Matt Singer, a prominent Democratic blogger for Left in the West and CEO of the Missoula-based political group Forward Montana, is apparently vying for the post of executive director of the Montana Democratic Party.Sources who were at a "meeting of progressive Democrats” in Missoula on Tuesday night told me that Singer showed up—on warm summer evening—donning cowboy boots and jeans and announced that he would seek the post. According to one source, “he looked just like Jon Tester or Brian Schweitzer" --wardrobe wise.
I wrote a profile of Singer a few years back when I was still at the Missoula Independent. (Back then he was donning pink bunny ears for a voter registration drive). The gist of the piece was that Singer, at the time a 24-year-old blogger and activist, was going places in Montana Democratic politics. His web-savvy approach to politics had landed him a job with then-U.S. Senate candidate Jon Tester early in Tester’s campaign.
“He’s one smart dude,” Tester said of Singer. “He’s very talented. I think what he’s accomplished using Internet as a vehicle for political action speaks for itself as far as success.”
Not longer after working for Tester, Singer and a handful of young Democrats from Missoula launched Forward Montana.
I hadn’t gone back and looked at that article in a while. When I did, I noticed this reader comment posted shortly after the article ran:
By Anony Moose 11-15-07
Be interesting to see if Forward Montana stays true to its progressive roots or is co-opted by Democratic party insiders. Will stay tuned.
Interesting indeed.
Right now there’s a battle waging within the Democratic Party over health care reform. Max Baucus chairs the Senate Finance Committee, making Montana one of the bloodiest battlegrounds. Groups like the Montana Human Rights Network, Montanans for Single-Payer and MEA-MFT (the state’s largest labor union), have been fiercely advocating for a single-payer, or Medicare-for-all solution to the health care crisis. But Baucus and the rest of the Democratic Party establishment want a “uniquely American” health care reform package that maintains the existing for-profit insurance industry. Baucus has taken a lot of flak from the left flank of his party for his refusal to consider single-payer. So much so that he felt compelled to respond in a recent Missoulian op-ed piece.
Singer is firmly backing Baucus in his approach to health care reform both behind the scenes and on his blog. For that, Singer is also taking heat from the left.
It’ll be interesting to see how the health care debate plays out and how liberals react to Singer if he does ascend to a top post in the state party.
The Democratic Party will never hire Matt Singer as ED. First, there is a permanent internet record of every position and post he's ever written including those for and against various democratic office holder. The Republican Party would be link all Dems to these posts. Not gonna happen.
ReplyDeleteMatt is perhaps the smartest person I know in politics. The Democratic Party would be well served with Matt at the helm in Montana.
ReplyDeleteFurther, I don't really feel that matt has been 100% behind Baucus on the health care front. As I have read his thoughts, he would prefer single payer, but the Baucus plan (as it stood) was better than the status quo.
Matt could help the MT Democratic party. They should hire him.
I think a picture is worth a thousand words.
ReplyDeleteMatt and Forward Montana have been at the fore front of issues stemming from Voter registration, zoning, candidate recruitment and now Health Care reform with Generation-H.org... The Montana Democratic Party would fare very well with someone like Matt Singer at the Executive Director position.
ReplyDeleteThat picture is from the Pink Bunnies campaign aimed at registering voters... Forward Montana registered more voters than the county in 2008. Singer and Forward Montana stood up against the MT Republicans who were trying to suppress the voter eligibilty of surprise surprise 6000 Democrats,Native Americans, and Students.
What happened to him being "post-partisan" ???
ReplyDeleteIs it just me, or does this "meeting of Progressive Demcorats" sound a bit sketch? What does that even mean? Was it at a Democrats meeting? A non-partisan group's meeting that someone just assumed was made up of all Democrats? Or just a group of Matt's friends hanging out in the Forward Montana office?
ReplyDeleteThe phrase "uniquely American" are weasel words for corporate free market Rubinomics Flim Flam. I'm starting to think that these insurance companies are broke like AIG. They need money and so have instructed their lackeys in Congress to come up with a plan like Medicare Plan D that includes a big doughnut hole. It will force everybody to buy more insurance not less.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm also tired of the word "smart". "Smart" seems pretty relative when dealing with people in politics. I'm actually trying to find good people who might make the sacrifice to do what is right. Chris Hedges says all this about "objectivity and balance" and unemotional facts better than I do in his new piece "The Corporate Media State Has Deformed American Culture - Time to Fight Back". It's on alternet.org and a must read.
We need more passion from our "smart" people. Otherwise it just looks like cunning without a purpose other than being "in the game".
Yes this is great article, looking forward for update.
ReplyDelete