Andre’s Anger or Angst?
(I know this blog post is a little longer than usual, but it’s necessary. I’ve gotten conflicting stories from from very reliable people regarding the same event so I decided to print them both.)
Imagine it’s a weeknight and you’re at the third meeting of your new organization with nearly 100 of your closest political friends. Some of them are elected officials, aspiring candidates for office, some are the party faithful. You have a primary coming up in less than a week and you really want to get everyone motivated to turn out the vote because you’ve got some primary challengers and not a lot of voters are interested in the election.
You’re having a good time and one of your main speakers takes the floor. He’s your local Congressman who kicked some serious butt in the last general election and has rock star status inside the party. He walks up to the podium and begins to speak. And instead of words of inspiration coming out of his mouth he literally goes off on your slated candidate ticket as well as other members of the party. Shortly after he finishes, your County Chairman takes the floor and tries to do damage control. And then to make life even more interesting, one of the non-slated Mayoral candidates stops by and says hello.
Hard to imagine? Not really if you’re a member of the new Center Township Democratic Club and it’s last Tuesday. At least that’s one version of what took place.
What was supposed to be an uplifting rally turned into a jaw dropper as 7th District Congressman Andre Carson ripped into some of his fellow Democrats about their slated City-County Council At-Large candidates and accusations of him being a sellout and traitor to his race for backing Melina Kennedy for Mayor as opposed to his uncle, Sam Carson.
The Congressman basically called slated at-large candidates Zach Adamson, John Barth and Leroy Robinson “the weakest slate he’d ever seen”, said they brought nothing to the table and wanted to know how they ended up getting chosen. He also complained about candidates calling him and asking to put his name on fundraising letters and told them to stop calling him. Adamson and Barth were not there, but Robinson was.
In addition, Carson was also livid at accusations of being a traitor to his race for backing Kennedy over his uncle. Carson told the crowd that Kennedy had approached him about his endorsement for Mayor while his uncle was looking at running for city-county council. He said he gave Kennedy his word that he would support her for Mayor and he had no intention of going back on his word.
Shortly after Carson finished his terse remarks, County Chairman Ed Treacy reportedly got up to do damage control. Saying the slated candidates were picked by the precinct committeemen and ward chairmen. And if they didn’t like the slate they should have picked someone else. he told the audience he was only doing what the party faithful told him to do and told them not to get mad at him.
Treacy also said if you didn’t get out and work for the slate you were not a good Democrat. Treacy also told the crowd that they really needed to get out the African-American vote or they were going to lose in November. He told them he met the day before with 14-17 pastors from Black churches across the city and they agreed to help get their flocks to the polls to give the Democrats a November victory.
Now that was one version of events. In the other version, Carson was not angry, but he was direct in his approach.
The Congressman did talk about the slate, but what he said was that he understands that nobody wants to feel like they’re being dictated to about who they vote for and that who you vote for is a personal decision. He was saying he understood people’s angst, and he also said that Democrats needed to do a better job of ensuring that our candidates follow through with what they say they’ll do. He did not attack the slate, but instead gave them high praise the following night at a Lawrence Township function.
I am told he was somewhat bemused about the fact somebody had apparently asked him why he was supporting a white woman over his own uncle. He was also talking about the bonds of family and the expectation people had that you stand by family.
With respect to Treacy, I’m told he did talk about race with respect to the slate but provided more of a historical overview of racial politics in Marion County including a line that white candidates used to get slated and black candidates would exercise veto the decision at the primary, but he added that this time the party had a more inclusive process and gotten a more inclusive ticket because of it, and he actually held up a slate mailer to prove it. He never told people they could have voted for somebody else.
He did talk about meeting with 17 ministers that morning, but his comment was that the Democratic Party in Marion County is 27% African-American, which means that they constitute over half of the votes we need for victory. He said he told the ministers that the African-American community is a powerful voting block for Democrats, and they need the votes of the black community.
So who is a pundit to believe? The truth is usually somewhere in the middle. But the fact that people were willing to go into that much detail with the person who is considered to be public enemy #1 at Marion County Democratic headquarters says quite a bit.
Also running for Mayor is former City-County Councilor Ron Gibson. Running at-large are former city-councilor Sherron Franklin and community activist Pat Andrews. The primary is May 3.
