FCDC OUTRAGE

SEE MORE HERE. 

The background on what happened:

For years interested teenagers have joined Democratic Committees around the state.  There is nothing in the party plan that prohibits this.

And time after time the same old women on FCDC try to get everyone kicked off the Democratic Committee who is under the age of 18 when a key vote is coming up.  They did it to Kenton last night, I remember when Vivian Watts' aide did it to a group of YDs in 2000, they tried to do it to me in 1998 (and were disappointed when they found out I was already 18).  How far back does this go?  Stan Barry's late wife, joined the committee as Megan Owen back in the 1980s as a teenager and they tried to kick her off the committee.  I used to joke with her during Stan's first campaign in 1999 that it was the same old women that tried to boot me off the committee 10 years later.  Well, now they are back for Kenton!

In doing so they violated their own reorganization and will likely have to redo elections.  Here's the part that Kenton didn't talk about in his post:

After claiming Kenton was ineligible and failing to cite any section that said so, the committee decided to let Kenton vote- WITH A PROVISIONAL BALLOT.  Kenton, and one other teenager's votes were decisive- without them one candidate won 20-18- with them it was a 20-20 tie.

BUT THE ELECTION WAS CAST BY SECRET BALLOT- MEANING THAT KENTON, WHO IS A FULL FLEDGED MEMBER OF THIS COMMITTEE HAD HIS VOTE PUBLICLY ANNOUNCED WHILE THE OTHERS WERE ALLOWED TO VOTE SECRETLY.  Not only that, but there is no mention of provisional ballots in the call for reorganization- making such a move totally illegal.

Um, was there no one in the room who realized what they were doing?  Publicly humiliating a 16 year old for joining the committee and announcing his vote on a secret ballot?  Are you f***ing kidding me?!?!

This whole reorganization will have to be redone, and the committee will be lucky if neither one of these teenagers gets an attorney and sues the hell out of them for age discrimination.  Whoever had the idea to let him vote, but have it announced is a total moron and ought to be thrown out of the party themselves.

UPDATE: FROM THE FCDC WEBSITE:  "Most members are registered voters, but there are no restrictions on age. High school students who have been active, enthusiastic volunteers have been elected to FCDC membership." 

Exactly under what authority was Ms. Peters acting- and if this was advertised as an open committee- did she commit a criminal act by lying about membership requirements?

Comments

[fannyboy]

Huge wag of the fanny to Ginny Peters!

[Notgretchenbulova]

This sounds about right. At least what I would expect from Peters. She's been no good since day 1.

Is this the same Ginny Peters that stood with Eileen Manning and made fun of the Webb supporters.

FUCK THEM

who is running to replace her?

In FCDC we pride ourselves on eating our young!

What's the big deal?

[Sam]

When I was in high school, I considered joining FCDC and didn't primarily because I kept hearing horror stories about this kind of crap... I see nothing ever changes... Democrats have completely taken over the county and dominate amongst young voters, but hey, we did that all by excluding people and disenfranchising the young, right? Disgusting...

KENTON NGO FOR CHAIR.

(Better than Steve "Ginny Likes His" Bunn).

[FCDC Member]

Sam, I heard the same thing and directly from Delegate Steve Shannon. However, the next time I saw him he was kissing all their rear ends. Maybe this wouldn't happen any more if people like Steve would grow a pair and stand up to Ginny/Eileen/Rachel et al.?

KENTON NGO FOR CHAIR.

(Better than Steve "Ginny Likes His" Bunn).

hahahahaha

I think the real problem the old ladies have is that 750 Volts is not a union blog engine.

Kenton should know better.

[Loudoun Insider]

It's nice to see the Dems engaging in some LCRC-type activity! I really am sick to death of both parties these days. Nothing more than a bunch of self important blowhards.

[Oakton Mom]

Why would anyone discourage young people from being involved? My daughter formed a YD club at her high school when she became a 9th grader and discovered there was a YR but no YD chapter. She's been VERY involved for the past four years, working on Shannon, Webb and Petersen campaigns. We need more people like her, and to put up barriers to participation seems so wrong.

Just a quick question here from a Republican with no knowledge of Democratic committees.

Doesn't anyone think one should be of voting age before becoming a voting member of either a Republican or Democratic committee?

[Donkey Balls]

Ahhh, the FCDC reorg won't happen until Jan. The local committees are reorging this week. And Ginny is retiring as FCDC chair next year. A little ahead of yourself?? Didn't Larry explain all this to you??

[small problem]

age discrimination does not apply to young people, and the age discrimination act does not apply to private entities.

[Veritas]

I heard that no one wanted the FCDC mantle I know of at least one person who turned the nomination down...ppl are right though, can we get someone who is not retired to run the FCDC

[Not Larry Sabato]

Donkey Balls- the local committees are all reorganizing to elect FCDC members. All the mag committees are is a organization tool of the county committee.

Did I miss a blogspat? How come your posts don't appeear on Waldo's aggregator anymore?

[Time for a new generation]

Veritas,

A group of us have spoken with no less than a dozen people to run as Chair. This outreach has been going on for about 18 months. All very capable candidates. The problem is that anyone who really wants to do something with the Committee is scared of the politics and the work involved.

This is the chance to make this a new organization and sweep away the old Guard that has been there since the 1960s. It could even make the organization relevant for a change.

[Be Patient]

Eventually Eileen, Ginny, George Burke will see their waistlines continue to expand until they get stuck in the hottub together!!!

I agree with the above comment about elected officials needing to get involved. Starting with Delegate Marsden who represents Kenton? Lurch, Lurch- can you hear us?

Fairfax is the key to winning Virginia next year. It's time for Chuck Schumer, Howard Dean et al. to have a little chat with Gerry Connolly and Tim Kaine about the FCDC.

Actually, elected officials should maintain an arms length relationship with FCDC. They don't want to get caught in our politics and we don't want too much of their interference. If the electeds want FCDC to be a relevant and effective organization, they need to step back and let people who want to move it that way take charge.

Otherwise, you end up with the Ginny Peters and George Burke's of the world who will do whatever the electeds say. Because of this, they
can never make independent decisions which is necessary for any good organization. Who ever heard of an effective organization without independent thinkers and decision makers?

Too much political interference by electeds builds this type of organization.

Not only are independent people needed, people must be willing to do something instead of just being in the Committee (or worse Committee leadership) for the political and social experience.

People like Surovell, Ambrose, and Langley and many others like are the type of people who are the hope and future of FCDC.

[Bill Kuster]

FCDC isn't the only county committee to try this. Henrico used the same arguments and put a rule in the Bylaws to exclude non-voters from full membership.

[dems4dems]

I've been young and I've been old. It's a terrible rule. Young people are the energy and lifeblood of a political campaign. We shouldn't tell them how appreciated they are when they kill themselves during campaigns only to then make them eat at the kid's table.

Is Kenton old enough to vote for anyone but the student body president at his high school?

Why don't Sue Langley, Chris Ambrose, or Scott Surovell run for FCDC chair?

I think it is because they think they would lose the election, but at least they ought to have the guts to give it a try.

If we want new blood, we have to step up to the plate and no one among the progressives wants to do that.

Probably too much hard work for too little glory.

Scott Surovell is a pussy.

[James Young]

"Age discrimination"? Probably not. "Breach of contract"? Maybe.

[LAS]

Anonymous at 3:11 p.m., the problem, as I see it, is that the old-timers at the FCDC are so entrenched, so engaged in their petty politics and "in-crowd" games, that they have turned off all except the most dedicated and stubborn Democrat (like Kenton, for example).

After the Webb victory, we had tons of enthusiastic people wanting to join the FCDC and get involved. As you can imagine, they were NOT made to feel welcome and, I believe, they have mostly disappeared.

As for Chris Ambrose, Sue Langley, or Scott Surovell--any of these members would make OUTSTANDING FCDC chairs. Considering the crap they've had to put up with, who could blame them if they choose not to run? These three are some of the hardest-working volunteers I've ever met--as in they get off their asses and actually WORK. For this, they have not received so much as a "THANK-You." Rather the opposite, in fact. Sadly, they committed the unforgiveable crime of actually WORKING to get Senator Webb elected.

Ask some of the old-timers their thoughts on the efficacy of canvassing, lit-dropping, and GOTV efforts. You may be surprised at their answer.

Bitter much? Yeah, maybe.

[Doug in Mount Vernon]

LAS, excellent points. In fact, the folks that were stimulated and get involved via the Webb campaign have been largely SHUNNED, and not just ignored, by FCDC, who did not LIFT A FINGER to welcome them into the life and decision-making of the party.

In fact, they have basically gone off and formed a new organization in NoVA called the Brigades and they are responsible for the fast majority of precinct-level organizing that is happening in NoVA outside of campaigns. It's pathetic.

The FCDC seems to be caught in a rut of unimaginative, ineffective, dreadfully stale styled politics and is bound to contribute to a reversal of fortunes in this now Democratically-rich area. The turnabout here, make no mistake, has had little or nothing to do with the precinct-by-precinct organization and/or communication skills of the FCDC, with a few pockets of notable exception.

FCDC is in danger of being relegated into permanent irrelevancy if it doesn's start waking up to the new world of politics at the grassroots level. Most of the old guard in there has no idea what a handheld device is, let alone what power and potential there is in arming every precinct captain in the county with one that would enable them to track information in the great new 50-state strategy style VAN database. They don't seem to understand what it means to run a committee from the grassroots up instead of from the top-down, and they certainly don't have ANY patience for new ideas and people who are creative and envigorate the political process in Fairfax.

It's a damn shame.

[A Sympathetic Ear]

LAS, Why do you keep trying to dredge up angst about the Webb-Miller primary? It's OVER.

Webb has proven he is a great senator and no one, including virtually every elected delegate, senator, and local official, who endorsed Miller is complaining about Webb.

You stick a few people in the eye for supporting Miller, but every elected supported him in the primary.

It makes no difference. I repeat, it is over. We have bigger fish to fry in 2008 and if the progressives don't want to get involved, they are making a mistake.

Instead, they have tried to create the Webb Brigade, which operates outside the system and the organized group is very selective about who they support.

After all, Charlie Hall and his wife were at the polls supporting "independent" candidates instead of the Democrats in the November election.

That is not the way to take over the party. If the Webb folks have power in their numbers, they should exercise that power instead of whining about the Webb-Miller primary.

If people, such as you, rarely attend an FCDC meeting how do you expect to win or even be informed?

The Mt. Vernon District usually has the poorest attendance of any magisterial district committee at the FCDC meetings.

That attitude has to change if you want to force change in the party.

[Doug in Mount Vernon]

Anon 3:42. Is that you, Georgie-Porgie?

[A Sympathetic Ear]

Doug in Mt. Vernon is another FCDC member who loves to complain, but rarely attends FCDC meetings and does nothing to foster change in the committee.

Posting nasty comments about individuals and generally sounding like Debbie Downer of Saturday Night Live does not help to build the party or bring in new members.

The Webb folks were welcomed with open arms as far as I can tell. Most of them were not interested because many are independents who don't always support Democrats.

The best way to foster change is to get involved, but the important daily workings of the largest local Democratic committee in the state are not exciting enough for a lot of them.

They want a hero to adore. Hopefully, they will get one with Mark Warner and whomever comes out on top in the 10th and 11th CDs.

Doug can talk all about the important work he did in Mt. Vernon, but overall Mt. Vernon lagged behind most of the other Fairfax magisterial districts in terms of turnout.

You critics need to get involved and force change.

[Doug in Mount Vernon]

Sympathetic---

There are damn good reasons why Mt Vernon has poor attendance at the full FCDC meetings--mostly, they are a colossally large waste of precious time, and very little, if anything, ever actually gets discussed or accomplished at them.

I gave up going to them this summer because, truly, they were completely irrelevant to me as a precinct captain and they were not or ever were interested in doing anything to make my job as a precinct captain better, provide me with real, usable tools, and were taking the MVDDC's money without our approval and after our committee had been expressly lied to about plans for budgeting decisions, upon which we made decisions that came back to hurt us---and then we were universally bashed by the FCDC old guard for doing so.

The FCDC has no plan for ANYTHING!

They were more interested in investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in ONE coordinated glossy mailing (despite the fact that all mail professionals will tell you that a single isolated mail piece to any household is an utter waste of money and that a 5-7 piece program is required to get a message across), than in applying any resources to the local precinct captains and local magisterial district committees, who are the ones on the ground and out actually DOING THE WORK of elections.

The misplacement of thousands of dollars of FCDC funds and the lack of investment into actual infrastructure of the political network and tools is precisely why I give no more than my membership fee to the FCDC.

They don't even buy the software and systems that the Treasurer desperately needs to modernize the record-keeping processes!

If oragnizations were rated on their priorities (of which FCDC has NONE), this organization would be one of the worst anywhere.

[Doug in Mount Vernon]

Sympathetic (who is apparently anything but), you are sorely mistaken.

We worked our asses off in this election and contributed a lot of time and attention in our CONTESTED races. The vast majority of our precincts had NO contested races and the state or local level!! Of course turnout was a little lower than other areas where hundreds of thousands of dollars were being spent.

You are an ass. Next time you think of Senator-elect George Barker, I hope you think about the efforts of dozens and dozens of hard-working Democratic volunteers in Mount Vernon, because we swung precincts by 20 points in our district. Lee District performed excellently as well for George, as did all the Fairfax parts of the district, but Mt Vernon precincts had the largest swings.

Who did I attack personally?

Who did "Sympathetic" attack personally?

Let the record speak for itself.

Folks, please understand what common sense is up against on the FCDC. It ain't pretty.

[Doug in Mount Vernon]

"You critics need to get involved and force change"

Why? So blowhard close-minded people can then shun our ideas and creativity, and dismiss our contributions to the effectiveness of the FCDC as a whole?

No thanks.

I'd rather work in my garden.

[LAS]

"Sympathetic Ear," how do you know how often I attend an FCDC meeting?

And dude, I'm not talking about the primary, as you well know. I'm talking about what happened AFTER Webb won.

[Doug in Mount Vernon]

One more thing, then I must get back to work.

It is a travesty the way certain people in FCDC have bashed and ridiculed Scott Surovell.

Scott is easily one of the most dedicated, bright, creative, and focused people in political work that I have ever met.

He sacrifices many hours with his family and probably time perfecting his practice in the name of electing good Democratic candidates. The way I have seen him treated and mistreated by SOME members of the FCDC truly breaks my heart.

He doesn't deserve it. Scott gets frustrated because the old guard doesn't like to listen to him. They should--he's a good leader and has energy with no limits, and most importantly, he understands what it means to manage an organization with PRIORITIES.

It makes me ashamed, honestly, of the FCDC when I see this kind of thing happen. I know it's not everyone involved in the FCDC, and even the "old guard" who are mostly responsible for it don't mean to be so hateful (what is it insecurity?) to such a good person, but they certainly discourage A LOT of energy and enthusiasm for building a strong and permanent Democratic Party infrastructure by attempting to shun good people like Scott.

What does this say to anyone else aspiring to contribute to our Party? Say for example, to someone like Kenton Ngo?

The nasty personal attacks on good people have got to stop.

Clean up should start with the unions. Many union leaders think they have a right, both to support Republicans AND be a member of FCDC.

Impeach John Neimic for attempting to defeat John Foust and Chap Peterson and maybe someone would take the group serious.

[Priscilla]

I'm aghast to review how vicious and angry we Dems are being with each other on these various blogs. I, for one, am not going to read any more of this stuff.
We're supposed to be looking in the same direction, forward, to victory, and building on our marvelous successes in Virginia over the past years.
I am certain all of this vituperation would certainly discourage political virgins from joining us. Sounds like a prototypical circular firing squad for which Dems are so famous.
I want to be energized by us moving forward to capitalize on our successes.
Slashing at each other will not build the kind of forward progress we must have in order to reach our goals.
I don't want to know why somebody is a schmuck, I want to know what we can do next to go forward.

What we can do next, Priscilla, is get rid of the losers running FCDC.

[Doug in Mount Vernon]

Good points Priscilla.

Before that can happen at the county committee level, some rebuilding will be necessary, however. As a result, in retrospect, I take back my thoughts on getting involved and agree with Sympathetic--people do need to get involved and force change.

Sometimes you really get fed up with the needless resistance to change and positive improvements, and then you hear people bashing your hard work, and you just decide it'd be more fun to work in your garden.

Alas, you are right.

My suggestions for the Steering Committee are usually voiced by Scott anyway. But we need more investment in the state tools that are being brought down to the county level and shared, better communication from the leadership, more substance on what processes are happening, minutes of meetings being made available to all members, more concentration on wise us of resources to lower rent to a more modest and spacious headquarters, modernize basic systems, better precinct operations networks/support/tools. There are also a lot of issues with the issue of working well with campaigns and the optimizing of shared resources between local committees and campaigns, but that is always the case. Coordinated mail pieces can be a good thing, but only when they are meshed into the overall messages and themes of candidate campaigns. Engaging volunteers on a much more frequent and broad range of activities than we typically do, and more importantly, following up with ALL volunteers to thank them, ask what worked and what didn't, and ask them for their ideas on how to IMPROVE the experience of volunteering for local precinct work, whether during an election campaign, or as ongoing party-building work.

Phew....that's my concerns in a nutshell and not very well explained....

[Doug in Mount Vernon]

Oh yeah, and fundraising enough to cover the budgeted priorities is crucial. And in my opinion, in order to be a more effective organization, an executive director should be hired to run the priority programs of the local political infrastructure.

The whole idea of the local committee is not just social, and to be a fund or volunteer network for campaigns to tap into at election time.

The idea of a local committee is to build the Democratic Party infrastructure into something that resembles a non-profit with a volunteer-driven service-oriented approach to assisting campaigns, and a more permanent information-technology-based political knowledge operation that gives people on the ground in the precincts the power to capture incredibly important information that can be optimized during campaigns, events, primaries, etc.

The FCDC needs to be run by a professional executive director. Not a gossiping old guard who doesn't like to do anything differently than was done in 1982.

Sorry, I know that last comment was a bit harsh, but it's true.

[Time for a new generation]

That is right. Until the current leadership is gone, FCDC will remain irrelevant. They are only interested in power. Electing Democrats is very, very low on their priority. This is evidenced by repeated efforts of Ginny and her cronies to restrict people from Joining the Committee to maintain their hold on power.

In spite of all this, progress has been made in the Committee, but it will be slowed significantly if the Bunn ticket wins.

[Not Larry Sabato]

To me, the Exec. Dir. idea has always been the worst one for FCDC- mainly because the person hired would be someone like a Rifkind or Manning who would use the position to make the organization even less bearable.

Doug,

Cool it with the details

[Doug in Mount Vernon]

The FCDC needs to create a New Media outlet or position to exploit the capabilities of its home-grown activists and internet/media-savvy members. Create a technical capability to offer Party candidates at local levels access to studio equipment where they can create their own YouTube video ad. Or perhaps join forces with the Whipple operation to modernize that level of Party infracstructure and support to make our candidates accessible and competitive on all levels.

Basically, capitalize on the talents and knowledge of the people at your disposal.

[Doug in Mount Vernon]

Well, in lieu of attending FCDC meetings....g'night.

Ben,

You have hit the nail on the head. IF an ED is hired under this group of bozos you are right. If it is hired by a group of competent reform minded individuals (that care more concerned about electing Democrats than playing petting political games), an Ed could make some serious sense.

[Sick of the Needless Infighting]

I hate to tell all of you armchair quarterbacks, but the DPVA Party Plan specifically EXCLUDES people of ANY age who are not registered voters from participating in party caucuses at any level. That includes last night's Springfield magisterial district committee's reorganization caucus. Kenton and the other young woman at the meeting are not old enough to be registered voters.

Ginny Peters was right. Why don't some of you take a few minutes and try something new like researching the facts before you crucify someone.

Here is the citation from the state party plan which is on the DPVA website:
"Section 18.3 Participation in Caucuses
Each person participating in a caucus must provide written certification that he or she:
a) Is a Democrat;
b) Is a registered voter within the county or city for which the caucus is held;
c) ..." etc, etc.

FCDC cannot violate the state party plan.

This is one more example of how Ben manipulates his readers with false information and innuendo to attack his enemies and gets Lowell at RK to follow him like a puppy into the abyss of falsehoods.

LAS,

I know what you are referring to regarding the Webb-Miller thing being about the general election rather than the primary, but I still think you should cool it on that.

It is unfortunate that many of the old guard FCDC leadership including Ginny Peters refused to put so much as a Webb bumper sticker on their car and designed a mail piece that put Gerry Connolly on the front when Webb was the big race and Connolly wasn't even up for election (This is an example of an FCDC leadership that spends all its time kissing the asses of the electeds).

Although key FCDC leaders, including the Chair, refused to support Webb even after he won the primary, most did support him. So I think it is counter productive to keep rehashing this issue. It just brings that bitter primary up again and again.

[Not Larry Sabato]

Sick of Infighting- you misunderstand what is going on. Last night they held caucuses to elect members. You are correct that had the membership vote been contested, Kenton could not have voted on who would be elected to the committee. However, there is nothing that prohibited him from standing for election by the eligible voters. Once he was elected (and he was) they proceed to elect officers- and at that point he is a total member of the committee, having been elected by the registered voters of his area in a caucus, even though he couldn't vote for himself in that election.

In this case, because FCDC is pathetic, the committee was underfiled so the caucuses were canceled and everyone was automatically elected.

[Doug in Mount Vernon]

Anon 6:21

I have also been told by various sources that one of the reasons FCDC leadership allowed this union printer resolution through so quickly, was that the MVDDC members who designed the piece (NOT SCOTT) placed Jim Webb and a message from him on the front page, as well as a "hello voter" piece from Scott as Chair of MVDDC explaining why voters should care about local elections in an off-year (how outrageous and self-promoting of him!). What seems like a no-brainer (a message to voters from the highest elected Democrat from the state of Virginia) was apparently controversial to the Chair of the FCDC.

OK, might as well sick the labor pack on them for the piece.

It's making more sense now, actually.

This is the kind of crap we've had to put up with. Ugh.

[Doug in Mount Vernon]

Sick of the Needless Infighting:

Actually, is it needless? If it's just infighting, yes. But if it gets the right people in FCDC to open their minds and start running the Democratic Committee of the largest jurisdiction in Virginia with some kind of professionalism and priority-driven competence, then it's not needless at all.

If the end result is a better FCDC, it's essential.

[Doug in Mount Vernon]

The main point to Anon 6:21 I failed to make.

It's NOT the Webb people who keep bringing it up, actually!

[Not Larry Sabato]

Everyone should reread all of Doug's comments here, he has put out more good information in this thread than Ginny has gotten done in four years as Chair.

[novamiddleman]

If it makes you Ds feel any better the same sort of stuff happens on the R side

Is it any wonder that over 1/3 of people choose to be independents

DiMV I am going to assume you had a bad day at work or traffic issues or something. Go out and play in the snow :-p.

[After]

People like Surovell, Ambrose, and Langley and many others like are the type of people who are the hope and future of FCDC.

Posted by: | December 05, 2007 at 02:43 PM

Right On! But you thought the discussion over the Union printer was bad - They would have a melt down if Scott ran.

[After]

Hey - I'm all for Doug for Chair of FCDC.

[After]

DIMV - we love you. But we think it is a little bit of the red headed stepchild syndrome.

In order to make change you have to be part of the change. See ya tomorrow. Time to reorganize and be happy!

dimv,
seems you had a bad day today, hope tomorrow is better. Just some of my favorite quotes of yours from tonight. lol

Georgie-Porgie
Posted by: Doug in Mount Vernon | December 05, 2007 at 04:33 PM

You are an ass
Who did I attack personally?
Who did "Sympathetic" attack personally?
Let the record speak for itself.
Posted by: Doug in Mount Vernon | December 05, 2007 at 04:48 PM

blowhard close-minded people
I'd rather work in my garden.
Posted by: Doug in Mount Vernon | December 05, 2007 at 04:50 PM

The nasty personal attacks on good people have got to stop.
One more thing, then I must get back to work.
Posted by: Doug in Mount Vernon | December 05, 2007 at 05:04 PM

I take back my thoughts on getting involved and agree with Sympathetic

you just decide it'd be more fun to work in your garden.
Phew....that's my concerns in a nutshell and not very well explained....
Posted by: Doug in Mount Vernon | December 05, 2007 at 05:29 PM

Oh yeah, and
gossiping old guard

Posted by: Doug in Mount Vernon | December 05, 2007 at 05:36 PM

…………Posted by: Doug in Mount Vernon | December 05, 2007 at 05:52 PM

Well, in lieu of attending FCDC meetings....g'night.
Posted by: Doug in Mount Vernon | December 05, 2007 at 05:54 PM

…………Posted by: Doug in Mount Vernon | December 05, 2007 at 06:39 PM

……… Posted by: Doug in Mount Vernon | December 05, 2007 at 06:42 PM

.……….Posted by: Doug in Mount Vernon | December 05, 2007 at 06:44 PM

How is it that Ginny Peters showed up at the Springfield reorg in the first place? And who asked her to come? Find the answers to those questions and you'll probably uncover some ugly goings on. I think she was there to make sure those young Democrats' votes weren't going to count.

[Not Frank Hargrove]

I wish you'd put the Hanover and Henrico Democratic Committees under the magnifying glass. Boy could I bitch about them.

[True Dem]

1:16,

I totally agree. That's the question I kept asking myself when I read all of this -- why would Ginny Peters drive all the way from Mt. Vernon where she lives to the Govt Center in FX on a cold winter's night to make sure that ONE enthusiastic and committed 17 year old didn't vote in a magisterial caucus?????? That's what is lost in this whole discussion here and on Raising Kaine. Why is the chair of FCDC obviously going out of her way to make sure that Kenton doesn't vote??

George, you can cite the rules all day long and it still doesn't explain why Ginny decided to enforce this [supposed] rule, at this time, and against this one individual. This is shameful and doesn't represent the Democratic Party well at all.

I remember when Kenton first came to the Braddock meeting with his Dad four years ago when he was 13..we were all so pleased to have someone his age and his intelligence interested in helping us win elections for Dems. It was so refreshing. Kenton, you've been nothing but a joy to work with and your commitment to the Democratic Party should be commended. Please don't take the actions of a few old guards seriously. They don't deserve it.

What all of us in FCDC deserve is an apology from Ginny, George, and the rest of their gang who want to tear down rather than build up the party. George, do the right thing and apologize to Kenton publicly and stop hiding behind the rule book. What you all did is wrong. And while you are at it, how about apologizing to Scott for the many, many times you have belittled him instead of thanking him for all of the time, talent and treasure he has given to the Democratic Party in Fx County (far, far more than most others including all of you).

[Doug in Mount Vernon]

Anon 10:19--

Thanks for noticing!

[After]

1:16 am

Who the hell is posting at one in the morning......?

Go to Bed!

[LAS]

I think True Dem (and the anonymous at 1:16 a.m.) both have raised a most excellent point.

Why have the knives come out for Kenton? And is it just Kenton or all young Democrats? Or is it just anyone whom they suspect may not vote the "party line?"

As for True Dem's comments about Scott Surovell--I applaud them and add a very hearty "ditto!"

[11th CD]

I had nothing to do with the Springfield meeting. I wasn't there and didn't even hear about it until I read the blogs.

After the fact I put in my two cents about the DPVA party plan and praised Kenton.

You people aren't just vicious -- you're nuts! Just blame anyone you hate, regardless of whether they played any role in your conspiracy theories...