Choosing a Chair

Last week I emailed all four DNC members from Maine and asked if they had a preference for DNC Chair. I received two responses.

The first was from State Vice-Chair Marianne Stevens. She wrote:

Hi Mike,
Thanks for your note.

I have not yet decided on my choice for DNC Chair. I've been talking with many of the candidates and will talk with the remaining ones before our February meeting. In fact, I'll be attending the Northeastern regional DNC meeting in New York City next weekend where all the candidates will address us. I'm looking forward to hearing their presentations and then making my decision.

Do you have a preference?

Thanks for asking.

Marianne Stevens

The second was from DNC member Sam Spencer, who not only made it clear that he was open to advice, he announced he would soon be setting up a website to better understand the opinions of democrats all across the state. (That website was the subject of this post and has since been mentioned at the American Prospect.)

I know State Party Chair Pat Colwell and DNC member Jennifer DeChant are busy folks and I don’t mind that they didn’t reply to my emails, but I’d like to commend Marianne Stevens and Sam Spencer for their responsiveness to a member of their party. By the look of Sam’s site, he might have some aspirations beyond his current post. That’s probably a good thing for both the party and the state.

Here are the updated results from the comments on Sam’s website:

Of 165 comments, 94 people made a case for a single candidate. There are quite a few double posts and I tried to catch as many of these as possible so as not to count their opinions twice. This is probably a sign that many of the people expressing their opinions there are not familiar with weblogs, which seems to indicate that the site is getting the attention of a wide range of democrats.

Howard Dean: 88 (94%)
Simon Rosenberg: 3 (3%)
Wellington Webb: 1 (1%)
Martin Frost: 1 (1%)
Wesley Clark (who isn’t running): 1 (1%)

Personally, I'd be happy with either Dean or Rosenberg. They both represent the kind of energy and the commitment to reform that the party needs. What I really love is all the attention this race is getting from people that have never before cared about the leadership of the DNC. Bloggers are even expressing their opinions about Vice-Chairs now.

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