Elections for State Dem Chair?

I got a letter from Joe Weneke and Linda Honold last Saturday about them running as a team for Chair and 1st Vice Chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party.

Got lots of questions......

I know OF Weneke, of course and Honold from this last election year.....but.....

Who else is running?

When are the elections?

Anybody know?

and I haven't had any confirmation of that yet. I imagine those planning to run will start to show up at county meetings and most likely will make an appearance at the district conventions this spring.

Anyone know much about Wieneke? Like you, ewag, I know of Joe but I confess to knowing very little about him.

anything about Jeff Rammelt......

did you get a letter too?

and I believe he is currently 2nd Vice Chair of the DPW. He seems to be quite progressive. I like the fact that he's had to deal with the political realities of life in Wisconsin outside of Dane and Milwaukee counties. Jefferson is a big union county so I would hope it's helped him build a good raport with union leaders. The only problem I see with Jeff is that he is really a pretty quiet guy. Not that he isn't a stand-up progressive Dem. He just isn't a fire-in-the-belly Dem which is more along the lines of what I think we need at the moment. I look forward to hearing more from him as the weeks go by. I hope he can change my mind.

As for the other candidates for chair/vice-chair, my hubby says he has a list somewhere in the great labyrinth he calls his inbox. As soon as I find it, I'll post them here.

many in the Winnebago County Dems are supporting him including (unofficially) our new Chair, Jef Hall.

I have briefly met Jeff at last year's convention and he seemed like a pretty good guy. I would have to assume if Jef is going to work hard for him that he's pretty damn liberal.

Linda Honald in stepping down from her seat from what I've heard BTW.

And that election... in Oshkosh on the second weekend in June.

Yours truly is a big part of the local planning groups so I will keep you all up to date and try to help coordinate things for all of you that are coming down. :)

Rp

I'm not even close to deciding who to support. I like them all. I think they all bring something to the table so I'm going to give them the opportunity to convince me who will be a standout at the cd conventions and in Oshkosh. It's good to hear that Jef is supporting Jeff Rammelt. I respect his opinion and will keep it in mind.

Keep us posted on the planning. Hubby and I will be there as usual.

hotel the convention will be at?

held at the Park Plaza Hotel, which is attached to the Oshkosh Convention Center.

We have both plus we're working on stretching the convention out and adding some entertainment the Thursday night before (there are Thursday night concerts in the Summer called Waterfest and they usually attract decent name bands, plus we're almost done with construction on a huge downtown concert ampitheatre and that might be available in time for this) and the Saturday night after the DPW elections we want to possibly have the local theater troupe put on a political play or maybe have a guest speaker at the Grand Opera House.

ALTHOUGH IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE... Most of that will be unofficially attached to the Convention because I am pretty sure the State party would not want the responsibility of running that and bankrolling these ideas. It will be some of us in the local party that try to make the convention more than the day and a half event they usually book it to be.

Trust me I want to make the WI Democratic Convention a fun EVENT and not just a day and a half business meeting. I know there are others in the Winnebago Dems who want to do the same thing.

I may also host a Democratic Rock Concert on that Saturday night at the New Moon Cafe with some of the best local hard rock bands in the area. We'll see how it all pans out as we're only working on the planning right now.

Come on down to Oshkosh this year, we might not get the luck of the Presidential of Gubernatorial elections to piggy back off of but I am doing my best to push through making this a fun 3 day event for all. :)

Rp

Where is the Blue Moon Cafe? Is that the place downtown near the big banks?

I love Oshkosh...used to "headquarter" in Oshkosh when I sold over the road....usually stayed at the Ramada or Howard Johnson....could drink in the lounge and walk back to the room...no chance of an OWI.

I'll look forward to the convention.

on edit.....maybe there should be a "headquarters" for DUers at the convention......

I talked with him a lot during my (brief) candidacy, and throughout the Tyson strike and its aftermath. He is definitely a strong progressive; and could probably do a better job of relating to the rank-and-file, working-class Dems than Linda did.

That said, Jeff's quiet (as has been mentioned). Linda is a lot more gregarious in person, and she has very strong organizational skills. The party structure seemed to fail going into the election last year; but we won everything we expected to, so it was no real loss.

I think Linda did a good job giving some sort of order to the state party -- it's no longer a laughingstock; but it's not a powerful organization, either, at least not yet. The next party chair needs to have some of Linda's people skills and organizational acumen, but also needs some of Jeff's vision.

Jeff Rammelt, candidate for Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair, endorsed
Howard Dean for DNC Chair today.

You can view his press release at:
http://wisconsingrassrootsdemocrats.blogspot.com/2005/01/jeff-rammelt-asks-d
nc-members-to-vote.html

I am building his website - www.jefframmelt.org - (under construction) as well as travelling around preaching the gospel of Rammelt.

I believe we need a party chair who will be responsive to the county parties. Jeff Rammelt knows what it is like to fight the good fight at the grassroots as well as at the top.

He has been active in the Dodge/Jefferson County parties for 15+ years.

Did you feel like you weren't getting the support you needed from Madison? Jeff believes that we need to competein EVERY RACE, EVERYWHERE.

Jeff believes that a blank ballot or an unsupported candidate is a failure of the State party.

I know many candidates that were frustrated with the support they got from the State Party. Jeff wants to make sure Democrats can be competitive everywhere.

Here is a direct quote from Jeff Rammelt, "We need to go on the offensive to regain control of the state legislature and not keep circling the wagons."

And, "Governor Doyle's veto pen is the only thing that is preventing TABOR and other heinous Republican legislation. If we don't change the direction we are going we won't even have enough Democrats in the legislature to stop a veto over-ride, let alone pass progressive legislation."

For that reason among many others, I am supporting Jeff Rammelt for State Chair.

-jef-