Chair's Race Contested

Article published Jan 20, 2006
Party leader post in dispute
Bloc of Democrats want Ausman back
By Bill Cotterell
DEMOCRAT POLITICAL EDITOR

Just when he thought it was safe to take over the Leon County Democratic Party, newly elected Chairman Rick Minor faces a palace coup by backers of veteran political strategist Jon Ausman.

Minor would rather talk about rebuilding the once-dominant party, which fell on hard times after Ausman ended his 20-year stint as county chairman six years ago. But his 66-59 victory over Ausman on Dec. 15 is being punted to the Florida Democratic Party on parliamentary points by nearly two-dozen members of the Leon County Democratic Executive Committee.

"It seemed to me to be a God-awful, confused mess," Richard Merrick, who joined the protest, said Thursday. "Jon called and asked me to sign on, and it seemed to me that there were several issues involved, the biggest being whether people who had legitimate proxies should have been allowed to vote and whether people whose terms had expired should still be allowed to vote."

Minor, who will preside over his first county party meeting on Monday, called the complaint a distraction from his work setting up the county party's first Web site, moving into an office, raising money and recruiting Democratic activists for the coming elections.

"I was elected by the Leon Democratic Executive Committee to produce results," he said. "Frankly, we haven't got time to fight among ourselves."

Ausman said he didn't think the protest would further splinter the struggling party - that he could be an effective chairman if he ousts Minor. He compared last month's party vote to the 2000 presidential race between President Bush and Al Gore in Florida.

"At least 22 members of the committee think the election for chair was stolen," said Ausman. "Just as Bush stole the election from Gore, Rick wants to pretend the improper and extra-legal events that occurred on election night are in the past. The Florida Democratic Party has a process to review tainted elections, and we are in that process."

Ausman and Minor, a former state party field organizer, were the only candidates for the county post. But the protest said procedural rules still required a call for nominations from the floor and three-minute statements by each candidate, which didn't happen.

"Appointed at-large members, the terms of which expired on Dec. 1, 2005, were improperly allowed to vote and voted overwhelmingly for Rick Minor," said the letter to State Democratic Party Chair Karen Thurman. "The appointed at-large members do not represent the demographics of Democrats in Leon County, as they are all white and more than two-to-one male over female."

The complaint said Thurman has several options, ranging from just admonishing the county party to ordering a new election. Thurman said she had received the letter and referred it to her judicial panel.

Ausman ran the party from 1980 to 2000, when he stepped aside in favor of former chairman Rick Eggers - who yielded to then-Mayor Scott Maddox in 2003. When Maddox ran for governor last year, he passed the county chairmanship to his longtime aide, Paige Carter Smith, but she quit after Maddox dropped his state campaign.

In the past few years, the Democrats have lost two county commission seats and have not fielded viable candidates for two Republican-held legislative seats. The county party was also fined $10,500 last year for improper filing of a financial report.

While Ausman campaigned on a promise of bringing back happier days, Minor said "a whole new day" has already dawned.

"The word around town is: 'It's a new DEC,' " said Minor. "We're moving forward, not looking back."