Newscoma

Vibinc talks money

If you’re a political party that is already experiencing challenges communicating to your constituents, what’s the first thing you do? Let you Communications Director go of course.

Kleinheider says he has an explanation for the personnel move, but I don’t think it passes the smell test, and I’m not sure that Munday was part of the 50 state strategy thing anyway. Don’t all party organizations need some kind of media and outreach liaison? One would think so.

Anyway, in the absence of any transparency, or even an explanation of any sort, it gets people to wondering, which is what I do more often than not. So with the help of Al Gore’s internet, I did a little digging into the federal disclosures of the TNDP at the FEC.

I’m no Campaign finance expert, but the disbursement portion of the federal filings is telling. Since the beginning of the year, Chairman Sasser, and several other staffers have received compensation from the TNDP. No surprise there, though Wade Munday does not appear on the federal disclosures as an employee, which is interesting to me.

Another thing that’s interesting is the amount of money disclosed. Sasser receives $3646.67 twice a month. Simple math tells you that this adds up to $87k/year, but that’s the income he actually sees. Further in the disclosures we find that individual payments to the US Treasury for payroll taxes go out at the same time. That would make his gross around $10k/month, for around $120k/year.

Read the rest because this is important.

Before I get all political here, I want to remind you that my grandfather (and most of Hoots’ residents that have a little bit of age on them) were in the generation of Gov. Ned McWherter. He still lives here most of the time and hasn’t been feeling so hot for awhile. So when I’m talking about politics, I remember the gravy years of having a powerful politician advocating for northwest Tennessee in the house and finally in the governor’s mansion, advising former President Bill Clinton and Al Gore.

Gore’s mother is from the county of Hoots. Just a bit of history for you here, nothing more, nothing less.

Then times changed as they always do. The glorious years of an aligned coalition of west Tennessee politicians lost its oomph.

But then we had Joe Hill. I’ve spoken about Hill before who was the Go-To-Guy in Rep. John Tanner’s office here locally. If anyone called him, he called us back. You needed something, if there was a way to get it, you could consider it done. From the little guy who lost his insurance and was suffering from cancer to political questions regarding how Tennessee would be impacted by certain votes in Washington.

He answered the questions candidly and didn’t run away from it. I have actually been critical with him at times and he was patient to explain the reasons why things were done they way they were.

That, my friends, is what we need in Nashville right now.

He kept up with political trends, the best way to communicate at the time and he just went with it starting his career with Ed. Jones. This wasn’t a flash in the pan kind of thing. It was consistent for decades.

I’ve been reading the blogosphere from yesterday from the anonymous commenter at Silence isn’t Golden, KAG’s response, Aunt B’s anger and then Mark breaking it down at Dork Nation which everyone needs to read.

I can only speak for my little corner of the world. I don’t know what’s going on in East Tennessee other than what I read from bloggers. My interaction with Shelby County comes from a fine group of people who communicate with huge props to Left Wing Cracker and Vibinc.

These are connections. Most of the people I’ve linked to above I have either met or corresponded with by email. Not all of them, but most of them.

KAG and Silence get it right and they are MSM in the state of Tennessee. Use the positive things you have or you are in for a mess of poo. They are telling you this and I commend them.

Joe Hill did that too in a different time of political communication. He found strong voices and he utilized them. Of course he was protecting his politician but that’s not the point. The point is that he held frequent and ongoing conversations. You can learn from the past and combine that knowledge into the future of this party.

The Scene writes:

Instead of whining about Obama, Tennessee Democrats should begin learning from him. The president-elect may be one of the Senate’s most liberal members. But he won a campaign with the ingredients of old school populism – health care, jobs, the rhetoric of economic fairness. They’re the kind of issues that can defy party lines, that resonate when Mom and Dad are figuring out how to pay the bills at the kitchen table. This is the stuff that can – gasp! – even get a black guy elected.

But if Tennessee Democrats continue sell themselves as Republican Lite – Motto: We’re Slightly Less Weird about Guns, God, and Abortion! – they’re likely sentencing themselves to an extended period of whining. Cheap facsimiles don’t exactly inspire people at the polls.

If you add the numbers of the views that those bloggers above get, then you are looking at a pretty nice block of people. And then as the message goes viral, it expands but it has to be done with intelligence and in a friendly manner that engages as well as is informative about the issues of Tennessee Democrats. In a large part, those bloggers listed above are already a block as most of us know each other anyway. You are losing out because I don’t think you get that whether you are around or not, we are having a conversation anyway.

Haven’t you figured that out yet?

We can learn from the Obama campaign, TNDP, if you think about it. So quit playing the blame game. It’s so Rovian.

Constructive criticism is important because people are not whipping your butt just to be whipping your butt. They are talking about something they feel passionate about.

I brought up the McWherter reference at the top because the gravy years of West Tennessee are long gone because those days of politics are over. It’s a new day. Conversation has changed in large part to the Internet and to blogging. TNDP, these are your eyes and ears on the ground.

I refer to Joe Hill because you need to calling him this very second as he is an elder statesmen of political management who was successful at it and could give you some sage advice about how everyone in this state has value and to treat them as such. Instead of whining at people who want to help, who want to be part of the political process despite the fact that they have jobs and families but are willing to give their time and voice to taking back the Assembly, don’t belittle them, embrace them. And take that blog of yours and give it a voice and a personality not just a bunch of press releases.

Of course, I suggest Sean Braisted to do that for you as your blog jockey because, in my opinion, he’s the right guy for the job because he engages in conversation about the issues of the democrats. And also, he is listening to the entire state, not just Nashville. He’s thick-skinned and passionate.

And he engages. Why more people aren’t using blog jockeys utterly amazes me.

So, I’ve done your homework for you, Sasser and friends.

The ball is in your court. If you just let it lie there, we will be talking about this again.

Aunt B., GoldnI and Sean have all talked about the Tennessee Democratic Party and its head poobah, Gray Sasser with his lack of effectiveness in the recent election. As vile as Bill Hobbs can be at times, he did his job and that is he has secured an already conservative state legislature more power to make potential changes that I’m probably not going to be a happy camper about.

I wrote an open letter on Sept. 11 here giving Sasser sage advice. Alas, he never calls, he never writes. Let me say this, I received dozens of emails after that post from strong, faithful democrats who were feeling just as disenfranchised by Sasser as some of the folks here in Hoots.

So let me say this once again because I’m ready to get back to my zombie story for NaNoWriMo. Tennessee, obviously, was not an Obama state when it came to voting nor was it blue.

Hobbs takes the hits for the TNGOP. As some of us watch from the sidelines with our head in our hands, he does it by keeping it out there. He keeps a message in the public eye at all times, no matter how wrong it may be. If you are calling Barack Obama by his middle name, Hobbs is partly responsible for that. I do not agree with him in the least, but on the other hand, the General Assembly is red right now and he helped get it that way. Hobbs’ ego is legendary. The difference between Hobbs and Sasser, however, is that Hobbs was on task this election and Sasser was not.

And we told him. Members of the blogosphere told him. In the non-virtual world, phone calls from people I know were sent to his office asking for help in the election and were ignored because we weren’t glamorous or hip enough (my observation at least). Sasser effectively blew us off. Repeatedly.

Was Sasser drinking cinnamon lattes looking toward his beloved Washington, where he obviously wants to be, thinking “Dang, if I can just get through this election then I can hang out with Obama and Rahm Emanuel in DC?”

As I have been critical of Sasser before, allow me a moment to be critical again. Gray, if you get outplayed by Hobbs and company, that’s pathetic. The nation voted in Barack Obama.

You did nothing to help that and it showed in the final tally for the state.

Aunt B. isn’t letting the Governor out of this either. Of course we will be saying Gov. Ron Ramsey in about two years but Bredesen’s ego will send him on another task to take on the world as a republican dressed in democrat’s Armani suit. I digress.

I want to head back to Sasser. 40,000 people at the Soybean Festival and no TNDP presence. I go back to a conversation that I had with a couple of politicians who pontificated that the TNDP just didn’t see value regarding our location in the state.

Seventy percent of this county voted. 66 percent voted here in this county for McCain, however the local branch of the College Democrats took to the streets Tuesday night. You could have helped them but they did it on their own. Remember, one reason why Obama won is his campaign reached out to those voters who in the past were unreachable.

And you were advised to do that as well but apparently you were running the TNDP like it was still 1988.

I’m ranting so I’ll stop but I’m thinking right now, Mr. Sasser, that your party gave you a shot. Give the job to someone with passion for the party and not an opportunist like yourself.

I’ve always been told it’s better to be a kingmaker than a king. I’m thinking Sasser wants to be a king and that just doesn’t jive in his line of work. On another note, I’m betting Sasser doesn’t want to meet Jimmy Naifeh in a dark alley anytime soon because I have a feeling an asswhupping is going to take place.

I love you. I do but sometimes folks have to practice tough love with the things they care about.
You guys, well, I thought you knew better but you don’t, and what I’m talking about is that I think you need to come to Hooterville and talk to some of the people I’ve been talking to the past few days. Go to all of the Hootervilles, not just mine.

You are blowing it, in my opinion, when it comes to rural voters and in many ways, you are disenfranchising younger voters here.This isn’t good, Nashville leaders.

There is a world outside of Nashville.

And, I mean this, you guys act like there isn’t sometimes and that’s a damn shame. You have young people here that want to be involved in the political process, are talking to me, and yes I work at a newspaper, that they are constantly not getting their needs met. But, with that said, the GOP is doing dandy here. New building, an air of excitement, recruiting new members, selling McCain buttons enthusiastically and creating new partnerships by reaching across the aisle to a large degree.
Heck, I’m a liberal and I’ve had a great time with the local GOP. They are rocking it.
Earlier this week, I talked to several people in their 20s and 30s who lean to the left who do not feel comfortable with the college democrats due to their age and in the local democratic party because there tends to be too much established fellowship. This isn’t your fault and I’m not blaming you but a little updated training might help from your end. They wanted to put up signs, they wanted buttons, they wanted a rally.
But, and this is just dang unforgivable, is that between 20,000 and 30,000 people were here for the Tennessee Soybean Festival and other than a handful of kids from the college running a voter registration drive, the democrats were invisible. Thousands and thousands of college kids were at the Corey Smith outdoor free concert where there were dozens of vendors when you could have come and made a huge splash and, umm …
You get my drift?
You missed a huge opportunity. Rural communities want to be involved. Engage them and pay attention.
Several years ago, I went to several meetings at the local party and was one of those young voters who felt left out. I wanted inspiring conversations, events to feel excited about. As I recall, I went to one meeting with now Sen. Lowe Finney. I can’t speak for him but I can say that I didn’t get my needs met. After a while, I gave up.
This is the county that has Ned McWherter and his legacy. But there are other counties just like mine that need leadership from the state office. I set up a website for these young voters yesterday. Have you not sent out instructions to rural communities who need your guidance about online networking, talking points and utilizing social communication sites like Twitter or Friendfeed? I’m just asking because I know I haven’t seen them but you might have. Are you talking to established rural party leadership about how to recruit young people.

Gray, we had 4.4 percent of our registered voters vote here in August.

I don’t know about other rural counties but don’t you think you need to reach out to these places that feel that voting is a waste of time because they aren’t being engaged. Yes, McCain will take Tennessee but I’m talking long-term here, not just one race. And, quite frankly, the GOP is getting it done in rural areas in Tennessee.
One young voter called the TNDP on Tuesday and was somewhat dismissed. She was devastated. I put out a call about needing some help to the Memphis Bloggers who were Johnny on the Spot and a call out to Twitter, with many people responding from Nashville.
I had to think about it. It’s more than just this race, it’s the future of this party when it comes to rural young voters who want participating. And it’s about guiding people into a new generation.

If this race is about change, you have people who want change and are willing to work for it, give them a hand. Remember, one of them called you so they are reaching out. I realize it’s a county in the middle of nowhere but voices are of value everywhere.
Guide them.
I contacted my local representatives.

We, and I say we because I’m not just griping are taking action to encourage young voters here and we, are going to try to help some of these kids. Rep. Mark Maddox and I are on it, but you have to help too. We are putting our money where our mouth is.
Politics in this state is not just in Nashville. We are not just a bunch of rednecks who need to be dismissed. One of your rising stars in the state senate started here. He was the same young man who went to that meeting with me so many years ago.
So please, help out the little guys because each vote counts in every election.
We aren’t asking you to do it, we are just asking you to be involved with everyone and not the select few.
Keep up the good work but expand it. That’s all I’m asking. I know this area, trust me on this one. I trust you will take this constructive criticism as it was meant. Not as a slam, but as an opportunity for growth.

Tough love is hard. If I pissed you off, well, too bad.
Love hurts.

Respectfully,
Newscoma