A picture worth a thousand words.

Moody's Letter to Reid

New Hampshire State Representative Marcia Moody, frustrated by Senator Reid and Nancy Pelosi's interference with Governor Dean's 50-state strategy at the DNC, sent off a strongly-worded letter to the Senator and shared it with DFA. Read the text below and view the original here.

Dear Senator Reid,

I am writing to you to express my extreme displeasure at your interference with Governor Howard Dean's administration of his duties as Chairman of the DNC and his distribution of DNC funds. Governor Dean was elected by the people of the states, the voting members of the DNC. He was neither elected by nor appointed by you. You and Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi can dictate and do as you wish with the DLC and the DCCC. However, you have no jurisdiction over the DNC, its administration or its administrator.

Governor Howard Dean is the most forward thinking man of our time. The reason you and Congresswoman Pelosi are Minority Leaders and not Majority Leaders is exactly the reason why the Democrats have been losing election after election. You have consistently ignored all but 18 states in the election process. You have allowed the Republican party to take over state after state that used to have a majority of voters that traditionally were members of the Democratic Party.

Only Governor Dean has had the foresight to realize that Democrats will continue to lose elections unless the Democratic Party is rebuilt from the ground up and is present in every state. Governor Dean ran for the office as Chairman based on the promise that he would invest time and money in all 50 states and the 8 U.S. territories. Unlike any other politician, either past or present, he has fulfilled every single campaign promise he has ever made either as a State Legislator, Governor or as Chairman of the DNC.

In the one short year he has been in office, Governor Dean's remarkable accomplishments as Chairman have been well noted by public and the voting members of the DNC. It is not your duty nor you [sic] business to even suggest much less attempt to coerce the Chairman of the DNC to deviate from his elected purpose and break his promise to the people of those 50 states who elected him. I find your and Congresswoman Pelosi's interference reprehensible, unprofessional and indicative of just what is wrong with politics on Capitol Hill.

Rapid Response: Standing by Ion

I first met the Leon County, Florida Supervisor of Elections, Ion Sancho, some 25 years ago at my husband's office party. I liked him, so I voted for him when he ran for office. Supervisors of Elections are one of those things you don't much think about as long as things are working the way you'd expect them to—like the lights coming on and the water coming out of the faucet—so I hadn't much thought about Mr. Sancho in the many years since.

In those days when butterfly ballots and hanging chads replaced almost everything else in our daily discussions, Mr. Sancho comported himself with extraordinary professionalism and dignity. Then was his first brush with the national spotlight, articulating the technical and functional aspects of the vote and the recount. While red-faced elections supervisors across the state reported substantial vote swings on the recount, Mr. Sancho was off by maybe one or two votes.

As the satellite trucks and talking heads descended on our city to cover the recount, most of us in Leon County held our heads a little higher that Sancho was on the job here at home. When the post election dialog turned to how to fix the problem, Ion was a steady sane voice to look at options outside of paperless touchscreens.

No one listened.

Mr. Sancho has never been a partisan, never. So when he took it upon himself to see with his own eyes whether his Diebold optical scan system could stand up to a hacking attempt, it was time for everyone to pay attention. When Diebold failed the test, he understandably looked elsewhere, but now neither of the other two companies certified to do business in Florida will do business with him. He has lost state funds under HAVA, is being hammered by officials and has been asked to meet with Florida Secretary of State Sue Cobb today.

Stay tuned to see what comes of the meeting. But I already know where I stand. I stand with Ion.