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.
Twice a year, the Democratic National Committee meets in order to help share best practices, positions of our caucuses and councils, and work that we as a party are doing to help our state parties and campaign entities.
When these meetings occur, I try to relay what exactly the DNC is doing, and why it may matter to your state.
Association of State Democratic Committees
At the heart of all DNC meetings will be the activities of the ASDC—the Association of State Democratic Committees. These meetings represent the work and efforts of our state parties, who represent our best efforts to succeed at the ballot box. Every state, territory and Democrats abroad are represented in ASDC.
Ken Martin, Democratic Chair of Minnesota, who also serves as chair of ASDC, has worked to help bring new tools to the ASDC. In leading off his conversation on Wednesday, Martin called for stronger relationships to be built between state entities to continue the support of the new Best Practices Institute, an effort to supply information and tools and innovations with state parties.
Unity Commission
There is no doubt most people thinking about the DNC meeting this week will be thinking about progress on the Unity Commission. The URC turned over documents to the Rules and Bylaws committee in December, and from that point, the Rules Committee is provided six months—which would be June, to turn this document into rules that could be enacted.
Many of the proposals within the Unity Commission Report will require a vote of the whole body and notice, so assuming the rules committee would complete in June, and the report was accepted and proofed, it would then be sent to all of the members, and a vote would be scheduled with a 30-day notice. This means the earliest we could possibly vote on such a proposal would likely be end of July. It is far more likely we meeting August, providing time for sides to look at the report, revisions, changes and alternate proposals.
At this meeting, an alternate proposal—which I advanced at 2016 with the help of Adam Bonin—has been discussed and would also be part of the consideration. While a vote on the URC is a bit away, a vote this weekend to say the body has a sense of desire for reform is clear in every meeting—the statement from this weekend is we are one big step closer to building the party ready for 2018 and 2020.
Proposals and Resolutions
On Saturday, we will be working on proposals and resolutions. These are not bylaws or policy, but they reflect the belief of where the party stands. This weekend, we will be discussing resolutions on AUMF, Unionization of State Parties, Promotion of Paid Interns for fair work, standing behind our union growth and building a party of values.
On Saturday, I’ll have notes about how these resolutions performed, and I hope that we see a continued statement of our values.
I’m pleased to report our resolutions were adopted. Chairman Perez, Christine Pelosi and co-sponsor Yasmine Taeb had worked on a resolution regarding our call to stop gun violence; Tm Vandeveer, chair of Hawai’i Democratic Party called for more attention to the environment and jobs to save our planet. My proposal, which called for praise to state parties that choose union representation, also passed with co-sponsors Yasmine Taeb, Terje Anderson, David McDonald and others. One resolution which in the past would not have succeeded was a proposal by Yasmine to call for an end to the AUMF.
I’m always proud of the work we do to build better campaigns and support the party at Daily Kos, but I admit I take special pride knowing that some of my proposals to help shape the kind of party we want to become succeed.
Next week in Nuts & Bolts: Training Activists, How Can Daily Kos Help?