
Please consider this as a genuinely hopeful criticism as you make future statements about the NCGOP and their inevitable attacks on you.
Thank you, Wayne , for your answer. so few people will ever take the time to understand what you could and could not do. Thank you again for serving our State. And I will be interested in what you have to say tonight on the conference call.
Congratulations Mr. Commissioner! I was very sorry to see the outcome of the election. You will certainly enrich the party and the State. The party has been in need of good statewide leadership for a while.
As a former insurance-fraud investigator, I know Wayne and his work and am happy to endorse him for NCDP chair!
Wayne is the right choice for sure. We need someone with his background, experience and passion for the job.
I agree completely with your endorsement of Wayne. It was a sad day for NC when he lost his reelection bid for Insurance Commissioner by a few votes to a Republican. We can expect a negative impact on the consumers.
I think all North Carolina Democrats are very fortunate Wayne Goodwin wants to run for NCDP Chair – he would do a fantastic job!
Who are the other candidates?
From another article on the race:
“Former NC Insurance Commissioner and current candidate for Chair of the NC Democratic Party, Wayne Goodwin will face-off against Janice Covington Allison, a transgender activist from Charlotte, in the February 11 election.”
Marshall Adame as well.