The "Un-Democratic Party"
Posted by Thurman Hart January 22, 2008 9:14AM
http://blog.nj.com/njv_thurman_hart/

The Democratic Party is becoming a study in defeating democracy. At the national level, "super-delegates" are installed in the nominating process in just large enough of a proportion to change the outcome should all of those Democrats voting in the primaries and caucuses around the country pick "the wrong person". Most of the time, they are meaningless afterthoughts, but this year, while Obama leads Clinton in vote-awarded delegates by a slender 38-36 margin, superdelegates are giving Clinton a hefty 210-123 lead (check CNN's primary data for the latest count).

This is nothing less than an attempt by the power structure of the party to install its candidate. It is the exact opposite of a democratic process. And it is the state party of New York (giving Clinton thirty-nine super-delegates) and New Jersey (giving Clinton ten super-delegates) that are leading the way. New Jersey's Democratic State Committee, however, (perhaps not being content to skew democracy with extra votes alone) is going out of its way to push Clinton on Democrats.

First, activists caught the NJDSC trying to violate the rules set by the national committee for designing ballots. Because of public pressure, the NJDSC rescinded its undemocratic decision and allowed county ballot-positions to be determined by draw. I suppose it's nice that it didn't take a court to order it to be so - and the Clinton campaign proved in Nevada that it isn't above appealing to the courts to change the rules in the middle of the game, so I don't think I'm being an alarmist in the least.

Now Juan Melli has discovered an alarming trend in NJDSC communications. After reviewing all of the emails he had received from the NJDSC communications team, he discovered that thirteen of eighteen dealing with Presidential candidates mentioned Hillary Clinton and three of the five that weren't about her were about her husband. The exceptions was a single reference to Elizabeth Edwards challenging Ann Coulter and another mentioning firefighters protesting a certain Mayor of New York City that is supposedly running for President (though we haven't heard much of him lately).

Not a single mention about Dick Codey leading the John Edwards campaign in New Jersey. Not a single mention about Steve Rothman leading the Barack Obama campaign in the northeastern states. Not a single mention that Dennis Kucinich visited New Jersey City University in November. Not a single mention that Barack Obama visited St. Peter's College in Jersey City and had two thousand people turned out to see him. Not a single mention that grassroots support for Clinton is so low that she was dumped in the first round of the New Jersey Democrats activist-led caucuses.

A thinking-person would imagine that, just by random chance, the Barack Obama campaign would do something that the NJDSC would think is worth passing along to fellow Democrats. It appears that the only thing that would bring out that response, however, would be for Michelle Obama to challenge Ann Coulter to a Jell-o match. Or marry Bill Clinton.

But that same thinking-person might also stop and remember that the Hillary Clinton for President campaign is actually using the office space normally occupied by the New Jersey Democratic Assembly Campaign office. Without a doubt, there is some sort of lease-back agreement in place to prevent all sorts of campaign finance violations from mingling state and federal campaign funds. But while it is perfectly within the bounds of legality, it is certainly outside of the bounds of good taste. Since it gives the appearance of the NJDSC having an official stake in the Clinton campaign, it also goes towards showing a willful progression of behavior.

But this is behavior ingrained in the Democratic Party here in New Jersey. In Burlington County there seems to be a problem with the use of party resources. Technically, they are there for any Democratic campaign, but in reality they are only being used to support the Clinton campaign. In Bergen County, Democratic Chair Joe Ferriero has decided elections are not necessary at all - anyone want to guess which candidate Joe Ferriero has endorsed?

The purpose of a political party is to overcome collective action problems - problems of information deficits, mismatches between candidate availability and funding sources, and to provide a means for dialogue between grassroots and power structure. The purpose of a political party is not, by any stretch, to simply impose the decisions of those at the top who might be rewarded with plum jobs if the right candidate wins the next election. Party leaders hold their positions to implement the decisions made by the members in accordance with their decision-making process - like an election. They are not there to force their will on the party by whatever means possible.

Whatever is going on with the Democratic Party in New Jersey, it sure isn't democracy.