Thanks, Lance
Thank you Lance and Phoenix for paying attention to the MCLF story. (See"State House Democrats Stick It To Political Reformers," by Lance Tapley, January 13.) The Democratic leadership is circling the wagons.
During MCLF-organized testimony on the tax reform bill at the end of last session, I heard lobbyists hissing at a witness quoting Lincoln to make a point about tax fairness. Perhaps now we will be spared such ugliness and the deals will be made out of sight.
There are many good Mainers of every political stripe that still care about little-’d’ democratic principles: a fair shake for everyone, support for the underdog, commonwealth and community. They need to wake up and smell the burning trash; this so-called leadership only cares about the wealthy and powerful.
Keep plugging. Give Lance a raise.
Christopher F. Miller
Gray
Dems incapable of intrigue
In last week’s piece on progressive politics (see "State House Democrats Stick It To Political Reformers," January 13),Lance Tapley posits that board dynamics within the Maine Citizen Leadership Fund (MCLF) and the Dirigo Alliance were engineered by state Democratic leadership, or alternatively, by out-of-state funders. As a volunteer and member of MCLF’s executive committee, I have seen no Democratic Party fingerprints on decisioning processes during these past few challenging months. And though I have voted independent, Republican, Citizen and Green, I am myself a registered Democrat, and doubt the Party’s capacity to engineer much. As to the role of the Proteus Fund, I was in the room at the salient meeting(s) and know for certain that the idea to return to a unitary model of administrative leadership sprang wholly from board members, with particular support from senior members who recalled Dirigo and MCLF sharing a single executive director for some years in the past. Proteus played no intentionally inappropriate role in this imbroglio, and Marc Caplan of its staff has proven himself a creative and steadfast supporter of progressive organizing in Maine for many, many years. While this change process was not without bump and grind — and in the view of some, myself included, unfortunate "collateral damage" — it was not dissimilar to dynamics that occasionally emerge in voluntary boards supporting many worthy Maine organizations, in that good people can have reasonable differences of perspective and opinion.
Tapley correctly reflects my personal surprise that former MCLF Arn Person was not selected as joint executive director. Over the past two decades I have come to respect Arn’s integrity, vision, resourcefulness, work ethic, and ability to attract, align and lead talented and committed staff and volunteers on matters of progressive public policy that matter to those of us concerned with clean elections, socioeconomic justice, and environmental quality. However, the respective boards had two qualified candidates, and a majority on each board, themselves volunteers with many years experience in advocacy organizing and elective politics, selected Joanne D’Arcangelo. Joanne is a very intelligent and articulate individual, with extensive issue experience (particularly around reproductive rights, gender equity, etc.) as well as electoral and administrative experience, and resultant relationships supportive of resource development. Both boards look forward to working with her in building on the many years of successes of these organizations in advancing progressive issues in Maine. We invite others to join with us.
