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Chris Owens runs again
No, not for that, most unfortunately, but Chris Owens just threw his hat into the ring - to run for Judicial Delegate from the 52nd Assembly District in Brooklyn. Via Facebook:
While my role as a Judicial Delegate will be limited by law and archaic, scripted procedures, this position provides a platform with which to continue the crusade for progressive reforms such as a more transparent and fair judicial selection process. Reformers have already been waging this fight for a few years -- everything from press releases to street protests! To get the Democratic County Leader to listen, we need to make noise on the inside.
And, through this campaign to become a Judicial Delegate, I am furthering my work as President of the Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats (CBID), Kings County's premiere reform political organization.
In 2006, we needed hundreds of thousands of dollars to run our Congressional campaign.
This year, however, I only need to raise $10,000.
If you would take a moment to go to my website, and make a one-time contribution of $25 -- no more -- then we will quickly be empowered to prosecute a strong campaign against Brooklyn's Democratic Party machinery. We don't need big money -- just 400 contributions of $25 each.
You can also send a check to Chris Owens for Brooklyn, 328 Flatbush Avenue, #333, Brooklyn, NY 11238-4302.
Yours for new Brooklyn leadership,
Chris Owens
So what on earth is a Judicial Delegate?
With all due respect...
Mr. Owens doesn't need 10¢ to run to run for Judicial Delegate, let alone $10k. I think, maybe, he's raising money for something else.
Sometimes contested
I hear tell from people who know that judicial delegate can be a contested race from time to time. I am, however, unaware of any contested ones this year.
With Vito out there...
... you never know what Owens will need in order to win, and it's smart not to take chances.
Baffled
Judicial Delegate is a party position. Delegates get to attend and vote at the convention which nominates the Democratic Party candidates for Supreme Court in the Brooklyn-Staten Island Judicial District. It is a one-day job.
Like any other party office, unopposed candidates do not face any election; they win automatically without ever appearing on the ballot.
There are actually contested races for delegates position in three of Brooklyn's 21 Assembly Districts; however the 52nd is not one of them. Owens and the rest of the slate he is running on is unopposed.
Moreover, the day Owens posted his appeal, July 14, is four days after the deadline for filing, so Owens must have known at the time he posted his appeal for funds that he was unopposed and would not even be appearing on a ballot.
I have often criticzied Owens in the past, but never for dishonesty. In fact, in at least one instance I commended him for his honesty in public embracing a politically risky position I happened to disagree with. If Owens needed money for his expenses as an Alternate Obama delegate in Denver, for a future race, or to help others in their races, I would say he was within his rights to solicit those funds AS LONG AS HE STATED IT WAS FOR THOSE PURPOSES. Or, if he were running, even unopposed, for a party office such as District Leader, which actually had a term of office longer than one day, and therefore would entail more expense than one day's car fare.
But to say one needs $10,000 to run an unopposed race for judicial delegate is so fundamentally dishonest and disturbing that I am having trouble believing that Owens did it. It is so unlike him.
I was thinking of posting about this on my own blog, but I do so here instead in the hopes I will hear a plasuible explantion for something that is seemingly unfathomable. If I do here an even half-plausible explanation, I will leave it alone; I am not looking for a fight with Chris Owens; just a credible explanation.
Honestly, Chris, I am sure you can understand why I raise these issues; normally, it is the sort of issue that I expect you to raise yourself.
And Michael, leave it alone--I really am not looking for a fight here. I am just baffled.
He Needs to Money to Subsidize His Soapbox Not Election
Owens is someone who would rather be a professional activist than have a paid 9 to 5 job, so he raises money to do that. This isn't illegal, but I imagine it is confusing to people who don't know what a Delegate does, and it borders on dishonest. Delegates sit in a room one day, that's it. If he wants to raise money to be a gadfly, he should just say that and be honest. By doing this, he is only raising questions.
I wonder, there are all sorts of laws regarding raising funds for political office, including judicial positions, will his spending be examined for compliance with the law?
Ummm...
He has a 9-5 job he is very happy with. So please don't talk from ignorance. I am an activist as well...with a job that takes MORE than 9-5 hours often. Many people combine the two.
As to his fundraising, I believe he wants to use judicial delegate as something of a soapbox to make the judicial convention more transparent. Not sure how he wants to do that, but given that the judicial convention was considered unconstitutional by a lower court (eventually ruled stupid but constitutional by the Supreme Court of the US), we do need more transparency and publicizing of exactly what they do and what is right and wrong about them. If that is what Chris is going to do, more power to him. It might be nice if he was a little more explicit about it in his public statements, but when I asked him he had reasonable explanations.
Fine
That's a far better public explanation than Chris has offered so far (unless, he's just posted something new).
But transparency is like charity--it begins at home. The stuff he's been posting does not meet that standard, and he ought to fix it.