Parker Should Blame Himself
Parker on the reason he dropped out:
“I think any Democrat who gets placed on the ticket expects full support from people who are important to the Democratic Party, whether that be elected officials or families of elected officials or former officials,” Parker said today. “As we went through this process, it became apparent that wasn’t necessarily the case. Realistically, there are certain factions of the system out there that you have to be able to depend on,” he said. “I just didn’t feel that that support was going to be there.”
Full support. Apparently, Parker expected full financial support of his campaign from the state party, as in the party finances his campaign without Parker lifting a finger to raise money on his own, a source confirms. That makes sense to me. A political neophyte may jump into a race without knowing what is expected of the candidate. The truth is, the state party, like its national counterparts in the DNC, the DSCC, and the DCCC, expects the candidate him or herself to show some signs of life before they commit. Signs of life include a credible, strong candidate who can raise money, a competitive race in the polls. I am unaware of any candidate, local, state, or federal, that has ever had his or her campaign completely financed by a party organization. Yet, it seems that that is what Parker was expecting.
Parker seems to see some conspiracy behind this fact, in his mentioning of factions and families of elected officials, which seems like a direct swipe at Polly Mervine and the Adams family. Parker obviously feels that Mervine and the Adams family or some party faction acting on their behalf are responsible for denying Parker campaign funds from the state party. Maybe there is some hurt feelings among them, but no conspiracy.
Regardless, Parker’s withdrawal reveals a division in the Sussex Democratic Party, a division that is unlikely to be healed any time soon.
I think the rules are a little different for a special election on short notice… you need to get the party bigwigs out there to shake the money tree for you. There just isn’t enough time to build an organization so you need to depend on the organization in place to a much greater extent than in a general. Plus, I find it hard to believe Parker refused to “lift a finger.”
Really anon – I disagree – throw your name in the hat for city council – maybe, throw your name in the hat for state senate – you better have big pockets waiting in the wings. This race could have been won by the Dems… now, the daughter has no chance.
There has been serious division in the Sussex Dem Party for the ten years I’ve lived here.
The Adams branch is a radical, socially conservative branch of the party, from which position they garnered significant support from the Repubs, like Senator Simpson, like Representative Hocker, like Rep Joe Booth, like Council President Vance Phillips.
Therefore, this sizable faction would be voting for Joe Booth, not Parker, let us not kid ourselves.
I agree with anon, Eddy Parker would need significant financial support from the Del Dem Party, which did not appear to be forthcoming according to Mr Parker. A few weeks is insufficient time to obtain funding, so without funding, without name recognition (both of which Joe Booth has), Mr Parker had little chance to win.
He was wise to pull out. The only chance for the Dems is with Ms Adams-Mervine running!
I’m actually a little surprised the daughter would run against one of her father’s long term friends (Booth).
I can see the TA campaign finance people dumping his campaign account into the Democratic party who, in turn, could turn it over to a candidate they deemed worthy: i.e. the daughter. Those monies should be watched to see if that happens…..sort of like the unions dumping money into the state party to be doled out to John Carney last election cycle.
I’ll bet Mervine was under a lot of pressure from the Dem party to run. I like the idea of going against Adams’s wishes, even if it is his daughter.
I don’t buy Parkers explanation. I wonder if his spouting off will force someone to step forward and explain the real reason he dropped.
this is the flip side of the mean old party bosses telling a young hopeful they have to pay their dues…
Why do they say that? because campaigning is hard work and someparts are unpleasant, like fundraising.
The best thing you can do for someone you think will make a good candidate is get them involved in someone elses campaign. Let them see what hometown politics and campaigning is like.
John Tobin over at Politics by the Numbers has been doing some awesome crunching of numbers thinking about turnout and other expectations of a Special Election in the 19th. Make sure you go read all of those posts!
Thanks, Cassandra, I just did a new post this evening that I hope you like. It discusses campaign finance and the advantages of being a sitting legislator while seeking another office.