So, #arpx. I remember seeing this article float around certain circles when it was initially published. Some thoughts: https://twitter.com/davidcouchar/status/1254471868616183811

I appreciate anyone for stepping up to discuss and expose the absolute rot that continues to fragment the Democratic Party of Arkansas. I appreciate the people who have worked very hard to fix this. They never receive proper credit.

I’ll start here: If you want to write about this subject, you’re going to have to obtain perspectives from people outside of your own age group and from more than tweets. That’s not research & find the person who authored this to be an incredibly smart person/talented writer.

(You should follow her. Read and promote her work that speaks to you. She’s a justice seeker for the south and I like it.)

Now *cracks knuckles*

I never see the perspective of people who have worked for the DPA beyond current and past chairs. When I first started engaging with the state party, Beebe was making his first run for Governor. We had robust primaries on every level, dem strongholds, etc.

We had a structure in place that allowed people to cut their political teeth in a variety of ways and no one benefitted from this more than young white men waiting their turn to run for office or wanting to be “kingmakers.” Yeah, cringe.

There were many brilliant political minds who worked hard to elect many great candidates, too. The one who I thought would ultimately lead the state party is now working to strengthen the community that supports downtown Little Rock.

This was back when party chairs had a far easier time raising money. This was before President Obama was elected. This was before ethics laws made the traditional ways of fundraising much harder.

This was before the confidence of Arkansas Democrats was largely shattered.

I can still remember how gross it felt to hear Democrats talk about President Obama’s election marking the end of Arkansas being a blue state.

This analysis was simplistic as many factors attributed to this but race remains a real problem in southern politics. No one saw the anti-Obama/anti-Dem Koch-funding messaging juggernaut upon them until it was too late. Nationwide Dems were unprepared to fight it back.

Financial difficulties started before Insalaco was named party chair. They got way worse under his leadership.

To give credit where it’s due, I do believe there were debts paid off under his leadership. He also opened his home to raise money for candidates. They were cookie-cutter but they were better than nothing.

When Chairman Gray was elected, he approached me about coming on board to help triage the problems he found upon starting his tenure with the party.

Here’s a short picture of what I found upon entering the building: junk everywhere, vases from a previous event sitting on the floor still filled with old water, total disorganization, and stacks of unpaid bills.

The chances of turning over a stack of papers and finding multiple notices of unpaid bills was high. Finding unused tickets to performances at Argenta Community Theater was also real. Receiving multiple calls from the theater wanting its money was also real.

I can’t tell you how much of my time was spent nursing egos and trying to repair burned bridges. My phone rang incessantly with complaints, rumors, and other nonsensical bullshit that didn’t matter.

I remember the day we discovered the huge fines we were going to have to pay due to some federal issues from races prior to Gray’s tenure. That was one of those days where all you could do was laugh. When it rained, it flooded. No mercy.

When I see pieces lamenting the broken promises related to the reasonable expectations that Democrats should have of the party, I rarely see any progress that’s been made mentioned in those same pieces.

The aforementioned article talks about candidate recruitment a few cycles back. But what about the extraordinary work @will_watson did in 2018? He recruited so many candidates and absolutely crushed it in terms of quality. His efforts gave a lot of people hope.

And what about Chelsea Miller’s recruiting efforts? She worked so hard to build up women so they’d run.

There are examples of this across the state. Repairs are happening slowly and they’re critical.

After Gray was elected party chair, several people who supported Denise Garner called to cancel their monthly contributions to the party that were part of a program that I believe was established under Insalaco. Almost all women and many leaders within the party.

While I was sad that their contributions were coming to an end, I was happy for the separation — even if it was painful to watch. I looked up to some of them. Many of them were unrelenting gossips that I’ll get to later.

I, along with many, many others urged Chairman Gray to conduct an audit of the organization. Many, myself included, wanted the results to be released publicly. Guess what? Audits are expensive and hard to conduct when you don’t have money.

Why the audit? Because people needed a reality check. Because party supporters deserve transparency. Because it was time to come to terms with the reasons why the party would ultimately struggle to do all of the things that it’s expected to do — WITHOUT MONEY.

At some point, something akin to an audit was conducted — I think. You’d have to ask the party. I remember executive committee members not wanting any part of an audit being made public. Coming up short for a good reason why.

Now, onto the current US Senate race — Josh Mahony is a ghost. There’s no need to talk about him anymore.

I am certain the party was elated when he stepped up to run against Cotton. If you know how hard it is to recruit someone to run for something — esp a seat that large when the candidate is 100 percent going to lose — then yeah, his announcement likely felt like a miracle.

Once you’ve got a contender in that spot, you move on and work to recruit for other positions.

Should he have been vetted a second time? HELL YES. Would it have mattered? Maybe. The party can’t stop someone from running.

About the LR/NWAR turf war/feeling overlooked/being at odds with one another —

I’m from El Dorado, Ar and this is some of the most navel gazing bullshit ever. The only people who care are select people from those places.

Why would you move the state party from the state capital? Do people not realize how insanely lucky it is to have a capital in the middle of a state that naturally creates equal distances for people to drive from the furthest reaches of the state?

Now, not for nothing, but the young folks in NWAR are stepping up their game — but they’re doing so collaboratively with Dems across the state. Arkansas has an @NLC chapter and an @EmergeAmerica chapter now. (A big HELL YEAH to you guys!)

The point is that good work can be done anywhere. So, why squabble over a party HQ location? Back in the old good days I believe there were mini HQs in each district. Those are easy to have when you have money and a supermajority.

There are ridiculous impediments that keep people from running for office. The main one is money. Do you know how hard it is to run for office and balance a job? It gets harder the higher the office goes. Independent wealth isn’t something most candidates have.

Another is being able to establish a team that can get you to a victory. When things started going south for Dems in AR, many of the people who I believe would’ve been training younger generations chose to step away from politics. They had to do what was best for themselves.

Now young people in Arkansas who want to work on campaigns and maybe run for office one day are left to figure out how to run campaigns before they can win elections. They don’t see opportunities to engage and see lots of closed doors in front of them.

Some of the hungriest minds and dedicated workers are leaving the state for other campaign experiences. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard them cite the backbiting and pettiness of the dinosaurs who hold the party back as a reason to leave.

I think this would be different if they felt they had someone who they respected guiding them as they grew. But experience anywhere matters. Losses often matter more than victories when it comes to professional growth.

As for the gossips, they’re going to be in political parties no matter where you are. They’ll create chaos when they don’t get their way. Some do this when they have oversized egos. Others do it when their identity is tethered to their environment and they feel control slipping.

These people seem important to others because information is currency in politics. But the minute this group becomes outsized & exists to the detriment of the party, they should be called out and stopped.

Also, Arkansas, it’s well past time to let go of the Clinton glory days. You want your party to hold a majority in the state? Then stop letting your nostalgia and want of an archaic connection to stop hampering your progress.

As for money flowing through the party & where it’s all gone over the years: more on that later.