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Democracy for New York City (DFNYC) is a group unafraid to go against the political establishment. It has endorsed Ken Diamondstone in his Democratic primary run against incumbent State Sen. Martin Connor (D-Manhattan/Brooklyn), and has also sided with Jonathan Tasini (D) over Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D). They even sent volunteers up to Connecticut to work for Ned Lamont in his Democratic primary victory over Sen. Joe Lieberman.
“We are not just going to support anybody just because there is a ‘D’ in front of their name,” said DFNYC executive director Tracey Denton. “The Democratic Party is seen more as a means to an end than the end in itself.”
DFNYC is part of a major national movement with friends and supporters all over the country. During former Gov. Howard Dean’s (D-Vermont) 2004 presidential run, people across the country started organizing, often through websites like meetup.com, to create all-volunteer groups to spread the Dean message. After the 2004 election, many of these groups formed a loosely affiliated network, and Democracy for America (DFA) was born.
DFNYC is just one of the DFA groups in New York State, and is part of the Democracy for New York coalition group. Democracy for New York used to have its own website, managed by DFNYC at http://www.dfny.org, but their web presence has since moved to http://www.dfalink.com/DFNY. The old website has fallen into disuse—the last update is from February 2005, and its boards are now full of pornographic links (http://www.dfny.org/cms/node/190?PHPSESSID=1513e4413fec4017de2a2c4304806612#comment).
According to DFA chairman James Dean—who is Gov. Dean’s younger brother--there are about 750 loosely-affiliated DFA groups around the country, with roughly half a dozen operating in and around Manhattan. DFNYC is the area’s largest, with an e-mail list of 3,000 people and roughly 800 active members.
“Our thing is not to tell them what to do,” said Dean of the relationship between local groups and the national organization. “We may give some agenda guidelines at monthly meetings, and we may talk about something nationally that we’re going to do, but they may chose or not choose to get involved in that.”
And the groups often act independently. Though the New York City chapter has been very strongly behind Tasini, the national organization has opted to sit out the New York Senate primary.
“Our thing is not to tell them what to do,” said Dean of the relationship between local groups and the national organization. “We may give some agenda guidelines at monthly meetings, and we may talk about something nationally that we’re going to do, but they may chose or not choose to get involved in that.”
Besides the Connecticut race, DFNYC is supporting several candidates in Pennsylvania, including State Treasurer Bob Casey’s (D) campaign against Sen. Rick Santorum (R). They are also participating in the effort to fight South Dakota’s recently-enacted broad abortion ban.
Denton said that the issues that concerned her fellow members the most were Iraq, healthcare, and “whatever the latest obnoxious act by the Bush administration is.”
DFNYC director Heather Woodfield insists that engagement in national issues does not distract the group from its mission in local politics.
“Local issues like responsible development are not unique to New York City. They are local issues across the country,” said Woodfield, adding that DFNYC has been involved in healthcare, verified voting, and civil rights at the local level.
DFNYC also calls on other Democracy for America groups. While Woodfield admits that not many people come from out of town to help campaigns in a city as heavily Democratic as New York, the national organization contributed to Bill Perkins’ (D-Manhattan) state senate campaign.
DFA also supported then-City Council Speaker Gifford Miller (D-Manhattan) in last year’s Democratic primary for mayor.
As it continues to increase its presence in New York City politics, DFNYC can count on a lot of high profile support. The Deans both spent part of their childhoods living on Manhattan’s Upper East Side and Howard Dean once stopped in a DFNYC mixer while visiting the city. James Dean will be coming on August 27 to support DFNYC backed candidate Chris Owens (D-Brooklyn) in his race to succeed his father, Rep. Major Owens, in Congress.
“I look at it as being a very well organized, active group,” said James Dean. “They’ll incubate political activism all over New York.”