Are you active in your local Democratic Party

[tabbycat31]

I'd post this as a poll but I let my star expire. If someone wants to repost this as a poll please do.

[hepkat]

1. Not anymore

power tripping and suppression of progressives made it impossible for me to participate.

I'm now active in the greens and other social activism.

I will always vote for the most progressive viable candidate tho as long as it matters.

When the polls say the dem candidate has no chance, I'll vote 3rd party if I can.

[Blue_In_AK]

22. I'm lucky in that a lot of the Democrats in Alaska are progressive.

It hasn't always been that way, but it seems like lately the organization is moving left. Either that or the Republicans have gone so far off the right-hand ledge that it feels like we're way left. Our Republicans are cuh-razy.

[Horse with no Name]

2. No.

I was but they are all anti-choice, anti-gay rights, pro business republicans that call themselves Democrats.

[tabbycat31]

9. Even more of a reason to get involved

Try to push them to run more progressive candidates or put your own name on the ballot.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

3. No. We have no organization at all. They've given up.

[Horse with no Name]

6. You and I are in the belly of the beast

Teabag Central.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

12. You in East Texas?

I'm in Barton's district. GAAHHH!!!!!!!!

Wish I could just run off screaming...................

I live in a house where the price was right. I inherited it.

[Horse with no Name]

17. Yep

Ralph Hall's district,lol

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. I cover them as a reporter, both sides

So no, can't be.

[rsmith6621]

5. I Am...

....Local, County and State... what are you looking for.

[patrice]

7. If you want to say that helping an outsider Democratic candidate against the candidate that the

party decided to support is being active in the party, . . . yeah.

And my candidate and I almost beat her too and by the closest margin of all others who lost their races but had more party resources to use than we did. Just the two of us.

It helps immensely when you happen across a candidate that you personally can really commit to. Makes it fun, except for losing. If we had had some decent party support, it is likely that Amy would have won. It WAS that close.

[Blue_In_AK]

24. That happened here with Diane Benson in 2006 and 2008.

[patrice]

25. It was f-ing uncomfortable! The party actually unofficially, but for real, was supporting a

a Republican by NOT supporting my really very fine, spunky, smart, articulate, labor history expert, math whiz kid, DEMOCRATIC university student. We live in Kansas, btw, and they used a tweener bi-partisan organization to direct help to their Republican, who, btw, COPPED-OUT on a crucial tax vote here.

Amy's success yanked their chain, anyway, so they are bringing her along now, but we may have missed the boat on taking that house seat and we missed it by less than a thousand votes.

They waaaaaay over-spent on someone else who was one of the 2 to win and she took her seat by over 20 percentage points. I helped the other winner too, but don't have any confidence in her perceptual skills in a "centrist" role. Another party leader seat that got all of the volunteers and had pretty good funding was an embarrassingly bad loss.

[Blue_In_AK]

27. Diane has pretty much stepped away from politics.

She was treated very badly by the state party and especially by the DCCC. I believe that was during Rahm Emmanuel's time.

[Arctic Dave]

8. Yes.

Donate, volunteer, hold a position in our district.

[whathehell]

10. I am active in my chapter of the Progressive Democrats of America. n/t

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

11. I don't think MoveOn is the Democratic Party

I've been active with MoveOn

[1StrongBlackMan]

13. Yes ...

Not as much in the recent past; but no where near as activity as I will be.

[Gman]

14. No. I don't do cluster fucks

I haven't since 1988. I worked at the state level for many years and worked directly in candidates campaigns. But there's way too many egos, prima donnas and nuts in the local party structure.

[TreasonousBastard]

16. You noticed that, eh? But, that's not just Democrats...

it's politics that attracts those types.

[WCGreen]

15. I was the Treasurer of our County Democratic Party...

I spent 6+ plus years helping the Chairman organize the party into a powerful organization that opened up the primary elections and helping endorsed candidates get elected.

It's hard to do and you have to deal with a whole bunch of people you would rather not deal with but in the end, I have to say it was one of the best time of my adult life.

[TreasonousBastard]

18. Yeah- I'm on the town Dems steering committee...

and might run for office this year.

[freshwest]

19. Yes, when able. Can't make any many meets but we have find young progressives stepping in now.

[Blue_In_AK]

20. Yes, I am.

I am a co-chair of the Alaska district 19 Democrats (this is a state district, not national since we only have one representative). I'm also on the committee to recall Lindsey Holmes, district 19's turncoat representative. I told this story before, but Lindsey represented West Anchorage (one of the most liberal districts in the state) as a Democrat since 2006. She was re-elected in 2012 as a Democrat, but three days before the session started, she switched her party affiliation to Republican in exchange for a seat on the House finance committee. She has voted straight Republican party line since her defection on issues very important to Alaskans, and she gave the Republicans a supermajority in the House -- 30-10.

Honestly, I don't think I would have gotten involved with the party organization if it hadn't been for Lindsey. In some ways she's galvanized our community because almost everyone wants her gone now. We get signatures from Republicans, Democrats and independents. What she did was totally sleazy and nobody likes it.

[olddots]

21. we try and do for certain candidates and policys

its been a thankless job but somebody has to do it.

[patrice]

26. Bless you. Even something small is really important relative to nothing.

[MrSlayer]

23. My local party is very exclusionary.

If you're not part of the "machine" they don't want to hear from you and they don't let you in.

Philly is very old school. And very corrupt.

[tabbycat31]

28. Sounds like New Jersey

[jorno67]

29. There is no local Democratic Party where I live...

It is as red as an area can be.

[IndyPragmatist123]

30. No, they have been terrible for many years

I support many local Democrats, but I cannot support the Marion County Democratic Party (Indianapolis). The candidate they ran for mayor of Indianapolis 2 years ago was pathetic. She changed her position on nearly everything depending on who she was talking to. She would talk about her plans to restrict gun sales when talking in more urban areas, but when she spoke in front of more affluent groups, she would talk about how it's not the mayor's role to force gun restrictions on the public. The city had recently made a bunch of money from a utility deal and the Republican incumbent wanted to use most of that on infrastructure. She would say that she wanted to continue that plan and give us quality roads one day, and then turn around and say she wanted to spend it all on education the next. Nobody knew her positions on anything because most of them changed from day to day. Some days I agreed with her, but she would change her position and I would then disagree with her. It was crazy.

She was the worst candidate I have ever seen. I kid you not. It's sad because Mayor Ballard was pretty vulnerable. A decent candidate would have won (I wish Councilwoman Maggie Lewis would have run). Her social media team hurt her because they were constantly getting called out for switching positions or numbers that didn't add up.