I am preparing to write the glowingest post about Chris Redfern I’ve ever written, or probably ever will write. Mr. Chairman, feel free to start shopping for frames that match Plunderbund’s color scheme. Before I do that, I need to touch on the potential for an ODP endorsement in the post-Garrison SOS primary in favor of Maryellen O’Shaughnessy over Sharen Neuhardt.
To be clear – I do not support ODP endorsements in primaries, ever. However, in this instance, an ODP endorsement was a last bullet, albeit high caliber, in the chamber aimed at getting out Jennifer Garrison. Whether that potential endorsement was the deciding factor, or merely a signal to organized labor that they needed to jump from Garrison, no idea. In a perfect world, Redfern would make the threat of an ODP endorsement to get Garrison out, then pull it back and let O’Shaughnessy and Sharen Neuhardt fight it out. That’s what I’d like to see.
However, so long as Lee Fisher does not get the idea to use an ODP endorsement in the SOS race to sneak his own endorsement through, I am not going to lose sleep if Redfern does in fact follow through on an SOS endorsement.
First of all, it had to be done. This was a battle to the death between the base of our party and a wolf in sheep’s clothing, Jennifer Garrison. Redfern chose well, took our side, consequences be damned, ding dong the witch is dead, and Redfern should be applauded for delivering the coup de grace, even if it means ODP has to make good on an endorsement commitment to O’Shaughnessy.
Second, who the fuck does Sharen Neuhardt think she is, and where the fuck was Sharen Neuharst before she started smelling blood in the water around Garrison? I understand the uncommon bravery it must have required to damn the torpedoes last week and start a Facebook group, which at the moment has a juggernaut level of 226 members. (Compared to mine for a county council race in a seat that hadn’t existed until November, which has 123. I digress.)
Where was Sharen Neuhardt in September, when there wasn’t blood in the water, but the same clamoring for another candidate was at least as loud? Reminds me of Candice Hoke’s ever so courageous one week and 123 member Facebook campaign to get in, then get out just as fast. Reminds me of every single big name in this state that was begged to primary Garrison for more than half of 2009. Not a single one would do it. It’s why Redfern was forced to use the ODP endorsement against Garrison in the first place.
There should have been a primary in the SOS race long ago. If there had been multiple candidates in the race months before this point, 3 weeks before filing day, there certainly would be no ODP endorsement, because bloggers, including me, would have led the charge against such an endorsement, for months. To complain about such an endorsement now, when the threat of it had to be used to get Garrison out almost solely because of the total absence of a candidate with the cajones to challenge Garrison straight up, is just pathetic. Ms. Neuhardt, you missed that boat, it was at full mast ready to set sail months ago, its gone now, but now you want to climb aboard.
Well, sorry. If there is a primary in the SOS race, between an ODP endorsed O’Shaughnessy, and Neuhardt, so be it. I don’t know either of these people well enough to give a shit. I do know that neither of them had the nuts to go one on one with Garrison before either smelled blood. So what if O’Shaugnessy was a bit more opportunistic than Neuhardt, a bit more tied into ODP, and a bit more capable of becoming Chris Redfern’s weapon of choice against Garrison? I don’t care.
No one fights harder against ODP primary endorsements than me. I don’t go into battle on this front for the benefit of an opportunist who only now wants that battle because at the 11th hour, someone else had a quicker trigger finger.
Because of this lack of courage, Garrison was about to get an open primary, and Chris Redfern was forced to make a bold move. He did the right thing, at some risk, and he should be rewarded. Sharen Neuhardt, among many others, could have done the right thing a very long time ago, and didn’t.
So spare me the whining, Ms. Neuhardt et al. If you wanted a primary with no endorsement, you had ample opportunity to get one for months.
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