Tonight's DCDSC Vote

[jsteele]

Tonight the 78 members of the DC Democratic State Committee are meeting to vote for someone to fill Kwame Brown's former At-Large Council seat. It has appeared for some time that Vincent Orange had this sown up and he has been doing everything except measuring the curtains in the office. However, Sekou Biddle, currently a member of the State Board of Education, has come more or less out of nowhere to present a very strong challenge. Biddle has received the endorsement of Brown and several members of the Council.

While nobody from the DCDSC is likely to see this post and they wouldn't care about my opinion if they did, I'd just like to state that I strongly support Biddle. I don't agree with him on everything. While we haven't discussed it, I suspect we have different opinions regarding the best course for education reform in the District. Nevertheless, I have a great appreciation for his abilities as a politician and feel that he would be a very good Council Member. If Biddle fails to win the seat tonight, I believe he will be running in the special election that will be held to select a permanent replacement for Kwame. If so, he will have my full support.

[Anonymous]

Don't be so sure that no member of the DCDSC will see your post! As the National Committeeman of the DC Young Democrats I am a voting member of the DCDSC and am happy to report that the DC Young Democrats were the first to endorse him. My colleagues and I are looking forward to supporting Sekou to victory tonight.

Best,
Dan

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:Don't be so sure that no member of the DCDSC will see your post! As the National Committeeman of the DC Young Democrats I am a voting member of the DCDSC and am happy to report that the DC Young Democrats were the first to endorse him. My colleagues and I are looking forward to supporting Sekou to victory tonight.

Best,
Dan

Dan, that's great! Good luck tonight. I hope you are on the winning side.

[Anonymous]

Vincent Orange is a fun guy, knows how to have a good time too bad Harold Brazil isn't around to go drinking with

[Anonymous]

The groundswell for Sekou over the past 48 hours has been nothing short of amazing. I hope he wins and wins again in April.

[Anonymous]

Dan, any thoughts on this Tweet from Mike DeBonis on Tuesday? Is this just posturing by Orange?

Just spoke to V.O. about expectations for Thursday's DCDSC vote: "All I know is, I got this, and I probably got it on the first ballot.

[jsteele]

Good news. Biddle won. It took three rounds of voting with Biddle getting the most, but not a majority in the first round, a tie in the second, and Biddle getting a majority in the third round. There is probably going to be some griping that Kwame Brown showed up to twist arms and probably made the difference.

[Anonymous]

test

[Anonymous]

Not only did Kwame Brown show up but Marion Barry, Tommy Wells and Harry Thomas...can you say voter intimidation.

If anyone knows anything about SNCC, then they know that this is the organization that backed Sekou Biddle. Marion Barry, Kwame Brown's father, Harry Thomas' father all members.

What is SNCC?
The Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee or SNCC (pronounced “Snick”) emerged from the student sit-ins that erupted on February 1, 1960 in Greensboro, North Carolina. Although just four students launched these sit-ins, within two months thousands of students across the south were engaged in similar protests against racial segregation. On April 15, 1960, some 200 of these campus-based activists began meeting in Raleigh, North Carolina on the campus of what is now Shaw University and formed SNCC. In 1961, a handful of these activists committed to full-time work in the southern civil rights struggle; some of them postponing their college plans. SNCC became an organization of grassroots organizers.

Historians characterize SNCC as the movement’s “cutting edge”. Its “field secretaries” worked in the most dangerous parts of the south seeking to both cultivate and reinforce local leadership. Its uncompromising style of non-violent direct action confronted racial injustice throughout the South and contributed to the elimination of racial segregation. And SNCC’s unique “from-the-bottom-up” approach to organizing led to the emergence of powerful grassroots organizations.

With “One Man, One Vote” voter registration campaigns SNCC paved the way for a new generation of black elected officials across the south. By breaking the grip of “Dixiecrats” on southern politics they changed forever politics in America. It is this work that laid the foundation for the election of America’s first African-American President, Barack Obama.

Now, 50 years after its birth, veterans of SNCC are planning a major gathering, partly to commemorate its founding, but also to begin a serious effort at documenting the still under-recognized impact of this organization of young people, most of whom had not reached the age of 25. This 50th reunion and commemoration will emphasize stories and presentations by those who fought the battles, suffered the agonies and achieved the victories in one of the most far-reaching struggles for human rights in the 20th Century.

SNCC veterans have continued to seek meaningful social change, and working to insure that all people had access to vote. Among these veterans are John Lewis, Julian Bond, and Eleanor Holmes Norton, who will be joining the commemoration to tell their stories as student activists. Importantly at this commemoration, they and other SNCC veterans will be reaching out to young people who are searching for ways to tackle the unfinished social, political and economic issues that confront them as 21st century activists.

Finally, the conference will formally signal the beginning of the SNCC Legacy Program, a historical preservation and interpretation process that will record the oral histories, collect the original records, photographs, videotapes and publications produced by SNCC workers that collectively tell the story of this remarkable movement of young people.

[Anonymous]

Biddle was willing to take the risk, and he will have an opportunity to prove himself to the DC Voters.

The city charter gives the party of the vacating seat the right to fill it. Is this a good policy? Probably not, but in most jurisdictions, it would be the governor or mayor who appoints someone, so either way it is flawed.

It is what it is, but Biddle is better than Orange, or just about anyone else who put themselves out there for this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dan, any thoughts on this Tweet from Mike DeBonis on Tuesday? Is this just posturing by Orange?

Just spoke to V.O. about expectations for Thursday's DCDSC vote: "All I know is, I got this, and I probably got it on the first ballot.

What a douchebag V.O. is.