Grass Roots Party Building in a Red Place

This will be the final blog I, Theresa Petrey, write as chair during the 2011-2012 term.  Tonight our Kittitas County Precinct Committee Officers will elect a new slate of officers for the Kittitas County Democratic Central Committee.  A new chair will be elected and I move "Forward" to what I hope are very productive roles as a precinct committee officer (it will be nice to have a vote!) and, hopefully, pending the reorganization votes, continued work at the state party level as the 13th legislative District Committee Woman and the chair of the Agricultural and Rural Issues Caucus.  Throughout the past two years, I have focused on the history of Democrats in Washington State, and, to a lesser extent, some political analysis.  In this final blog post, I will give a brief review of the Dorothy Stimson Bullitt autobiography "An Uncommon Life" by Delphine Haley, spend more time sharing the good, but largely unheralded work Dorothy's husband Scott Bullitt did in rebuilding the Democratic Party in Washington State, and, to wrap up my term, give a few thoughts on our local election results and our party building efforts of the past two years.

An Uncommon Life, by Delphine Haley

I was loaned this book by another professional woman in the community who got a later start in her career and I found the read extremely interesting in spite of the somewhat stilted writing style given my own late bloomer status as a business person and a lawyer.   When most people might have had an eye towards retirement, Dorothy Stimson Bullitt was just getting started and went on to found a media empire, on her own.  While it was true she inherited wealth, she also was forced by the economic times that she lived in, during the depression, and under laws that were still not favorable to widowed women seeking custody of their own children and assets, to not only hold on to her family's wealth, but to provide for her children and build on what she was left. 

Dorothy's story is not without its downsides though, she lost her husband Scott Bullitt at a relatively young age, and although Ms. Haley makes it clear that the relationship between Scott and Dorothy was not perfect and suffered strain from time to time, it appeared to be one founded on true passion, lasting committment and love.  Dorothy had what could be termed a complicated relationship with her children throughout her life somehow managing to be controlling, distant and loving all at the same time.  A question I was left with at the end of the book, and, one which I surely think the author also pondered, is what would Dorothy's life have been like if Scott Bullitt had not died an early death from cancer and had went on to an expanded role in national politics?

Scott Bullitt and Party Building

Much of the available information on Scott Bullitt was assembled by Ms. Haley and can be found in An Uncommon Life.  However, there is a blog post by another author on OlyBlog, stevenl, which also discusses the work of Scott Bullitt and appears to draw liberally from Ms. Haley's work titled Ungoverner 1928-Scott Bullitt.  A shorter and pithier bio authored by Dana Mason appears on the University of Washington Pacific Northwest Labor and Civil Right website The Great Depression in Washington State.   Here are a few excerpts from the OlyBlog piece: 

"Now the father of three children, Scott Bullitt found himself in an interesting position in the Highlands among Seattle's elite. As Delphine Haley points out in Dorothy Stimson Bullitt, An Uncommon Life, "As ardent Democrats, Scott and Dorothy were aliens in Republican territory, but, because their relatives comprised a quarter of the population, they were tolerated as political eccentrics." His Southern charm was disarming, he made friends easily, and he was a master story-teller. Where Bullitt came from, the upper class were Democrats, and he was not about to change his stripes simply because he was living in a new place.

Bullitt was shocked to discover the Democratic party had no headquarters in Washington. So he created one. In 1924 he attended the Democratic National Convention as a McAdoo delegate. He became the chief advocate for Washington State delegates condemning the Ku Klux Klan by name, but his fellow Dems lacked the will to follow. He later became a forceful opponent to the Klan-sponsored Initiative 49 in the election of 1924 which would have closed parochial schools in Washington. He also took a chance and suggested that the Prohibition laws be modified to allow the consumption of beer and lighter wines. In addition he was on record as being pro-labor.

In 1926 he entered the race for the U.S. Senate against longtime Republican incumbent Wesley Jones. As a point of trivia, Ungovernor David Burgess was also in this race under the Socialist Labor banner. Bullitt had several handicaps: he was a carpetbagger, a neophyte in Evergreen State elective politics, he was wealthy and lived in isolation from the common experience. But he was also determined and ambitious. . . .

On the face of it, Bullitt's defeat on Election Day (148,783 votes/46.52%) looks just like that, a defeat. In reality it was a dazzling success in re-energizing the Washington State Democratic Party. A network had been created, a new party was being formed from the ashes of the old. Bullitt's final percentage was not the low number slaughter the Dems had become accustomed to receiving. Sidenote: Jones was defeated for re-election in 1932 by Homer Bone and died a couple weeks after the election.

Not letting the momentum of 1926 lose steam, Bullitt entered the 1928 Democratic Party primary election for Governor. . . .It was in the course of this primary campaign Bullitt was approached by a young law student interested in politics named Warren G. Magnuson. Maggie's biographer Shelby Scates points out the future U.S. Senator always considered Bullitt to be his mentor and the "ideal politician." Bullitt steered the young man to his first statewide party convention, where the issue of dry vs. wet was hotly debated. "Magnuson," wrote Scates, "may not yet have had a clear idea about affiliation, but from practice and conviction he was truly a wet." Bullitt gave the keynote address to a very positive reception . . . .

When the campaign Hartley biographer Albert Gunns called "vigorous, muddy, and insignificant" came to an end, Bullitt tallied 214,334 votes (42.73%), "ordinarily an unbelievable number for a Democratic candidate in the 1920s," says Gunns. Bullitt won in a few counties: Cowlitz, Grays Harbor, Kittitas and Lewis.

The remainder of Bullitt's short life was filled with victory and sadness. His beloved father-in-law, C.D. Stimson, died in August 1929. The stock market crash in October threatened to eat the family fortune. Brother-in-law and rival Thomas Stimson died in an airplane crash in 1931. But there were also good things out there. His work at party-building was starting to bear fruit.

He became active with the Municipal League, and found a job in the organization for young Warren Magnuson. "Magnuson," wrote O. Casey Corr, "would never forget his debt to Bullitt for giving him a start in politics." Maggie later went on to become probably the greatest of all the U.S. Senators from Washington State. If Bullitt accomplished nothing else, giving Magnuson an entry into politics was well worth all of his work.

Elected Washington State Democratic National Committeeman in 1929 gave Scott a bigger stage. As Seattle's Hooverville expanded and the Depression deepened, he saw a kindred spirit in Franklin D. Roosevelt. "Philosophically, he considered Roosevelt the perfect candidate-- a patrician of noble purpose, yet entirely sympathic to the needs of working people," wrote Delphine Haley. Bullitt became an early supporter of FDR and helped unite the state behind him. In Jan. 1932 he stayed at Hyde Park and strategized.

It didn't hurt to dream. He was to stand before the delegates in Chicago at the National Convention and place FDR's name in nomination. Then he would be appointed National Chairman. Perhaps he would become a cabinet official, maybe Sec. of the Navy. It looked good. But then ---
In Feb. 1932 he became ill with what the public knew as the flu. But it was cancer of the liver and gall bladder. And it was terminal. He died on April 10.

The Bullitt saga and their enormous contributions to the public life of Washington State certainly didn't stop there. Dorothy Bullitt's recovery from stunned widow with three small children to building the King Broadcasting Co. has been the subject of books. Scott's son, Stimson Bullitt, also dallied in politics and became an early opponent of the Vietnam War at a time when it was dangerous to voice such opinions. For these efforts Stimson was given the honor of being placed on Nixon's famous 'Enemies List.' "

For more on Homer Bone and Warren Magnuson please see earlier posts on this blog.

Election Wrap up and Local Party Building

One of the things I love the most about the Scott Bullitt story is that he actually won Kittitas County in his race for the Governor's seat.  Kittitas County is a red, red place currently, but there was a time when, as a Republican elected official told me, a Republican couldn't get elected as a dogcatcher.  While even cursory research will show this not to be true, the point is well taken, that at one time Democrats were more visible, held more officers and were certainly very viable candidates if they were inherently credible to begin with.  Democrats still hold many city council seats throughout the county, but we are currrently not seeing those potential candidates move up to run in county wide elected offices or beyond as we might expect. 

A common misperception is that Kittitas County will not support a Democrat, but the presence of Jerry Pettit as County Auditor and Gene Dana as Sherriff attests to the fact that this is untrue.  Another myth is that we are a very small minority, also untrue, as Auditor Pettit has stated that he believes that the mix is actually more along the lines of 48%  Democrats to 52%  Republicans.  The problem is that our people don't vote as reliably as they should and when they do run, they don't understand (as a group) how much effort and funding is required to actually reach voters, even Democratic voters.  Valid criticisms have also been levelled at our local party as well for not being organized enough to support candidates. 

I would like to speak to the value of organization and local party building.  At the time I took office, it seemed that there were at least some factions of the local party that revelled in our lack of organization and our free flowing style of doing our business.  Two years past that place, I can say understand that value of being a big tent, but the tent collapses without a structure to hold it in place, suitable maintenance and repair, and so much disorganization that current leadership cannot find the tent.  This is not entirely metaphorical given our drama with our fair booth tent.

If President Obama was elected in 2008 on the strength of his grass roots organizing, it is certainly clear that organizing was even more needed in 2012.  And, it appears to be clear that is what happened in that pundits widely believe that the Obama campaign had a better ground game.  Bringing that a little closer to home, Washington State Democrats chair Dwight Pelz attributed Jay Inslee's win in the Governor's race to not letting any Democratic voter in King County "stay home."  This did not happen with advertising, it happened through party volunteers going out and registering neighbors, door belling, following up with get out the vote calls and contacts.  Consequently, King County matched its previous record turnout of 84% from 2008. 

Interestingly, Kittitas County also had a turnout of nearly 84%.  President Obama received nearly 44% of that vote.  Maria Cantwell, with virtually no presence and a conscious effort to deploy efforts in support of other candidates lost by about 200 votes at just under 50%.  What we know is that not every voter votes for every candidate or every measure.  My perception as chair is that we have significant numbers of Democratic voters who don't know other candidates on the ballot and that is a problem of reach in most cases.  Yes, I know that there are a few of you disgruntled Democrats out there who are still upset with Jay Inslee's vote on the assault weapons bill and others who became quite disenchanted with President Obama.  However, as chair after these two years, I do believe we left 3-5% of our votes off our ballots either by not voting all races or through some Democrats not voting at all.  It's that margin we need to work incrementally on encouraging participation on among existing voters and then getting registration rates up in this county.

Not only have we seen the state party become more focused in terms of ground organization but we have also seen, from reports by old timers, the state party meetings become more focused through improvement in how resolutions are handled.  To some extent, I hope that during my term the procedures, policies and other structures of doing business that were formulated will be carried forward to be built upon.  These are the kind of things we need to continue working on building our institutional capacity to execute.  This is also one of the reasons that I am now convinced that the most important thing I can do for my local party is to be an effective Precinct Committee Officer.

In discussion with other county chairs from Central Washington, it is clear that we have a trend towards these counties becoming more blue over time.  There has even been an argument put forward by Kaj Selmann, our candidate in the 13th, that if registration rates were higher and Democrats voted that the truth is that the 13th Legislative District is actually a blue district.  In Kittitas County we can do our part by continuing the hard and unglamourous work of organizing, being organized and registering voters.  Jerry Pettit, along with stakeholders from the university, has done important and historic work to improve the access of Central Washington University students to voting.

In closing, I would like to thank the 50 to 60 people who volunteered in one way or another this year.  The amount of work needed to keep our party afloat is astounding, to start it on the path to growth doubles or triples that effort.  "My" board has been so supportive and so giving to a chair with a significant illness during this term that it is hard to put into words how appreciative I am.  I still mourn the loss of Anna Powell who I did not have enough years with as a friend and fellow Democrat.  I am thrilled by all of the rank and file party members who never came to a meeting or social event but who volunteered in our office.  And, to those of you who gave money to our committee, in spite of another untrue myth that local Democrats will not support the local committee financially, may I simply say that we could not have moved our party forward during this term and into the future without those donations.  Having a small cushion has allowed us to do more and will now allow the new board to consider things like doing a Jefferson dinner for the first time. 

Thanks again and it has been my pleasure to serve you.

Theresa Petrey