Progressive Dems Meeting Recap
PDD is a great liberal Democratic organization with an awesome track record of backing up its lofty mission statement with election day impact. It is no wonder that Democratic candidates are using the group to help get their ducks lined up.
Tonight’s meeting was focused having a conversation with Rebecca Walker who came within 500ish votes of shocking the lackluster incumbent Dick Cathcart in mine and Smitty’s 9th RD. (NCC South of the Canal and East of Middletown: Brennan Estates, Delaware City, Port Penn, St Georges, Odessa, Townsend)
First up was Jack Markell. I missed his remarks but they were probably awesome. He was followed by Matt Denn. Denn is funny as hell. It would probably be annoying how funny he is but he can pull off the comedy because he works his ass off and has a kick-ass track record as Insurance Commish. Denn mentioned how important PDD was for supporting candidates like Rebecca and for keeping pressure on the old school Dems who are as obstructionist as the most obstructionists R’s (like Cathcart). [BTW – Denn has a blog.]
Dennis Spivack spoke and he still has the fire in the belly. I have to be honest; this one is tough for me. As much as I like Dennis as a candidate (and although I know he would be a better Congressman than our current waste of space) I just have a little voice in my head that wonders if Spivack could run a different kind of race. It is a quandary.
Rebecca Walker is a great candidate. If her ten week campaign last time had been a fifteen week campaign I’m sure Cathcart would be gone. She carried 5 out of 9 E.D.s in the 9th and did it on a shoe string. She is smart, tough and has an appealing story.
Cathcart, however, might be stronger this time and I have to wonder if Walker missed her best chance to ambush the 9th’s version of Wayne Smith. His last close call certainly woke him up. His constituent services have been better, he is in the news all the time with his hearings on alleged abuse at the State Psychatic Hosptital and the double dipper tag does not seem to stick to him.
Walker is going to have to run a great campaign.
Next Month the PDD will roll out a FOIA action plan that should be interesting.
This used to be the DFA meetup, right?
I really wanted to go to those and really want to go to these too but I’ve another standing meeting in the way. In trying to learn more about DE Dems, this Progressive group seems like it would be more open than the other groups who always seem to want you to have a secret decoder ring.
Yes, PDD was started from the Howard Dean campaign and still is associated with DFA. And contrary to the nasty remarks from some who comment on a different blog, PDD is not beholden to the Democratic Party. Some get involved in the Democratic Party process because it’s easier to make changes from the inside. But we answer to no one except the Progessives in our own group.