Welcome back, Saturday Campaign D-I-Y’ers! For those who tune in, welcome to the Nuts & Bolts of a Democratic campaign. Each week, we discuss issues that help drive successful campaigns. If you’ve missed prior diaries, please visit our group or follow Nuts & Bolts Guide.
Every so often, our structure changes. And for the next few weeks, we’re going to be focusing not on campaigns directly, but on party structures. This week, as you read this, I’ll be on a flight home from Washington, DC, where the Democratic National Committee Rules & Bylaws Committee meets to discuss the recommendations of the Unity Reform Commission, as well as proposals from members for charter changes.
There is a lot to unpack here, and a lot of people have questions about how this process would work. One of the problems of the internet era is that it is easy to create conspiratorial views of the process or to assume the worst is about to happen.
This week, with some live updates as we go, I’m going to try and break down the things that the Rules & Bylaw Committee looks to accomplish.
The process for the URC
Before we get started, we have to establish a few things right off the bat. The Unity Reform Commission completed their work in December, and the findings and recommendations of that committee will be heard in front of the Rules & Bylaws, as well as at ASDC—the Association of State Democratic Chairs next week in Long Beach, California.
These recommendations and proposals, though, must be crafted into a format that can be proposed before the body. The rules and bylaws committee has a period of six months to review and develop the final proposals from the Unity Reform Commission and put them in front of the DNC membership for a vote.
Many had assumed that DNC members would vote on this proposal in March of this year, at the winter meeting. I don’t see, at this point, a way that this would happen. Before we get into a discussion of how the process should work and whether not there is a delay, we need to establish what is a good working timeline.
The Rules & Bylaws committee will have a discussion about how to frame these proposals and present them, whether all at once or piece by piece and they will need to evaluate how to make these proposals attach to the National Party Charter, the rules that govern our party.
Once a proposal is made, the expectation held by many—myself included—is that we would see a final “here is what to expect” in time for the Summer Association of State Democratic Chairs meeting (ASDC), so that state chairs could hear and evaluate the proposal.
This is important if Unity is to succeed. Without the firm support of state chairs, it is doubtful that Unity recommendations could ever pass.
What needs to be resolved
The list of items the Rules and Bylaws Committee must address is long and will require a lot of detailed work.
The rules committee is tasked in their role to evaluate the proposals and make sure they are things we can do, and try to fulfill the purpose and aspirations of the committee.
So, I’m going to use a completely fictitious example. Let’s say that the Unity Reform Commission all agreed that the DNC should require all state parties provide Nintendo Switch consoles and daycare at each caucus site for states with fewer than 4 delegates at stake. While they could pass a resolution like that, the Rules committee would step in and point out: while this is great, as an aspirational goal, but here are the thing that would make this impossible to do ... and they would then revise this to something that was feasible to implement. NOTE: the URC at no point debated consoles for kids, it’s just a fictional example.
The Unity Commission does have proposals that will need to be ironed out into items which can be passed into charter, and some items, which are entirely aspirational and may need to be refined or considered as a resolution.
Meeting of the RBC
The committee officially meets Friday and Saturday, January 19 and 20. I’ll be attending and live tweeting both days, so you may have already read some of the content below if you followed me (@tmservo433) on Twitter already.
On Friday, Chairman Perez encouraged the Rules & Bylaws committee to work on accomplishing the key task, development of a proposal for unpledged delegates (Superdelegates) in time for the March DNC meeting. While he encouraged this as a possibility, the committee is tasked with turning the language of the Unity Reform Commission into workable language that applies to the Democratic charter. Proposals which will alter the charter have to be presented to all members with a 60 day notice. Because the March meeting will be on the first weekend, it is really not possible to hear these proposals at that meeting.
Before this weekend, emails went out encouraging the rules committee to “accept” the Unity Reform Commission proposal — but that isn’t an option the Rules Committee has to make. They cannot simply vote “up” or “down” the proposal. Instead, as Larry Cohen, Sanders representative and vice chair of the URC pointed out, they must “craft” the language that turns their goals and programs into actionable language that could be voted on.
In the Friday meeting, the Rules & Bylaws committee began to look at both unintended consequences as well as means by which implementation would be possible. The party will need to navigate issues like prior charter agreements on conscience clause and unit allocation of delegates. The committee will also have to come up with guidelines that provide for a procedure that lays out what happens to delegates tied to candidates who drop out before the convention as well as candidates who release their delegates, along with several other possible outcomes.
These questions will have to be answered and suitable language crafted and proposed.
Saturday, the committee went point by point through the proposal to see where there was broad agreement and where work will need to be done.
And, here is where I will editorialize. One of the greatest problems facing the Unity Reform Commission is that it is filled with the perspectives of those on it — a problem we all have. When we look at ways to fix or make the Democratic party better, we often think of our own experiences in our own states, and things that were successful to fix them or things that still need fixed. Because the national party represents 57 state parties — the US states, protectorates, DC & Dems Abroad, you often run into issues where a solution for one state could be a real problem for another. Where voter suppression efforts in one state would be voter relief in another.
The reason for this is because the US has patchwork election laws. And, those differences as well as differences in climate, culture, and the way elections are handled, can change everything. Several states viewed spring elections for local office as voter suppression — lower turnout, lower interest. Whereas many northern states worry that winter municipal elections would create much lower turnout due to lower interest and bad weather.
States with large mail-in ballots have voiced concerns in prior meetings of too frequent “small” balloting to confuse the voters and get them to miss an election, whereas states with only in-person same-day voting view long ballots as a way to take up too much time and lower turnout.
Questions and a discussion will need to be had about the length of time for involvement in holding an office within the party. In some states, you may have to be a member of the state committee to run for further office for a period of time. The committee recommends limiting that time from an appearance on a state committee to the ability to run for a party office.
In the case of voting for candidates, waiting periods to vote in a primary are short and often same day. In some states, especially where third party campaigns run private caucus, some would concern that same-day switching from (R) or a defined party (instead of just an unaffiliated voter) could lead to mischief. The committee pushes for Open Primaries — but again, in some states there are no voter registration procedures to really address, leaving some state parties wondering how they would fulfill these objectives.
All of these problems vary depending on the state you are in. Voter suppression in many forms. Based on cultural norms, population density, habits, laws on the books, and more. Face it, Republicans have put a lot of effort into unique voter suppression tactics.
As a result, sometimes when we prescribe a solution from one state to all states, we don’t necessarily solve those issues, and we may, in fact, harm our cause.
A good example in comparison is Washington DC and Nebraska. In Washington DC, local elected office are run as party affiliated. You run for an office as Joe Smith (D); whereas in Nebraska, their state legislature is run as entirely unaffiliated. In Washington DC, if you moved them to a “locals should be unaffiliated” you would depress and kill the vote. In Nebraska, if you demanded advertisement of “as a Dem” it would go against the set culture of the state and Dems would be wiped out.
These cultural differences mean that moving forward on any solution needs to be expanded to make sure the unintended consequences are addressed. On Friday, Chair Perez urged a way to get votable items ready for the body by the March meeting. The Rules & Bylaws committee is provided 6 months by the agreement drafted at the convention, and I would strongly urge them — as I have been doing — to take time and get input from all the stakeholders and work to make solutions that empower voters. This includes an expansion in commitment to Primaries, and also the change of traditional caucus to firehouse — where people can drop a ballot and leave — but it also hits to more of the “party building” elements promoted by the Unity Commission.
Elaine Kamarck noted that entire sections were very “New York” centric. Having been to all of the meetings, I can tell you this is true. When I run into red-state Democratic members on the committee or at these meetings, everyone is interested in telling me how bad their voter suppression is; and I comment I’m from Kansas — Kobach — so I get it. But for them, the voter suppression in their state is still the worst they have ever known and it is hard to think about the implications in another state.
The large focus on New York, however, is an important one to discuss how we improve the process and access in one of our largest states, but we have to make sure that provisions aimed at addressing those problems does not cause problems elsewhere.
The only way to do this is by making sure all of the stakeholders, state party chairs and leaders as well as outside organizations are invited in and given a chance to think about what is being proposed.
A snap vote in March of proposals is not what the party needs right now. If we vote on proposals without taking time to bring all members in, it will fail. It will look bad for the party, and it will not accomplish our goals. I hope the Unity Commission and Rules & Bylaws follows the process for the 6 provided months and we take this up in the fall meeting, after having three other national meetings to hammer out any issues and make sure that our final product has significant input.
What’s next?
Next week will be the winter meeting of the Association of State Democratic Chairs. While there will be no finalized document ready to review with the state chairs, state chairs will, of course, discuss the direction of the committee and the proposal by the URC, and offer feedback. I will be in Long Beach, CA, and we’ll talk about the work of state chairs next week here on Nuts & Bolts.
The next full meeting of the DNC will be in March, and at that point, we will have a better idea of where the Unity Reform Commission results are heading. That meeting will also be the time to get a “sense of the body” to build consensus around passing proposals that work to benefit everyone within the party.
Tomorrow, I will be writing on two of the controversial issues raised today, regarding Caucus V Primary and the practice of binding delegates.
Next week on Nuts & Bolts: ASDC Meets in Long Beach, CA, and we’ll talk about the work of state party chairs.
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Nuts & Bolts: Building Democratic Campaigns
Contact the Daily Kos group Nuts and Bolts by kosmail (members of Daily Kos only). You can also follow me on twitter: @tmservo433
Every Saturday this group will chronicle the ins and outs of campaigns, small and large. Issues to be covered: Campaign Staffing, Fundraising, Canvass, Field Work, Data Services, Earned Media, Spending and Budget Practices, How to Keep Your Mental Health, and on the last Saturday of the month: “Don’t Do This!” a diary on how you can learn from the mistakes of campaigns in the past.
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