Ford To Speak At Jackson Day
Posted on April 13, 2009 at 6:53 pm
The Tennessee Democratic Party’s annual fundraising event has an all-star speaker:
Tennessee Democratic Party Chairman, Chip Forrester, is pleased to announce that Harold Ford, Jr. will be the Keynote Speaker at the Andrew Jackson Day Celebration on May 30, 2009 at the Factory in Franklin, TN. Jackson Day festivities include an afternoon picnic, a dinner and keynote address by Ford, Jr., and an after-party later in the evening.
This is important news because some folks had wondered, due to the turmoil and fundraising problems in the TNDP, whether Chairman Forrester would be able to secure a big name speaker to bring people out on Jackson Day and raise some much needed funds.
It is especially noteworthy because Ford was one of signers, along with the Governor and nearly all of the state Democratic congressmen, of a letter supporting Chairman Forrester’s opponent, Charles Robert Bone.
Chip Forrester Wins TNDP Chairman’s Race
Posted on January 24, 2009 at 2:13 pmForrester defeats establishment candidate Charles Robert Bone by a vote of 42 to 25 to become the head of Tennessee’s Democratic Party.
UPDATE 3:30PM: In his acceptance speech, while thanking Charles Robert Bone and extending the requisite olive branches to the establishment that tried to derail his candidacy, Forrester made abundantly clear who he was and what he was about. This was not a man interested in painting in pale pastels. This was a man looking to create from a palette of bold colors and stark contrasts.
Noting that he was “still high” from his trip to DC for the inauguration of Barack Obama, Forrester announced he was “putting Tennessee Republicans on notice” calling out Robin Smith, Bill Hobbs, Jason Mumpower, Chip Saltsman and others explicitly by name as purveyors of racism and demagoguery. Their attacks on the party and their candidates would no longer go unanswered.
“When you lie, we are gonna call you out as liars,” stated Forrester.
If there was any doubt about who was the establishment candidate and who was the candidate who wanted to shake things up, Forrester put it rest with his impassioned speech. While Tennessee may have rejected Barack Obama’s message of hope and change at the ballot box, today the Tennessee Democratic Party gave it a great big bearhug by overwhelming electing Forrester over the objections of the party fathers.
UPDATE II: See Andy Sher for reaction from Robin Smith and notation of the presence of aides to Rep. Bart Gordon and Rep. Lincoln Davis at the vote.
UPDATE III: State Senator Eric Stewart twitters about this thread.
SEE ALSO:
The official press release
Chip Forrester’s acceptance speech as prepared for delivery
Sean Braisted
Mancini Twitters
Christine Buttorff
Jeff Woods
GoldnI
Dru Fuller
Ben Vos
Newscoma
The AP
Chip’s Got Three More
Posted on January 23, 2009 at 9:17 amThe man the state Democratic money man will reportedly run from has three more committed votes in his campaign for TNDP party chair. From a letter to the state executive committee:
Dear State Democratic Executive Committee Member:
I am pleased to announce that momentum continues to grow as we approach the election tomorrow for Chair of the Tennessee Democratic Party.
Tennessee Young Democrats President Seannalyn Brandmeir, Executive Committeewoman Maryanna Clarke and Executive Committeewoman Hazel Moore from Shelby County have committed to my campaign for Chair making 49 commitments to date. I could not be more pleased.
I look forward to seeing those of you who can be there tonight night at Swett’s Restaurant from 6:30pm to 8:30pm for the Isabel/Swett reception and on Saturday at the meeting in the House Chambers at 1:30pm.
I appreciate your continued support.
Warm regards,
Chip Forrester, Treasurer Tennessee Democratic Party
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Tennessee Democratic Money Ready To Pull A Cartman
Posted on January 21, 2009 at 8:48 amWoods gets into the chatter on the race to replace Gray Sasser as head of the TNDP:
“The money people are on Charles Robert’s side,” one insider tells Pith. “Seriously, if Chip gets the chairmanship, they’re pulling out. They’re done with the party. I think you’d see the governor’s office bail out and the congressionals bail out. So I don’t know where Chip would get his money, I really don’t.”
Forrester jumped into the race early–the day after the Nov. 4 election–and appeared to have locked down a majority of the committee. He is the party treasurer and himself has belonged to the committee since 1988.
But many party leaders see Forrester, 54, as a flake. He wears a bow tie, although he’s promised to drop it if he wins. Beyond matters of image, he pissed off many Democrats by challenging Bob Clement for Congress in the party primary in 1992.
The 50 State Strategy Will Be Modified
Posted on January 18, 2009 at 5:44 pmFrom Open Left:
In response to both questions Kaine talks about all the ways that Virginia has gone from red to blue over the last few years and gives credit to Dean for this. I see it more as going from reddish-purple to bluish-purple but okay. He says the 50-state strategy was “really important.” Good. He says “Its success speaks for itself.” Yes.
But in both answers he says they won’t being doing exactly what they did during the last 4 years. Kaine: “You never should just do what you did yesterday” and “We may do it in different ways.” More specifically, Virginia is not, say, Idaho and therefore: “I won’t say it should apply equally in every state.” But we will continue it in “new and exciting ways.”
What will be interesting is how this adapted 50 State strategy will affect Tennessee. One would assume due to Tennessee’s rejection of Obama and the Republican state legislative surge that Tennessee will be one of the lower priority states. More Idaho than Virginia, so to speak.
The Tennessee Democratic Party has relied the past two years on funds from the DNC borne out of the strategy. Whole salary positions at the party were funded out of DNC funds.
If these funds are to dry up (and reading between the lines here it is clear that they will) how will the Tennessee Democratic Party adapt?
Most importantly, who is best able to deal with this apparent setback amongst the candidates for TNDP chair, Chip Forrester or Charles Robert Bone?
Chip Forrester Writes Tennessee Obama Supporters
Posted on January 16, 2009 at 8:36 pmThe grassroots TNDP chairman candidate makes a grassroots appeal:
I am looking to you to walk through the open door of the Tennessee Democratic Party after January 24 and do what Barack Obama did for our country and help us Take Tennessee Blue.
The executive committee members, county parties and I want your help, need your help and ask for your help. We reserve a warm seat at the table for you and your group. Please come and sit with us January 24 and help us make the change we must! 2010 is too critical to the future of all Tennessee Democrats and the country not to.
I’ll see you on January 24 and then let’s go to work.
Please accept my humble gratitude for your support of me to be your new Chair.
Architects Of Defeat OR What Can Brown Do For Bone?
Posted on January 6, 2009 at 1:22 pmR. Neal throws around a bit of gossip floating around the race for Tennessee Democratic Party Chair:
There is also talk that Bone would install Mark Brown as Executive Director and Keith Talley as the Communications Director. Chip Forrester notes that they are good guys but are also the architects of the 2008 Disaster as directors of the Democratic State House and Senate caucuses respectively.
It appears there is a power struggle going on in Nashville between the old school apparatchik and a more progressive grassroots movement. Is it even possible for Democrats to drag Tennessee into the 21st Century? Can Democrats elect progressive candidates statewide and join the emerging New New South, or do we have to keep running Republican-lite candidates and letting the TNGOP dictate the rules of engagement?
The next couple of years are going to be interesting. By the end of this month we will know the general direction.
UPDATE: Charles Robert Bone responds to the rumors:
I have not spoken with Mark Brown or Keith Talley about a position with the Tennessee Democratic Party. My current focus remains on meeting and talking with the members of the Executive Committee across the State to ensure that, as a Party, we develop, fund and implement an innovative plan that will allow us to be successful in the 2010 elections and thereafter.
Equally as important as the plan itself is the manner in which we go about developing the plan, and ensuring that this process is collaborative and transparent. As a part of this, I think the Party would be well served to publicly post these job openings and conduct a national search to ensure that we attract a diverse and talented applicant pool.
UPDATE II: Senate Caucus Political Director Mark Brown:
I want to confirm that [Bone] and I have not discussed any position at the TNDP. That would be premature, to say the least.
As for the Senate Democratic Caucus, I take full responsibility for our losses; after all, I was political director. We recruited good candidates. We raised more money than the caucus has ever raised. We ran strong races, but we lost. That’s my fault.
UPDATE III: TNDP Treasurer and chairman candidate Chip Forrester:
As I’ve consistently said, I’m not making any staffing decisions before I’m elected chair and I think that it would be unwise for any candidate to be doing the same.
I plan to involve the officers of the Party in these critical decisions as well as reaching out to seek input and advice from a broad range of sources to include the Governor, the Democratic Members of Congress, former Party chairs, key Tennessee Obama supporters, the House and Senate Democratic Caucuses, Democratic activists and others as we all shape the vision and staffing of the Party for the purpose of Taking Back the House in 2010.
While I too have heard that there have been discussions about involving these gentlemen, it just seems to me that we need a fresh approach, a change of how we have been doing things and a rethinking of the politics of grassroots involvement in our state because how the campaigns of 2008 were run and the results speak for themselves.
That is why, one of my first initiatives, as chair will be to convene a statewide Campaign Summit to conduct a thorough post-mortem on all the successful and failed Tennessee campaigns of 2008. It is essential that we look at what we did right and what we did wrong to ensure that as we lay out our plan for 2010 that we bring forward only the best and dispense with the failed. This summit must be a critical, no-holds-barred analysis of 2008. The future of the Democratic Party in Tennessee is too important not to undertake this effort.
I am certain that we have, in this state, men and women who bring talent, expertise and energy to the table for the task of Taking Back the House and the Party will do everything to bring them together.
SEE ALSO: Mark Brown says he would be a wonderful Executive Director.
News To Him
Posted on December 29, 2008 at 4:33 pmBen Vos reports that TNDP chairman candidate Charles Robert Bone was not aware that Governor Phil Bredesen had endorsed him.
UPDATE: Charles Robert Bone responds:
I assume Benintn is referencing my meeting with Kathy Chambers and Jennifer Buck Wallace on or about December 11th. It is my understanding that as of that time Gov. Bredesen had not endorsed me. Obviously, I am “aware” of his endorsement now, as evidenced by the recent letter.
This would make the incident far before the explicit letter of support and only one day after the implicit laying on of hands.
Forrester Rebukes Tennessee Democratic Grasstops
Posted on December 27, 2008 at 12:18 pmFormer Treasurer of the Tennessee Democratic Party and a candidate for chairman of the organization has fired back a response to a letter signed by many of Tennessee’s top Democratic officeholders in support of his opponent Charles Robert Bone:
Our state Party was led this year by the very people who have now signed the endorsement letter for Charles Robert Bone. They set the strategy for this year’s campaign in Tennessee.
Our state Party did not suffer from a lack of funding, I know because as Treasurer I signed the checks. What our Party suffered from this year was a lack of a grassroots organization that involved everyone that believes in and supports the values of the Democratic Party.
You cannot build a viable political party from the top down, no more than you can improve the economic well being of our country with “trickle down” economics as failed Republican administration policies, tragically for our country’s working men and women, have so vividly shown us these past 8 years.
And while I respect everyone who signed the endorsement letter, if these elections have taught us anything, they should have shown us that the “top down” approach does not work any longer in Tennessee.
Read the full letter.
Did We Mention The Fundraising?: Grasstops Endorse Chuck Bob For Chair
Posted on December 22, 2008 at 7:02 amKen Whitehouse reports that Gov. Phil Bredesen, Congressmen John Tanner, Jim Cooper, Bart Gordon, Lincoln Davis, former Congressman Harold Ford Jr., and former Democratic party chairmen Randy Button, Dick Lodge, Houston Gordon, Doug Horne, Bob Thomas, and current chair Gray Sasser have all endorsed Charles Robert Bone over Chip Forrester for TNDP Chair in a missive to the state executive committee. From the missive:
It is essential for our next party chair to be a strong leader with a demonstrated record of success. We need someone with proven fundraising ability and a plan to re-take the legislature…
…Charles Robert has worked in political campaigns on the local, state and national levels. He has played an integral part in various campaigns throughout Tennessee, from Al Gore to Governor Phil Bredesen, and served as Harold Ford, Jr.’s Finance Chair in his 2006 U.S. Senate race - a campaign that raised an unprecedented amount of money. In addition, since March 2007, he has served on President-Elect Barack Obama’s National Finance Committee.
We have talked with Charles Robert and are excited about his plans for our party and its future. It is essential for the Tennessee Democratic Party to broaden our fundraising base and establish an organization to win back control of the legislature. This task will require a unified party and a strong leader. We strongly believe Charles Robert Bone is the right person for this job and ask you to support him for chairman.
SEE ALSO:
Bredesen lays hands on Bone
Sean Braisted
Double Dipping The Chip
Posted on December 19, 2008 at 7:42 amBen Vos endorses Chip Forrester for TNDP chair:
On November 5th, Chip Forrester announced he is running for TNDP chair. He has the support of most TNDP Executive Committee members, and is running on a platform that will respect, empower, and include more Tennesseans in the political process. Forrester immediately worked to reach out to the Obama campaign in Tennessee. In addition, he called for improved communications among state party officials, and between party leaders and the netroots.
He is being opposed (within the past 2 weeks) by Charles Robert Bone, a young attorney who helped with Obama’s fundraising committee, but also helped manage Harold Ford Jr.’s campaign in 2006. Bone is being supported by … none other than Lincoln Davis, the same US Rep who failed to endorse or support Obama. Party insiders speculate that Bone has the support of Davis because both share a Christian conservative viewpoint. Bone is a member of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), which holds to traditional gender roles, does not allow women in leadership, and sees homosexuality as an inherently sinful lifestyle. (Progressive? Not so much…)
Lincoln Davis is not an all-bad guy - he’s managed to hold a Democratic seat in Congress in one of the most conservative districts in the U.S. But Davis’ opposition to Obama and his unwillingness to support a progressive agenda have made him “Republican-lite” or “Democrat in Name Only”, and he’s using insider connections rather than an open process to push forward his agenda.
Keeping The Change And The Conservative In The Coalition
Posted on December 17, 2008 at 11:06 amSean Braisted discusses the essential problem anyone seeking to lead the Tennessee Democratic Party will have:
While I agree with Chip that this inclusive nature might be the strength of the Democratic party, it also offers a unique problem in the Tennessee Democratic Party. For many Democrats in rural Tennessee, there is an eyelash width of difference between themselves and the Republicans on social issues. So when one group of people, say gay activists, want equal rights, and another group of people, Conservative rural Democrats, are hell-bent on keeping them from getting those rights, it presents a significant roadblock in message unity.
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Use It Or Lose It
Posted on at 6:56 amNewscoma urges the candidates for Tennessee Democratic Party chair to use to the tools available to them to spread their message:
I think, because both men can’t be everywhere at once, that they do what R. Neal recommended and create an email database established to progressive Tennessee bloggers and get their PR on outside of urban areas. Andy Berke is on Twitter right now and checks in quite a bit. I’ve never met him either but I have sort of gotten a feel for him there and through his Tennessean article a few weeks ago. I joined his newsletter this morning at this site. Very smart.
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Hey Donkey, Say Hello To Your Mother For Me
Posted on December 14, 2008 at 6:42 pmFreddie O’Connell and Mary Mancini will interview both candidates to succeed Gray Sasser as chair of the Tennessee Democratic Party at the same time tomorrow on Liberadio(!). Check it out bright and early at 7am on 91.1 FM WRVU.
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Grasstops Versus Grassroots
Posted on December 12, 2008 at 9:51 amKatie Granju on the race for Tennessee Democratic Party Chair:
My impression is that Mr. Forrester, who has a long history in Tennessee Democratic politics, including most recently serving as the state party’s treasurer, is making a strong effort to get out and meet with party organizers in the counties around the state, while Mr. Bone, a prominent Nashville attorney, has the backing of Nashville’s Democratic power players.
Laying Tennessee’s Democratic Losses At Obama’s Feet
Posted on December 11, 2008 at 12:26 pmSean Braisted thinks certain insiders may be too quick to do so:
The overall theme of the missive though, is not so much about Chip, but a defense of the campaign strategies leading into election day. After all, even those candidates who lost did a lot better than Barack Obama. Which, I guess could be true, the problem I have with this line of thinking is that historically, there have been plenty of Democratic Presidential candidates who did far worse than Barack Obama, but we still managed to win or hold the House and Senate. In 1972, McGovern got beat 67-29 by Nixon in Tennesse, and yet, we still maintained control of the House and Senate.
Now, I’m sure the situation wasn’t entirely comparable, but surveying other states, like Kentucky which gained a Democratic seat despite Obama being trounced, it just seems like its too easy to lay the blame on Barack Obama’s feet, and I think I and others are concerned that if no lessons are learned from this past election cycle, we are doomed to repeat history in 2010.
Mulling Bredesen’s Bone
Posted on at 10:19 amSean Braisted reacts to the Governor’s comments on the race for TNDP party chair:
Coming from Bredesen’s office, that is about as full fledged and endorsement as you are going to get out of him considering his overwhelming desire to sit on the fence whenever possible. Considering quite a few people at the FRCR holiday party this past Tuesday knew about Bredesen’s support of Bone, I find it a bit hard to swallow that he is passively indifferent while leaning towards Bone.
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An Insider Speaks Out On Chip
Posted on at 10:09 amYesterday, candidate for TNDP Chair Chip Forrester sent a letter to Democratic Party state executive committee members recounting a meeting with the state House Democratic Caucus and outlining his vision for the party going forward.
One Democratic insider, who shall remain nameless, took issue with the missive and fired off this email to Post Politics:
1. Chip makes out like he had this private meeting with the House Caucus. In reality, the House Caucus invited both candidates to speak to them. Chip and Charles Robert both attended the meeting and gave presentations.
2. Chip is talking out of both sides of his mouth. He wants to buddy up to the Democratic leadership in the General Assembly and then take shots at them in letters to activists. When he criticizes the “failed policies of 2008,” he’s criticizing the policies established by the Senate Leadership (particularly Haynes and Kyle), the House leadership (particularly Odom, Rinks, and Naifeh), Democratic members of Congress, the Governor’s Office, and our campaigns. I doubt that Chip thought he was criticizing TNDP. He’s been around long enough to know how things work. He knows full well that state party chairs do not hold dictatorial authority over campaigns. In fact, state party chairs fall well down the food chain.
3. Which brings me to the next point: Chip has been TNDP treasurer for the last two cycles. His name has been in the disclaimer of every piece of mail and every radio or television spot. By the TNDP by laws, Chip, as treasurer, has personally signed off on every TNDP expenditure over $5,000. In other words, Chip was intimately involved with those “failed policies” he now criticizes. Why didn’t he raise objections during the campaign if he thought those policies were bad? Chip is the consummate insider who is now trying to look like an outsider.
4. Some activists might not want to accept this, but we ran a fantastic coordinated campaign. We simply couldn’t overcome the blowout at the top of the ticket in the areas in which we had races. For example:
- Those “boots on the ground” that Chip promises? We had 10 paid, full-time field staffers on the ground in our targeted areas running canvassing operations. That’s far more “boots on the ground” than any Democratic or Republican coordinated campaign in Tennessee has ever provided.
- Here’s the real indicator of the strength of our campaigns: we lost three Senate races (SD 4, 12, 26). McCain beat Obama by 74,000 votes in those districts. We lost those races by 9,800 votes. There was a 7.7% drop-off rate in these districts (people that voted in the presidential but not the State Senate), which leaves us with 68,000 McCain votes (74,000 minus about 6,000 drop offs). That means we got approximately 58,000 McCain voters to vote for Mike Williams, Becky Ruppe, and Randy Camp. Down ticket, voters were moving our way, which is an indicator that we were getting through to people. At the end of the day, it took our best effort — which we gave — to get this close.
I personally like Chip, but he’s being dishonest about what went down. I never once heard a word of concern from Chip during the campaign - just the opposite. He talked about how well he thought things were going considering the complete absence of a presence at the top of the ticket in Tennessee.
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