Carroll County’s Democratic Party held a meeting last week that included an election for Party Chair. Charles Templeton of Eureka Springs, beat Levi Phillips by a convincing margin. This is news because Phillips has run the county Democrats since about the time Ty Cobb was sticking cleats into second basemen.
Contrary to what you may be hearing in the coffee shops, I found the meeting to be both “big D” Democratic and “little d” democratic: “big D” means attendees behaved like Democrats; they were disorganized, full of sound and fury, and relentlessly indifferent to the passage of time. The good “little d” news is that the process was open, civil, and followed the rules – thanks largely to County JP Lamont Richie-Roberson’s occasional intervention.
Phillips argued for re-election because Carroll County, unlike the rest of Arkansas, has been successful in electing Democrats to local offices. His mistake was thinking that these officials are elected because they’re Democrats. They’re not. They’re elected because of their family histories, the indifference of most voters, and who saw them naked in high school. It’s not wrong to vote for a good ol’ boy or gal but at some point the ties that bind fray.
Templeton provided no argument for electing him. He described various civic and social activities in Eureka Springs over the past 10 years, but has no Party experience, and no apparent connections outside that city’s limits. A common theme at the meeting was the necessity of bridging the cultural and ideological divide between Democrats residing east or west of the Kings River. If Templeton is going to succeed at that, he’ll need to work hard, persistently, and demonstrate that he’s in it for the long haul. As Mr. Dooley said, politics ain’t beanball.
The smartest start Templeton can have is to work hard for Missy Jackson’s re-election as Secretary of the Party at its next meeting on March 10. Jackson has practical Party experience and institutional memory critical to shortening Templeton’s learning curve.
As a concluding unscientific postscript, I hope both Phillips and Templeton noticed that the median age of attendees was about 106, and exclusively white.
Good article, Dan.
The Dems need to look closely at the reactive and diminished effectiveness of the Tea Party. Simply throwing tenured bums out and taking a likewise radically leftist stance won’t win desired changes. negotiation + compromise = effective politics
Hi Pat – The divide is between people on both sides of the river. Common saying is you go from Woodstock (Eureka) to livestock (the rest of Carroll County is very agricultural) when you cross the Kings River. We really don’t have very many young people in Eureka. There are a lot more on the other side of the river but they weren’t at the meeting. There were lots of women, including me, maybe 50%? There were no African Americans of Hispanics and I don’t think sexual orientation matters.
I should have said Carroll County instead of Eureka Springs.
And I thought Eureka Springs was proud of its diversity. I guess there IS a divide ‘tween the elders and the millennials. Hmmm. How many women attended the meeting? Gays? Hispanics? Blacks? Just curious. I’ll be thru your town late Sunday afternoon, April 2 for the next week in Eueka.