Summary: Appoint enthusiastic, successful non-white young woman to a visible job in a Virginia Democratic Committee, then fire her for reasons not related to her performance.

The story:

Rumors have been spreading this week about an inappropriate inquiry into one Young Democrat's personal life and I had a chance to interview her last night. Meghan Czaikoski was named statewide female YD of the year in 2012 and was appointed to head up the Credentials Committee for this convention a few months ago. The Credentials Committee Chair does a lot of work before the convention to help clubs submit all the paperwork that is required and correct any problems. Czaikoski told me she has been putting in many hours of work to do this job.

But once it became clear a week ago that there would be a contest for President of the YD's, Czaikoski was suddenly summoned to a conference call with Issac Sarver, the current YD President and Trent Armitage, the current YD Secretary. Czaikoski was interrogated about whether rumors were true that she was in a relationship with Bell- one of the candidates for President. She was then told she would be removed as Credentials Committee Chair because of that relationship- even though no questions had been raised about her performance as the Chair of the committee.

Making this situation even more appalling is that one of the people interrogating Czaikoski about her current relationship status was Armitage- who Czaikoski told me was an "ex-boyfriend" of hers from college. Interesting that Armitage thinks that Czaikoski has a conflict of interest because of who she is currently seeing- but he doesn't see his own conflict of interest (and boarish behavior) of interrogating an ex about their current relationship status.

I asked Czaikoski if she thought the same question would have been asked of a man and she did not think it would it be. When I asked her about how other young women would see this situation, she said it would be "extremely discouraging" to them wanting to get involved themselves and that it has left a "bad taste in my mouth".

Last night, the VYD officially removed Czaikoski from the position and replaced her with Craig Fifer, a former VYD President who is also a Vice Chair at the Democratic Party of Virginia. Fifer was aware of why Czaikoski was being removed and apparently saw no reason why he should decline an appointment under these circumstances.

Obviously with an election coming up, many YD's are split on their opinions of this based on which candidate they are supporting. So I interviewed a number of older women from the party to see what they thought.

Sheila Olem is head of the DPVA women's caucus and a member of the Herndon Town Council. Olem wanted to emphasise that her views on this are her own and not of the caucus. In this type of situation Olem said "performance should be what they are looking at" and that she "can't believe we are going back in time" with this type of double standard for women. When told of Czaikoski's ex being on the initial call asking about her new relationship, Olem said the conduct was "grade school" level. Olem added this situation was "terrible" and that "this is going to dissuade young women from getting involved in the party".

I also interviewed former State Senator Emilie Miller- a former Fairfax County and 11th District Chair. She was "shocked" that these issues were being raised and said it was "none of their damn business" who Czaikoski was choosing to date. Miller said "women are held to a double standard and it is always assumed to be the woman's fault". In regards to Armitage's involvement, Miller noted that "men get jealous too". She added that "[DPVA Chair] Charniele Herring needs to get involved and defend this woman and her right to hold this position without this type of intimidation".

It's also worth noting that two of the YD's involved in this incident are also officers on the Democratic Party of Virginia Steering Committee as Sarver is the 9th District Chairman and Fifer is a Vice Chair of the party. Unfortunately this embarrassing situation for the party is actually coming from party officers and not just young Democrats new to the process.

I've called a few additional women for comment- and will update this post as I hear more reactions.

UPDATE: I spoke with Susan Platt, founder of the Farm Team. Based on her past dealings with Armitage, Platt had a different theory on this. She noted "this may or may not be gender discrimination, but is probably him [Armitage] not being smart enough to understand this situation or the consequences of his actions". Platt noted that she has been working this year to recruit more women to run for office and the party has often not been supportive of her efforts- not out of hostility but because of a "lack of understanding" of how to recruit more women to run. Platt noted that one woman running this year was "scared out of the race" by a male Delegate who called up and in trying to give campaign advice came across in a "threatening manner" and thinks this treatment of women deserves wider discussion.

I also just spoke with State Senator Louise Lucas. She asked, "What the hell difference does it make?", regarding who Czaikoski was seeing. Lucas said she "fails to see any conflict of interest here". Lucas also noted that "we are in the process of trying to attract young women to run, why are we discouraging them before they can even get out of the gate?"

What a coincidence. President Obama just declared April as Sexual Harrassment Awareness Month.

Liberals are probably the most sexist and racist but no one wants to accept it.

Da truth Wrote:
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> Liberals are probably the most sexist and racist
> but no one wants to accept it.

Yup.

Democrats have been enslaving blacks throughout US history. They used to do it with physical chains and now they use the welfare system.