Last summer, onetime Naderite Ed Helm, who joined our county Democratic Executive committee in 2005, managed to get himself elected Chair of the DEC by a combination of recruiting syncophants to join the DEC (we are a Republican-dominated county, though there are almost as many registered Ds as Rs--many precincts have no captains, so anyone can get in, pretty much) and by driving the previous chair crazy until she finally quit (her mother has Alheimer's and her nerves were pretty frayed already). Though the purpose of the DEC is to elect Democrats, Helm has gone out of his way to attack Democrats (especially those with a good chance of winning in November). He has been trying to smear the reputation of the Florida Democratic party's paid staffer who has been working to elect Democrats to the Florida House, and finally succeeded (thanks to the Foley scandal) in planting a story using a Republican-leaning media outlet. Story and link below...
I am spitting mad and so are all the other local DEC members who have been working to support Jim Davis and our state house candidates [Charlie Justice www.charliejustice.com] and [Bill Heller www.voteheller.com] as well as
Phyllis Busansky and others.
Anyway, here's the hit piece. Keep in mind that whatever happened was not deemed worthy of any action by the courts (except of course sealing the record)...Kevin was not someone who had anyone powerful covering up for him in 2001, he was just a recent college grad with a substitute teaching gig. Since then he has lived a normal life, he has a girlfriend, he's a nice guy and a dedicated Democrat. He's a great guy to work with.
In addition to sliming Kevin (as if that weren't bad enough), Ed Helm has been trying to make it look like the other DEC officers, particularly vice-Chair Arlin Briley (2003 Dean for American-Pinellas County founder) and Treasurer Norma Roberts were doing something wrong when they went behind his back (following his refusal to sign the check) to pay for our North County campaign HQ on US-19 (it is traditional for our county to rent a storefront on US-19, the county's main drag, during election years). Helm is an attorney, and likes to use his position as a member of the bar to threaten and intimidate people. He an embarrassm isent to the legal profession, as well as a danger to Democrats. The thing that worries me most is that he will drive Arlin and Norma out of their positions...Norma has been doing a heroic job of preventing him from raiding the money that our previous chair raised for GOTV activities. Ed Helm has misused funds in the past and we have no doubt he would love to use the money for some crazy stunt to gain attention for himself and make the DEC look like fools.
A bit of history over the last 2 years...Ed Helm tried to get our only two Demoratic County commissioners ejected from the party DEC for oath violations (neither has a signed oath--they are automatic members by virtue of their office). He endorsed several losing primary candidates and his wife raised money to send out attack mailers against our strongest candidate to flip a Florida House seat currently held by a Republican (District 52), claiming that he was not a "real Democrat." Fortunately the attack failed and [Bill Heller www.voteheller.com] is our nominee. Ironically, his candidate (who had joined the DEC and signed an oath) immediately after losing signed on as a campaign media consultant to Max Linn, running as an Independent for Governor of Florida (against Jim Davis (D), Charlie Crist (R) and a host of oddballs).
Anyway, the young man who is the victim of this smear, Kevin King, is a great guy who has been working hard to recruit and elect Democrats--that's why Helm wants to destroy him. Helm wants to use the local party as a personal plaything, a platform to get media attention for himself. He likes to pose as a "progressive" and a civil rights champion, but he is nothing but a self-important windbag in search of a spotlight, and he doesn't care who he steps on to get it. He is locally known as a nut and his position as Chair of the DEC has given local Republicans a lot to laugh about.
If anyone would like to make their displeasure known to Ed Helm, you can send him an [email helm@ij.net]. His wife will have to read it to him, he doesn't use computers (so I hear). Or you can write to the party HQ [Chair chair@pinellasdemocrats.com]. Tell him you are a progressive Democrat who is appalled at his behavior and ask him to resign.
For more info on Helm's history, go to the [St Pete Times www.sptimes.com] and do an archives search on "Ed Helm". I won't be able to read responses, unfortunately, until much later because I'm going to be on the road most of today, but I'll check in tonight. I'll be posting more about this in the days to come.