Cesar's Island of Misfit Toys (Part One)

Yet another disaster developing in the Fairfax Democrats...

Recently the group elected Matt Bell as their Secretary.  Matt is a Young Democrat who claims to live at his parents house in Clifton, VA (Fairfax County), but had an incident with a fight at his real home, an apartment in Washington D.C. with a staffer from Dave Marsden's campaign last year.

The controversy surrounding Matt led a couple members of the Steering Committee to look up his voter registration.  Yes, he is registered in Clifton and has been since April 29th, 2005.  But in those seven years he hasn't bothered to go vote a single time!  He's missed six Democratic primaries (05 LG, 06 Senate/Congressional, 07 State Senate, 08 Presidential, 08 Congressional, 09 Governor) and every general election from 2005 on.

Matt was part of Cesar del Aguila's slate and like everything else Cesar does, was apparently not vetted at all.  Now Cesar is trying to cover for Matt by accusing the members of the committee who looked this up of fraudulent use of the voter file!  Cesar will do anything to cover for his supporters, which includes a number of Republicans that supported him in this election after filing to be on FCDC.

It's looking more and more like the only path for Democrats in Fairfax this year will be the Obama and Kaine campaigns taking the county over- Cesar and his island of misfit toys are not ready for prime time.

Comments

[Greg L]

This guy beat up Marsden staffers? After such valuable service why is he relegated to a minor role like this? I figure he's perfectly qualified to be Chairman.

[NotJohnSMosby]

So, the guy who takes notes and types them up at FCDC meetings is going to cause Obama and Kaine to lose Fairfax this year? Or is it that the guy you didn't want to win the vote for Chair did win, and this is another example of you backing a losing candidate and afterwards being unable to accept the vote?

Cesar was elected in a fair and open election. If you wanted to Barbara to win, then you should have encourage FCDC members in the southern part of the county to come to the meeting and vote. They didn't. Cesar got his supporters to come, Barbara didn't. End of story.

[23 Long Months to Go]

Cesar's inability to run the meeting immediately after his election was a large 'red flag' being waved in front of the FCDC membership. His self-depracatory statement that he wasn't ready for it, was really a Freudian Slip.

[I wonder how he runs his sales meetings?]

The question FCDC members need to be asking themselves now is - How much damage can Cesar do in his two-year term, before he's replaced? And, is the damage preventable?

Face it guys, those of you who bought into his smooth schtick, bought the proverbial "pig in a poke." Mixing metaphors, what's amazing is that "The pig is coming home to roost." so soon. Less than a month into his term.

The Obama/Kaine/Moran/Connolly and McAuliffe campaigns better be ready to fill-in behind Cesar, if they hope to win in Fairfax.

As to Barbara not getting her supporters to attend the meeting? Cesar had 50.5% of the vote to Barbara's 49.5%. Where were the 204 members who voted for Barbara; voting from home?

[NotJohnSMosby]

If you don't like Cesar, then you have two options. Deal with it, or stop participating.

I encourage all of the malcontents on FCDC who are down on Cesar to examine Loudoun Dems actions and performance over the last couple of years, and decide if they want to follow the same Sour Grapes of Wrath path that Mike Turner and crew did.

Right now, it's Barbara and her pals who are stirring up shit and making a bad name for themselves. Ben is one of them. If there are structural problems within FCDC going forward, it will be their fault for causing it.

It's very ironic that this crew is acting like Republicans. Lose an election, and instead of accepting it and moving forward to make the best of it, decide to sow discord and make threats and generally act like spoiled children who don't get their way.

[Loudoun Insider]

The LCDC should always be a warning to any political committee, but so far this Cesar guy sounds like a Turner clone. How a guy like Bell could get a top position in a Fairfax political committee is hard to comprehend.

[23 Long Months to Go]

NotJohn, your options remind me of the G.O.P.'s favorite - "Love It or Leave It!"

If your choice is to accept mediocrity, that's your decision. There is a 3rd option; which is to point out when Cesar is "blowing smoke." That way, maybe those so impressed with the smoke in 2012, won't be so prone to make the same mistake again in 2014.

Cesar's amateurish performance at his first meeting was only one of a litany of things which could have been pointed out.

I'd say that a local party official who hasn't voted once in seven years is significant. Do you think that Mary Paden missed seven years worth of elections? Let's hope that Ben may have gotten this wrong.

"If there are structural problems within FCDC going forward, it will be their fault for causing it." Nice try, in setting-up a straw dog, on which FCDC losses can be blamed. Cesar is the captain of the FCDC ship. He gets credit for its successes, and he gets blame for its failures. Nobody is going to sabotage the FCDC because of his win. The stakes are too high in each of the next two years.

An objective outside observer doing a Risk Assessment though would have to conclude that based on what we've seen so far, the Risk Level for FCDC wins increased significantly with the del Aguila win.

For our sakes, I'm hoping that Cesar proves me wrong; however, he's not off to a good start.

The red flags have been raised to the FCDC membership. Ignore them at your peril.

[On to November]

There is no question that Cesar is completely green and has a lot of learning to do as evidenced by his constant stumbles, but I think he has potential.

I would not write the next 23 months off. Nevertheless, the organization would have been much better positioned with a seasoned person like Barbara at the helm.

The real concern most FCDC members have is the continued effort by his supporters, Mr Mosby included, to split the party. Cesar's win was the result of one thing: The dirtiest smear campaign that I have seen in a Party election. That is a well known fact.

The fact that Mosby continues to try to attack Barbara's supporters even after winning that shameful campaign, indicates that Cesar's supporters have no interest in unifying the party. As the winners it is their responsibility to reach out (and after that dishonest campaign, to frankly apologize for their behavior).

Instead, they continue to attack. as evidenced by Mosby's comments. As is clear, Cesar has a lot to learn, but the first of those is that he needs a clean break with some of the destructive people (such as Farrell, Haley and Lawton) who won him that election and only seek to build cliques within the Party.

That is his first test, if he fails this test, I agree it will be a long 23 months. So far, there is little indication he gets it.

[Expletive Deleted]

Standard NOVA bitching & screaming at each other...This really gets tiresome....

[calcat]

Reading these comments you would think FCDC is divided and disfunctional and that Cesar doesn't know how to run a meeting. Neither of these is true. Cesar has been doing a fine job, and FCDC officers and members are moving ahead and working hard on winning Fairfax County and Virginia for President Obama and Governor Kaine this November. Sour grapes comments from Not Larry Sabato are just that -- and do not reflect the reality on the ground.

[Last Night]

Matt Bell was elected YD President for Fairfax after Cesar showed up to the meeting to strongarm votes for him. Never before had an FCDC Chair attended a YD election meeting to attempt these kind of shenangians in Fairfax before.

[2Cents]

Lets face it- I've met matt, and he's a douche-

[Wasim Entabi]

Okay People, People,People..
If you like it or not Cesar wan and we can't change that, If you like it or not Matt wan and we can't change that..
FCDC, and FCYD are elected buddy, the majority have spoken and elected them..
can we move on? it happen that I am a supporter to both Cesar and Matt and their teams, I know all them personally, I have worked, dined, volunteered and hanged around with all of them.. I think they going to do a fantastic job. Let's move on, we have different rooster to fry..

[Ben Zadouche]

Matt was unapposed. Cesar Del Aguila offered his support to the whole group. Ben is just an angry, frustrated, old white guy, picking on minorities

[Paul]

There you go again, the same kind of crap you guys said about Barbara during the campaign. The ironic thing is that Barbara has done more for minorities than Cesar ever has.

[Not Mame Reilly]

Ben - Matt was opposed. Get your facts straight.

[Not Benedict Arnold]

You are right Paul. I got those calls, but have known Barbara for years and knew it was bull. Unfortunately, negative works and when one side is going to be so dishonest and employ Republican tactics, anything can happen.

The real sad part is that Barbara had contributed so much to the party, she did not deserve to be treated that way - nobody does.

In spite of all the negative lies, she always remained positive. Barbara is a class act.

[argh]

Somehow, I doubt that FCDC is even the slightest bit relevant as to how Democrats actually perform in Fairfax County. Oh no, they might not hand out as much literature at Back to School night!

Chair of FCDC may conceivably be one the least consequential elected posts ever devised.

[Ben Zadouche]

"Not Mame," Matt was not opposed for YD Pres. where "Last Night" claims Cesar showed up to "strongarm votes for him" There was no opposition and you wern't even there. Stop talking out of your *.

[Paul]

Not Benedict Arnold - you are correct, negative works.

One thing that has not gotten attention is the fact that the individual responsible for allocating the Committee slots was a super strong Cesar supporter and packed nearly 50% of the FCDC membership slots into Cesar's corner of the county, so that immediately gave Cesar a huge unfair advantage to start with.

Add the nasty negative campaign of lies to the mix and it is not suprising that Barbara got only 49.52% of the vote.

[martinlomasney]

Paul

No "individual" was responsible for the allocation of membership slots. The allocation formula was voted unanimously by the FCDC membership at its September '11 meeting after negotiation between the co-chairs of Hunter Mill and Lee districts.

That allocation was based on Democratic turnout in the 2005 and 2009 governors races.

The differences in D turnout among the districts in those races is stunning, ranging from a low of 10,000 to a high of 17,000.

The calculations were presented to the FCDC Steering Committee and again adopted unanimously.

Dranesville did get 109 slots and Hunter Mill 116; not 50% of the 840 FCDC slots.

Those districts did turn out and voted overwhelming for Cesar.

Many public office holders who lent Barbara their name did not show up for the vote. If only 5 had, the result would have been different.

How enthusiastic were those endorsees really?

Exactly what "nasty negative negative campaign of lies" are you writing about?

[martinlomasney]

Ben

This is the second time you've paired the phrase "island of misfit toys" with a picture of the members of the new FCDC leadership who are ethnic minorities.

This kind of subtle bigotry is worthy of Gingrich not a supposed Democrat.

You've been called on it already and repeated it any way.

Stop it or leave us no choice but to conclude it is intentional.

What's ironic is that the phrased was used in a 60's era stop motion animation that was an allegory against bigotry.

What a maroon.

[Paul]

martinlomasney

This is not so. John Farrell did the allocation and he used a formula that had never been used in the past and made little sense other than to stack the deck in Cesar's favor. It was so controversial that it took multiple meetings to go through it and was NOT passed unanimously by steering. It was a formality at the general meeting and not explained to anyone. Unlike Cesar's crowd, Barbara's supporters were determined to avoid creating divisiveness
in the Committee so did not challenge it at the General meeting.

You only need to look at your following post to see an example of the nasty campaign of lies. You guys consistently throw around the race card. It is despicable behavior. Since when is Matt Bell a minority? The stuff you did to Barbara was no different than what was done to Michael Dukakis, but it is clear you have no problem with it.

[martinlomasney]

Paul

Check the minutes of the General Meeting and the Steering Committee both will confirm: unanimous.

The allocation rewarded districts that turned out their Democratic voters.

Farrell did the math and made the adjustments to account for the 2011 redistricting and a few precinct changes between 2005 and 2011 that crossed 2011 district lines. The math and adjustments were shown to everyone at Steering and no one had any questions. If you want a copy, I'm sure Frank Anderson could give you one.

We forgot to thank Farrell for the scores of hours it took to lay it all out. It's far better than prior years when a former well connected member would just announce the allocations as if they sprang magically from a blackbox. So I don't know how you can compare this years' re-allocation to past year's since only one person knows how it was done in the past and he ain't talking.

No apology for the false "50%" accusation?

There are three people in the photo, Paul!

Or are ethnic minorities invisible to you, too?

You're right though: I abhor bigotry inside and outside FCDC.