The media weighs in on the DPG's election of Jane Kidd as Chair

Jim Galloway writes in the ajc in an article entitled "GEORGIA DEMOCRATS: Leader seeks to recapture women's vote":

In a bid to recapture female voters who have slipped away over four disastrous years, Georgia Democrats on Saturday elected Jane Kidd . . . .

"I think women will trust women," Kidd said after the final vote.

Kidd's supporters described the 53-year-old former Athens state representative as a centrist and called her election a victory for those who want to challenge Republicans for moderate and independent voters — and appeal to older, traditional Democrats in rural Georgia.

Kidd's father was Ernest Vandiver Jr., who was governor from 1959 to 1963 — a political career ended by his decision not to oppose the integration of the University of Georgia. He died in 2005.

Since 2002, with the defeat of incumbent Gov. Roy Barnes, Democrats have seen their fortunes plunge. State Rep. Calvin Smyre of Columbus, a former chairman of the party, is among many who pinpoint the Democrats' diminishing appeal among women as a cause.

Barnes had angered the state's teachers, a profession dominated by women. Last year, Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor defeated Secretary of State Cathy Cox in a bitter Democratic primary for governor. Afterward, a lack of support among women ensured his defeat by Republican incumbent Sonny Perdue.

Kidd "will be helpful in crafting and delivering a message that will bring a segment that we think we've lost back to the table," Smyre said.

Kidd's victory . . . was in part dictated by the state Democratic Party's charter, which requires that the chairman and first vice chairman be of opposite genders.

Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond last week made a late entry into the race for first vice chairman. Thurmond, who is African-American, immediately drew a large base of black committee members — who were then required by the rules to choose a female candidate for the top post.

Thurmond easily defeated state Sen. Doug Stoner of Smyrna to win the first vice chair.
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An AP article reads in part:

Kidd, who served as representative from Athens from 2004 to 2006, said her first priority will be fundraising to create organized committees in counties where they don't exist.

"It means all the world to a candidate" to have organized committees, she said . . . .
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Walter C. Jones of Morris News Service writes:

Kidd . . . is the daughter of the late Gov. Ernest Vandiver and niece of the late U.S. Sen. Richard Russell. She promised to rebuild the county organizations, hold training workshops around the state and recruit candidates for every race in future elections.

One of her first orders of business will be to hire a new executive director.
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And not directly on the subject of Jane Kidd but about our meeting, James on his Drifting through the Grift blog shares one of those "you had to be there" moments:

After receiving an appreciation gift which looked like a paperweight, outgoing Chairman Bobby Kahn then received two plane tickets. Mr. Kahn was gracious enough to finish the joke by asking "is it true one them's one way."
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And although not media, Party loyalist and booster Jim Butler, in congratulating the successful candidates who will be leading the Party for the next four years, writes in an e-mail:

Perhaps this election can be a start [of] the Georgia Democratic Party [again becoming] the Party of Sam Nunn . . . . If folks who are Democrats but have given up proselytizing for Democratic candidates can be convinced that the Georgia Party has really changed, and is no longer a "metro Atlanta liberal" party, then I think and hope those "latent Democrats" will begin to be active. If that happens, fundraisers and prospective contributors may come to believe that investing in the Georgia Democratic Party makes sense again.
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So let it be written, so let it be done. Saturday truly was a great day for the Democratic Party of Georgia.