Shanna Flowers

Read Shanna's blog

• Our girl, Rene
• Roanoke needs to think like business

Recent columns

• Roanoke needs to think like business
• Wet workouts
• Dowe doesn't deserve a free pass

• Column archive

Is it any wonder the Roanoke Democratic Party is in turmoil?

Tuesday night was a defining moment for the party, and these folks seemed to be making up a way to count votes for a critical leadership decision as they went along. The disappointing part is that this week's meeting at William Fleming High School was tame, so I'm told, compared with previous years.

Sure, everyone was on best behavior at the committee reorganizational meeting. The atmosphere was cordial. No one pitched a fit. No one cursed anybody out (at least not publicly).

But let's face it: The selection of the party's next committee leader was short on, well, organization.

"It was too many chiefs, too many people trying to be in charge," committee member Kia Wade of the Washington Heights district said after Tony Reed was elected chairman over former Mayor David Bowers.

Wade, who voted for Bowers, said she did so because she didn't know Reed or anything about him. She wants the fractured party to unify but added that the process for selecting a new leader "was rather frustrating and embarrassing."

A couple of Roanoke newcomers suggested privately afterward that party leaders take a refresher in Robert's Rules of Order.

The first half of the meeting moved along fairly smoothly. That was the election of district leaders and precinct captains.

But it looked badly bogged down when it got to the vital juncture: voting for a new leader.

Confusion arose over votes cast for each candidate.

At one point, four people walked around the room, tallying all votes for each candidate. Then the idea came up of counting by district, or table.

Some district reps at some tables announced how many votes each candidate had at the table. Then someone yelled out that the voters should stand.

Further confusion came up about whether ex-officio members had voted.

In the midst of all the vote-counting back-and-forth, Dave "Mudcat" Saunders muttered the best line of the evening:

"This reminds me of Florida in 2000," the state and national Democratic political operative drawled.

Overhearing the reference to the political debacle that handed George Bush the presidency, party member John Clark, sitting nearby, turned and chimed in whimsically, "Hanging chads?"

Paint me a newbie to the process, but shouldn't democracy be understandable to its participants?

Voting on secret ballots and counting them seems easier and less confusing and complicated.

Whatever the process for selecting new leadership, the meeting was supposed to be a kiss-and-make-up session for the party. It splintered in 2006, largely along grudges rooted in Victory Stadium.

The energized function was a Who's Who of everybody who's ever been or ever wanted to be anybody in Roanoke Democratic politics.

Former and present Democratic constitutional officers were on hand, including former Sheriff Alvin Hudson, Circuit Court Clerk Brenda Hamilton, Commissioner of the Revenue Sherman Holland and Treasurer Evelyn Powers.

Because of local voting districts, 11th District Del. Onzlee Ware ended up sitting at the same table as Mac McCadden, his opponent in the November election.

Even Saunders, who lives in Roanoke County, showed up. He said he was in town for a few days before heading to Iowa to meet presidential candidate John Edwards.

During a break, Saunders huddled with City Councilman Bev Fitzpatrick.

A representative from the congressional 6th District along with people from the state Democratic Party were on hand.

Before the meeting, people whispered strategies to one another.

Will the election of Reed bring a divided party together? What does the new direction mean for the party's February mass meeting -- which might be the de facto 2008 council elections? And how does it relate to issues that have recently divided the party and the city, such as Victory Stadium and the future of Mill Mountain?

Let's hope Roanoke can get beyond its petty political battles, because there are even bigger issues out there that require lots of folks working together, rather than against one another. I'm talking about things like an aging population, the city's tax base and the achievement gap in our schools.

We need people who have the boldness to move the city forward and attend to the needs of all residents, and not a select few.

It's not quite clear we have them yet, but let's keep watching.