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Following the debacle that was the Clark County Democratic Convention Saturday, the campaigns and the state party are stepping in to ensure the do-over is done right.
(Quick summary of Saturday: the county party, led by chairman John Hunt, booked a room at Bally's with a capacity of 5,000, even though there were 7,000 elected delegates and at least 10,000 showed up because the campaigns called supporters and urged them to attend. The county party also didn't have enough volunteers and lacked a clean process for seating delegates and alternates to replace the no-shows. Oh, and the ballot boxes weren't secure.)
A Democratic operative with knowledge of the conversations said a representative from each campaign and a state party luminary would form a committee to oversee the convention.
As for party luminaries, the source said, just for example, a former state party chair.
Tom Collins?
That brought a laugh, so apparently not the Clark County Commissioner and former party chair.
So the receivership plan seems eminently reasonable. The problem with the plan, however, is John Hunt. As a separate Democratic operative told me, Hunt loves the spotlight, meaning he loves even bad press. (And, oh boy, is he getting it.)
So will Hunt accept some help from the campaigns and the state party? Or will he continue to blame others for his failures and turn the convention planning into a circus?
The source with knowledge of the negotiations said there's a recognition that Hunt needs to be handled carefully for just that reason.
Ultimately, however, the Democratic National Committee can tell Hunt that if he doesn't play along, the DNC will punish Clark County Democrats by not seating all of their delegates.
I'm awaiting a return call from Hunt, and read tomorrow's Sun for a broader discussion of what's at stake.
UPDATE
John Hunt called back and said there's no talk of a committee running oroverseeing convention. "There's nothing negative. It's all positive," he said.
A source with knowledge of the conversations said the Democratic operative I spoke to earlier is half right. The committee will merely offer input and won't oversee or run the convention. "(Hunt's) going to be involved." The source said it's the county party's convention and they have to be involved and ultimately run the process.
I pointed out that the Democratic National Committee can ultimately step in and tell Hunt to play along or Clark County will lose seats at the national convention.
That's true, the person said, but a big blow-up helps no one.
Why so many unnamed sources? No one wants to be named because they're all walking on eggshells around
Hunt.
This is certainly counter-intuitive. One would think he would be the one walking on eggshells, or maybe in hiding, after Saturday's fiasco.
I hope the Nevada State Democratic Party does come to the table - with the list they promised the Counties and campaigns delineating every Primary and Alternate Delegate s/elected in the DNC/NSDP January 19th Caucus and noting which Candidates the Delegates were s/elected to represent? That would be wonderful - and that's a big part of the problem - the NSDP FAILED to do that before our Convention!
All we got was a list of some 6,000 names (and that's about 1,000 short) without any breakdown on who was a Primary, Alternate and who they supported in the race. Can't blame Hunt for that big boo boo now can you?
And both of the Campaigns can be a big help, instead of jacking up their supporters with fear and driving them like sheep in a wildfire!
Maybe the leaders from the Campaigns can help sort out what we have to do to democratically determine who is eligible, and willing, to be a Primary or Alternate Delegate in the 200 or so Precincts that failed to elect anyone and turn in supporting paperwork? Again, NOT John Hunt's fault!
As far as bringing in Tom Collins, well, he's still not recovered a whole lot of respect for bullying the entire party during his brief tenure - we'd be better off with just letting Sam Lieberman hold onto the helm.
Let's save the public executions for the truly guilty, like the rotten Republicans, shall we?
UPDATE: John Hunt is the best leader the Clark County Democratic Party, (that's the people that actually show up and vote) EVER elected - and there are no legitimate grounds to impeach him or call for anyone to step-down!
Those of us on the Central Committee know what a shipwreck Hunt inherited from former Clark County Chair Liz Foley who left us in $20K debt, committed to nearly another $100K in poorly crafted contracts, and demoralized and decimated our voulteer base to nearly ZERO!
Hunt re-inspired the best and the brightest of our Top 40 Advocates and Activists, and they, in turn were able to re-convince about 100 of our most dependable volunteers to re-engage and start working for free again!
Hunt got us out of the ridiculous contracts Liz Foley had innappropriately signed without us having to pay a penny in penalties or fees - no small feat!
Hunt held the biggest and best Jefferson / Jackson Dinner EVER in the history of the Clark County Democratic Party and raised enough money to pay the back debts and get us back in the black! Yeah, there were some minor glitches with the dinner, but, all-in-all it went very well (contrary to all the uninformed critics who are trying to blow minor glitches out of proportion now).
The Clark County Democratic Convention is the responsibility of the Clark County Democratic Party - and John Hunt is our duly elected Chairman - now, let's all rally around Hunt, and our Executive Board and Central Committee and UNITE and get this mess the DNC and NSDP and the Candidates Campaigns left for us to fix - and all of them should be more than welcome to help out - FINALLY!
Oh great, another place for Abbinett's delusional comment spam.
It's one thing to rally around a great leader, it's another to blindly follow the incompetent. Hunt's proven his incompetence time and time again, and no wise Democrat would give him another opportunity to screw up. The few things that have gone right with the county Dems in the time since his election have been successful in spite of Hunt.
Incompetence is incompetence, and Abbinett's Pavlovian response to the criticisms of Hunt is seen as facilitating the problem.
Hunt should have been far more proactive with, and attentive to, the issues facing the convention. Instead, in the midst of chaos, he was quoted as saying, "It's all good."
No, it wasn't all good. It was a poorly conceived, poorly planned, poorly executed disaster.
The fact that Hunt can't come to terms with reality means one thing: he needs to go.
Oh great, another place for "Theo's" fictional, unfounded, insanely uninformed comment spam (Theo's afraid to use his real name like me, and engage in open civil debate, so he blogs from the shadows)...
...please, let's try to elevate the debate shall we?
Well, for being "insanely uninformed" you failed to dispute anything I wrote. Also, you might note that Neff, Damore, Sebelius all agree with the sentiment that Hunt needs to go.
Instead you follow, lock-step, behind Hunt, mindlessly cheerleading. You just fail to realize he's leading you into a ditch. Open your eyes and dislodge your lips from his posterior.
Mr. Abbinett,
I'm not afraid to use my REAL name. You are wrong to blindly follow Hunt. I was there; I saw what could happen when you follow a juiced in leader. Who elected him? I sure wasn't part of that process. For generations we the working public have been left out. I have been a party member for some forty years and have never been so embarrassed as this. It was simple math after all. How do you set up 2300 chairs for 6000 delegates plus all the alternates and guest and call that good leadership? Its time we the working class democrats were given a chance to elect our leaders. Our leaders have always been a group of insiders passing the torch from one generation to the next. This is just why the communist party failed!