Sponsors: Charlene DiCalogero & David Spanagel

Shepherd: CDLC co-chairs (currently Nat Fortune and Charlene DiCalogero)

Working Committees to vet proposal:

• CDLC
• Membership, Diversity and Volunteer Recruitment
• Local and regional chapters
• Town/Ward Committees

Background

The Candidate Development and Legal Committee (CDLC) plays a unique and central role as the committee primarily responsible for closely vetting and guiding candidates(1) to run as GRP nominees or endorsees.

We, like all StateCom Committees, have limited membership and time to spend recruiting and mentoring candidates, planning periodic workshops, and making candidate endorsement and resource allocation recommendations to State Committee. There are multiple requirements and deadlines that CDLC needs to track in order to assist the most viable campaigns. It would be helpful to periodically set overall goals as a committee, in consultation with State Com, for numbers and diversity of candidates at town(2), city, state and federal levels.

Therefore, we believe it would be useful to set some reasonable expectations about the amount of work our committee members can handle at one time, what the responsibilities of the candidates are to the CDLC and the GRP, and manage some of our workload by setting deadlines by which a potential candidate needs to contact CDLC to be considered for support during an upcoming campaign/election cycle.

Summary

The GRP State Committee’s Candidate Development and Legal Committee will operate with certain basic expectations of its members, and of the potential or declared candidates whom it exists to support.

Expectations of CDLC members

1. CDLC members attend most monthly teleconference meetings, and the state convention—continuity is very important!
2. CDLC devotes 1 (one) meeting each year to long-range planning and evaluation of the accomplishments and challenges of the previous year.
3. Each new CDLC member will have a training/ramp-up period before taking on a full roster of candidate liaisees.
4. CDLC members are expected to read and respond if needed to CDLC list emails in a timely manner, as this is a principal way work gets done.

Prioritizing of recruitment and support of potential and announced candidates

CDLC will prioritize candidates based on the following considerations:

1. Diversity criteria, including geographic diversity;
2. Qualifications of the candidate for the office desired;
3. Familiarity with and support of GRP/GPUS values and platform;
4. Previous and continuing work in support of the GRP/GPUS and/or its candidates;
5. Campaign goals clarity;
6. Understanding of and willingness to do the level of work necessary to run a campaign that meets the goals of that campaign;
7. Timing: race is upcoming, with enough time to get on the ballot;
8. Possibly, winnability of race (e.g., open seat, special election for which candidate is experienced and well-known in the community, particularly good for GRP candidate or bad for opponents); and
9. General track record: other information that confirms or disconfirms the suitability of the candidate for endorsement by the GRP.

In most cases, the candidate is expected to be eligible to run as a GR candidate, not as “independent.”

Deadlines for candidates to contact CDLC

1. CDLC may refuse to consider supporting or vetting any candidate for a specific race if they request support or submit an application less than 30 days before signatures are due to get on the ballot.
2. If the candidate is already on the ballot, and requests endorsement, the request must be made at least 40 days before the next StateCom meeting, and at least 60 days before the desired election.
3. If the candidate is interested in a local race, CDLC will refer them to a local chapter or town/ward committee for support if available.

Write-in candidates (see also footnote 1 below)

1. If CDLC has the person-power, we can recruit and accept a limited number of write-in candidates to support. CDLC is still responsible for screening them.
2. By definition, a write-in candidate is announced. Therefore, we need to have a liaison who does not already have 2-3 active candidates, and has time to take on the write-in at the level of experience the candidate is at, with the goals they have set and the resources they have.
3. We have an obligation to prioritize candidates already on the ballot. The party should not lose the value of work already done by diverting scarce time and energy to discussing and supporting a candidate(s) who is coming to us late, with unknown reasons for contacting us, and possibly without a GRP track record.

Expectations of potential and announced candidates

Potential candidates/endorsees, if it is determined that they are eligible to run as a GRP candidate (or unenrolled, if there is a compelling reason to consider them) will be informed by their liaison at first contact (in conversation and in writing) that:

1. We expect them to be in good contact their CDLC liaison. They are responsible for contacting the liaison on a regular basis, and more frequently as the election approaches.
2. Part of the role of a GRP candidate is to help increase support for the party, through getting people to join campaigns, register and vote J, and strengthen or start GRP chapters.
3. The liaison provides basic support and can direct the candidate to some resources immediately, such as GPUS webinars, the GRP website and FB page. They are not generally able to recruit campaign committee members or do their tasks.
4. At the appropriate time, if the candidate is seeking party endorsement and resources, they will need to submit an endorsement application within the deadline set for the time period.

Budget Impact

No budget impact is expected.

Implementation

1. A copy of the Work Management Plan will go on the CDLC folder in Google Drive.
2. A CDLC member will draft a “welcome GRP candidate” message based on the expectations of potential and actual candidates.
3. A CDLC member will draft a “welcome new CDLC member” message based on the expectations of CDLC members, and attach a copy or link to the entire adopted proposal.
4. Deadlines to contact CDLC for support for major state district, state-wide and Congressional elections will be posted on the GRP website.
5. Prospective candidates will be invited to our "Candidates' listserve," a list where information about useful GPUS campaign skills webinars and other news is periodically shared.

Footnotes

1. Anyone can run as a GRP candidate on the ballot, or write-in candidate if they meet the legal requirements. A candidate may not even be aware of the desirability of announcing their candidacy to the GRP or CDLC.
   
2. Chapters, ward, town and city committees sometimes play a role similar to the CDLC for their local candidates; CDLC will refer local candidates to chapters if possible.