Changes in the wind? Developing...

UPDATE: Knox County Democratic Party Don Daugherty is resigning. His announcement after the jump...

From Don Daugherty:

I will soon be resigning as Chair of the Democratic Party of Knox County. This is something I have been seriously considering since December, but I wanted to get Truman Day over and make us some money to help some candidates in August, lease a headquarters, and get our voter-file project off the ground. Although I still do not have exact numbers, it looks like we made about $14,000 after paying the bills, and now have about $25,000 in the bank. That's more than we've had in the bank after bills are paid before any election in my memory. We also have leased a headquarters in Fountain City until November. And finally, we have a great plan worked out for our voter-file project and have 3 very good people running that project. In a nutshell, I leave the Party better off than when I inherited in last March. Moreover, I believe an extraordinary number of new faces will come on the local political scene over the next few months as a result of Senator Obama's prospective nomination. There will be folks wanting to get involved who have never been involved, and that will be very exciting. This, in essence, will result in what some folks might call a "sea-change" in the make-up of the local party.

As for reasons for leaving, there are a few:

First, I'm continuously frustrated with the "smallness" of what we collectively believe we need to accomplish locally in the Democratic Party to give our candidates an equal chance at winning against the GOP. I wanted to do some "big" things and there's just not alot of support on the Board for that kind of changes. That's one of the reasons I used my own money: buying $2,500 worth of T-Shirts and giving the proceeds of sales to the Party, hosting a private Christmas Party at Bleak House and turning all proceeds over to the Party, negotiating with and signing Carville up with my own check for $7,750, and not going to the Board for approval to get money for minor expenditures, but just paying for it out of my pocket.

Second, I've had some very serious disagreements with some of our party officers and am greatly disappointed in the performance of a couple of them. When I was elected, I ran alone, without a "slate" of officers who would support my goals and plans. A few folks told me this was a mistake, but I wanted to prove that I could actually bring the party together no matter who the officers were. In reflection, that was unrealistic and also a poor tactic on my part. So, I found myself having to struggle to accomplish anything different than what we had been doing for years. Bringing Carville in was something I did on my own, without asking anyone, without approval, and it's that type of leadership the Party needs to move forward. But unfortunately, our bylaws are weighted heavily against a strong chair, making the Board of Governors and the Executive Committee the actual decision-makers. The problem with that is that although I won the election in March '07 by a landslide margin, I inherited a Board that periodically hand-cuffed me from the very first Board meeting we had in April '07.

Third, as much as I've focused on ridding the party of its many "factions," I have not succeeded as much as I would have liked. As such, I suppose at this point I have become too "polarizing" of an influence to actually accomplish anything further or help our candidates.

Fourth, there are personal reasons as well. I have an 80 year old mother, am father to a 25 year old daughter, and am grandfather to a 5 year old girl. Moreover, I have a great and challenging job. With the circumstances I have outlined above, I believe that my time and attention is more meaningfully spent in those areas than as some "figurehead" of the Democratic Party.

Finally, I want to stesss that we do have some very fine people in the party who I believe may be better able to lead under these conditions than I. Alex Smith is the First Vice Chair, so he moves up a slot. No one is less polarizing than Alex. He will do a fine job heading into August. All of this by no means indicates that I am through with politics. What it indicates is that if I decide to pursue this position again, or any other, I will do so being ever mindful of all of the foregoing situation and revelations.

Don Daugherty

I knew that Carville did these kinds of events for a reduce fee, but I had no idea Daugherty paid for it out of his own pocket.

UPDATE: Don Daugherty clarifies that he paid half of Carville's fee as a deposit in December to get him here. He has since been paid back.