Capitol Notebook » Port steps back

Port steps back

March 31st, 2008 by Derrick DePledge

Richard Port, a former Democratic Party of Hawaii chairman and an influential activist within the party, announced this afternoon that he would not run again for Democratic National Committeeman.

Port said he wanted to announce early to give others the opportunity to campaign prior to the party’s state convention in May.

Port will remain a superdelegate to the Democratic National Convention in Denver in August, where he plans to support U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York for the party’s presidential nomination.

The party’s DNC man and woman — the Big Island’s Dolly Strazar — have coveted roles in the party’s hierarchy in addition to serving as superdelegates.

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3 Responses to “Port steps back”

John Sucich:
March 31st, 2008 at 9:16 pm
Richard Port has worked hard during the past four years serving as the Hawaii Democratic National Committeeman. Fortunately I understand Jonathan Starr has been nominated for the position and will be running at the State Democratic Convention. Jonathan narrowly lost to Richard Port four years ago and was awarded the State Democratic Party Meritorius Achievment Award at the 2006 convention. He served as the popular chairman of the Maui County Democratic Party for two years and as the vice chair for four years. Jonathan has been a strong voice in the Hawaii State Central Committee for eight years. Currently he is a member of the Maui County Planning Commission. He is an active organizer in the Barack Obama presidential campaign.
John Sucich, Vice Chair Maui County District 12 and member State Central Committee.
Yes, But:
April 1st, 2008 at 10:00 am
Port is obviously aware that Jonathan Starr is running for the DNC position. He is very publicly sending a signal that he hopes someone else will step forward to defeat Starr for the position.

Port has been taking some flack lately for being a superdelegate committed to Senator Clinton after 75% of the voters in the Hawaii caucuses voted for Senator Obama. Apparently, only the 75% of the voters deserve representation and the 25% that voted for Clinton have no right to have any superdelegates representing their views?

Despite Port’s support for Clinton, his long history of work reforming the Democratic Party had earned him a great deal of support from many reform-minded and liberal members of the party and he would have been a credible candidate for re-election. He was the leader for several years of the Hawaii Rainbow Coalition, the most successful “liberal” faction operating within the party in several decades.

Jonathan Starr, despite his support for Obama, is little known outside of Maui. There is plenty of room, and plenty of time, for another pro-Obama candidate to emerge and win the position. Port appears to have called his press conference with that intention.

I think both the national committeeman race and the national committeewoman race, will be hotly contested this year. The Obama vs. Clinton divide will only be one factor in deciding the winners.
Jonathan Starr:
April 2nd, 2008 at 7:31 am
I too expect (and hope) that the wonderful passion shown at the recent Democratic Caucuses will extend to our State Convention.

I am surprised Yes, But states that Richard expressed a desire to see me defeated. We’ve been friends a long time, and I appreciate and respect his lifetime of advocacy and the fact that he attended every single DNC meeting during his tenure as National Committeeman.

It is true I am not well known among the general community outside of Maui, but many involved in Democratic issues; as well as Environmental, Social, Hawaiian, Water, Labor, Open Government and Youth Advocacy know me very well. Since I became involved in Democratic Leadership on Maui a decade ago, our Maui group has become known as the one unified force in Hawaii’s Democratic Party.

I feel proud to have led the charge, with the rest of our Maui stalwarts, standing unified in SCC meetings over the past year for the defeat of the move to have the State Democratic Committee file a lawsuit mandating closed Primaries. While it is important and admirable to keep Democratic participation central to the primary process, if the high-profile lawsuit had been filed as planned shortly before the recent Caucuses, the goodwill and participation might have been a fraction of what it was.

Gaining wider participation in our Party processes is a fine thing. We Democrats must continue to explore ways to make it easy for all of those passionate about social, environmental, workforce and community issues to feel welcome in our tent.