I was wondering why, on Feb. 15, the FDP sent out a press release detailing the accomplishments of Stephen Bittel's first 30 days as chair of the party.
Initially, I wondered why it touted a communications director for Hispanic media, and not one for African American media, given the fact that 209,000 black voters who voted in the 2012 presidential election didn't bother to vote in the 2016 presidential election. That number alone could have handed Hillary Clinton Florida, even with the large Hispanic turnout in 2016.
They never learn, do they? They can keep pretending black voters aren't worth engaging if they want to. We will be saying hello to Sen. Rick Scott in 2018.
At any rate, come to find out, that press release wasn't to let folks know about the $500,000 raised, the Hispanic media director, the new bylaws committee, or any other crap on it.
It was smoke and mirrors to cover the grievance filed with the DNC regarding the Jan. 14 election of the DNC members.
The grievance was filed Feb. 6 by none other than Karen Thurman (where the hell has she been?), Rod Smith, Rick Boylan, and Nancy Jacobson.
Now, it is my opinion that the driving force behind this grievance is Rick Boylan. Karen Thurman, Rod Smith, and Nancy Jacobson must be there for show. Were they even present during the elections? Did they even participate?
Rick was a DNC member and state committeeman out of Pinellas County who backed Stephen Bittel.
He lost his DNC seat Jan. 14. Ha!
Apparently back in October 2015, the DNC instructed Allison Tant to get rid of the weighted vote. She was supposed to go to one person/one vote.
I'm not entirely sure why this didn't occur, but it didn't.
Rick Boylan participated in the elections Jan. 14, cast his weighted vote however he wanted to cast it, tried to retain his seat on the DNC, and then cried foul after he lost.
Boy, bye. Your hands are not clean. You just lost. Go have a seat.
Do you guys wonder why we haven't really won any significant elections in a while??
Now in filing this complaint, the complainants say they aren't challenging the officers.
How can that be? The only officer position that was voted on correctly was the first vice chair position, Judy Mount.
If the DNC positions are to be challenged, then the chair, Stephen Bittel, along with the other positions voted in using the weighted voting system, must be challenged as well, right?
The FDP had two years to get this together. What were they waiting on?
I'm told, and I don't know how true this is, that Bittel has two DNC appointments he can make.
I'm waiting to see if Boylan gets "paid off," so to speak, with a DNC appointment, to make this grievance go away.
I'm also waiting to see if the DNC does anything about the fact that two years ago, it instructed Florida to get rid of the weighted vote, which Florida did not do.
Remember when Florida and Michigan were penalized by the DNC for moving its elections, and the delegates only counted for half in the election of President Obama?
Remember our DNC members are there to elect the DNC chair.
If too many of them aren't voting the way the establishment wants, they COULD be stripped of their votes.
Something to think about.
Click here to read the complaint for yourselves.
Leslie Wimes is founder and president of Women on the Move and the Democratic African American Women Caucus, www.daawc.com. Follow Leslie on Twitter: @womenonthemove1.
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