“It it (sic) happens that Craddick wins re-election when House members cast their votes on Jan. 9, watch for Stanley to go after Craddick's Democratic allies with metal tongs. . .”Quoted in the posting, Stanley admitted “I intend to lose some friends over this.” Now that’s an odd way to put it, but I don’t doubt that he is correct-a-mundo.
He is another Democrat fond for the flesh of children.
Alfred Stanley (really, I don’t trust people with two given names) is an Austin-based political consultant. He and his partner, Peck Young (his bookend, ironically, has two surnames – together they make two real people) have lately (2005) helped to run the campaign for a $519.5 M Austin ISD bond issue that passed. He cried foul when the board balked at using some of the bond money to improve contractor wages and benefits.
He also worked for the Nick Lampson campaign in some fundraising consultations. But more recently his partner, Peck Young, was the paid political consultant for this year’s TDP election for state chairman. He worked for Boyd Richie. Alfred Stanley tossed in $500 of his own money to Richie’s campaign.
Why not? It just came back around to the firm.
What does our sarcophagous friend think about Alfred Stanley and his new PAC?
“YAY ALFRED STANLEY!”
Politics truly do make strange bedfellows, but this is not all there is to the story. There is irony to report, and you know I absolutely venerate irony.
It’s been out in the blogs that a blogger group called the Texas Progressive Alliance will be attending Monday’s meeting of the Texas SDEC. These are people with very strong convictions and it should come as no surprise to anyone that they passed the hat among the membership and raised enough cash to buy a copy of Markos Moulitsas Zúniga’s and Jerome Armstrong’s Crashing the Gate. Zuniga is the founder of one of the nation’s most read blog, Daily Kos. The group wants to present this book to each member of the SDEC as a gesture of goodwill, giving the relationship between their group and the SDEC “one more shot”, and to show them where the Texas Progressive Alliance is coming from.
Now I haven’t yet read it, but I have read the reviews, especially the one here (still working on Take It Back by Carville and Begala), but here is the irony: the basis of Crashing the Gate is that the Democratic Party has been reduced to minority status by “high paid consultants”.
From The Stranger:
“What Crashing the Gate advocates is essentially a bloodless coup inside the Democratic party: a sidelining of the high-paid consultants who have advised Democrats straight into minority status; an eviction from the party's inner circle of the shrill single-issue advocacy groups (like NARAL Pro-Choice America) that demand absolute fealty to their positions, even if it means losing an election.”So the Texas Progressive Alliance advocates this position of losing the consultants as well . . . and “YAY ALFRED STANLEY”, too. Jeez.
Zuniga and Armstrong also advocate, as you can see from the above, the eviction of single-issue whiners and screamers who will risk the loss of an election unless absolute adherence to their thinking is not embraced.
Am I the only one here? Does anyone else see the exquisite irony of this? Those on the Texas Progressive Alliance are among the strongest advocates of ousting Craddick D’s with their “shrill single-issue” plan to plant more right-minded (left-minded?) Democrats into Democratic primaries in “safe” districts. A plan that can potentially backfire, divide the state party which right now needs unity like no other time in recent history.
We already have an opponent. It’s called the Republican Party of Texas. We don’t need another, especially within our own progressive ranks where good ideas (sometimes) come from.
So the SDEC will get copies of Crashing the Gate. Good. I hope that they read it. I know some members already have copies. I will get to it eventually. Maybe my SDEC friend, who already has a copy, and has read it twice, will lend his new copy to me.
And, really, I hope the Texas Progressive Alliance members out there also give it a read. It appears that some of them haven’t yet.
1 comment:
You are incorrect in these two facts:
"Alfred Stanley ... is an Austin-based political consultant. He and his partner, Peck Young ... have lately (2005) helped to run the campaign for a $519.5 M Austin ISD bond issue that passed."
While Peck Young and I have worked for a number of the same campaigns over the past 25 years including the 2004 AISD bond campaign, we have never been partners, nor have I ever been an employee of his firm, Emory Young & Associates.
"Alfred Stanley tossed in $500 of his own money to Richie’s campaign. Why not? It just came back around to the firm."
I donated $500 to Boyd Richie's campaign because I felt Boyd could best represent the Texas Democratic Party throughout the state. Nothing came back to me as a result of my support for Richie.
I question the applicability of the following to me:
"What Crashing the Gate advocates is ... a sidelining of the high-paid consultants who have advised Democrats straight into minority status. ... So the Texas Progressive Alliance advocates this position of losing the consultants as well . . . and “YAY ALFRED STANLEY”, too. Jeez."
I work for individual candidates and occasionally committees supporting passage of ballot propositions. All work I've done for my state and county party organizations -- usually fund-raising -- has been as a volunteer. If someone wants to sideline me, they should let me know, and I'll consider their request.
Also:
"He is another Democrat fond for the flesh of children."
Gee, does that include opposing Ron Wilson, who sold Democrats down the river on Congressional redistricing? Democrats such as Wilson are hardly children. They're self-serving, self-dealing opportunists, and we are well served when their constituents catch on and throw them over the side.
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