I resigned from the LCDC last night. If you were there, or if you're my husband, you know exactly why. If you weren't there, well, then, if you know me outside of the internet, I'll tell you about it. I am not going to air LCDC stuff here.
I will be continuing to walk for Mark Herring, Mike Kondratick, Dave Butler, Jennifer Wexton, and the Dem candidate to run against Delgaudio (I have my favorite, but I'll support whoever wins the nomination).
In the meantime, thank you to the people who have shown their support for me in this.
Since my version of what happened is already out there, I'm putting it here, too.
Mike Turner unsubscribed me, Stevens, and another member from the LCDems Members and Discuss mailing lists.
A friend said that Mike said that if we wanted to know why, we should ask.
So last night, during membership comments, I asked (Stevens wasn't there. He was in DC working).
Mike said that I had said, in a public forum, that I would back Cliff over Andrea; and that Stevens spoke publicly against party unity in the redistricting process and that he and a third person had given "proprietary redistricting information" to the LCRC.
He said that there is an adhoc committee looking into what their response could be to Stevens, but in the meantime, HE felt that he had to cut off our sources of information and ability to help opponents of Dem candidates.
So I said, "is that all?" He said, "yes, but I'm not going to debate you about this."
I said, "I'm not going to debate that." And I turned to everyone and said, "I never said in a public forum that I would support Cliff over Andrea. If you'd like to read what I said, you can see it at doorbellqueen.blogspot.com, I HAVE said it to individuals, and it's true that I will be supporting Cliff over Andrea. I've been friends with Cliff for nearly 12 years. If he weren't running OF COURSE I'd be supporting Andrea. If she weren't running, there wouldn't be a problem."
Then I turned to Mike and said, "I think I've been a valuable member of this organization. I resign."
Also, I want to be fair to Mike. It is true that my son was in the room at the time. I couldn't find a sitter. BUT he was wearing headphones, playing on his DS, and I had asked him please to focus on his game and that I would tell him what happened later. Which I did. It was my choice to have this discussion in public, with the knowledge my son was in the room.
Wow, Mrs. Miller.
ReplyDeleteI came here to see if yes it WAS true, after having seen an anonymous post on the LTM site saying you had resigned.
I'm not asking for an explanation or any airing of committee business. Just saying I'm a bit stunned, because I know you are an ardent Democrat, and formally leaving the local committee is a big move for anyone committed to their party.
Whatever it was, good for you to act publicly on your own convictions.
B. Munsey.
Thank you, Barbara. (You know, after 4 years of commenting on blogs together, you can call me Liz).
ReplyDeleteOh, here's a request. People with VAN access, please step up to help the campaigns I was cutting turf for.
ReplyDeleteI stand by the edicts of LCDC Chairman Mike Turner. It doesn’t matter that Stevens Miller chooses to describe himself as a liberal. It doesn’t matter that he initiated and pushed through the County an anti-discrimination measure. It doesn’t matter that he’s avidly pro-choice and was a big recipient of support from NARAL. And it sure as heck doesn’t matter he worked with the LCDC candidate recruitment zen master Bob Moses to shepherd through a big box ordinance that appeals to the Dem base.
ReplyDeleteAll that matters is Miller didn’t vote to pass the LCDC redistricting plan, now known internally in the LCDC as the County Preservation Plan that the LCDC Exeuctive Committee determined was a with us or against us decision. Screw Miller. How dare he not do everything the twice failed candidate and now LCDC Chairman Mike Turner tells him to do. The audacity.
We’re all with you CHairman Turner. Keep building this ship up. Keep expanding the tent. Keep the focus on November. And good luck with the super secret cloak and dagger witch hunt against Stevens Miller too. We’ll win this November because of that. You’re the best.
Wait a second.
ReplyDeleteMike Turner shut off your database access when you're the person using it to print out walk-sheets for Democratic candidates?
He did this without telling you or the candidates?
Isn't tomorrow a walking day?
Did Mike Turner just do something that makes it harder for Democratic candidates to win elections?
Seems like there ought to be a rule against that, somewhere...
-Not Jim Plowman
Liz - Once again you do not disappoint. I don't really know you but I do feel proud that you stood up to these shenanigans.
ReplyDeleteMike Turner - once again - seems willing to go to any lengths to demonstrate that he is a political rookie. Not sure if it is arrogance that rules him, but he has completely and totally lost my respect with his actions here.
Mike Turner's "display" last night only shed a HUGE spotlight on his poor leadership skills. He executed a personal vendetta and use you, since Stevens wasn't in attendance.
ReplyDeleteListening to Turner describe LCDC re-districting and the BoS certification made my stomach turn. Turner stated "York saw the writing on the wall and made himself unavailable for the meeting, while Kurtz was in NC dealing with a gravely ill family member", Turner went on to say glorified Delgaudio "who would have thought it was Eugene that would ensure the certification of the re-districting" at which point the room erupted into laughter. I could be wrong, but I am almost certain that Turner also said that Burton "back stabbed the LCDC, by flipping his vote".
A congratulations, too, from the other side of the aisle. Nice to see that principle beats party.
ReplyDeleteI'm impressed you can say "I want to be fair to Mike." But, to do that, don't you have to admit this wasn't a decision solely of the LCDC Chair? The Fund Raising Committee Chair concurred. So did the Membership Committee Chair, as well as the Diversity and Outreach Committee Chair. I think even the Potomac District Chair went along.
ReplyDeleteI mean, it's not like Turner is a control-freak, or anything...
By supporting a candidate running against a democrat and LCDC member your actions exposed yourself to expulsion from the LCDC. The bylaws of the committee and the State party are quite clear. Mike Turner as chair, is bound by the bylaws. Your resignation saved the committee from having to remove you. Mike showed great leadership under difficult circumstances. As an LCDC member, you should have known better.
ReplyDeleteYou're right. The bylaws are "quite clear." They prohibit support of anyone running against a Democratic nominee. As of today, with all contests still open, there are no nominees. No violation of the bylaws has taken place, because no violation of the bylaws is possible.
ReplyDeleteMike is acting like a child. His craven behavior, unauthorized by the full committee, done on his own, in secret, with no notice given to the people (all three of them, that we know of) affected (either before or after) is nothing more than a brat's tantrum.
Leaders unite. Mike Turner is no leader.
"Support" comes in a variety of levels.
ReplyDeleteIf no statements are made nor actions taken against any nominee, how does that violate any compact?
Before I lapsed on the LCRC, if there was someone or something I disagreed with, I simply didn't speak up in favor of that position. Nor did I volunteer for it.
Before Sir Thomas More finally got his head cut off, he lasted quite some time by simply "standing silent" on the matter of the King's marriage issues.
No one in any group is going to be 100% on 100% of the issues.
Tossing out a volunteer who hasn't broken any rules sends quite a message, and not one I'd think would be beneficial to the group.
And Liz, I hope the inclusion of your explanation that your son was there but occupied doesn't mean someone has criticized you for having him there.
I used to take my kids to lots of meetings when they were much smaller than your son is! We always had crayons and paper, or homework sheets, or gameboys too. They learned to sit pretty quietly in meetings and occupy themselves, and they learned quite a bit about local government in the process.
Both are teens now, and understand more than some with voting privileges about many current events, simply because they began to pay attention at an early age. Neither (especially my eldest!) has any problem with expressing their opinions--sometimes on the record. My daughter looks forward to voting for the first time this coming fall.
Happy Mother's Day to you.
Barbara Munsey
Okay, responding to several here!
ReplyDelete1) I had not, as of the Thursday meeting, publicly supported Cliff. Nor had I worked with or for him on his campaign. I was hoping that Andrea would drop out so that I would not have to resign from the LCDC, but I was going to resign before giving Cliff any support if she did not.
2) Mike had ALREADY acted to remove me, by removing me from the distribution lists and from VAN access. But by doing it the way he did, he was not following the by-laws. The by-laws do not allow for unilateral action in removal of a member.
3) Andrea, as an incumbant who has declared she will run again, is the presumptive nominee. But I had not yet worked against her, see number 1 above.
4) No-one criticized me for bringing my son, but someone DID criticize Mike for speaking against me when my son was in the room.
5) Happy Mother's Day! May the mothers who post here have a lovely day!
I have been criticized in front of my children more than once.
ReplyDeleteThey are good teachable moments.
B. Munsey
A sitting incumbent is more than a nominee. She holds office as a Democrat. As for Mike, cutting your access to LCDC assets to prevent their use against a member is prudent. This was not an action to remove you, just limit your access. You were the one who made it public. You were the one who declare your support for Cliff in a public forum. I'm sure there were "private" emails that were evidence enough for the executive committee.. Most of the people that i talked to had not heard of the situation until your resignation speech.
ReplyDeleteHis actions may have been "prudent", but they weren't legal according to the by-laws.
ReplyDeleteHowever, that's a matter for others to deal with. Not my problem any longer.
Also, it would have killed him to let the campaigns I was assisting know that I wouldn't have VAN access any longer? Seriously, it's so hard to pick up a phone? If the list servs hadn't sent me an unsubscribed notice, I would not have known I was cut off.
ReplyDeleteNo one is a nominee until the nominating process is closed and the candidate is certified to the state. Hand-waving arguments about "a sitting incumbent" being "more than a nominee" are not supported by the actual by-laws. McGimsey is a candidate for nomination, not a nominee.
ReplyDeleteMike acted without authorization, like the bully he is instead of the leader he should be.
Your use of scare-quotes around the word "private" speaks volumes, but, again, there is no violation when there is no nominee.
Mike does not have to follow the by laws - this is a personal vendetta - be damned with the by laws! The LCDC is not acting as a democratic party - I just hope that people realize this and don't hold his actions against Democrats. Mike Turner is the most UN Democratic democrat wannabe I have met in a long time!
ReplyDeleteMike does have to follow the bylaws. That is the way any committee works. As for legal, the chair and the executive committee have a lot of responsibility and can act on behalf of the committee in between meetings. They obviously were still investigating the matter and were blindsided by this public action. For all we know, the 3 involved may have been found without fault- or at least the other 2, since Liz resigned.
ReplyDeleteWhere in the by-laws or the DPVA Party Plan does it say, "the chair and the executive committee... can act on behalf of the committee in between meetings"?
ReplyDeleteFor that matter, when did anything Turner has done "in between meetings" ever been submitted later to the LCDC for a vote?
As to blind-sided, what do you call removing my access to the VAN and to the distribution lists without any notice or even the courtesy of a phone call?
ReplyDeleteAgain, the first I knew about it was when I received the unsubscribe notices from the lists. I never received even that notice for the VAN. I was cut off on a Sunday. It's only pure luck that I had already sent that day's sheets to the DEM campaign I was cutting turf for.
Since I was not working for Cliff and would not have used VAN access to help him anyway, the only people hurt by Mike's unilateral action are the DEM candidates I WAS (and still am) working for.
I guess it's a good thing we didn't have an LCDC chair like him in 2008
my goodness, there are a lot of anonymous comments here. maybe vendettas and/or pre-emptive actions are not the best things in local organizations. maybe if there are issues, they can be discussed before unilateral action is taken.
ReplyDeleteit is OK in a democracy to differ on various matters. the point is to discuss these things, not to find a bludgeon and use it. the real enemies -- from the perspective of most democrats -- are the ones trying to dismantle civil liberties, remove social safety nets, enforce ideas of morality that infringe on the rights of others, punish those with the least.
i don't see a higher purpose in treating a dedicated volunteer and hard worker for democrats as the enemy. and liz, you have enough class and wisdom and spine to keep doing the good work, on the ground, because it is what you do. because it is the right thing to do. because you care about something bigger.
Liz, are you actually saying you were a campaign volunteer for this jackass, and he didn't even have the class required to tell you himself he was doing any of these things?
ReplyDeleteYes, that is actually what I'm saying.
ReplyDeleteAlso, he won his election to Chair by 4 votes. I was one of them.
So... if you and just one other were to change sides...
ReplyDeleteWow.
Just...
Wow.
You all do know that everyone in the LCDC is a volunteer. Mike included. There are no paid positions. The Chair holds a tough unpaid position that has to deal with power grabs, spinning public relations stories and huge egos. Take a walk in his shoes, before casting the first stone.
ReplyDeleteNot-Mike-Tuner
While Mike "Tuner" was at home, voluntarily yanking Liz Miller's membership rights from his living room, she was out voluntarily knocking on doors for a great Dem candidate. This was after she had voluntarily been working for him in 2008 so he could bungle his election bid for Congress, before, in 2009, he could bail out of his election bid for the Virginia legislature, on the night when filing closed, so that no one else could run.
ReplyDeleteYeah, take a walk in his shoes, so you can see what it feels like to screw your fellow Democrats. Repeatedly.
Hey, Not-Mike-Turner, you all do know that it was Mike Turner who cast the first stone by secretly killing Liz Miller's membership in the LCDC mailing list, and by secretly killing Liz Miller's access to the database she needed to print walk sheets for Democratic candidates, right?
ReplyDeleteYou know he cast these secret stones without any authorization, right?
You know he cast these secret stones without even telling Liz Miller, right?
You know he cast these secret stones without even telling the LCDC Executive Committee, right?
You know he cast these secret stones without even telling the LCDC members, right?
You know he cast these secret stones without even telling the Democratic candidates who relied on Liz Miller for their walk sheets, right?
Mike Turner was already chucking his secret rocks, a lot of them, all while hiding in the shadows, long before Liz Miller made him go public about it.
It's tempting to say that you are right, and that Turner does have to deal with a huge ego, since that is what it takes to act like he has. Only... he did it all in secret (until Liz Miller forced him into the open).
"Also, he won his election to Chair by 4 votes. I was one of them."
ReplyDeleteIs a motion to reconsider in order?
I obviously was not at the meeting that elected him, but I would imagine it was carried out as a parliamentary motion.
If a motion to reconsider moved by a member of the prevailing majority was not made at the time or since then, a motion to reconsider the vote for chairman would seem to be in order.
I have seen it done before.
Donny! You are redeemed! A motion to reconsider would replace Chairman Mike Turner with someone else.
ReplyDeleteAn absolute guarantee of a better choice.
Nice to see you on the liberal side.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI am, however, assuming he was elected by a meeting of the executive committee/central committee or a regular business meeting. If your bylaws require the chairman to be elected by a convention or caucus, or some other form of delegate meeting, the process probably does not apply.
ReplyDeleteAs with anything, check your bylaws, rules and charter/articles of incorporation.
Sorry, Donny, that your comments went into moderation. I didn't realize that they were sitting there until just now.
ReplyDeleteAnd, re: whether or not Mike could be recalled, I don't know and don't much care since I'm no longer a member.
It'd be nice if he would apologize for taking unilateral action and restore privileges to the others he removed them from.
Holy cow.
ReplyDeleteGood for you. You are amazing. Really. I'm impressed with your wherewithal and ability to maintain a polite and professional manner in the face of some unbelievable juvenile garbage.
The LCDC has done you a great disservice and will sorely miss you.
Thank you, Suniverse! I like your avatar.
ReplyDelete