My name is Christopher Jon Telesca and I am the currently
elected President of the Wake County Progressive Democrats. Rather than write
up something cute for my own campaign ad, I wish to let you all know why the
entire Executive Committee (aka the Board) is endorsing a slate of candidates
for election on February 15 - listed at end of blog post!
1. We
practice what we teach: democratic procedures and values throughout the
Democratic Party.
We have a great (but not perfect) set of bylaws – which requires
that well follow the NCDP Plan of Organization, Roberts Rules of Order. We also follow applicable state and
federal laws.
We have an Executive Committee (aka the Board) that meets to
plan our activities. No one person
runs the group – and no one person should be running for any office in the Wake
Progressives claiming they can single-handedly change the group.
Nothing gets done and not one dime gets spent without running by
one or both groups. Everything
from what bank we use, to what activities we participate in, and even if we buy
hamburgers, hotdogs, pizza, turkey or ham for our various parties – it is all
done by a vote of the board and/or membership.
Perhaps you’ve heard the sayings “many hands make light work”
and “a chain is only as strong as its weakest link”. We are only as good as the officers who show up and do the
work. Nearly everyone has been a
member of a group where someone runs for an office and doesn’t show up and/or
do the work – putting more of a burden on everyone else who does show up. And sometimes things don’t get done as
well or as quickly as we would all like.
But the Wake County Progressive Democrats doesn’t operate on the whims
of one officer, and therefore no one candidate’s campaign promises to make
significant changes to the group can actually deliver on those promises.
Our current bylaws do not allow for the removal of members for missing too many meetings or for dereliction of duty. Now that the bylaws for the Progressive
Caucus of the NCDP has passed at the state level, we will have to amend our
County chapter bylaws to allow for removal of members for those reasons. That should clear up a lot of the
problems we are having now.
2. All
officers will work to achieve the objectives set forth in the bylaws.
We are working to achieve the objectives set forth in the bylaws. Part of the problem is that while we
are the same group with roughly the same objectives that started out in 2004,
the Democratic Party isn’t the same as it was back then.
We had our first organizational meeting in June 2004 where the
progressive “Greendogs” (younger supporters of Howard Dean and Dennis Kucinich
feeling alienated from the Democratic Party) joined up with the older
“Concerned Democrats” (older party officers and former electeds concerned about
the lack of transparency and small-d democracy in the Democratic Party at many
levels). From that time on - we
had the blessing and support of then Wake Dems Chair Lorrin Freeman and ED
Linda Watson who was a founding member of our group. We also had auxiliary status either from that point or
shortly thereafter.
But we earned our auxiliary status – because we did the physical volunteer work in the
Democratic Party that no one else wanted to do. We set up and staffed the sign shop, put together precinct
officer training, put together precinct packets and address postcards
announcing precinct meetings, set up and operate the Election Day “War Room”,
set up for and clean up after party events, etc. Stuff that wasn’t getting done by people who whose activism
was limited to attending catered dinners, getting pics taken with political
leaders, and writing checks. Not
that there is anything wrong with that – but that’s not how we roll! And when we needed information to
organize precincts, we got it from the county party. One night in January 2008, we organized 9 precincts at an
OFA meetup!
How times have changed!
After Wake Progressives helped elect a State Party Chair in 2005 and
elect a whole new county party board made up mostly of grassroots activists in
2007, some establishment folks vowed to never again let progressives get a
chance to look good doing what we do best – volunteer activism and precinct
organization.
Today many people have a different respect for democratic
procedures and values – as well as a problem sharing information with an
auxiliary like ours that wants to organize precincts to give a larger and more
diverse group of Democrats a voice in the party and a seat at the table.
With the creation of the Progressive Caucus of the NCDP, we can
get access to statewide Votebuilder data that we can’t get right now at the
county level – we will know which precincts are organized and which are
not. Working with other similar
grassroots organizations will make precinct organization all that much easier.
3. Our
membership is steadily increasing especially among young people. But we’ve gotta keep the party from
scaring them off!
The Wake County Progressive Democrats started out by attracting
a lot of younger progressive Dean and Kucinich people starting in mid
2004. But they stuck around to
help build the Democratic Party because Howard Dean said: “If you want to take
back your government you first have to take back your party.”
We noticed an increase in interest in our group beginning in 2014
- we had increased membership especially with younger people attracted to
politics because they wanted someone like Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders to
run for President. Much in the
same way an earlier group was attracted by Dean & Kucinich in 2004 and even
Barack Obama in 2008.
While they were attracted to our group, other factors turn them
away from becoming active in the Party – like the way Bernie Sanders and his
supporters were treated by the DNC in the 2016 Presidential election
cycle. From the way Bernie was
treated while he was a candidate to the way his delegates were treated at the
DNC Convention, people did notice something was “odd” – and sadly too many
voted with their feet.
We had a gradual increase in membership from the spring of 2015
when Bernie declared and then three notable drop-offs: one after the March
Primary, another after DNC convention, and then again after Labor Day
2016. One young female Bernie
supporter was supposed to our July pool party – but she ended up quitting her
job, closing her FB account, and leaving the country to protest the way Bernie
was treated by the DNC.
4. One
of our main objectives is to encourage volunteerism in the furtherance of our
electoral process – fundraising is a secondary goal!
The Wake Progressive Dems has from the start always focused
largely on volunteer activism. Many
people are sick and tired of “pay to play politics”, so we don’t focus on
raising tons of money to give to the party and to candidates. We prefer to give something they don’t
see much of – volunteer activism!
Our main monthly meetings consist of potluck dinners – and
contributions aren’t mandatory. We
share with each other because we know that there some people can’t afford a
$20/month dinner and shouldn’t feel left out of progressive politics because
they can’t afford to pony up for a catered meal.
Fundraising is important, but many other Wake County groups can
and do focus on fundraising activities.
If you love raise money for candidates – spend time with us, but by all
means join one of the other groups as well! But we are not alone - other Wake County groups do not exist
mostly to raise money to be donated directly to the party and candidates.
We encourage our members to donate their time to candidates, and
also donate money if they wish to do so.
We give money to the party – we’ve been one of the biggest supporters of
the NCDP State Party Fair booth over the years in terms of both money and
working volunteer shifts.
That being said, we do need money to carry on our mission. We’ve done a great job of fundraising
the last few years. And with a
full board working together in the areas of policy, activities & outreach
that will be much better supported by communications and technology, we can
raise more money from current and new members and still be true to our original
mission.
5. Wake
County Progressive Democrats speak up to make sure democratic procedures and
values are being followed!
We don’t treat the Wake County Democratic Party or any other
party committee as enemies – but no Democrat should ever be a mute
rubber-stamp. We speak up to
question whether democratic procedures and values are being broken. Party officers and delegates who have a
seat at the table and a voice in the party deserve to be heard and answered
when they have a respectful and reasonable objection. Better knowledge of party rules and parliamentary procedures
will help our members and other Democrats not feel left out of the political
process.
Officer
Endorsements: The Executive Committee of the Wake County
Progressive Democrats has 9 elected and 1 appointed officers. Currently the
Outreach Chair is vacant. That leaves us with 8 elected and 1 appointed
officers, for a total of 9.
We,
7 out of 9 current Executive Officers of the Wake County Progressive Democrats
whose names are listed at the end of this posting, do hereby endorse and
support the following candidates for upcoming Executive Officers on February
15, 2017:
President -
Chris Telesca ** (nominated at January potluck)
Vice President
- Mike Pierce ** (nominated at January potluck)
Activities
Co-Chair: Quanta Edwards ** (to be nominated at February potluck)
Activities
Co-Chair: Kelley Barker (to be nominated at February potluck)
Outreach Chair:
Randy Jones (nominated at January potluck)
Policy Chair:
Joshua Bradley ** (nominated at January potluck)
Communications
Chair: Stacey Piesche * (to be nominated at February potluck)
Tech Chair:
Grant Gordon (to be nominated at February potluck)
Secretary:
Christina Thompson (to be nominated at February potluck)
* - incumbent
officer seeking new position
**
- incumbent officer seeking same position
Current
Activities Co-Chair Linda Suggs wishes to withdraw her name from nomination for
Activities Co-Chair. George Frink wishes to withdraw his nomination for
Communications Chair. Furthermore, although she understands that seconds
to nominations aren't necessary, current Treasurer Stacey Piesche wishers to
hereby withdraw her second to the nomination of Bill Bryan for President.
We
have endorsed these candidates because they have pledged to perform their
assigned duties per our bylaws, and to attend all board meetings and potlucks,
and observe and follow all of our WCPD bylaws, the NCDP Plan of Organization,
and all applicable state and federal laws. We have endorsed the incumbent candidates
because they have performed the duties per our bylaws, have exemplary
attendance records at board meetings and potlucks, and have observed and
followed all WCPD bylaws, the NCDP Plan of Organization and all applicable
state and federal laws.
We
Seven have endorsed the candidates listed above - and no others. Please draw
any conclusions you like from that fact.
Chris Telesca -
President
Mike Pierce -
Vice President
Linda Suggs -
Secretary
Stacey Piesche
- Treasurer (appointed)
Joshua Bradley
- Policy Chair
Nancy Brooks -
Activities Co-Chair
Quanta Monique
Edwards - Activities Co-Chair
