King County Democrats

Read a letter from Goveror Dean (aka DNC Chair Dean) talking about his recent travels and DNC appointments
Over the past month, I've had the opportunity to see many of you as I traveled to Mississippi, Kansas, Michigan, Oregon, New York - and just this past weekend to the Democrats Abroad meeting in Toronto.
Tomorrow, I will be traveling to Tennessee where I will continue to demonstrate what I believe we Democrats must do everywhere -- 'show up' in every part of the country.

As we conclude our month long transition period, I wanted to give you a quick update on what we've been doing.

Today, I will announce the following senior staff appointments. Tom McMahon will become Executive Director of the DNC. Tom has worked closely with me for a number of years, and I am happy - and grateful - that he has agreed to join me at the DNC. Prior to moving to Vermont, where he worked on my campaign for President and later served as Executive Director of Democracy for America, Tom worked in the Clinton Administration at both the Pentagon and the White House.

We will also announce today that we are establishing a new Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. Moses Mercardo, who worked on Capitol Hill for Dick Gephardt for six years and who was most recently New Mexico state director for the Kerry Campaign, will be the Director of that office. Karen Finney, our new Communications Director, was most recently Deputy Chief of Staff for Senator Debbie Stabenow.
Prior to working on the Hill, Karen served as Director of Communications for Elizabeth Edwards and Press Secretary for Senator Hillary Clinton during her senate campaign. Mike Gerke, our new Research Director, served in that role for the Kerry Campaign and at the DSCC. Prior to that, Mike worked at the White House and at the AFL-CIO. Matt Nugen, who previously worked at the DNC, will be Director of the Chairman's Office. Maura Keefe, Leah Daughtry, and Brad Marshall, whom many of you know already, will also serve as part of my senior management team * as will Craig Kirby who will be Director of the newly created office of the Vice-Chairs.

During my campaign for Chair, I made a commitment to strengthen our party from the grassroots up. I have asked Pam Womack, who was most recently with the Democratic Governors Association, to lead the effort of working with the state parties to identify the resources and programs that they need to have in place to maximize their efforts on behalf of Democrats around the country. Pam has already assembled a team made up of individuals, who have either worked directly for or with state parties, and who will work with her on this effort. They have already held extensive meetings with one state party, and will be on the ground this week working with another. Next week her team will be on the ground in three other states.

Also this week, I am appointing an Ad Hoc Committee on Budget and Finance. This committee will be co-chaired by Bonnie Watson Coleman, Chair of the New Jersey State Democratic Party and Allan Katz, DN C Member from Florida. The other committee members are Linda Chavez Thompson, DNC Vice Chair, Patsy Arceneaux, DNC Member from Louisiana, Bel Leong-Hong, DNC At-Large Member from Maryland, Jim Pedersen, Chair of the Arizona State Democratic Party, Ben Johnson, DNC At-Large Member from the District of Columbia, Joe Moore, Chair of the Democratic Municipal Officials, and Andy Tobias, DNC Treasurer.

Later this week, I will be announcing the national co-chairs of the DNC's National Lawyers Committee. The Lawyers Committee will be housed and staffed out of the DNC and its members * volunteer lawyers from around the country -- will immediately focus on monitoring and taking action on voting rights and election administration issues in the states. They will also provide assistance on other issues important to the party.

This has been an exciting and busy month of activity and a lot of work lies ahead. I look forward to working with all of you in the months ahead as we continue to build a stronger democratic party.

Governor Howard Dean
Posted on: 3/25/2005 7:49:43 PM by robdolin@wuxx.com
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Letter from Governor Dean

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