TS -Humboldt Democrats focus on becom ing effective locally

Humboldt Democrats focus on becom ing effective locally
James Faulk The Times-Standard
Article Launched: 02/15/2007 04:13:43 AM PST

EUREKA -- The Humboldt County Democratic Central Committee in this off-year continues its efforts to put into effect the visions and strategies concocted over the past two years to make their party more effective locally.

This year is one that does not feature a major local election, so the central committee chose at a recent meeting to make this time one of planning and improvements. That effort got a dose of discussion at Wednesday's meeting of the committee.

The ventures include four different categories: public relations and activism, framing debates, precinct work and candidate mentoring.

”We have an opportunity where we could just take a rest ... or we could really use the time more effectively,” said committee Secretary Elaine Gray.

A series of work groups met on the four topics on Feb. 3, and developed a list of issues and potential solutions that was presented to the committee.

Discussion centered around how the ideas should be fermented and forwarded, with some concerned with how the work groups would work with the party's existing committee structure. Some, for example, worried that the group focused on framing political debates might be stepping on the toes of the current

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Communications and Education Committee.
But CEC Chairman Greg Conners said that lessons on framing messages are not necessarily the exclusive territory of his committee, although the message as put forth by the overall HCDCC should come first through his body.

Roger Smith pointed to the work of conservative partisans in honing their message, and said the discussions about how to frame debates is just about making sure everyone in the committee is equipped to eventually defeat Republicans in upcoming elections.

”There's a much bigger goal,” he said.

In other business, it seemed a good-natured homecoming when Richard Marks, former candidate for 4th District supervisor, was elected again to the HCDCC. Marks expressed frustration during the election when the committee chose to endorse a Republican -- current 4th District Supervisor Bonnie Neely -- over him.

But bygones were bygones, said committee Chairman Patrick Riggs, who ultimately voted to support Marks.

Marks was also asked if he'd exclusively vote to support Democratic candidates, given his recent support of Virginia Bass in the last Eureka mayoral election. Marks then pointed out that Democrats in the room had supported Neely against him. His election was almost unanimously supported.


James Faulk can be reached at 441-0511 or jfaulk@times-standard.com.