FlaNative's Blog

Some interesting stuff.  Delegate vote fixing?  In fighting?  What else is there??

 

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2008
/06/obama-wont-like.html

It is not going to be a good day for Barack Obama's Florida finance chairman Kirk Wagar.

Late Thursday, Florida DNC member Jon Ausman released excerpts from a series of e-mail exchanges in which Wagar, a Miami lawyer, criticizes U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and rips into Ausman with the kind of language we'd never get into the newspaper.

"You (expletive) us," a June 6 note from Wagar to Ausman says. "We are dealing with it. You need to accept the fact that you (expletive) us."

Another note reads: "If 30 people are all that are (expletive) off ... we have done pretty well."

About Nelson, Wagar wrote, "I am getting very sick of Nelson making a bad situation worse" and "Let me be clear as a bell: As of right now, you (Ausman) have made a difficult situation worse. We have been put in a bad situation by Leonard (Joseph) and Nelson and you have just thrown your lot in with them."

Leonard Joseph is the executive director of the Florida Democratic Party.

The dispute centers on how delegates to the Democratic National Convention will be selected. Ausman has said he is concerned that the Obama campaign will try to remove some delegates -- as many as 30 -- and replace them with people who have been more supportive of the Illinois senator.

Ausman said that dismissing some delegates in favor of handpicked supporters would hurt party unity and make it harder for Democrats of different stripes to rally around the presumed nominee.

Ausman is the Tallahassee Democrat who drew national attention with his efforts to get Florida's representatives to the Democratic convention reinstated. The DNC had stripped the state of those delegates as a punishment for violating party primary rules. During his campaign, Ausman kept in constant touch with the media, e-mailing them with updates on his progress.

After an agreement was reached on how to seat the delegates -- each one would get half a vote -- Ausman and Wagar began corresponding over who would actually be seated. Ausman, in the message sent late Thursday to reporters, suggests Wagar became hostile.

Wagar, in an apology/explanation he prepared said he was "sorry" for and "embarassed" by the language and tone he used. But he said Ausman had become difficult to work with.

"At every turn, Jon Ausman demanded his pound of flesh," Wagar's e-mail said. "This was about Jon's ego and his view that control over party rules was his only power."

With respect to Nelson, Wagar said that he and the senator also disagreed over the process for selecting the delegates. But Wagar insisted that he didn't "malign (Nelson) in private nor in the excerpts Jon blasted out." He accused Ausman of using "out of context snippets" from what were admittedly "sometimes heated arguments."

The details of the dispute will matter only to political wonks, but its disclosure makes for bad public relations. The Obama campaign desperately wants to win Florida, but it now may first have to explain why its finance chief here is dissing a sitting Democratic senator and dropping the "F-bomb" on other party officials.

Ausman's e-mail is included below followed by Wagar's response.

Dear Mr. Wagar:   This evening I received an email from you (which is provided in its entirety below) in which you are surprised and hurt that some of the notes I received from you are painful.  I have never told a single person you have mistreated me.   When I filed the appeals before the Democratic National Committee Rules and Bylaws Committee I was trying to begin the healing process so Florida Democrats could unite and more forward together.   However, Kirk, as the Obama Florida Finance Chair you represent the campaign.  When you make disparging about others to me, issue threats or insult me directly some might call that mistreatment.   As an ambassador for Senator Obama I would hope you would be more temperate, more inclusionary, more embracing of others, more unifying.   We are at a point in time when we need to heal and come together.  Help me understand how these messages, which you have sent to me in writing, help Senator Obama's campaign.  I only am sending you some of the more recent messages you have sent me.   

You (Jon Ausman) (expetive) us. We are dealing with it. You need to accept the fact that you (expletive) us.

 

Kirk Wagar, 6 June 2008, 4:40 PM

 

 

   

The process is just beginning and we are trying to amass credentials so   no one gets (expletive)….People (already selected as delegates) who simply want a   free trip to Denver are not my concern.

 

Kirk Wager, 6 June 2008 at 7:17 PM

 

 

   

Let me be as clear as a bell, as of right now you (Jon Ausman) have   made a difficult situation worse. We have been put in a bad situation by   Leonard (Joseph) and (Senator) Nelson and you have just thrown your lot in   with them.

 

Kirk Wager, 6 June 2008 at 8:14 AM

From: Kirk Wagar
Sent: Friday, June 13, 2008 12:41 AM
To: Kirk W.B. Wagar
Subject: Jon Ausman's email

 

Friends and fellow Democrats

 

I don’t know if you have received Florida DNC member Jon Ausman’s email about me yet but I assume you will.  He has chosen to subject folks to out of context snippets from some ongoing and sometimes heated arguments we have had over the course of this campaign.  I apologize for the profanity that you were subjected too.  it is a vice of mine that I try to minimize but seems to rear it’s head with more frequency when I deal with Jon.

 

I have been told over the years that I should ignore Jon and never engage with him, even when I agree with him, because in the end, it is all about Jon.  That seems to be the case.  I will not go chapter and verse through the substance of his email but I will provide my context for anything that I think might be misconstrued.

 

Number 1, when I was referring to making a difficult situation worse, I was specifically talking about the fact that we asked that at the very least, the PLEO and AT Large Delegates not be selected until after the DNC Rules and By Laws Committee ruled.  I asked both Leonard Joseph and Senator Nelson’s office to support waiting and they made a decision to go forward for tactical reasons.  I disagreed with it but they were perfectly entitled to make that decision and I don’t fault them for it.  I don’t think it is debatable that it made the delegate situation harder to deal with after the fact given that the Obama campaign did not participate in the elections, but it is not like anyone died.  It was and is simply a situation that has to be dealt with.  Both Leonard and Senator Nelson’s office know that I wanted a different outcome and I did not malign them in private nor in the excerpts Jon blasted out.  I have worked with Leonard for years, long before he came to Florida, and I have worked very hard for and with Senator Nelson.  On this issue we disagreed and despite Jon’s effort to twist it into something more, it isn’t.

 

Number 2, I fundamentally believe that the Obama campaign should be able to send the delegates that most deserve it to the convention and because that the campaign did not participate in the process and strike anyone, people who knew the system were able to get a slate passed of people that were important to them and their local politics.  There is nothing untoward about those individuals putting forth a slate in the absence of the Obama campaign participating.  I do not think it is appropriate that that slate stands unchallenged now that the DNC RBC has ruled on Jon’s appeal, but that is MY opinion, not of the campaign.  I have great respect for both Dianne Glasser and Bret Berlin and consider Bret a good friend.  I would have done exactly what they did.  My point has always been that I personally don’t think that it should be binding on a campaign that did not participate and now that there is an opportunity to at least try to fix the situation, we should.

 

Number 3, I have no idea what he is talking about with regards to Gerry McEntee because I would have never in a million years thought he would be having conversations with Jon Ausman. 

 

For the past 2 weeks, I have poured over the lists of Obama delegates, tried to find every avenue to have everyone who should be a delegate either be one or get similar credentials, talked to numerous party leaders to try to find a way to make sure everyone or almost everyone would end this final process of the primary pleased and united.  At every turn Jon Ausman demanded his pound of flesh.  The mistake I made, in addition to language that I am extremely embarrassed about circulating to good Democrats around the state, was trying to rationally discuss alternatives with Jon.  This was about Jon’s ego and his view that control over party rules was his only power.

 

I am sorry you were brought into this.  I am sorry that I used unprofessional language with Jon, despite it being a two way street in the back and forth, but most importantly, I am sorry that we cannot do anything in a simple and succinct manner so we can win this state in November for Barack Obama.

 

I have no idea who Jon sent this to so if someone forwards you something with a “What the heck is this” email, please feel free to forward my response.

 

 

Kirk Wagar

 

If 30 people (after we purge them) are all that are (expletive) off…we have   done pretty well.

 

Kirk Wager, 6 June 2008 at 7:17 PM

 

 

 

…you (Jon Ausman) really convinced yourself that you are doing anything   other than fighting for political backroom deals?

 

Kirk Wagar, 12 June 2008, 7:27 PM

 

 

 

That would suck. Tell him   (AFSCME International President Gerald McEntee) we will remember.

 

Kirk Wager, 3 June 2008, 9:45 AM

 

 

 

I am getting very sick of (Senator) Nelson making a bad situation   worse.

 

Kirk Wager, 1 May 2008, 4:33 PM

 

 

 

 

So you are comfortable with the 4 people, for example, that Dianne   (Glasser) negotiated on (Bret) Berlin's slate that have done nothing for   Barack and no one in Broward knows?  Come on!!!

 

Kirk Wager, 6 June 2008, 8:14 AM

It would be my suggestion the Obama Florida Finance Chair publicly apologize to Senator Bill Nelson, AFSCME International President Gerald McEntee, Florida Democratic Party First Vice-Chair Diane Glasser and Florida Democratic Party Executive Director Leonard Joseph.

 

Rather then criticizing others in a most negative way it might be more helpful for Senator Obama if you praise those who can make a contribution to the effort to defeat Bush's candidate to carry on his failed policies.  Praise, oddly enough, often encourages people to work harder.

 

If you have any questions, please either call me at ... or write me at ...

With respect, I am,

Jon M. Ausman, Member