Oh No, Mr. Bil!
Written by admin on January 17, 2008 – 2:10 am -
Something is rotten in Indianapolis, and I think it’s sour grapes. Recently Bil Browning, my editor at Bilerico Project, wrote about some suspicious goings on at Saturday’s special Democratic caucus to select a candidate for Indiana’s 7th Congressional district (The district is having a special election due to the death of the 7th’s Representative, Julia Carson).
Browning said:
Some of the events surrounding Saturday’s special Democratic caucus to elect the candidate for Indiana’s 7th Congressional District seat after the death of Rep. Julia Carson seem a little off. Julia’s grandson, Andre Carson, won the 8-way election on the first round of voting - a grand political coup for someone who’s never ran in an election against an opponent and whose only political background is being appointed to the City-County Council for a couple of months. I’m not one for a conspiracy theory, but usually where there is smoke there’s fire and there is a lot of smoke blowing around Indy right now. I’m not saying I have all of the answers, but I have lots of questions. It’s not clear if this election was fixed or botched or both, but something just isn’t right. Follow me after the jump and make your own conclusion.
I was also at the slating event but my perspective was a bit different. I don’t believe the election was fixed. I actually thought that the election was carried out with precision and skill (considering such an event hadn’t taken place in a very long time). It “felt” political to me, but that isn’t surprising considering the event.The impression I walked away with was that the African American community has a very strong hold in the 7th district Democratic party machine. Statistically, the 7th is:
63.0% White
29.4% Black
1.3% Asian
4.4% Hispanic,
0.2% Native American,
1.7% other
Even though whites make up 60 percent of the population of the 7th, it seemed as though (at least) 60 percent of those in attendance were African American. The “Center Township Machine” or mafia, as it’s been called by some, is strong because African Americans at the precinct level are very committed. That isn’t a crime… it’s politics!
Andre’s Unfair Advantage
Bil states:
Julia announced she had lung cancer late last year and died shortly thereafter. Potential candidates were left scrambling while her grandson obviously knew before everyone else. A special election in which a maximum of only 599 precinct committee persons would vote determines the nominee. What would you do in that situation? Keeping everyone else out in the cold as long as possible gives you plenty of time to get key people in place and appoint as many of your own precinct committee persons as you can. At Julia’s funeral Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH), Rep. Carolyn Kilpatrick (D-MI) and Louis Farrakhan praised Andre and urged attendees to choose him to replace his grandmother. Kilpatrick and Tubbs Jones both claimed Julia’s deathbed wish was “Send my seed.” Yet Andre rarely appeared publicly with Julia. If I’d wanted my grandson to follow in my footsteps I’d have been pointing him out everywhere and saying “Keep an eye on this guy! He’s going places.” She didn’t.
I’m not sure why Bil is suspicious about Julia’s true intentions. If Julia hadn’t intended Andre to succeed her, why would prominent people on the national stage step up to say so? Andre’s political intentions have been talked about for YEARS. During the HRO fight in Indianapolis there were rumors flying around saying that Andre Carson would run for the city-county council seat held by Patrice Abduallah. The fact that he knew Julia had terminal cancer before anyone else may be not be fair, but it isn’t illegal.
More from Bil:
The 8 candidates for the special caucus had to pay the Democratic Party $500 each for lists of the Precinct Committee people eligible to vote in the special caucus. Confusion ensued as different candidates received different lists and some candidates complained of contacting dozens of supposed committee persons only to find out the lists were horribly out of date.I don’t know about you, but at nearly $1 per person on the list, I’d expect accuracy. Knowing that Indiana hasn’t had to replace a Congressperson in a special election in over 50 years, I think I’d probably double check everything.
The Marion County Democratic Party was responsible for the list. Ultimately, the excuse was that the county party hadn’t used the 2006 election data to update the PC lists. Mike O’Connor, the county party chair, was “out of communication” while vacationing in California the week prior to the vote. After all, California is a barren wasteland devoid of even tin cans and string for communication.
This begs more questions than it answers! Were all the lists compared? Were they all sent out at the same time? What does Mike O’Connor being out of town vacationing have to do with anything?
Bil then tells the story of how he was disenfranchised:
At 9:00am, I showed up and tried to register but was refused. After I spoke to attorney Mark Lee, I was told that they’d received another list from the county party that said I wasn’t elected. That’s true. I wasn’t. I was appointed to the wrong spot and given another precinct. And that had nothing to do with the problem at hand. I got shipped off to Dan Parker, Chairman of the state Democratic Party, who said that I had become City-County Councilor Angela Mansfield’s vice chair somehow. She had the vote, not me. Once again, I’m somehow another person’s vice and not appointed to my own precinct. There were plenty of vacancies.
Only with a signed proxy statement from Angela (who had no idea that she’d suddenly gained a VP sometime in the wee hours of the morning) could I vote. Why would she give me her proxy if she’s already there and registered to vote? I was disenfranchised.
It seems as if there was a lot of confusion about where Browning actually was appointed. Regardless of if Browning COULD vote, Carson still had more votes than anyone else… no matter how you look at it. He carried the day and the vote.
Browning then questions the process during the vote counting and the subsequent theft of the voting machines after the caucus.
Browning concludes with:
Can you read my eyebrows raising? Doesn’t this all seem rather coincidental to you?
Several folks - Democrat and Republican - have called me today to talk about this. They all have their own ideas on what happened, but all of them have been generous with their complaints and skepticism. The county party, the state party, and the Carson machine have all been blamed for dropping the ball, attempting to rig the system, or cheating outright.
I’m not one to spin conspiracy theories, but this smells worse than Limburger cheese.
I want to give the Democrats the benefit of the doubt. I want someone to explain the discrepancies and take responsibility. I want to get clear answers to these questions I’m left with:
Who was ultimately responsible for the list of eligible committee persons, why didn’t they do their job, and what is being done about it?
What was the breakdown of this extremely late update from the MCDP? How many “newly appointed” PCs were on the list? We know this update disenfranchised at least 5 people, but how many did it enfranchise that otherwise wouldn’t have been eligible?
With so much confusion and last minute shuffling, how can we be assured of the accuracy and integrity of this last minute update? After all, I was shuffled between three spots within 24 hours.
With the Carson machine a long-standing institution in Indianapolis, how are we to to know this wasn’t a done deal by party insiders?
How did the Democratic party - of Voter ID fame - end up disenfranchising so many Democratic voters?
When will the mainstream media start reporting about some of these problems with this election?
I just looked back at my notes. During the vote counting process I wrote this:
“Seeing this process up close, I’ve realized what a family affair this is. I now understand why Julia always did so well.” Successful politicians are masters of building coalitions and raising money. They use all the connections they have to secure a victory.
Saturday morning’s voting wasn’t perfect, but what election is? It showed the strength of the Carson “machine.” To that, I raise my glass!
I’m torn between supporting David Orenlichter or Andre Carson (and I like Joanne Sanders too) in the primaries. David is a huge supporter of the GLBT community and has a good record in the Indiana State House. But does experience matter? Abraham Lincoln held the highest office in the USA and has the least amount of governmental experience of any President. Andre Carson’s speech to the crowd on Saturday had echoes of Julia throughout. Carson seems to have the “fire in the belly” to run for the position, he’s very articulate, and he has a very warm stage presence.
Also, a note to the folks that say that Carson lacks political acumen…. you’re discounting the fact that Carson won! He was politically savvy enough to win the caucus vote.
When it comes to the GLBT community, Andre seems knowledgeable of our issues. I spoke with Carson shortly before the vote and he’s promised to continue the legacy of his mother. He also said that he supported a transgender inclusive hate crimes bill and Employment Non-Discrimination Act. There is a real advantage of having an African American male in Congress that supports GLBT issues, and that can’t be overstated.
The biggest disappointment in Bil’s post was his assertion that the election was intentionally thrown to give Carson the victory. His “facts” are more like directed and leading questions. Often the post seems more like a 9/11 conspiracy plot going FWD: than actual facts. He pieces questions together to push the reader towards thinking that corruption is the only possible answer to his questions. It kind of goes like this:
This is Carolene Mays:
I wonder if Bil is secretly wanting to vote for her?
He seems pretty nervous, could it be because I know his secret?
It looks as if she’s really hooking him in! Notice he’s closer now!
OMG, SHE’S GOT BIL BROWNING!
NO! SAY IT’S NOT SO, BIL!
It would seem that Bil Browning cares more about party politics than GLBT issues. Really, Bil, how could you?
See how easy that was? The only problem is that it’s not true. Bil’s a long time support of the community, before politics. We ought to give Andre Carson the benefit of the doubt, and stop with the conspiracy theories. I’m willing to do that for my party and for my community. I hope Bil does too.
Tags: Andre Carson, Bil Browning, Carolene Mays, Indiana Democratic Party
Posted in 7th District, Democratic Party, Indiana Democratic Party |
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