Democrats vote ‘no confidence’ in leader
Despite success at polls, party members question chairman's decisions
A month after helping to deliver the state and, by extension, the national presidential election to Joe Biden, leaders of the Chester County Democratic Committee are showing their displeasure with the chairman of their party, Dick Bingham.
In a video-call meeting that took place Nov. 30, the heads of the committee’s 20 geographical zones adopted a motion of “no confidence” in Bingham’s leadership, a move that party sources said had been brewing for some months following a bungled attempt to hire a paid executive director for the newly surging political party.
The vote was overwhelmingly in favor of expressing disfavor with Bingham’s leadership, with 16 of the 20 zone leaders casting their vote for the no-confidence motion, three opposed, and one abstention, those sources said.
Beth Sweet, the East Goshen zone leader who proposed the “no-confidence” motion, confirmed the vote results, but declined to comment on the reason for the vote or the specifics of what her ultimate purpose was and if it included seeing Bingham’s departure from the committee’s leadership.
“I can’t speak to what will happen next,” Sweet said in a Dec. 2 telephone interview.
But Andrew Husband, the West Goshen zone leader, noted that the group had additionally passed a second resolution stating that the zone caucus would continue to work with Bingham and support him in the process of developing new training committees for candidates, committee people, and campaign workers, as well as hiring a new executive director.
“I support Dick Bingham as chairman, and I
want to keep working with him,” Husband said in an interview. “I think it was unfair to say we have no confidence in him.” There were other ways of accomplishing the sort of improvements in the party structure sought by the caucus than by casting a dark cloud over his leadership, he suggested.
Attempts to reach other zone leaders for additional comment were unsuccessful.
Bingham, a retired DuPont chemist from East Marlborough who took over the chairmanship of the committee in 2018, said in a telephone interview that he had not decided what his next move would be following the vote, and had not made up his mind as to whether he would continue to serve as chairman. He was not invited to participate in the video session.
“That’s always a possibility,” Bingham said about stepping aside and allowing the committee to choose a new chairperson. “I have to listen to the organization. But this is not about me. It is about making sure we have the strongest possible Democratic Party in Chester County, and doing everything we can to make sure that happens.”
Bingham himself noted the irony in having an internal battle in the party after having a largely successful election season in which the county delivered votes that helped put Biden over the top in the state and hand him Pennsylvania’s prized 20 Electoral College votes.
In the final results, county voters cast 182,372 votes for Biden against 128,565 votes for President Donald Trump, a margin of more than 50,000 votes and more than double the margin that Hillary Clinton had garnered over Trump in 2016.
In addition, the party reelected all of its incumbent state legislators to another term in Harrisburg; added
a new Democratic state senator in Birmingham resident John Kane; elevated state Rep. Carolyn Comitta of West Chester to fill the 19th state Senate District seat; and retained U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-6th, of Easttown to her second term in Congress.
The party did so while raising enough money for the county committee to declare solvency after years of financial insecurity, and ending the county Republican Party’s voter registration edge after more than 100 years.
“The Chester County Democratic Committee had the best year we’ve ever had in our history,” Bingham said. “We have more elected officers than ever before, we have more Democrats than ever before, and we are financially stable. What more can I say? We always talk about herding cats, so this is one of those things.”
But according to a party source who spoke on condition of anonymity so as to be able to speak freely, Bingham had failed to attain the third of his goals for 2020, that being to “flip” the remaining three county seats in the state House of Representatives from Republican to Democrat.
“That’s the goal he set, and he didn’t get it,” the source said. “It’s not that he screwed up, it’s that he didn’t rise to the level needed to change the trajectory.”
The source said that there had been some dissatisfaction among party leaders with Bingham’s management style for some time.
“He’s an administrator,” the person said. “He’s a bureaucrat. He’s not a leader.”
But the final straw was Bingham’s attempt to install a paid executive director to run the committee’s headquarters in West Chester, something the party has had only once briefly in its past and a key to party-building efforts.
The problem, the source said, is that he did not follow the precedent set previously for hiring a paid director — which involved a search committee that would make a recommendation to the larger executive committee.
Bingham and his executive board, however, decided to hire a political operative
he had worked with previously, David McCarthy, without going through that process. When he introduced the new hire to the full committee, several people expressed their concern and eventually McCarthy’s employment ended.
On Wednesday, Dec. 2, Bingham acknowledge the poor handling of the hire.
“That was a major catalyst for sure” for the no-confidence vote, he said. “There were some legitimate concerns there and some misunderstanding. I personally regret that fact. I also think the young man didn’t get a fair look, but we didn’t set it up very well either.”
The source who discussed the matter anonymously said that not only were there problems with the hiring process, but the person hired was a one-time registered Republican who worked on a campaign in Florida.
“It was clear nobody wanted to work with him,” the person said. “You don’t want to turn over the keys to your kingdom to a Republican.”
It is unclear what will happen next. It would take a two-thirds vote of the committee members to remove Bingham from office, but he could voluntarily step aside, at which time his secondin-command, Vice Chairwoman Marsha Peltz would take over. Bingham’s term is up in 2022.
Peltz, who was also not included in Monday’s meeting, expressed confidence in Bingham’s ability to continue hearing the party.
“I have worked with Dick Bingham over the past three years and I know that he is extremely hard working and cares very much about the committee,” she said in an interview Wednesday. “He is the best leader we have ever had for the Democratic Committee. But we are an organization of volunteers, and volunteers don’t always work together well.”