[LD22exec] LD22 Nominating Convention

Tue Apr 8 03:04:37 EDT 2008

Hello,

I just wanted to follow up with everyone on this new and exciting
responsibility the PCO's now have. I have attached the rules from the state
party for you all to review (with the LD part highlighted in yellow) and at
the bottom you can find our official call sent from Dwight today.

As I discussed by phone with each of you we all decided to have our
nominating convention at our regularly scheduled quarterly meeting on April
28th.  Also I was to call all three of our elected officials and let them
know.  

I talked to Representative Hunt and he is available and ready to
participate.

I talked to Senator Fraser and she is ready and excited to participate but
has requested that we reschedule as she is out of town from April 21st to
May 19th.    As you will see in the rules we need to hold this before the
23rd of May, and she says she will make any of the days between May 20th
(Tuesday)and the 22nd (Thursday) work, if we would consider changing the
date of the nominating convention.

I decided to ask you all what your opinion is on this before calling
Representative Williams to save myself making a second call if we change the
date.

The question...Do we call a special meeting for the nominating convention
sometime between May 20 & 22 (If both Representatives are available also)?
Or stick with our quarterly meeting. 

I am inclined to say we move it to accommodate her, as she is our senior
elected official.  On the other hand she would probably still win by
acclimation even without being in attendance.

Please let me  know your vote ASAP as we need to get this rolling very soon.

Thanks,

Jim

Notice to LD and County Parties on Conducting Nominating Conventions 

for Partisan Offices

>From Dwight Pelz, Chair, WSDCC

April 6, 2008

On Thursday, April 3, the WSDCC Executive Board met to discuss the Party's
response to the US Supreme Court ruling upholding the Top Two Primary.  The
E Board reviewed the Rules for the Selection of Candidates and Nominees for
Public Office,  which were debated and adopted by the State Central
Committee in 2005.  

The Rules provide procedures by which the Party will nominate its candidates
when the State does not conduct a Democratic Primary which meets the rights
of the Party to have Democrats nominate Democrats.  The Top Two Primary does
not meet this test.  In fact it is not a primary, in the sense of an
election whose purpose is to nominate a candidate from within a political
party.

The Executive Board reviewed these Rules; then voted 17 to 1 to affirm the
implementation of them.  The Executive Board acknowledged that because these
Rules have been adopted by the Central Committee, the Party is required to
implement the Rules --  unless an emergency  Central Committee is convened
to amend them.  Nonetheless, the E. Brd. found the Rules to be a well
reasoned response to the Supreme Court's ruling, and did not recommend to
convene an emergency Central Committee meeting at this time.  

I encourage all Party Leaders to review these Rules. They call for the
conduct of Nominating Conventions to be held at the LD, County, and
Congressional levels - where those jurisdictions will have partisan races
this year.  The votes at these Conventions shall be cast by elected and
appointed Precinct Committee Officers. (PCO's)  Each Nominating Convention
will nominate one Democrat for each partisan office, by majority vote.  This
is not an endorsement meeting, there is no two-thirds rule, and there will
be no dual nominations.  

As Chair of the Party, and pursuant to the Rules for the Selection of
Candidates and Nominees for Public Office, I call on all Chairs of LD or
County Parties in jurisdictions which will be conducting partisan elections
in 2008, to inform me of the date and location they will hold a Nominating
Convention Prior to May 23.  Once I learn of the time and place you
identify, I will formally issue the "Call" for that meeting.  

Each jurisdiction must hold a separate meeting - LD and County Nominating
Conventions shall not occur at the same time.  These meetings can be
scheduled to occur at a regularly scheduled monthly meeting.  I encourage LD
and County Chairs to coordinate these efforts to insure there are no
conflicting Conventions within a County or Legislative District.  

Conventions for purposes of nominating candidates for Congress shall be held
prior to or immediately following the May 17 Congressional District
Caucuses.  However the votes cast at the Congressional level Nominating
Convention shall be by the PCO's, not the delegates.

Statewide candidates will be nominated at the State Convention in Spokane on
June 14, by the delegates to the State Convention.  

I understand these Conventions will be an additional burden to Democrats
working very hard to implement our Delegate Selection Plan.  However I am
confident that you will step up to the challenge of a Supreme Court Ruling
which calls into question our rights and responsibilities as an American
political party.  I am confident you will meet this challenge with clarity,
supreme organization, and equity to all involved. 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.thurstondemocrats.org/pipermail/ld22exec_thurstondemocrats.org/attachments/20080408/e13d0dc8/attachment-0001.html 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 2008_Nomination_Conventions_-_Rules_-_080324.doc
Type: application/msword
Size: 98304 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://mail.thurstondemocrats.org/pipermail/ld22exec_thurstondemocrats.org/attachments/20080408/e13d0dc8/attachment-0001.doc 