Democratic Victory Circle: Exclusive Crap

This will guarantee that I don’t get another “exclusive” email from Dwight Pelz, but what the heck.

The Democratic Victory Circle is a boneheaded idea. The last thing you should try to do, especially when you’re leading a political party, is ever try to be “exclusive” with your communication. Instead of taking a page from Colorado vice-chair Dan Slater who blogs out in the open, Washington State Democratic Chairman Pelz is sending emails seeking donations in exchange for “insider” gossip.

Here’s his “exclusive notes” on his trip to the DNC (published here). Here is the pitch for you to donate $1,000 a year so you can keep on getting these “exclusive” emails.

From the pitch:

Special Benefits Include:

• Participation in quarterly Democratic Victory Circle events with recognized speakers and/or elected officials (i.e. nationally recognized pollsters)
• Regular updates from Chairman Dwight Pelz on state and national political developments, projects, and events
• Recognition at Washington State Democratic Party events
• Special reduced rate to attend Washington State Democratic Party events
• Photo opportunities with State and Federal elected officials
• Special recognition in Washington State Democratic Party publications and website

This kind of “insider” stuff is one of the reasons I don’t like politics.

I understand the attraction of the recognition stuff and the reduced rates, photo opportunities and other stuff that don’t particularly attract me. I don’t participate in politics so people will like me, but rather to make the world a better place (I know how stupid that sounds). Writing special emails to a special group of folks who have paid for the privilege is a quick way to making politics unbearable.

The sad thing is that his notes would actually make a nice blog post, but for some reason, instead of actually sharing what he thinks Pelz wants folks to pay for it. The really sad thing is that I don’t think he expected anyone to copy and paste what he wrote.