Yet another example of the problem with Delco Dems Chair Cliff Wilson
Just in case anybody needs any further proof of the clumsy, underhanded, and untrustworthy nature of the Delaware County Democratic Party boss Cliff Wilson and his flock of suck-ups, he gave us another prime example this week.
At the Democratic nominating convention, Wilson’s right-hand man Vice Chair Tony Campisi seconded the motion to have an open primary without endorsements in the County Council race. Furthermore, the six candidates for the three County Council seats agreed to run separately, instead of as slates.
This week, three candidates organized themselves as Democratic Victory Team 2007. And they’re fundraising together with a common treasurer. And who has endorsed them? Mr. “No Endorsements Motion” Tony Campisi.
Campisi should just resign. And the three candidates who broke their campaign pledges have seriously harmed their credibility.
If you’re a Delco Democrat, and you want to stop the nonsense, vote for David Landau, or Bob Dimond. (The Delco Times article linked above incorrectly refers to him as Bill. Good reporting guys!)
Landau had a good response to the news, though, and I don’t think it required even the slightest bit of false bravado:
“They’re free to do what they want,” he said. “I will win the primary. For the last two months I’ve been to almost every municipality, talked to a couple hundred committee people. I’m pushing my message out there to the rank and file. Every committee will be carrying me on their ballot, everywhere.”
Filed under Democratic Primary, David Landau, Equality & Fairness, Democrats, Delaware County, Elections, Candidates & Officials, Politics | RSS
I am appalled to see Tony Camipsi’s endorsement of the three candidates. Didn’t he second the motion for open primary? This endorsement helps David Landau.
DD, whoever you are, it’s interesting how you seem to only half the story from each side. Since I introduced the motion at the convention, and fought for Open Primarys in the past, and fought for that in leaders council even at the Supreme Court Candidate level since C Darnell Jones is obviously the most qualified by not endorsed,I have a pretty good Idea what happened, and by the way there are alot more than 2 camps, there are truly independent Delco Dems like myself that are definitely not in Cliffs camp, but also not in the latest entourage of Philly Lawyers, and the truth is the third side of the coin of independent thinking , hard working democrats, was large enough that neither side you mention could count the votes so the almost unanamous support for an open primary at the convention was inevitable and out of their hands.
Bill, you may not know me, but would know me if you saw me, and we’ve been on the same side of a lot of scraps in recent years. And I don’t think you and I disagree on much now.
C. Darnell Jones should be THE candidate for Supreme Court, and the State Committee did a great wrong in its endorsements.
I got involved in local politics to fight The Machine. But I’m not interested in getting rid of one century old Big Bad Machine to replace it with a new one. Independent thought is required. Being divided into camps is counter-productive. Me, I like finding candidates in whom I believe and for whom I can have no qualms about getting into the trenches and fighting for victories.
Sometimes that involves forming coalitions with other Democrats with whom not all of one’s values are uniformly shared. But I cannot and will not sit by and rest so long as Team Wilson is controlling the party. They are fundamentally undemocratic. They try to tamper with the municipal parties, they don’t help win elections. Were it not for their own frequent bungling, they would have kept on building a style of machine politics that has nothing to do with little-d democracy.
I’m grateful that you made the motion for an open primary. And I think we’re both share some abiding aspirations for our party. Unfortunately, the spirit of the motion you introduced was violated, don’t you think. Don’t Campisi’s actions amount to a backdoor endorsement from Wilson as a signal to his backers?
I imagine I would know you, I have been known to get around. I don’t agree with what Tony did at all and talked to him directly on it, the first person to break the open primary was David Landau by having his Nether Providence Committee to endorse him and then solicit other municipalities to do the same.
All this being said, I believe in an open primary, and the transition I hope to see from backroom politics of any group to an open system will have growing pains. That’s why I reached out to Cliff after the election to work with them and am part of a group rewriting the by-laws. Until the local committee people realize they have the power and the responsibility to inform and represent their community this will continue in one form or another. This is an earned trust not an endowed one, in not only Upper Providence but all of mid county we won for Valerie McDonald Roberts for Lt Gov last cycle, she came to the convention and earned our support, and was the best candidate. I guarantee you that if local qualified candidates don’t win in Nov, either will any county council candidates. All that being said, if you want to see and follow independent Dems, look to Shawn Diggory, chair of Concord, Don Dix of Mid County, Bob Stump the new chair of Haverford who is very very close to Ann O’keefe ( who I by the way believe has a lot to offer) withdrew as her campaign chair to avoid the appearance of conflict, Molly Obrien, Frank Daly of Media, and Mike Farrell of Springfield and John Butler of Marple. This is a small portion of the field that needs consultation and development.
I am running for township council here in Upper Providence, one of 2 municipalities in Delco to go for bush in 2000 and kerry in 2004. in 2005 Bill Clinton won in the first district, being the first Democrat elected in known history there. If we can win both our races this year we can have a simple majority and give voice to people in the community that have been gagged for to long, and still respect and understand the thought and positions of all the people in Upper Providence. This was not done by the county or other factions, It was done by years of hard work on the local level by many of the people of the Mid County Democrats and Upper Providence.
I’ll end with a variation on one of my slogans
‘the problems of the Democratic Party in Delco aren’t new,
the commitment to solving them is’
Thanks Bill. Hang in there. Change is coming.
Bill -
“Having his Nether Providence Committee to endorse him…” In the interest of full disclosure… it’s embedded on this site in many little ways, but I am from Nether Providence, and I was present. Your phrasing mischaracterizes the scenario… Landau NEVER asked us to take any action. But he is well-loved by the NP Dems, and to think he wouldn’t have a squad full of people ready to work for him there is just kidding yourself.
What you’re saying you’re trying to do in U.Prov. is exactly what David accomplished already in Nether Prov. We went from a 5-2 Republican majority to a 4-3 Dem. majority in 2005, with a dedicated crew, boots on the ground, etc. David understands that you build up from your local volunteers.
I understand that he has asked other municipalities to support him, and what exactly is a candidate in a local primary to do. The number of voters in May will be small… pretty much Super-Dems only.
Frankly, without the support of various committee members throughout the County, you would basically be setting up a situation where ANY well funded candidate could basically dominate the conversation even more than they already can.
I respectfully suggest that you may have an overly pure and and romantic idea of the “open primary.” Most voters who show up to the polls for a municipal primary know only a little, if anything, about the options. They weigh very heavily what their fellow Dems from their community think in such moments. To not offer some suggestions would be considered unhelpful and odd. By evaluating and sifting, committees can play a useful role.
The realpolitik reason not to endorse at the County Committee was that it would have been another fractious vote.
And whatever understanding you thought you had with Campisi, you should not be surprised that he violated the spirit of it. Nothing about the Wilson Crew has ever left me thinking that they’d voluntarily take the high road.
David knows he has my support, as do Ann O’keefe and Bob Dimond. I was onboard with David months ago as he well knows. To imply I struck a deal with Tony (quite laughable) or your ‘realpolitik’ reason for the no endorsement shows the depth of your Delco political connection and how involved you have been. All that being said, you have a nice site and I wish you well.
Unfortunately it won’t help the devisiveness in the Democratic Party in Delco.
A few quick responses:
1) I didn’t mean to imply that you “struck a deal” with Tony. I know better. But you mentioned that you’d told Tony of your opinion of his move to endorse and raise funds for a slate “independently.” And all I’m saying is that for all of Cliff Wilson’s posturing and rhetoric, based on my past experiences with how he uses his post, none of us should be even the slightest bit surprised with what Campisi did.
2) Realpolitik: Whatever reason you had for bringing the motion on the floor at the convention–practical, tactical or ethical–the reason Cliff Wilson and Tony Campisi had for seconding it WAS realpolitik. It had everything to do with maintaining as much control as possible and an inability to count votes. But as a person who supported David, and specifically didn’t support at least one obviously “blessed” Wilson-Campisi candidate, I considered it a perfectly desirable outcome to have the open primary. And I am grateful to you. Hats off, sir.
But as a rank-and-file committeeman, I also think there was another realpolitik reason for us not to have a big floor fight on that night. And that was that the press was there, and we’d just had crazy reorganization meeting the year before. It IS important that this factious body can operate effectively… at the end of the day, we are going to close ranks and get behind good candidates, particularly on the up-ticket races.
But as a personal statement of principle, I do not think at this time that it is my specific interest or goal to heal the devisiveness in the Delco Dems. I believe this situation is a result of an intractible, pervasive failure of leadership. I believe that olive branches have been offered before, and shunned. And I simply have seen too much to ever believe it’s going to be different as long as Cliff’s at the top.
That is MY opinion, and not to reflect on anybody elses. I own it.
I think we’d both agree that the best way to get past this is to get some really good people into county offices. And I have no problem with the slate you list, although I definitely wish Ann hadn’t gotten herself involved in this latest situation.
I know Ann and I know John in fact I have talked with John. I understand his reasoning for teaming up with Ann and Patricia if you have noticed. John’s campaign has been next to nothing alone he does not campaign well at all though he is one of the smartest candidates running. He just does not have the time or ability to mount a day to day campaign which is a requirement for a county office. I have sat with him on the train on several occasions and we have talked. I like him he is a good guy but facts are facts.
Tony may be working under orders from Cliff but I seriously doubt it. Its not like Cliff to silently endorse (vocally endorse yes but never a silent endorsement) a team of candidates (or just one candidate) who are not all well known or extremely well qualified. However I believe tony is doing this endorsement and this campaign management job on his own it seems more like tony. If you smell Cliff in this move then its probably because tony has been under Cliff’s shadow for to long and now he is trying to make a name for himself by creating a ticket in apparent violation of the open primary motion. Though I am sure in Tony’s mind he is acting under his authority as a rank and file committee person
Don’t let this team up thing bother you choose the candidates you want to endorse regardless of any Team. I know I am.
DD, like you I am a rank and file committee person and like Bill I am running for a township council position. Though for a different township
John Innelli never really runs for office, but he’s always on the ballot. Maybe he’s just too busy, as you say, but then one questions why we should even care to support him being on the ballot. Who is he serving?
Tony’s actions may have been his own, but they are perfectly exemplary of the kind of stunts that the Delco Dem leadership has pulled time and again. Tony has been Cliff’s right hand man.
I’m not as bothered by the team-up thing, I’m bothered by the relationship of that team to the Delco committee leadership. But I’m also not frightened by it.
I want a very different county committee. A committee with competent leadership, and an orientation toward building a party that wins in Delaware County. Innelli, Campisi, and Wilson are all part of the same tired system. They operate like a political machine, but it’s a machine with few working parts.
When you talk about this stuff you got to catch yourself and just say does the Dem voting public follow this stuff? I bet not,I bet if a poll was taken most Dem households would want to patch things up between both sides.And just fight the Republicans not find new ways to kill ourselves. And not blame the other side for not making the first move.I live in Aston and with that things couldn’t get much worse here. We have no commissioners running on our side. Expect a school board seat that Carol Cannon is running for. For which she just made a lot harder by shooting herself in the foot (some say other places)by making a comment about babies at a recent school board meeting. Don is a good person but, he gets too caught up with Cliff this and cliff that.Also,if I say Cliff to Lisa Birley it’s almost like I said Dark Vader or Hilter.One more thing about Lisa she is working my ward without permission. Yea,I have a problem with this WHY??? I’ll tell you why because when the Sestak campaign called me last July to do canvassing with a group of people in Aston ward 7 she acted like it was an invasion and had a fit. I tried calling her and emailing her and got nowhere with this woman. The canvassing was canned that week due to 100 degree weather. But,I never forgot it.
Hmm… \”patch things up…and not blame the other side for not making the first move.\” Then you attack, by name, three of your local committee members, including your chair and a Democratic candidate! Declaring open war on your own committee on a public blog? Boy I don\’t relish your position of walking into your next meeting!
The Brunner family are very well-known Democratic figures in Aston. You\’d be wise to appreciate their connections and service to the community, rather than engaging in turf wars.
I can tell by things you say that you\’re not really aware of the history in Delco. Wilson has a long history of undermining municipal committees… lawsuits and removals of locally-elected chairs, stacking committees with loyal supporters of his who refuse to cooperate with the existing committee, cronyism in the leadership pool, etc. That\’s why you find so many communities where he is so poorly regarded. It isn\’t just about style, or about philosophy. And given the history, it\’s hard to imagine how a compromise will be reached. Others, myself included, can be asked to change, but we need to see willingness to change at HQ.
Ask yourself this: where do Democrats win in Delaware County? And why is the Wilson team so poorly regarded in those places? Come down-ticket of the congressional and statewide races where we unite. Why do the Wilson slates lose and yet other candidates win mayorships or legislative seats, then endorse outsiders of the Wilson clique?
Your right dd about the above sorry . But I still stand behind my shock of what happened last year.
Also sorry to Don and Mrs. Cannon and Mrs.Birley.But after seeing and hearing the incident on Tv for the first time while typing away really got to me. Yea,it looks like I am hiding behind this but I was truely listening it to when it happened. And speaking from the heart it is frustrating to see somebody who is willing to run like Mrs.Cannon maybe not making it this time around because of it.It’s also frustrating being called a Blackmailer by Gary Robinson and, then a year later he switches parties on us.On on on and on.