Idaho Dems have new chief

Let's raise a toast to John Foster, new executive director of the Idaho Democratic Party. Foster's selection was announced yesterday by state party chair Richard Stallings. The former journalist was most recently managing editor of the Idaho Business Review. He replaces Maria Weeg, who left a month ago to become exec of the Arizona Democratic Party.

Something very interesting happened at the IBR during the past session of the Idaho Legislature. Largely through a blog written by Foster himself, the IBR became less the voice of big business and more of a champion for the start-up entrepreneurs and workers who really keep Idaho's economy humming. Idaho's future is in danger of being kneecapped by  legislators who refuse to address the state's growth, and Foster called 'em on it. Or as Tom Paine wrote at 43rd State Blues just a few weeks ago, the agile and alert Idaho Business Review - more so than the Idaho Statesman - was reporting on "the true and actual subplots behind the public face of these wingnut dirtbags that run Idaho."

It's also good news that Foster realizes the role that new media can and must play in changing and challenging Idaho's political culture. IDP communications director Chuck Oxley, a former Associated Press man, is still far too oriented toward old-school media, rarely citing bloggers' work in his news roundups and only minimally using the potential of the party's own website. Foster knows better - or as he told Jill Kuraitis at New West, “As a former journalist, I’m comfortable with the mainstream media, but my heart is in the blogosphere.”

So welcome, John, and good luck. We rank-and-file Dems look forward to working with you to  ensuring that Idaho is the next state to join the purple mountains of the new - and increasingly Democratic - West.

Comments

[sharon fisher]

Well, that explains why he was on a leave of absence from IBR when I met him at Kickstart last week. :)

[Julie in Boise]

I'd love to see him start (actually resurrect) a blog at the party website. That's more under Chuck O's job description, but John definitely has a knack for it.

[Jessica]

I hope the state party does something with their website. At this point in time, it is pretty useless and actually quite embarrassing.

[Julie in Boise]

Feel free, y'all, to use this as an open thread to tell John what you hope to see the state party say, do, and be these next 18 months. I know we've all hashed over that quite a bit here before, but now's a good time to revisit our hopes.

[The Nickel-Plated JA]

I met John the other night at an Ada County Party function -- I was impressed, even if he did graduate from *ewww* Borah *grin*!

Seeing the State Party active and engaged -- or at least, not acting "held back" would be in an of itself an improvement; I'm not sure how much of that was cultural within the Party office before, how much of that is deliberate on the part of Richard (whose job, primarily, is or at least should be, dialing-for-dollars from Pocatello), and how much of that was just plain inertia -- but the perceived reality on the ground was they were sitting back and letting the Brady campaign drive. After November, however, the behaviors persisted... when is the last time someone posted on the State Party blog? when is the last time the State Party did anything that looked unscripted at all? And responses have been slow in coming even to deliberate actions....

I still have yet to receive an acknowledgement, or even a condescending pat-on-the-head and gold star, for the feedback I sent in on the Delegate Selection Plan. It may be that the Rules Committee hasn't met at all yet to go over the comments (surprising, given the due date for said plan is Tuesday), but nevertheless good practices would dictate having someone acknowledge (on behalf of said committee) the receipt of such comments and talk about the rest of the process -- such as when and if the Rules Committee is meeting this weekend to process them in the first place!

I lived in Texas for a number of years, where it often seemed like the State Party wasn't interested in much outside the boundaries of Travis County (where Austin, the State Capitol, is located). Here, it often seems like the State Party isn't much interested in anything INSIDE the boundaries of Ada County beyond the four walls of its own office. I think the function Tuesday night at which I saw Dawna (and recruiting legislative candidates is part of her job description) and John (who hadn't even started yet) was the first time I'd seen, in the 10 months I've been back, any State Party staff actually attend an Ada County meeting.

[Kurt Marko]

I know nothing about the IBR, but I have followed the Legislature's actions towards business -- most often, big business. This comment struck me:

"IBR became less the voice of big business and more of a champion for the start-up entrepreneurs and workers who really keep Idaho's economy humming. Idaho's future is in danger of being kneecapped by legislators who refuse to address the state's growth,"

The state government has been played for suckers by in-state big businesses (read Micron, Albertsons and to a lesser extent MK/WGI). Micron received massive caps on their property tax assessment a couple years ago, in return for _implied_ promises of future local growth. Appleton admits that their future expansion will occur in Asia, not here; thus those promises have proved pretty lame. Similarly, Albertson's made great proclamations of their commitment to Boise just months before they sold out to a Minneapolis-based chain.

When will our political leaders realize that these enormous corporations are skilled at playing one locality against another to minimize their tax liability? I hope the new leader of the Idaho Democratic party understands that "compromising" -- i.e. finding "common ground" -- with big business is like finding a compromise between wine and vinegar; mix the two and you ruin both.

Let's have government that strives to improve the lot of the average working person -- directly, not through some trickle-down program that benefits big business with the implied promise that eventually everyone else will get a job.

[sharon fisher]

I hope that the state party follows Howard Dean's 50-state strategy and has a 44-county strategy.

[John Foster/IDP]

Hello all - Thanks for the comments. I hope everyone can give me a brief honeymoon while I get my arms around the rules and formalities governing the party. But please hold my feet to the fire right away on the Party's communication and interaction in ALL 44 counties. Brick by brick, month by month and year by year we -- all of us -- can build a strong, grassroots, inclusive, dominant Idaho Democratic Party. Contact me anytime at john.foster@idaho-democrats.org. Oh, and thanks for all the kind words.

[IdahoRocks]

I just hope that somebody in Boise remembers that there is a north Idaho and that it extends further north than Coeur d'Alene; indeed, all the way to the Canadian border. I also hope that the IDP someday understands that north Idaho receives no "big city" IDAHO NEWSPAPER; rather our news comes from the Spokesman Review from WASHINGTON. Thank goodness Betsy Russell does such an incredible in reporting what comes out of the Idaho Legislature. However, that reporting is still from WASHINGTON STATE, NOT FROM IDAHO. The only time local (Boundary County) Democrats hear much of anything about an existing Idaho Democratic Party is when the local chair sends out the news via email (to the minority who read email); or when Shelley Landry, northern Field Rep., attends a meeting and lets us know what's happening in Boise; or when northern ID Dems read the Idaho Democratic blogs. I think it's about time that the IDP had a decent website and a decent communications network so that northern Democrats became more connected to their political party.

Okay, take the soapbox away....

[Julie in Boise]

John, thank you for stopping by, and please feel welcome to post comments anytime. I can count on one hand the number of times Maria and Chuck have commented on RSR.

And thank you all for your comments.

The soapbox is still in place!