Wisconsin Democratic Party chair Martha Laning
New state Democratic Party chair Martha Laning scored a decisive victory at the party’s convention over opponents Jason Rae and Joe Wineke.
Though it seems a bit silly to call it a partywide election. Members have to pay dues — I’m fine with that — but requiring physical attendance at the convention seems really 20th century to me. To vote, members from around Wisconsin had to devote their Saturday to driving down to the southeastern corner of a very big state.
Thus, party leadership was decided by 1,200 attendees, considered huge for a state convention. Considering the fact that Barack Obama got somewhere around 1.6 million votes in 2012, that’s slightly less than one-tenth of 1% of Democratic voters. That’s not exactly inspiring.
It also skews these elections to the truest of the true believers. Take a look at the straw poll where Hillary Clinton only narrowly beat out Bernie Sanders 49%-40%. As much as I would like Bernie Sanders to win Wisconsin, I highly doubt he’s polling 40% across a true cross-section of Wisconsin Democrats. Party conventions bring out the most ideologically pure among us, which is why Rand Paul and Ben Carson win straw polls on the Republican side.
Beyond the small, skewed electorate, it was also a messy election. The supporters of various candidates got toxic on social media. Like full-on superfund toxic. Honestly, I don’t think this is that surprising. Democrats have no power at all in the state right now. This was the first meaningful race in a while that a Democrat, by default, was going to win.
Running against Milwaukee political consultant and longtime party insider Jason Rae, Laning built up a coalition of outstate supporters and those who recoil against party insiders.
Jason Rae probably also lost some voters because he seemed too much like Mike Tate II: The ReTatening. Mike Tate was a young party chair — once the youngest state party chair in the country — who rose in the ranks by being involved in politics since he was a teenager. Jason Rae was a young party chair candidate, once the youngest Democratic superdelegate in the country, who rose in the ranks by being involved with politics since he was a teenager. Fair or not, Tate’s six disastrous years as chair were an albatross for Rae.
Still, even though the election was messy, with all sorts of baggage, I think attendees made a smart choice by electing Laning.
If Democrats held even one body of the Legislature, Jason Rae would have made the most sense to be the party leader. Rae would have been good at holding ground, reelecting potentially vulnerable legislators. But I’m not sure he is the guy who knows how to rebuild a crumbled party.
Laning, while having an impressive background in business and community organizing, doesn’t have a lot of experience with elections. She doesn’t have the Rolodex or the on-the-ground experience of running campaigns that Rae would have had.
She doesn’t know the old Democratic playbook, but right now that’s a good thing. Republicans have mastered the old Democratic playbook.
Take a look at the debate over the far-reaching changes to tenure that the Republicans want to pull off. Democrats make all sorts of cogent arguments for the benefits of tenure — the vast amounts of research money researchers pull in, the importance of quality universities to both draw educated workers to Wisconsin and keep them here, the money the state collects from patents created by the university and the intense competition between schools for top talent.
Meanwhile, Robin Vos can just say “no one should be guaranteed a job for life.” It’s a gross oversimplification, but it’s one that will probably win over a majority of Wisconsinites and keep his party in power.
Let’s see Laning come up with a new playbook. She could revolutionize the party and bring it back to relevance. Or she could fall flat on her face. Either way, things couldn’t conceivably get worse than they are now. Let’s hope this new coach has some fresh ideas.
