You might remember that last week I took some issue with our Dem heavy hitters going all out for an out of state candidate when we have four congressional races to worry about. Well Max Brantly got a sort of reply to my concerns in a round about way from an anonymous organizer of that event over at Arkansas Blog:
An organizer of the event responds that using political capital to help a great candidate (Vilsack) take out a right winger is a “no brainer.” He doesn’t believe helping out a friend from Iowa should deter major givers who’ll attend this event from helping Arkansas Democratic candidates.
Not really a good response to the concerns I posed anonymous person whoever you are…
Again, I wish Christie Vilsack all the luck in the world. I actually do keep up with what goes on at the national level and keep my eye on a lot of races around the country. I would love to see her beat Steve King, trust me, that nut job needs to go down. But let’s be honest here. We’re not spending “political capital” here. We’re spending time and money, valuable resources of which we have finite amounts of, on an out of state candidate when the wolves are at the door here at home and our so called leadership is diddling their thumbs and acting like nothing’s wrong. Honestly, I’m feeling a bit like the guy in the crow’s nest on the Titanic yelling “Captain! Iceberg ahead!” while these guys play cards on the deck…
We still have a lot of opportunities to blunt the force of the potential Republican takeover and turn this situation around in 2012. For example, all four of our candidates need money, so why not do a bunch of big fundraisers like the one Vilsack around the state for all four Congressional candidates? That’s pretty much a no-brainer right? Think we’re going to see it done? Not when folks have the mindset of our anonymous organizer. We need all hands on deck here, and right now our leadership is failing to, you know, lead.
Mike Beebe and the rest of the higher ups in the Democratic Party here need to ask themselves something really important here. Do they want their legacy to be the end of the Democratic Party in Arkansas? That’s the way it could be heading if they don’t get their damn act together, start showing some urgency, and finally join the rest of us here in the trenches.
