28 thoughts on “Here’s your DPW Convention open thread!

  1. Jennifer Shilling won her seat in a down year for Democrats and has upheld the Democratic platform despite heavy Republican pressure in her area. She is tops in my book, @Bob.

    1. Cat- You’re confusing Shilling (who is very good) with the excellent Kathleen Vinehout, who runs in an even tough district and won in the GOP years of 2010 and 2014. Shilling won in 2012 and is up again in 2016.

      Both are successful in one of the few rural areas that are trending blue

  2. So excited and happy that Martha Laning and David Bowen won. They are going to be a terrific team who will move the party forward.

    1. *joking a bit* Oh come on Maseman, please do not frame this situation in republicon terminology.

      We see where Walker’s idea of,”forward,” has taken the state. Fiftieth out of fifty if I am correct on about remembering the reporting on, “official,” channels.

  3. IMHO, another big winner is Sen. Vinehout. She put Ms. Laning on the map, I doubt the new Chair will make a move without consulting Sen. Vinehout.

    Since Mr. Abele supported Jason Rae/Nation Consulting, this looks like another loss for him.

    1. John, keep in mind that Abele contributed money to Laning when she ran for State Senate, so I’m not sure this is that much of a loss for Abele. He may have supported Jason Rae publicly, but I’m sure Laning’s victory doesn’t sting that much.

  4. So when the dems elect a leader who just joined the party and hasn’t voted regularly as the new head!

    Brilliant!

    carry on

    1. jharp,

      Thanks for emphasizing that wingnuts such as you, are forcing moderates to leave the GOP.

  5. Does this mean I need to finally join the WI dems? I wish Martha all the best, but will continue on the free speech sidelines for now. If someone in the loop has any sort of link to understand who voted for whom, studying my particular county ”leadership,” would be helpful in many ways.

    1. I’m not sure how you want to find out who voted for who exactly…but if you could tell us your county, someone could at least point you in the direction of that county’s leadership.

      1. Thanks Mase,

        I know my county D leadership and that of three neighboring counties, (near 200 hours on the recall volunteering with them) but they have not been open to sharing that type of information. I’ve watched through local D membership as several county leadership voting cycles have been controlled by the existing leaders, doing the candidate nominating through their self-appointed nominating committee and then forwarding their slate of candidates as the single and only vote allowed. A small circle of friends. I’d imagine this is a drawback to membership state-wide as the figure of less than 14K paid members was reported.

        Locally leadership was answering to the DNC through Tate. Thus my call for the state party to break with the national. Still asking for that by the way.

        Things may change as Tate is out.

  6. Congratulations to Ms. Laning and thanks to all of the contenders for their efforts.

    Now let’s unite and get to work restoring our state to its citizens from the control and greed of Koch and the 1% under Walker and the blind or spineless GOP Alec/legislators.

    Wisconsin; Forward!

    1. I agree! So glad to have the “party infighting” portion of the cycle over with so that we can move on to focusing our efforts on beating the GOP.

  7. Personally I would encourage anyone thinking about leaving the party because their candidate did not win, to still join the party. If I would have been able to make it to the convention I would have voted for Joe Wineke. I think Jason Rae will be back again at some point, he good on the issues, I think delegates just had trouble with his ties to Nation Consulting.

    As far as Martha Laning being chair, I wish her the best of luck, I just think she may over rely on consultants without having been involved in the process much before. I am generally not concerned when a candidate or chair has differences from the party on not supporting motor cycle helmet laws. I just do not have a lot of faith in her last minute epiphany on democratic issues when it comes to the Right to Collective Bargaining, Minimum Wage, ect.

    As long as Laning is not into squashing the grass roots I can see that being an improvement. In the past after the 2008 election when Joe Wineke was chair, I saw where the state party was afraid of a local party or campaign having their own innovative ground game by not following what the state party wanted verbatim. Obviously different parts of the state have their own unique characteristics that a decade old VAN does not recognize. I am willing to give Laning a chance, a lot of my friends in the party I know voted for her and think she was the right choice. How the party gets the people who are not currently voting and not running for office to participate is where I would like to see improvement.

  8. This was a Laning/Bowen–Smith/Findley victory. It’s not clear Laning would have won without Smith’s endorsement, and it’s absolutely clear she would not have gotten almost 54% on her own. 54% is a true mandate in a field of four candidates.

    I think we have a new day in the DPW that is cause for celebration.

    1. Steve, as always, appreciate your perspective. Have learned so much over the years from you, Ed, JoAnne, other BB posters, hope you will continue in the comments.

      1. They’ll continue in the comments, but they’ll also be continuing to contribute (I hope). I reversed my decision to take the blog back to being a solo affair, because I realized with some help from Steve, Joanne, Ed, and others that I had made a terrible mistake, and thankfully everyone has agreed to come back despite my stupidity.

        1. Zach, I have the deepest respect for what you’ve accomplished here. You make it look easy, and I know it’s not. It’s a testimony to your technical prowess, patience, and the many other skill sets you display. From a selfish perspective, I’m thrilled Ed, Steve, Joanne, Nancy, and the others will continue to post. I also hope their efforts lighten your burden.

          OT, imho a significant part of BB’s immense value to Democrats is that it’s not behind a paywall. IMHO, you deserve significant compensation for all the time and effort you’ve poured into what’s a public service to the state. Given Wisconsin’s history as a center of progressive and liberal thought, the benefit you provide echoes beyond the state’s boundaries. Since ads won’t cut it, you might want to consider a patron wall, where you recognize folks who have donated? Some folks might want to remain anonymous. Some might want only their handle displayed. Deepest apologies if not helpful.

          OT, imho for Brewer fans, @pdubsRN is a must follow.

          OT, in support of “the real ‘job creators’ are consumers with money to spend,”
          the 1933 quote below is from a wealthy Utah banker, Marrineer Eccles.

          “It is utterly impossible, as this country has demonstrated again and again, for the rich to save as much as they have been trying to save, and save anything that is worth saving. They can save idle factories and useless railroad coaches; they can save empty office buildings and closed banks; they can save paper evidences of foreign loans; but as a class they can not save anything that is worth saving, above and beyond the amount that is made profitable by the increase of consumer buying. It is for the interests of the well to do – to protect them from the results of their own folly – that we should take from them a sufficient amount of their surplus to enable consumers to consume and business to operate at a profit. This is not ‘soaking the rich;’ it is saving the rich. Incidentally, it is the only way to assure them the serenity and security which they do not have at the present moment.”

          http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/09/marriner-eccles-on-the-need-to-save-the-rich-from-themselves.html

          FDR appointed Eccles to be Chairman of the Federal Reserve.

          1. John, thanks for your overly kind words; I don’t think I’m deserving of such high praise, especially with the mistakes I’ve made here over the past few weeks.

            1. Zach,

              Glad you reversed your decision to fly solo. Because I enjoy reading all the contributors posts.

              Everyone makes mistakes. Live and learn.

              You have. Stop being so hard on yourself and get back to doing what you do best. Blogging Blue.

              🙂

    2. “I think we have a new day in the DPW that is cause for celebration.”

      Steve, Amen and Alleluia to that!.

  9. VERY interesting election. For me with this being my first DPW convention I was excited to see the number of attendees. I have to wonder whether Jason Rae thought he had enough support to win a four-way race but the consolidation around Laning combined with the sheer uptick in delegate numbers was maybe a surprise.

    I hope all delegates and Democrats from around the state contribute their best ideas and suggestions to modernize the Party. I saw a lot of areas for improvement just with internal processes – who votes for chair (should you have to be at the convention to vote?), how they vote (is waiting in line for over an hour really necessary?), can the antiquated rules and procedures for party membership and running the party in general be updated? And so on. There’s lots to do and not a lot of time before ’16 ramps up.

    1. I heard Rae was walking around wearing a Laning/Bowen sticker after the results were announced, so that’s at least an initial step towards reconciliation and moving forward.

      I’m more curious what Joe Wineke thought…I haven’t really heard anything about him since convention. I think he could still contribute to the party in some way, so I hope he doesn’t take the loss too badly.

      One fact I think has been overlooked: I heard Rep. David Bowen speak for the second time at the convention. If you have never had the chance to hear him speak, or don’t know much about him, do yourself a favor and make an effort to do so. He is a tremendously energizing speaker and person, and I see his move up the ladder as a huge positive for the party.

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