Democratic Party Dumps CD-22 Candidate

For a while now, the Democratic Party has had a distasteful element of nutjobs in it. They are followers of Lyndon LaRouche. LaRouche (pictured) has been friendly with members of the KKK and is an avowed anti-semite (believing Jews are members of a world-wide conspiracy), and has made many accusations that the Queen of England is a drug dealer. LaRouche is also a criminal, having been convicted of fraud and tax evasion and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

The national Democratic Party has declared that LaRouche and his followers are not Democrats, but they keep popping up in the party (usually by keeping quiet about their affiliation with LaRouche). In fact, I have never been to a Texas State Democratic Convention where there were not at least a few followers of LaRouche there as delegates (and I have been to many of these conventions).

But in the recent Democratic primary, the party received perhaps its biggest LaRouche embarrassment. Congressional District 22 (Tom DeLay's old district) is a solidly Republican district and will undoubtably return a Republican to Congress this coming Fall, and because of that, there were no really strong Democrats on the ballot for that House seat -- just a few political unknowns who were basically ignored by everyone.

Because of that, the Democrats woke up on the morning after the primary to find that the winner in the CD 22 Democratic primary was a LaRouche supporter. In other words, their official candidate was not only an embarrassment, but was someone defined by the national party as not being a Democrat.

It is extremely unlikely that the LaRouche candidate, Kesha Rogers, will win in November, but many good party members were put in a quandary. They did not want to support Rogers, but they had pledged to support all party candidates. What were they to do? Fortunately, the SDEC fixed that problem by passing a resolution.

According to the resolution, no member of the Democratic Party is obligated to support Kesha Rogers. In addition, Ms. Rogers will get no funds or other help from the state party (or the county party). Here is the text of that resolution:

WHEREAS, congressional candidate Kesha Rogers describes and defines herself as a LaRouche Democrat, and

WHEREAS, Ms. Rogers' campaign rhetoric, literature, platform positions and website confirm that she is a dedicated follower of Lyndon LaRouche and is an associate of and messenger for the LaRouche Movement, and

WHEREAS, prior actions by Lyndon LaRouche and the LaRouche Movement include instances of illegal activities, discriminatory proclamations and thuggish behavior, and

WHEREAS, the historical record of documentation, both produced by and relating to Lyndon LaRouche and the LaRouche Movement contains clear, convincing and overwhelming evidence of discrimination based on race, religion, sexual orientation and ethnic origin, and

WHEREAS, the rules of the Texas Democratic Party (Art. I, B, 1.) require that no test of membership, nor oaths of loyalty, to the Texas Democratic Party shall be used if those oaths or tests would have the effect of requiring members of the Democratic Party to acquiesce in, condone or support discrimination based on race, religion, sexual orientation, and ethnic origin, now therefore be it

RESOLVED, that no Rules or Declarations of the Texas Democratic Party that require support for Party nominees shall be enforced or have any application as they relate to the candidacy of any person identifying him or herself as aligned with the LaRouche Movement or Lyndon LaRouche, and, be it further

RESOLVED, that Members, Officers and Candidates of the Texas Democratic Party are neither required nor encouraged to support the candidacy of any person indentifying him or herself as aligned with the LaRouche Movement or Lyndon LaRouche but are nevertheless free to relate to, describe and interact with any such candidates or campaigns as they individually deem appropriate, and, be it further

RESOLVED, that the Texas Democratic Party will have no relationship with the campaign of any person indentifying him or herself as aligned with the LaRouche Movement or Lyndon LaRouche; no such campaigns will have access to Party materials or data, no listing on the Party website and no position of privilege or recognition at Party meetings or conventions.