"Tired of fighting w/Wolf, Penn. Dem. chair Burn to step down." [View all]

[Divernan]

(This story is dated July, but for some reason just popped up on my FB feed - and it was news to me.)
Tired of fighting with Wolf, Pennsylvania Democrats chair to step down
In a video uploaded to YouTube on Tuesday, Jim Burn said he'll submit a resignation letter at the party's Sept. 12 meeting in Gettysburg. (Dan Gleiter | dgleiter@pennlive.)

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania's Democratic Party chairman says he's stepping down, a year after a fight with Gov. Tom Wolf over the job. In a video uploaded to YouTube on Tuesday, Jim Burn said he'll submit a resignation letter at the party's Sept. 12 meeting in Gettysburg.
on July 21, 2015 at 11:25 AM, updated July 21, 2015 at 11:26 AM

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania's Democratic Party chairman says he's stepping down, a year after a fight with Gov. Tom Wolf over the job.

In a video uploaded to YouTube on Tuesday, Jim Burn said he'll submit a resignation letter at the party's Sept. 12 meeting in Gettysburg.

Burn says he wants to move past the persistent questions and concerns over his decisions last year, although he didn't say what those decisions were.

Wolf had just won the party's gubernatorial primary when he sought to replace Burn with Katie McGinty.

But Burn refused to step down and was re-elected by committee members to serve another four-year term. As a result, Wolf started a political action committee headed by McGinty called that fulfilled many of the coordinating activities the party normally undertakes during an election year.

http://www.pennlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2015/07/jim_burn_resign_democrats.html


This comment following the article really lays it out as to the incompetence of the Old Guard-controlled state Democratic party. There are far too many state and local committeemen and women whose involvement is limited to attending parties/state conventions and obtaining political patronage and other favors for themselves and their friends and families.
They do nothing to get out the vote. They don't welcome newcomers and get them registered. They don't go door to door campaigning. They don't put together lists of places for candidates' yard signs. They don't phone bank. They don't find/encourage other Dems to run for local offices. And they don't even work the goddamn polls on election days. No wonder that even though Pennsylvania Democrats have an approximate 1.1 million registration edge (as of 2012), the GOP controls both chambers of the legislature! http://articles.mcall.com/2012-01-19/news/mc-pa-republican-voter-gains-20120119_1_voter-registration-registration-gap-new-voters

The ineptitude of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party would seem to suggest that changes do need to be made. Imagine a party with a substantial registration edge being unable to get their people out to vote in off year elections and losing the PA legislature time after time again, this time to the point where the GOP has the largest House margin since 1958. The Democratic Party in PA seems to be going in reverse instead of going forward. The record is appalling and pathetic. They have allowed the minority Republicans to rule the legislative roast because somehow they cannot even inspire their constituency to get off their duffs and go to a polling station. Something needs to be done fast, because this PA Republican Party is no longer the moderate Republican Party of your father's day where people like Bill Scranton and other GOP moderates from SE PA's philly suburbs ran things. The radicals of the far GOP right are now filtering into the state party (people like Daryl Metcalfe) and there is no one to stop them in this blue state except Democrats. Yet, this party continues to display breathtaking incompetence in legislative politics. No wonder the Governor started his own organization.