Next Generation Shenanigans
By Greg L | 5 October 2007 | 13th HOD District, Virginia Politics | 15 Comments
It’s not unusual for political organizations to have their leadership change fairly frequently, but the recent change at the Next Generation Democrats PAC is pretty unusual. It’s not that often that a Communucations Director ends up in a military prison, and has to be replaced.
Dave Montoya (whose bio is now missing from the NGD website, pictured at left) dropped off the face of the earth in July, saying he had some sort of legal thing to work out. He’s in the Naval Reserve, and he reported to a court martial to face charges of sexual assault. He hasn’t been seen since. I guess he’s going to be missing for a little longer. Actually lot longer, since the UCMJ tends to be pretty strict about the rules, and Navy Courts-Martial hand down fairly substantial sentences for this sort of stuff ever since the Tailhook scandal. Those that I spoke to who know Montoya aren’t terribly surprised that he got charged with this, nor are they surprised that he got convicted. He’s apparently quite the sleaze.
How this is going to bode for his close buddy Doug Denneny, who is expected to seek the Democratic nomination for the 11th Congressional District, isn’t really clear. Since Montoya has been leading Denneny around like his pet dog to various campaign events for some time, I can’t imagine may people are going to be able to separate the two very much. “Predator” is supposed to be an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, not an apt description of the company you keep, buddy. No wonder you retired as only a Commander despite being a USNA grad.
Also of note is Next Generation Democrats Executive Director Nate De La Piedra, pictured at left, who also is the Deputy Campaign Manager for Bruce Roemmelt. He is not an American citizen. He is a foreign national. I’m sure he’s not an illegal alien, as I’m sure that Bruce Roemmelt would never do such a thing as hire an illegal alien on his campaign staff. But it’s still pretty bizarre that someone raising money for Democrats and being paid to assist in their campaigns isn’t legally eligible to vote for the candidates.
Sex offenders and foreigners. That probably wouldn’t have been a very catchy name, so I guess I can understand why they chose “Next Generation Democrats.” The only question in my mind is “next generation” of what, precisely?
UPDATE: One commenter has asked why I believe Montoya was the Communications Director for NGD. Here is the facebook page for NGD which shows their officers:
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The burden of proof is on Bruce. He isn’t a citizen: it is fair to ask if he is legal.
That Montoya kid used to shop Denneny around everywhere. This has to hurt Denneny going into the primaries. But I just did a google search and can’t seem to find a single statement put out by Dave Montoya for NGD where did you hear that he was their communications director?
Was the picture of De La Piedra by any chance taken by Bob Rudine?
Post is updated with a screenshot of the NGD facebook page. Since this requires a valid login, it’s easier for most to look at the screenshot than to provide a link.
For those with a login for facebook, go to http://jmu.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2222019399
That link won’t work unless you have an account.
Why, Democrats of course. The previous generation of Democrats had their fair share of sex offenders and foreigners, too. Bill Clinton (remember Paula Jones, Juanita Brodderick, etc.) and Johnny Chung? Perhaps Dave Montoya is simply setting himself up for the 2032 Dem presidential nomination.
Wasn’t Janet Oleszek somehow affiliated with that group also?
Barney Frank
It was Dave’s responsibility to disclose his crime to his “employers”. We all know very well that local races don’t do background checks. How was Doug, or anyone else for that matter, to know about his past unless he told them? I wouldn’t stretch this thing out too far.
Now even legal immigrants shouldn’t work in politics. This is disgusting. If Montoya did anything remotely close to what you say, then he should be punished, no question.
However, it just goes way too far when candidates take heat for heaving legal immigrants help their campaign. I thought legal immigrants like Piedra were the good guys, they are playing by the rules. I can’t think of a much better way to assimilate into the culture then by being active in politics and campaigns.
This is the problem with the fervor created by the anti-illegal immigrant lobby. It spills over and negatively affects legal immigrants. Sure, you can go after illegals, after all that is what you do. But if you want to keep the dialogue from spinning out of control and you want to be consistent, then it should not matter what the legal immigrants do as long as it’s legal.
You can bash Piedra for any number of political missteps but you should not write how “bizarre” it is to have someone work for them because they are an immigrant.
This is a strange, and unfortunate situation (especially for the victim). It appears that Dave will be gone for a long, long time, which is exactly what should happen in these situations, hopefully we can refrain from dragging down other people who could not have known what happened while Dave was in the Navy.
so I guess those of us who aren’t yet citizens but proud legal residents who love this country aren’t welcome to participate in the political process in anyway because we can’t vote yet?
well you can shove that sentiment up your ass.
De La Piedra chiming in anonymously, perhaps?
This is a foreign national who is raising money for candidates. I believe that if he was doing this for federal candidates, it would be unlawful, although I’m not aware of any similar provision in Virgina election laws. Even if it’s legal, it’s somewhat disturbing.
Similarly, why would Bruce Roemmelt feel the need to hire foreign nationals for his campaign staff? De La Piedra can’t circulate petitions to put a candidate on the ballot, he can’t vote, he can’t conduct voter registration drives, or perform similar nuts-and-bolts campaign activities.
Can’t Roemmelt actually find actual citizens to work for him?
Greg, you might have noticed that on many campaign websites at the federal level, there is a disclaimer that includes the statement: “If a foreign national, I have permanent resident status and hold a green card.” This would seem to indicate that your assertion about foreign nationals not being able to raise/donate money is incorrect.