Earlier today Jason Rae announced his candidacy for chairman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. Rae joins former State Rep. Jeff Smith and former DPW chair Joe Wineke as announced candidates, while fundraiser and former DPW finance director Mary Lang Sollinger is said to be considering a run.
A Milwaukee political leader and North Woods native Friday joined the race to replace outgoing state Democratic Party chairman Mike Tate.
Jason Rae, a Democratic National Committee member originally from Rice Lake, was prepped to get into the race immediately after Daniel Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel broke the news Thursday that Tate would step down this summer.
“Over the last several weeks, I’ve met with grassroots activists and leaders all across the state and am overwhelmed by the support and encouragement I am receiving,” Rae said in a statement.Rae was ready with immediate endorsements from party leaders such as fellow DNC member Martha Love.
“For more than a decade, Jason Rae has been a strong leader in our party, both in Wisconsin and nationally,”Love said.
Rae’s candidacy for DPW chair has already come under attack both for his status as a party insider and because of what some believe to be close ties to Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele.
There’s no denying Rae is a Democratic Party insider, given that he’s a been a member of the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Party of Wisconsin’s Administrative Committee for over ten years, but I’m not convinced that means he’d be Mike Tate version 2.0 if elected DPW chair.
Two other candidates who are already in are Joe Wineke and Jeff Smith. In addition to those two, Lori Compas is considering running for DPW chair; she’ll make a decision sometime after the weekend. Also, Mary Lang Sollinger and Tanya Lohr are considering running, but neither of them have set a timetable for a run that I’m aware of.
Compas is the one that could be a real wild card in the race for DPW chair if she were to run, as, if she runs, she’s going to be the progressive candidate, and I’ve already seen on social media that quite a few people intend to register with the DPW if and only if Compas runs for chair.
Regarding Jason Rae, since he’s a DNC member, he’ll have to answer for the failed leadership of former DNC chair Tim Kaine and current DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Additionally, the “Mike Tate 2.0” vibe about Rae is that he’s running on not much more than empty talking points about “reenergizing the party” and so on like Tate would if he were running for another term, and, having watched a video of him speak, he comes across as a less personally abrasive version of Tate.
I will preface my comments by admitting I’m not familiar with a lot of the names being thrown around. However, I do know Lori Compas and hope she is giving serious consideration. She ran a very effective grassroots campaign against Scott Fitzgerald. Granted, she did not win, but she exceeded her vote total goal and connected with a lot of people locally. Frankly, she ran a much more effective campaign than I’ve seen from most Wisconsin Democratic candidates lately.
I agree Lori Compas ran a “…very effective grassroots campaign…” As a former candidate, she knows what it is all about. With no disrespect, it took “balls” or should I say courage to go up against Fitzgerald.
But I need to know more about her leadership capability as well as that of others who are seeking to be our leader.
Well, there’s this and the other thing. Hat tip to Aaron Camp above. Falls into the category of things you should read.
https://progressivemidwesterner.wordpress.com/2015/01/17/candidate-for-democratic-party-of-wisconsin-chairperson-jason-rae-blocked-me-on-twitter-because-i-asked-him-a-question/
https://progressivemidwesterner.wordpress.com/2015/01/16/joe-wineke-proposes-brilliant-plan-to-rebuild-the-democratic-party-of-wisconsin/
Rae is raising red flags as chair. You can’t hace a thins skin and lead the DPW. Blocking criticism- how will you listen to your base? And that’s just for starters.
I love Joe but didn’t support him for chair before and couldn’t now.
Jason ran for DNC rep as a college dem and saying he would represent the younger demographic but shouldn’t he have stepped into a different role when he aged out of that group? He seems nice and very slick — also very much egocentric and I’m not sure that’s what the party needs at this time.
I don’t know the others but I think Lori might be the one who could do the most in energizing the party at this time. If we ever needed a grassroots person it is now more than ever with the onslaught going on here……..
The question with Jason Rae, is how many people in Wisconsin outside of the active DPW delegates does he really know?
He might be a better fundraiser than Tate, but fundraising in and of itself does not win Elections, all we have to do is look at 2010 when Democrats had the fundraising advantage.
The other question with Jason Rae, is how he would act as chair in the primary process? Joe Wineke opened a spot for Ben Masel to speak in the 2006 US Senate Primary with incumbent Herb Kohl. We know Mike Tate acted different in the 2014 Governor and Lt. Governor elections by not allowing non establishment candidates to speak in an open primary.