Patrick could have been a contender
Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick announced last week that he would, contrary to his statements earlier in the year, be joining the still-crowded race for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. The governor’s late entry throws into sharp relief how the Democratic National Committee has hamstrung themselves with their extensive debate schedule and complex qualifying process.
Without significant changes to the process, it is likely far too late for Patrick to make an impact on the race, in large part because of the DNC’s shortsighted decisions early in the year.
Murmurs have already started amongst Democrats, particularly in the donor class, that in what should be a shoo-in election, the DNC is failing abysmally to field candidates who can unite the party and defeat Trump. Joe Biden’s typical gaffes are reaching new heights, Liz Warren is promising new taxes by the day, aged socialist Bernie Sanders continues to decry the horrors of capitalism, and millennial midwesterner Mayor Pete Buttigieg simply can’t get any foothold with minority voters.
Meanwhile, the debate qualifying process, while certainly open and transparent, has proved ripe for gaming by outsider and independently wealthy candidates. In addition to their needlessly byzantine polling and donor requirements, the DNC chose to reject the GOP’s 2016 “undercard debate” model, which has allowed fringe candidates to dominate news coverage with eccentric performances while totally excluding well qualified and popular congressmen and governors.
In trying to prevent accusations of rigging the process for favored candidates, the DNC gave up the steering wheel of the presidential contest completely and allowed their nominating contest to become a sideshow. With the heightened focus by the media on the arbitrary debate qualification horserace, debate participation has become an end in itself, and forced the end of some campaigns while breathing undeserved life into others.
This has never been more clear than since former Gov. Patrick made his campaign announcement. Clearly unable to garner 200,000 unique donors from across the United States in the next few weeks, Patrick will be hard pressed to make any debate stage at all unless the DNC changes its requirements drastically for the 2020 debates.
They probably should. Giving up control of their nomination to $1 troll donors and statistical polling blips within the margin of error was a mistake. They are a political party and they should make some grown-up decisions about what kind of candidates they would like on their debate stage. Deval Patrick was certainly far from a perfect governor but he is a talented politician with an impressive resume and is clearly no less qualified to be on that stage than someone like Tom Steyer or Marianne Williamson.
In the interest of fairness, the DNC should consider dropping or prorating the donor requirements to allow later entries like Patrick the chance to make the stage if polling suggests they have a real shot.
Nominating a presidential candidate is serious business and Democrats deserve a more serious process to select their nominee. The attempt by the DNC to absolve themselves of any responsibility for their nomination is making a mockery of the race and likely dooming them in a general election.