The Power of Three
As a frequent blogger and commentator on Delco politics as well as a progressive Democrat, I'm no stranger to controversy nor am I deterred by it. Thus, I offer MY opinions and endorsements for the Democratic Primary (and ignite some debate).
Three is a key number this year. There are three seats available out of five for the County Council. This offers not only a long overdue Democratic seat but even the chance of a takeover to restore integrity and representation to Delaware County government.
John Innelli, Ann O'Keefe and Patricia Lewis-West have formed a team of three. This is very important. Given an open primary without official endorsement, at least one candidates tried to hoard his resources and gather endorsements while John, Ann and Patricia formed a team that shows Democrats can work together toward a common goal.
John is uniquely qualified for a leadership role on County Council. He has a well established background in investigating fraud. This is why he is the candidate the GOP fears the most. The Delco budget is around $500 million dollars, nearly double that of Montgomery or Chester Counties. We need John to recover those extra hundreds of millions of dollars and lower our taxes and invest in hospitals, schools and infrastructure.
Ann is from Haverford, which has been at the vanguard of a significant Democratic awakening. Haverford has increasingly voted for Democrats and recently made significant gains on the Board of Commissioners. Haverford is home to Greg Vitali, one of Delco's few Democrats in the State Legislature. This year, the Haverford Democrats under the energetic leadership of Bob Stump are also fielding Commissioner candidates in five wards. All of this strengthens Ann's ability to maximize voter turnout for herself and the other Democratic candidates
Patricia impressed me during her convention speech. I was encouraged by her hands-on approach to dealing with problems in her district. We need people that are not only unafraid of rolling up their sleeves but unafraid of actually facing the public and being accountable. The current council holds meeting when the public is unavailable and then only to project the image of open government as they rubberstamp backroom deals. Of all the candidates vowing to help the November ticket if she loses the primary, Patricia struck me as the most sincere.
Ann and John both ran for county-wide seats in 2005 and received over 40% of the vote, when the electorate wasn't nearly as hungry for change as it is now.
As for the other candidates, I feel I should weigh in on them as well.
Rocco Polidoro is a candidate that I genuinely like and makes me wish I could vote for four people. How can any Democrat not like a guy that has been a thorn in the side of Charlie Sexton? While Rocco paid his dues fighting the GOP machine in Springfield, I think a candidate with a longer track record as a Democrat has a better chance to excite the Party’s base. Rocco did get the top position in the ballot order and is expected to make a strong showing.
Bob Dimond has a solid history with the party. He's a solid party candidate stuck in a large field of louder, hungrier candidates, though none as witty.
David Landau presents a conundrum for me. Though I dislike speaking against a fellow Dem (particularly one that may wind up on the November ballot), I feel the need to voice my concerns. I'm unhappy with the lone wolf style, tactics and choices of associates in his campaign. I was put off by his early claim that he was a "senior" advisor on the Sestak campaign. I was involved helping the campaign back when you could count on one hand the number of workers at headquarters whose last name wasn't Sestak (and still have a thumb left over to hitch a ride). I also attended many fund-raisers, events, picnics and strategy sessions for various local candidates as well as for Casey and Rendell. I didn't notice Landau at any of them. Maybe he'll be endorsed in the final Harry Potter novel this summer and we'll find out he had borrowed Harry's cloak of invisibility the whole time.
From what I have seen, Landau's supporters represent a faction of the Delco Dems that have resisted supporting progressive candidates and initiatives. They also seem to do the most complaining about how the party is run, but yet are never around when we do mailings, have meetings or need people to man the doors and tables at events to sign people in or help set up. However, they do work hard when presented with an opportunity to undermine the current Party leaders who have brought us within striking distance of a Council victory.
The whispering campaign’s message is to vote for only Landau as though he is the only candidate and to under-vote by not picking two other candidates. This mistaken philosophy implies that a vote for another candidate is a vote against Landau. In truth, if Landau supporters do not select their second and third preferences they risk candidates they don't prefer being elected. Voting for only one candidate instead of all three is selfish, short-sighted and just plain foolish. It weakens the party and dilutes your vote.
I ask my fellow Democrats, would you buy a stool with one, two or three legs? Didn’t you teach your kids the moral of the Three Musketeers, “One for all, and all for one”? When you go to the polls on May 15th and are besieged by various supporters, look to see which campaigns encourage you to spoil the chances of a fellow Democrat by undervoting or instead to fill your ballot with your three favorites.
That being said… I will work very hard to elect whichever three Democrats emerge victorious from the Primary, with my only condition being that they all work together to take all three Council seats. All for one, and one for all (and no one for himself).
For Democrats interested in the full slate of candidates (with endorsements for the Judicial races), visit the Delco Dems website.
Three is a key number this year. There are three seats available out of five for the County Council. This offers not only a long overdue Democratic seat but even the chance of a takeover to restore integrity and representation to Delaware County government.
John Innelli, Ann O'Keefe and Patricia Lewis-West have formed a team of three. This is very important. Given an open primary without official endorsement, at least one candidates tried to hoard his resources and gather endorsements while John, Ann and Patricia formed a team that shows Democrats can work together toward a common goal.
John is uniquely qualified for a leadership role on County Council. He has a well established background in investigating fraud. This is why he is the candidate the GOP fears the most. The Delco budget is around $500 million dollars, nearly double that of Montgomery or Chester Counties. We need John to recover those extra hundreds of millions of dollars and lower our taxes and invest in hospitals, schools and infrastructure.
Ann is from Haverford, which has been at the vanguard of a significant Democratic awakening. Haverford has increasingly voted for Democrats and recently made significant gains on the Board of Commissioners. Haverford is home to Greg Vitali, one of Delco's few Democrats in the State Legislature. This year, the Haverford Democrats under the energetic leadership of Bob Stump are also fielding Commissioner candidates in five wards. All of this strengthens Ann's ability to maximize voter turnout for herself and the other Democratic candidates
Patricia impressed me during her convention speech. I was encouraged by her hands-on approach to dealing with problems in her district. We need people that are not only unafraid of rolling up their sleeves but unafraid of actually facing the public and being accountable. The current council holds meeting when the public is unavailable and then only to project the image of open government as they rubberstamp backroom deals. Of all the candidates vowing to help the November ticket if she loses the primary, Patricia struck me as the most sincere.
Ann and John both ran for county-wide seats in 2005 and received over 40% of the vote, when the electorate wasn't nearly as hungry for change as it is now.
As for the other candidates, I feel I should weigh in on them as well.
Rocco Polidoro is a candidate that I genuinely like and makes me wish I could vote for four people. How can any Democrat not like a guy that has been a thorn in the side of Charlie Sexton? While Rocco paid his dues fighting the GOP machine in Springfield, I think a candidate with a longer track record as a Democrat has a better chance to excite the Party’s base. Rocco did get the top position in the ballot order and is expected to make a strong showing.
Bob Dimond has a solid history with the party. He's a solid party candidate stuck in a large field of louder, hungrier candidates, though none as witty.
David Landau presents a conundrum for me. Though I dislike speaking against a fellow Dem (particularly one that may wind up on the November ballot), I feel the need to voice my concerns. I'm unhappy with the lone wolf style, tactics and choices of associates in his campaign. I was put off by his early claim that he was a "senior" advisor on the Sestak campaign. I was involved helping the campaign back when you could count on one hand the number of workers at headquarters whose last name wasn't Sestak (and still have a thumb left over to hitch a ride). I also attended many fund-raisers, events, picnics and strategy sessions for various local candidates as well as for Casey and Rendell. I didn't notice Landau at any of them. Maybe he'll be endorsed in the final Harry Potter novel this summer and we'll find out he had borrowed Harry's cloak of invisibility the whole time.
From what I have seen, Landau's supporters represent a faction of the Delco Dems that have resisted supporting progressive candidates and initiatives. They also seem to do the most complaining about how the party is run, but yet are never around when we do mailings, have meetings or need people to man the doors and tables at events to sign people in or help set up. However, they do work hard when presented with an opportunity to undermine the current Party leaders who have brought us within striking distance of a Council victory.
The whispering campaign’s message is to vote for only Landau as though he is the only candidate and to under-vote by not picking two other candidates. This mistaken philosophy implies that a vote for another candidate is a vote against Landau. In truth, if Landau supporters do not select their second and third preferences they risk candidates they don't prefer being elected. Voting for only one candidate instead of all three is selfish, short-sighted and just plain foolish. It weakens the party and dilutes your vote.
I ask my fellow Democrats, would you buy a stool with one, two or three legs? Didn’t you teach your kids the moral of the Three Musketeers, “One for all, and all for one”? When you go to the polls on May 15th and are besieged by various supporters, look to see which campaigns encourage you to spoil the chances of a fellow Democrat by undervoting or instead to fill your ballot with your three favorites.
That being said… I will work very hard to elect whichever three Democrats emerge victorious from the Primary, with my only condition being that they all work together to take all three Council seats. All for one, and one for all (and no one for himself).
For Democrats interested in the full slate of candidates (with endorsements for the Judicial races), visit the Delco Dems website.
posted by David Diano at 11:51 PM
3 Comments:
Hi, David, and thanks for this post. As you know, I enjoy this site and appreciate your sharing your views. You did us all a great service in keeping us posted on the Sestak/Weldon campaign and I learned a lot from your posts. I completely agree with you that we MUST elect three Dems to County Council in the fall and I’m looking forward to working for those candidates.
I have to comment, however, on the “victory team” and your remarks about David Landau. As a Dem committee person from Nether Providence, I have known David for several years and have worked with him fairly closely, both in connection with the Sestak campaign and with helping to get NP Dem candidates elected. I’m sorry to see you stooping to this kind of personal attack rather than commenting on David’s qualifications, experience, and positions. I have to say that I particularly question your comment about his “choices of associates in his campaign.” A lot of great people, dedicated Dems all, from all over Delco are working on David’s campaign. I already knew some of them and have met many more as we’ve worked together and I’m sure they don’t appreciate your innuendo any more than I do. And I don’t think that those of us who would like to see new leadership of the Delco Dems represent a “faction” when the current party chair escaped being voted out by only one or two votes last year.
You criticize David for “his early claim that he was a ‘senior’ advisor on the Sestak campaign.” You say that you were “involved helping the campaign back when you could count on one hand the number of workers at headquarters whose last name wasn't Sestak” and that you “attended many fund-raisers, events, picnics and strategy sessions for various local candidates as well as for Casey and Rendell” and “didn't notice Landau at any of them.” I can’t speak directly to David’s role in the Sestak campaign, but I don’t see how your not having seen him at events for local candidates, Casey, and Rendell says anything one way or the other about his work for Sestak. I certainly saw him at events and fund-raisers for Sestak.
As to your view that David has a “lone wolf style,” it’s hard to see how a lone wolf could have built the solid Dem organization that David has built in Nether Providence. NP is the largest Delco municipality with a majority Dem township council, and every committee person position in NP is filled. In the couple of years I’ve been active with the NP Dems, David has recruited and guided many of the Dem candidates who now hold positions on the township council and school board. David has been working to create this group of Dems and holding it together for years. I think that whether a candidate has done a good job of party building in his or her local area is a very good indicator of that candidate’s style.
My experience with the NP Dems is in great contrast to my experience, before I got involved in NP, of trying to connect with the Delco Dems. Despite my phone calls, attendance at meetings, and voter registration work for Kerry in 2004, they never reached out to me or responded to any of my efforts to participate. If I’m “never around when we do mailings, have meetings or need people to man the doors and tables at events to sign people in or help set up,” it’s because of the cold shoulder I got from the Delco Dems.
I agree with you that some of the other Dem candidates for County Council have good credentials and good ideas, and have a shot at winning in November. So rather than make personal attacks on any of them, we should all look carefully at their qualifications and positions and choose those who have the best ideas and will run the best campaign against the Republicans. In my opinion, David has the skills, the smarts, the positions, and yes, the connections (by which I mean the support of those local Dems he has supported for so long), to win in November. He’s got solid plans for improving County government and, most importantly, he’s a person of great integrity.
Finally, as a committee person who voted—-at the urging of our party chair—-to have an open primary for these Council seats with each candidate running as an individual, I am really distressed that three of the candidates have violated the spirit of that vote. I also believe that some of the tactics these candidates have used in representing themselves—-their implying that voters must selected a ticket, rather than voting for individuals, their letter from Paul Scoles trying to suggest that Joe Sestak had endorsed them—-border on deceptive. David has stuck to the agreement that the six candidates made, and as I see it, that’s just one more indicator of his integrity.
I apologize to anyone who’s read this far for the long post, but I really felt it was important to respond. I agree with you, David, that beginning on May 16 it’s got to be all for one and one for all and I’m looking forward to a great campaign and victory for three Dems in November!
Patrice
Patrice-
I appreciated your comments. And while I'm sure you've had more encounters with David Landau than I have, the few I've had with him did not fill me with trust and confidence that he would work for a three-way ticket in November rather than looking out for just himself. I want people that can put their egos aside and work together.
While Landau may have done a fine job in Nether Providence, I never saw hide nor hair of him at any of the Sestak fundraisers that I attended. (He may have shown up at the Clinton event and I could have missed him in the crowd, but at the small events I would have spotted him.) However, people like John Innelli were around when Sestak's campaign was still a longshot. My point was that the REAL party Democrats were at events for Sestak, Casey, Rendell, and the State candidates as well as events like picnics and meetings of the Leadership council.
As for the people Landau is associating with, I don't mean to imply that they're all bad. However, there are a few that I wouldn't trust as far as I can throw them. There are quite a few others that are looking to cash in on the hard work Cliff and others have done county-wide to build up the party, while they focused on their own little fiefdoms. Maybe the reason I didn't see Landau at the county-wide events was because he was focused only on the NP candidates and not trying to be a county-wide team player.
I don't know how you got the "cold shoulder" because I've never seen the Delco Dem leadership turn away a helping hand. I'll make sure you get a call next time we need help with the drudge work.
Had there been an endorsement vote, it is likely that only John and Ann would have been endorsed, with the other candidates not receiving enough votes. Then, of course, Landau and his supporters would have complained about that instead. We need less whining and more winning.
An open primary means that the Democratic party and committees cannot spend money on unendorsed candidates to promote one over the other. Period. I'm not aware of any other restriction. The "spirit" as well as the "letter" is not to spend the group resources unless the group collectively choses to endorse.
It is another misrepresentation that John, Ann and Patrica have implied that voters must select a ticket. However, they have encouraged the idea that voters pick the full three slots they are allowed (even if it is not all three of them). This is in contrast to Landau's team which is counting on people to pick only him and not fill the other two slots. John and Ann (and I didn't get to ask Patrica) have unequivocally gone on record against this practice. When I confronted Landau on this issue, he refused to denounce the practice and instead gave a completely weasel-like answer about how some people might only like one candidate and it wasn't his place to ask them to pick two others. Well, it is his place to encourage Democrats to exercise their full three votes. By refusing to denounce this practice (bullet-balloting), Landau has given it his tacit approval.
As for the candidate's "agreement", Landau's people have been the ones spreading the idea that candidates working together constitutes a violation of the agreement. This is being done to smear John, Ann and Patricia as untrustworthy and deflect attention from Landau's inability to share resources and cooperate with others.
While I'm glad NP has gotten Dems and filled it committee positions, there are only 9,339 voters in NP. Ann is from Haverford, with a voting population of 33,325. After this election cycle, Haverford is also likely to have a Democratic majority on our township commission. In 2005, we won 2 out of 4 seats. This year, we are even stronger and are fighting for 5 seats. Ann has worked hard to build up Haverford.
As for endorsements from Sestak, his pattern and practice has been to stay out of the fight, make neutral/empty compliments about either side, and then embrace whoever wins. One the Primary is over, I'd like to see his full cooperation toward electing the Democratic ticket. I'd like to see him turn over his volunteer list to the party and the candidates as well as spend at least one or two days a month just making phone calls to his donors and asking them to contribute to the Delco Dem County party as well as specific candidates. Joe needs a BIG Democratic win to keep his momentum going for 2008. Failure to elect two or more Dems to the three open seats will be seen as a sign of weakness and encourage/embolden the GOP to go after his seat (lots more Bat-Villians). However, a Dem sweep will completely demoralize the GOP, solidify the Dem base, and prove that Joe is not just a one-shot candidate. Joe has been generating about $100,000 per month in contributions since he got elected. He could EASILY bring in $100,000 for the Delco Dems if he tried.
If Landau wins the primary, I will offer him my FULL support as part of a three-way coordinated campaign with the other two candidates as well as a county-wide coordinated campaign for the various Judicial and township seats. This means working with, and not against, our party leadership, and is the only condition I place upon my support of Dem candidates. I firmly believe that sharing, cooperation and selflessness are the only viable long-term strategies for candidates and the party.
Afterthought....
I also noticed that furthering support of my thesis that Landau's team is in it for Landau, Patrice made no mention of the strengths of any other candidates beside Landau. Patrice did not even mention any another candidate by name, and referred to John, Ann and Patrica only as the "victory team".
Let's see if we can get a definitive response from a Landau supporter...
Besides Landau, who would you like voters to select for the other two slots? Maybe, rank them in order of their strengths (or what they have in common with Landau)?
But make it clear that Landau supporters should vote for two other candidates as well.
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