Tom McMahon: DNC Executive Director Tom McMahon's testimony will also prove invaluable to the discovery process. As mentioned before, Hitchcock claims McMahon joined Daughtry in asking for his resignation, which they had allegedly been discussing since the Washington Blade published Paul Yandura's letter.
A former Al Gore staffer, McMahon also led Howard Dean's Democracy for America and served as Dean's deputy campaign manager during the 2004 presidential campaign. Bill Clinton appointed McMahon as public affairs officer in the Department of Defense. Hopefully that experience gave McMahon the armor he needs for this nasty discrimination suit.
Pam Womack: Former DNC political director Pam Womack directed the organization's internal policy. She was particularly crucial to the implementation of Chairman Dean's 50-state strategy, which hoped to spread Democratic influence to all crevices of the United States. During her time at the DNC, Womack reportedly favored gay finances more than gay people. Though she's current head of the Democratic Governor's Assocation, Womack remains a DNC consultant.
Simone Ward: Simone Ward certainly has quite the political resume! The American University and Oklahoma City University graduate worked as deputy director and finance assistant for the DNC Service Corporation. She moved on to head the Young Democrats of America at Oklahoma City University before hopping to the White House, where she worked as in the finance department. The Young Democrats soon came calling, however, and Ward went on to lead national YDA. She's currently the former deputy director of American Majority Partnership: the DNC's coalition-based outreach network. The AMP took over after the "integration" of the gay and lesbian outreach desk. [Note: We've been informed that Ward quit the DNC earlier this year...]
Chris Owens: Former AMP director Chris Owens has a long history of civil rights work, particularly with regard to employment discrimination. She also worked at the U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, as well as a five year stint directing AFL-CIO's public policy. And she certainly labored while at the AMP, where she worked with then-GLCC director Donald Hitchcock.
Owens proved to be a pivotal figure in the DNC's unfolding gay drama. It was she who had to answer for the "absorbed" gay outreach program:
[Owens] insisted that Hitchcock works with her on gay constituent outreach efforts in addition to his fundraising work.According to Owens, the revamped constituent outreach program developed by Dean will be more effective than the previous system because it will "bring in a lot more resources" from all of the DNC’s departments and offices.
"I would argue that we have more than one full-time person in place," Owens said. "One of the goals of the American Majority Partnership … is to make sure we are working across constituencies so we can use issues in a way to unify constituencies."
Gay Democratic activist Jeff Soref left his chair of the gay caucus and resigned from the DNC after the outreach scandal.
Owens currently heads the National Employment Law Project here in New York.
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Is Dean going to have sex with those cows?
Cuz, if he ain't me and my pal Mike Huckabee might want to give 'em a good spit fuck.
It is sad that people like Lucas can do whatever they want to other people and be unprofessional and underhanded while doing it with no consequences.
Nice story … but it all just seems politics as usual to me. This is the way the Big Boys (and Girls) play. I'm missing the deeper significance of the story.
The "significance of the story" is that the DNC is running away from the gay marriage issue and should be held accountable for it by this key constituency.
A written expression of this sentiment, by the love interest of a party staffer, led to the staffer's dismissal.
"Nice story", indeed…
It doesn't seem clear that Hitchcock was fired because of the letter. I don't think that it's any mystery that lots of gay people are intent on gay marriage even to the exclusion of other political issues. Not all people believe that gay "marriage" as such is the most intelligent solution to the issues relevant to partnership or family. Conservatives like Sullivan have done a great job of convincing people that gays should be best off in bougeoise heteronormative guise.That outside of that issue nothing matters as far a gay rights. WE queers need to wise up and realise that we have been misslead into believing that THAT is necessarily a substantive issue, and that we need to develope a much more responsible and rich gay platfom. I seriously doubt that a letter from Hitchcocks partner , buy itself would have any affect on a firing decision. That seems silly.
Two thoughts here…well, maybe 3…1) Much Ado About Nothing; 2) The Gay Press/Blogs have done the best job at "going green" - there isn't anything they won't recycle - because day, after day, the same page from a long ago canceled soap-opera keeps coming back…and 3) several of my fellow bloggers need a serious, medically supervised reality check - who told them that their politicall party affilation would make all their dreams come true. Those people need to call "Dr. Phil" and not "Dr. Dean"
Sorry - I had a 4th thought about this article. When did "Bitch Boy" from the Blade get the promotion to start writing the "heavy" stuff? While he may have moved on - he still entertains us with that dry, comic wit!
Patty - I guess I'm seeing a lot of in-fighting here, but I'm not convinced that it's really over issues of conscience. It's striking me as personality conflicts that people are wrapping in the cloak of bigger issues.
I don't know any of these people, and I live close to 5000 miles from DC. I obviously don't know the inside story … but based on political groups I've been involved with in the past this seems like the same old story that's repeated ad nauseam in every organization.
What does "AMP" stand for?
About Claire,
Yes, she has OMP (i.e. family money) but is the world better or worse for Claire ?? Probably better, like cats and Cher..you love them or hate them. At the end of the day we have more money. Let's get along. I believe that she is like many others by not having the savey and advice about complex state tax issues. She is not a tax scammer. She will need to cough up to our detriment. Leave her alone.