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excellent behavior on the part of YPD and VB to respond quickly, calmly, and ethically. we can only hope their response reaches as many people as did the original message. this posting will help.

Perhaps I'm being thick here, but I don't see that Brett said it was being done on his behalf. He certainly says he's cooperating with the group which they don't seem to think is the case, and I'm inclined to believe the two organizing forces, but I think they exaggerated a bit too?

Unethical is a little bit of a strong word. I know everything these days is an Extreme Super Crispy Taste Sensation and smaller words don't carry much weight, but it isn't like he embezzled or something.

I don't really know anything about any of the three parties involved, it all just seems a little over-the-top to me and makes me think there is past animosity being propagated.

I agree, Heather, it seems like a strong reaction. But in politics, words like "cooperation" are (usually) very carefully used and parsed. "Unethical" is a rather amusing word considering what's going on at the national level these days (see Dick "Fourth Branch" Cheney for one small example).

And yes, there is some bad blood in the Democratic Party in Ventura, no doubt. I covered it on ojaiblog.com some time ago.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site%3Awww.ojaiblog.com+%22brett+wagner%22

I agree with Heather. I don't see where he made any claims of endorsement. He saw an already organized, democratic opportunity to register voters and tried to bring his supporters into the process. This overreaction by the YPD is typical Democratic infighting. This is the kind of behavior the RNC rarely engages in and is one reason why they tend to kick our fractured asses!

i still read it as a strongly implied endorsement, though certainly not explicitly stated. i guess for me it has to do with the context in which things were presented:
"in cooperation with" + BRETT WAGNER + "all of us Democrats" (not sure about the grammar on that one).

perhaps it would have been more clear (and clean) for Brett's campaign to simply state that this event was happening, and that he supports it and welcomes his supporters' participation...in that way, in that order.

i agree with Coleen that it's typical infighting that inhibits progress, but i know that Brett and his campaigns have been marred by various vague and legendary weirdness before, so i can feel the YPD's strong push-away reaction as well.

the point of the thing, though, is to register vast quantities of voters. i think i've heard spk say - and i will agree very much - that it doesnt matter who's registering them or how they're registering...just so long as everyone who's eligible is registered and votes, so we can be confident that the will of the people is truly being represented, even if it's not what some of us agree with. that's democracy. (it's also utopian, since we cant seem to even trust our votes anymore)

it requires a pretty tight weave, this democracy thing. one strand loses integrity, and the whole thing unravels pretty quickly.

Young Progressive Democrats is an oxymoron. The fact that Brett would even want their support loses my vote. The dems have betrayed their best supporters and hundreds of thousands of dead innocents as a strategy they think will get them elected. These fools have only secured a place on the lower rungs of Dante's hell where the specters of those they had murdered will haunt them until they learn the lessons of love. No wonder dems fall to infighting. As evan noted, democracy requires a tight weave of integrity, sadly lacking with republicrats who serve only their masters, money and power. I'm working on my own party, called the Red Brown and Blue Party which advocates for The Lover Government. It's in the conceptual stage and is not interested in holding office or money. I'm building an ideological and moral base to take on these corrupt lying scoundrels that pose as representatives of real people. Thanks for bringing forward this important topic. I love it when you keep politics on the front burner because there is nothing more important to our survival, not to mention our communal happiness.

The democrats have dominantly dissapointed those who are under-educated about the political process. Change takes time, the democratic process takes even more time. Politicians, Democrat or Republicrat, who can make enough money to run generally have loyalties divided between their constituents and their donors.

Good points, Heather, and good luck. As for me, I haven't got that much time, and I fear the U.S. of A. may not either. I admit to being under-educated, a deficit I am endeavoring to correct.

YPD did what was right by issuing this response because the organization has a need to clarify that the event is not sponsored by the Brett campaign so as not to push away other possible candidates and their supporters. I believe YPD is trying not to endorse a candidate at this point in an attempt to unite the community of all campaigns. This response was an attempt to identify that it is inappropriate to suggest directly or indirectly an endorsement of some sort by the organization. I also believe that the word "cooperation" may imply legal concerns for the organization? Does anyone know any more about the possible legal concerns?