Sylvia Woods; Democratic Executive Committee Member, 6th District; TNDP County Development Committe Chair

I have been a member of the Ex. Committee over 20 years and have struggled every two years with new leadership. Most of the time the "big boys" make everybody get out of the race which leaves the Ex. Com. to take whoever they want. It ends up being a training field all over again. I have asked each new chair to at least keep office employees so that we don't have to start from scratch each time. Vionne worked under three chairs, but she was never used in such a way that she was told about the operations of the committee. Chip used her in an outreach area which is what she requested. The training she received there increased her skills that led to an offer of a better job, so she left.

When we elected Will Cheek years ago, it was over the objections of some. But we thought since he had been on the board for years, he would understand the need for ex. com. members to receive some respect and input. I was disappointed with the progress we made.

When Doug Horne ran for Chair with opposition, we again worked with Doug to gain respect for the committee. He did respect us and tried to include us, but very little was done in the field with training, etc.

Each year same o, same o.

When Sasser said he was not going to seek reelection, we began seeking someone to run who we did not have to train to be more open to the ex. com. We encouraged Chip Forrester to run as he was on the ex. com. and he once was executive director of the TNDP. I have been most impressed with the work that has gone on the past two years in bringing training for the ex. com. and for county chairs, and anyone else who wanted to help. All the new technologies have been brought up to date, Save our State Trainings have gone on all over the state, we have had fund raising events several places in the state, Chip has raised more money than Sasser (I have not researched further back), Chip has a conference call with his officers every week to keep them in the loop and gets advice. Two great Jackson Day events with Pres. Clinton, and VP Joe Biden. Don't know how he is going to top that. He has traveled to County events all over the state and never charges the TNDP for hotel rooms in order to keep travel expense at a minimum

I chair the County Development Committee and have been appointed to that position under four or five chairs. This term is the first time our committee has actually been used to research and make important recommendations. The finance Committee is finally doing their job and getting information and recommendations to us as never before.

We had great candidates recruited from all over the state. I keep hearing about the need to recruit good candidates, and I wonder how that makes our candidates feel, when they worked hard. Losing is never fun, but with the national media telling lies and the 24 million outside dollars coming into our state to beat us, I don't know what else we could have done. Look around and see that the Republicans elected some really poor candidates, so quality must not have counted.

We are strong, we are looking forward, we are working on our own media for Tennessee and not waiting on the national DNC to get their act together.

As you can tell, I am very much in support of not making a change when we have come so far under Chip's leadership

Matt, Wade, and Justin might be fine fellows, but I have not seen anything they are proposing that is better than what we have.

Sylvia