DINO's On The Loose?

There's been a lot of talk lately in the blogosphere (here, here, here and here), which is beginning to leak into print, about certain Democrats who have been more or less cooperative with the Republican majority in the legislature. There have been a lot of charges and countercharges, including the suggestion that they are Democrats in Name Only (DINOs), and I don't pretend vast inside knowledge about exactly what's true, but I can say this much. There have been a number of suspicious votes and cases of certain Dems voting in ways that don't match generally accepted Dem platform positions. Chairman Soechting has openly admonished these Democrats and subtly suggested that they could face primary challenges. Click here for an article about one such Dem from El Paso. This legislator charges that there could be a racial bias involved in targeting Dems for primary challenge. If true, that would be both wrong and explosive. But I suspect there is a more routine political reason--those Dems who have been challenged represent safe Dem districts, not ones where a primary challenge is likely to lead to a Repub victory.

Here in the Panhandle, that would be a nice problem to have. But there are still general issues for us to consider, keeping in mind the difference between testing for ideological purity (which seems to me naive) and making sure that elected Dems do us more good than harm (which should only be common sense). Should we recruit and/or support candidates who through word or deed identify themselves with primarily Republican causes, just because they are willing to place a 'D' behind their names? Is the price to be paid for having a "seat at the table of power" worth the results? Not only do we need to consider these questions locally, but also in terms of the way we give advice to state leadership.

We certainly want to avoid the kind of ideological internecine battles going on in the other party, but at the same time, it seems to me we need to stand clearly for certain priorities, and it is only wise to direct our resources toward candidates who are both capable of winning and willing to advance our message.

DEMOPHOENIX