Contrarian for contratian's sake?

The more I ponder it over, the more I find some disagreements with Bernita's criticism. Granted, I have to concede that I'm looking at this as an outsider to the Atlanta mayoral election and not someone who's involved in the race, so my perception might be somewhat skewed, but still.

Her primary complaint is that the Democratic Party of Georgia shouldn't be jumping into the race just a week or so out because they haven't been involved up until now. The DPG, in Bernita's view is just messing things up by moving in so late and, besides, where were they a few months back?

Of course, points one and two appear to directly contradict each other. To decry the DPG for not producing an ample bench of candidates to seek for office doesn't hold much water considering that one of the folks seeking the mayoral seat is a state senator.

The larger point on this is that while this may or may not be a viable political strategy for the DPG, it's one that is perfectly consistent with its overall aim ... which is to elect more Democrats to office. They don't feel as if Mary Norwood is the best option for Democrats in the field, and they also feel as if she just might be a Republican trying to slip into the chief executive seat of the largest Democratic stronghold in the South (and there's ample evidence to support both claims).

As a result, why shouldn't the DPG jump into this thing? Granted, there's an argument to make that they should have opted to do this sooner, but it's perfectly logical to understand why they're doing what they're doing. They're not saying 'vote for so-and-so' but rather saying 'so-and-so is saying one thing, but doing another ... and that another thing is contradictory to progressive politics.'

Just because a race is non-partisan doesn't mean that, on some issues, basic ideological principles are irrelevant. I support non-partisan elections because they remove preconceived biases and open elections to everyone, but I also encourage the candidates to be honest about their views, beliefs and ideas for their communities.

Finally, let me also add something on this ...

Unless the DPG is planning a massive campaign to regain the House and Senate caucuses, which I highly doubt, then Atlanta Democratic legislators might as well start puckering up their lips if Norwood wins. Teh Awesome DPG! Just teh awesome!

The DPG does not recruit candidates for office. The individual caucuses do. Perhaps that's not a terribly effective strategy - quite frankly, I don't really think it is - but that's the reality of it. For this to change, the House and Senate caucuses would need to relinquish that responsibility and, for better or for worse, they wish to hold on to it. The DPG, instead, is an advocacy and organizing entity, not a political recruitment one.

You'd think 'a political strategist who only works with Democratic candidates' would know that.