On Wednesday night, local party leadership sent a pretty strong message to Chatham County’s incumbent and aspiring Democratic politicians: Be careful what you say. But Thursday morning, the Democratic Party of Georgia sent a stronger one back to Chatham’s Democratic central committee: Forget about it. In what local chairman Will Claiborne described as a unanimous vote, committee members adopted a policy that would effectively stop any candidate from running as a Democrat if he or she openly supported a Republican or an opponent to a Chatham County Democratic Committee-backed candidate “within the past two election cycles.” Considering the qualifying period for this year’s election cycle starts next week, that would be a big deal. An attorney for Georgia’s Democratic party, however, rather quickly advised the local crew that their newly adopted policy was in violation of “several” provisions and bylaws of both the state and national parties. “The Democratic Party prides itself on being a diverse party that is tolerant of many positions,” state party general counsel Michael Jablonski wrote to Claiborne on Thursday morning. Jablonski said the Chatham Democrats’ new rules — which defined open support as endorsing, donating and being featured in ads — were void and “cannot be enforced next week.” Claiborne, who says as chairman he did not vote on the matter, maintains the policy does not violate any local committee bylaws, but the state party’s mandate will be respected. Claiborne said he suspects the impetus for the policy came from local party members who were miffed at people who are traditionally Democrats getting behind Republicans in recent elections. “Members of the committee got an opportunity to express their frustration,” he said. Chatham County Commissioner Tony Center called it “a poorly thought out move.” For starters, Center says, the move more or less targeted recent races that have been nonpartisan. Last year’s Savannah City Council race, for example, was wide open and did not require candidates to affiliate with any particular political party.
Comment on Democratic Party of Georgia says Savannah office can't stop Republican backers from running
Dash Coleman, Savannah Morning News
Thu, 03/03/2016 - 9:07pm
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