It has been an exciting week for the Buchholz for Congress Campaign. In full discloser, I am the Treasurer for the 3rd Congressional campaign of the Buchholz for Congress gang. Myron and I go way back. Over 15 years, almost as far back as Ron Kind has been the 3rd Congressional District Representative.
Myron and I first talked of this run for the 3rd in August of 2015. When he told me of his intentions I didn't hesitate to give him my 100% support. At first I thought it would be some financial, some door knocking, phone calling and normal election stuff I've been accustomed to. But it seems like it's a taboo thing to try and mount a campaign against an incumbent if you are trying to run as a Democrat. We could tell right away by the questions we were being asked at our local Democratic office that accepting a primary challenger to Ron Kind in the Primaries wasn't something all were ready to swallow. So long story short is after having a hard time finding someone that could make the treasurer commitment, I found myself doing online tutorials on how to fill out FEC filing forms.
Albeit, there was some trouble in some of the Wisconsin State recall races 4 years ago "GOP to run fake Democrats in recalls". To counter act this there were new rules put in the bylaws. I talked a bit about this earlier this week in my posting: "In Good Standing..." In that post I talk about the DPW's refusal to allow us to use the Voter Access Network (VAN).
Our campaign was working with the local Democratic Chair, Beverly Wickstrom concerning this issue. Beverly has been helpful for the most part but there seems to be some confusion in what we thought we be a good remedy for this issue. First, we were able to purchase some data through our local county Dem office. We paid less than $200 for a list of names where over 30% of the first emails we sent out failed or simply bounced. Not an expensive venture but somewhat fruitless. This was a sign of cooperation however and we chose to work with it.
The other ask that we had was that we add some language change to the bylaws to keep this from happening in following elections. Long story short we ran into an obstacle here as well. The vote to amend the wording was voted down in a county meeting tonight 12-2 with one of the in favor votes given by Myron. I had intentions of going but was delayed. Not the kind of support we would expect out of our home county.
A local Eau Claire politician, Brandon Buchanan (also a Ron Kind supporter) indicated that Ron Kind should have a lock on the Voter Access Network (VAN) because he give $30,000 to the DPW. Myron asked if his campaign was to give $40,000 would that allow us to get access. At this point we weren't even asking for access. We were only trying to get the bylaws to be more democratic and less establishment and crony based.
The essential wording we working to get in the bylaws is included in the screenshot of the email exchange we had with Beverly Wickstrom below.
The essential change was one sentence: "Democratic candidates in good standing ". So the vote to add this was lost but the story isn't over. Late last February, Capper over at Cognitive Dissidence posted this story: "AFSCME Takes A Stand For Democracy ". There he talks about this new thing in the Democratic Party this year with keeping candidates out from running by not providing VAN access. Shown here is a screenshot from one of the comments left by Lisa Herrmann the Democrats 3rd CD chair.
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So when it all gets down to the brass tax we are still in this campaign and we are determined to fight to the end, with our without the assistance of our Democratic Party. Mind you, we've had really great response from other Counties in the 3rd CD and our contributions are coming in at a steady pace.
Also we aren't the only Democrats this election season with this struggle. Our pal Debbie Wasserman Schultz seems to have her advantage too. Tim Canova of Florida is having the same problem. Tim's a strong Bernie supporter too. Go figure. See: "Debbie Wasserman Schultz's Opponent, Tim Canova, Is Denied Access to Democrats' Voter File"
We need to make a big push for contributions in the next couple of weeks so we can really give Ron a run for his money. Please go to Buchholz for Congress and click on the Donate button. Please comment and share this liberally with your friends. I know MyRon will be happy you did.