Wow, I am starting to sound like Pitty Patt more every day, God help me! I got word last week that besides the Chair of the party, there was only one other volunteer at the party office, and only one paid staff, the new ED, Suzie Jones Pranger. The other two paid staffers have left, Pranger confirms it in an email today;
Hello! I am Suzanne Jones Pranger, the new Executive Director of the South Dakota Democratic Party. As we continue to gear up for the 2016 Election, we need your help! The Party is looking to hire two new staff members to help propel us to success on Election Day, but we cannot do this without your support.
The South Dakota Democratic Party is hiring a new Field and Data Director and is planning to expand our staff with the addition of a Communications Director who will interact with the press, produce daily content on social media, spread the Democratic message, and help our candidates win in 2016!
I’m still puzzled how the SD Democratic party is going to rebuild itself with two volunteers and a newly hired Executive Director (who because of her previous Federal job wasn’t involved in the party much over the past couple of years). I will say this, Pranger has a good resume, and Tornberg is a fighter, but you don’t fight a forest fire with 1-gallon pail of water. If there are any Democrats in the state still loyal to the party’s mission, I suggest they join in the fight.
And I am talking about seasoned Democrats, not recent college grads that hop around from job to job to build their resume instead of building the credibility of the party. That has where I have seen the SD Democratic party crumble over the past 5-10 years, paying greenhorns to do the jobs of seasoned politicos, and not making them accountable for their poor results. I would suggest from now on you offer them volunteer positions to prove themselves first before putting them on the payroll.
I’m afraid that 2016 is going to be another disappointing year for the Dems unless they build the party first, from inside out, and stop worrying about petitions and Facebook games.