Former Alabama Congressman Artur Davis, discussing the possibility he might run for office as a Republican:
“My recognition after losing the governor’s race was I closed a bunch of doors that weren’t likely to be re-opened.”
That's the God's honest truth. Artur Davis slammed those doors hard, padlocked them and now seems bent on welding them shut.
The idea that Davis might regain his old seat in AL-07 by running as an Independent is laughable and the "people at the national level" encouraging him to try are either idiots or charlatans.
Time to move on.
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I can't really blame him. Davis didn't leave the party. The party left him. I have very little sympathy for party switchers except in some rather extreme and specific circumstances. This is one of them.
For one thing, he's not holding office, and he's not switching parties after being elected to it.
For another thing, the Alabama Democratic Party did an abysmal job of showing this guy any semblance of support. Party leaders made it clear from the get go that they didn't like him and didn't want to have anything to do with him. (And his own decision to distance himself from Joe Reed and Paul Hubbert was far from a bad idea-- as both were a big part of what has been wrong with the ADP for a long time. This has since been acknowledged.) Davis would have had a decent chance of beating Bentley in the general election. Even Republicans conceded as much at the time. Instead we got Ron Sparks, who ran a campaign that a four-year-old could have run more maturely and competently while the ADP all but attacked Davis and did the Alabama GOP's job for it.
And yes, Davis has commented on some things that have been (and will) cause problems for the ADP. And the ADP continues to be bitter old hags about it rather than pay attention. You lost. Big time. Maybe you should rethink how you've been doing things. You the ADP are not exactly in a position to talk like you know best. Yes, Davis lost, too, but that was primarily due to the ADP strategy.
I'm sorry, but I find it very hard to fault Davis in this situation. The ADP is getting exactly what it deserves in this one and will continue to as long as it buys into the same exact Republican policy of "with us completely or against us completely." Did he vote in lockstep with the leftyist of the left? No. But he did vote like a Democrat-- quite in line with his friend Barack Obama who is also not a far left Democrat but also far from a Republican.
I left the GOP over this same childish all-or-nothing b.s. I seriously don't mind leaving the Dems over it, too.
Mooncat was as diehard a Davis primary supporter as there was and even she recognizes that Artur Davis has spat in the face of his supporters. The people that worked for Artur Davis were not the ADP leadership from that time period (leadership which has been totally replaced); they were everyday Alabamians who were Democrats. artur Davis got beat and got beat bad. The reasons are immaterial at this point other than to say he was not cheated out of the election. Even if the ADP was stuffing every ballot box - and believe me they didn't - Davis still could not have made up the difference. Artur can whine and moan about the ADP leadership not supporting him, but so can Jeremy Scherer in the Treasurer's race, Michel Nicrosi in the AG race, or any number of people who ran without party support and got beat.
Not a single one of those people has spent the time Artur has criticizing people who worked for him (including Terri Sewell) and everyday Alabama people who worked to get him elected. Politicians, like football coaches, are almost always going to get beat at some point. The ones that I respect are the ones that take responsibility for their mistakes that led to the loss. I still haven't seen Artur do anything other than blame other people and, even if he weren't switching parties, I think he'd have a hard time getting elected again.
We both know that, while he did have some support, the ADP leadership as a whole never supported and in fact directly worked against Artur Davis. The fact that he ever even held his seat in Congress at all was in spite of them rather than because of them. And yes, there are others that the ADP has not supported. Some have done well and others haven't. But none of the people you listed had the ADP work so hard against them like I've seen with Artur Davis.
Davis isn't a left-wing Democrat and he never was. I knew that from the get go. He, like Obama, is a centrist who recognized early on where the problems lay with the ADP-- problems that folks have since recognized. And the ADP has worked tirelessly against him for it. Why? Davis was right in his criticism and he was proven right, and folks in the ADP have since echoed the very criticisms he had that you guys practically crucified him for. And I'm the one drinking the Kool-aid here?
But to whine and bitch and moan that Davis has left the party? Did he suddenly change his policy stance after being elected? Should he sit in a corner?
Seems to me that you got exactly what you wanted. He's out of the party. So here's the situation from my standpoint:
Davis: "I'd like to run with your party and hopefully help improve the public view of it. There are some problems of course that I'd like to mention..."
ADP: "We hate you. We don't want you here. We don't want you to run with us."
Davis: "Okay, but you still have some major issues that you need to address..."
ADP: "Sour grapes, even though we're about to say the exact same thing about these problems you've just noted. We hate you. We don't like you. We don't want you."
Davis: "Okay. I guess I'll leave and go somewhere else."
ADP: "TRAITOR!!!"
Sorry, but I can't think of a single second where the party wanted him to begin with. Sure he had some supporters for a while there, but it was never party support. While I normally have no sympathy for party switchers, Davis didn't switch while in office and only switched after the party abandoned him. I can't think of a single reason why he should have stayed.
For a bunch of folks that never liked him and never wanted him, I can't for the life of me understand why you all seem to be bitching so much about him leaving.
The ADP did sabotage their own chances of winning anything and even with those individuals whom were in leadership aren't in charge anymore there is still this vacuum. Those in SDEC are STILL listening to Joe Reed & Co. ruining any chances of any progressive black Democrat or progressive in general of being elected anything other than the representative for the 7th Congressional district.
The self-destructive nature of the ADP is one of the reasons why I wouldn't even put my own professional reputation at risk of being associated with them because they are just plain MORALLY CORRUPT and SOCIALLY REGRESSIVE.
Explain why socially progressive champion and openly gay legislator Patricia Todd is now seriously considering running an Independent come reelection? The wouldn't have dared been allowed in Georgia at all and the SOB in the DPG would have been put on notice with the quickness. However, the scorched earth strategy seems to be the path of the ADP these days.
There is something 'not clean in the milk' about the ADP leadership and any social progressive knows this and runs like hell from it for good reason...
"It is what it is."
http://blkindependent.blogspot...
Davis should be .disappointed and bitter toward the "powers that be" such as the then ADP - Joe Reed et al. But there were thousands of Democratic VOTERS who worked for his campaign - supported him - and voted for him.
Davis had all the promise and potential of Obama. It's a damned shame he has thrown all of that away. He is my greatest disappointment - in more ways than one.
...he'd done this while holding office. And when those people did work for him and vote for him, those people were not the ADP leadership and even drew ire from the ADP leadership.
As it stands, he doesn't hold an office that anyone worked to help him gain. And as it stands, nobody with the ADP is going to help him in the future. Matter of fact, they've shown a pretty consistent tendency to work against him. Why on earth shouldn't he try to find a place that will support him?
The gubernatorial race was a lesson learned. Davis was never going to get the ADP's support. He had two choices:
1. Sit in a corner and do nothing and disappear.
2. Go somewhere where he can get support.
So if those voters wanted him to be elected so badly, would it really be doing them any favors to just walk away for no other reason than loyalty to a party than never wanted him (or supported their views) anyway? In my view, that would truly be throwing everything away. Seems to me he's fighting back.
again and again.
I once looked at a perfectly fine new car and said, "I'll bet it won't run."
Then I ripped the engine out, and sure enough it wouldn't run.
Then I said, "Told ya so."
Patricia Todd is no longer caucusing with House Democrats after homophobic bill was drafted by a fellow Democrat and now seriously considering running an Independent after present term ends.
Yeah, even my girl Patricia knows the ADP is f*cked up in their ways us LGBTs and doesn't like social progressives especially gay ones. It's kind of ironic that you are trying to defend a group that seems to tacitly allow homophobia and homophobic legislation get drafted. That's kind of scary and a nasty omen for social progression.
So obviously "told ya so" is what Davis warned you guys about...
Artur Davis as a Democrat? Naw!
Artur needs a new party - an amalgam of the "Whiner and Pouter" party and the "Any way the Wind Blows" Party.
And, do us and yourself a favor Artur - do it somewhere else.
I supported him strongly as a Democrat. And I would CONSIDER supporting him as an Independent candidate until now. I understood that politically he could not come out in support of healthcare, gay marriage etc. Issues I care about. But I sure do NOT like the things he is saying lately, including voter restrictions. And his attitude is that of a whiner. I'm done.
It's ability to run off any viable social progressive and shown they are no alternative to the ARP/ALGOP. They are just now trying to assimilate into the regressive foolishness that was already created by the Dixiecrats and the blacks (like Reed) whom possess juju beads for brains.
Patricia Todd has always been a reliable progressive in the Alabama Legislature and she is even disheartened by the tacit silence and cold shoulder. Her getting elected to office and the theatrical presentation with Joe Reed and his sycophants in the SDEC were enough to let you know that 'GAYS DO NOT APPLY' and 'SHUT UP AND DO AS YOU ARE TOLD" with the ADP support. She has been reelected basically on the backs of her supporters on the ground in the central and eastern portions of Birmingham, most of whom are openly LGBT and LGBT allies. Why is that?
These are House District 54 Rep. Todd own words on what went on this past session:
“You cannot out-Republican the Republicans,” Todd said in an interview last week. “We don’t have a message in this party in this state. We talk about middle class and jobs, but what have we done in the 136 years that we have been in power?” The final straw came during the last legislative session, when the House was debating a Republican bill to change teacher tenure. Rep. Johnny Mack Morrow, a Democrat from Red Bay, attempted to amend the bill to make teaching homosexuality a firing offense for teachers. “I’m not sure how anyone teaches homosexuality, because no one taught me that,” says Todd, who is Alabama’s first openly gay elected representative. “The Democrats felt like the Republicans could not resist voting that amendment on, but they miscalculated.” If the amendment was meant to be a poison pill for the tenure bill, it failed. Instead, Republicans got to cluck their tongues at their Democrat rivals for throwing Todd under the bus. “Even though I caucused with them, they didn’t listen to me,” Todd said. “My input was not solicited. Ideas I came up with were never done. I figured that I would be more effective as an independent working with both parties.”
“You cannot out-Republican the Republicans,” Todd said in an interview last week. “We don’t have a message in this party in this state. We talk about middle class and jobs, but what have we done in the 136 years that we have been in power?”
The final straw came during the last legislative session, when the House was debating a Republican bill to change teacher tenure. Rep. Johnny Mack Morrow, a Democrat from Red Bay, attempted to amend the bill to make teaching homosexuality a firing offense for teachers.
“I’m not sure how anyone teaches homosexuality, because no one taught me that,” says Todd, who is Alabama’s first openly gay elected representative. “The Democrats felt like the Republicans could not resist voting that amendment on, but they miscalculated.”
If the amendment was meant to be a poison pill for the tenure bill, it failed. Instead, Republicans got to cluck their tongues at their Democrat rivals for throwing Todd under the bus.
“Even though I caucused with them, they didn’t listen to me,” Todd said. “My input was not solicited. Ideas I came up with were never done. I figured that I would be more effective as an independent working with both parties.”
The self-destructive nature of the ADP is still apparent and why I'm still like "whatever" about them. They haven't learned their lesson yet. Also most Alabama progressives are running against the conservative tide in this state thus must present themselves as a moderate then you have the establishment within the party destroying any chances of them getting elected because they don't like them (for who they are) or refuse to support them at all because they were 'vetted' by the bosses. Self-destructive and sign that it will be another 30 years before Alabama will catch up with any other comparable Southern state (like SC, TN, NC, LA, or VA) on social issues.
Todd is just another example of these issues, and more are to come...
and call it the "Party of One", that's all this guy has ever been about.
Not surprised by this at all.
as I am with Artur. He ran on an issue that is essential to moving Alabama forward: constitutional reform. He knows - or should know - something about the realities of life for the people of his former Congressional district. To come out now with this BS about voter "fraud" is either disingenuous or deluded.
He'll never get on an Alabama ballot as an independent - the signature threshold is too high. The Republican Party doesn't want him, and if he really thinks he has something in common with the hateful racists who are in leadership, he's slipped a cog somewhere. He needs to settle into a high-paying law practice, write cranky columns, and move on with his life.
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