[statecom] Pres Election, 2008

Fri Mar 16 21:50:24 EST 2007

Mike,

Can you forward this to membership?  Or do you need me to do that?
~Melissa

On 3/16/07, mikeheichman at verizon.net <mikeheichman at verizon.net> wrote:
>
> PLAN & PROPOSAL: "BUILDLING A STRONGER TEAM OF CANDIDATES/ELECTORAL
> CAMPAIGNS FOR THE 2008
> ELECTIONS"
>
> For the State Committee's April 14th Meeting & To Be Sent to the following
> Committees for Vetting  (CDLC, Platform,
> Membership, ComCom, Tech, & Finance) and to the SPWG.
>
> by Mike Heichman
> Interim Coordinator of CDLC
> & Delegate from Suffolk County
> mikeheichman at verizon.net
> 617-265-8143
>
> March 16, 2007
>
> Earlier I had sent out to the CDLC an earlier draft and encouraged
> discussion and feedback. I want to thank Grace
> Ross, Jamie O'Keefe and Ron Francis for sharing their ideas. Mentioning
> their names in no way implies their support
> for my proposal.
>
>
> The best results of our effort will be to build on the vision and improve
> on our practice from our recent 2006
> statewide slate of candidates. To be more effective, we can do the
> following:
>
> a.      Members of the State Committee can play a more active role by
> coordinating campaigns in their region.
> b.      The CDLC can provide the information, coordination and training
> for the
> candidates and their campaigns.
> c.      The Platform Committee can provide support by developing issue
> papers,
> providing research, etc.
> d.      ComCom can produce a public relations manual and a statewide
> newspaper,
> which can be produced and
> distributed by the party on a regular basis.
> e.      The Tech Comm. can provide space on our website.
> f.      The Membership Comm. can strengthen the local base of our party by
> helping to build and strengthen our local
> chapters and by identifying and involving other activists across the
> state.
> g.      The Finance Comm. can establish a separate "fund" to raise $
> across the
> state for our candidates/campaigns?
> h.      What other parts of the state party did I forget to include in
> this
> proposal?
>
>
> I. The Presidential Election of 2008
>
> 1. The State Party has the responsibility to inform our members and, to
> the
> extent possible the general public, about
> the Green Party's 2008 campaign for the Presidency.
>
> To accomplish this, we will do the following:
>
> a. The State Comm. requests that the ComCom keep our members informed
> about
> the Green Party's campaign for
> the presidency (through GRP newsletters and/or a new GRP newspaper from
> the
> middle of 2007 and up to the
> November 2008 election).
>
> b. The State Comm. request that the Tech Committee set up a place on our
> website for this information and to
> establish an e-mail discussion group. This should be done this year in the
> late spring or early summer.
>
> c. At this year's annual convention, there should be time for information,
> discussion and time to deal with proposals.
>
> 2. How will the GRP select our delegates to the Green Party's Presidential
> Nominating Convention?
>
> The MA presidential primary will take place on March 4, 2008. Because of
> the success of our 2006 slate of statewide
> candidates, it will be very simple process for us to place all the known
> Green Party candidates on the ballot. We will
> contact all announced Green Party Presidential Candidates to solicit a
> letter requesting inclusion in our state primary
> a month in advance. Our co-chairs will place all Green Party respondents
> on
> the ballot by contacting the Secretary of
> State's office by the deadline.
>
> For the 2004 campaign, the strength and resources of our state party in
> support of the presidential campaign was
> small. Efforts to educate our members and the general public (some of them
> were eligible to take our ballot) were
> inadequate for both the presidential primary and the November election.
> Thus, for many of our members and for
> those who were eligible to take our ballot, they were unable to make an
> informed decision.
>
> Additionally, during the primary, there were problems at the polls. We
> believe that some of our members were not
> able to get the GRP ballot in some of the precincts, and we doubt that the
> statewide results were accurately counted.
>
> Ideally the fairest and most democratic way to decide the distribution of
> our delegates for the national convention
> would be by using the results of the primary. However, if we do not
> believe
> that we will be able to better solve the 2
> problems described above, we should consider coming up with another
> process.
>
> I propose that we consider doing the following:
>
> a. The State Committee will adopt a plan to adequately educate our members
> and the general public about the Green
> Party candidates who will be seeking the party's nomination. On March 4,
> 2008 our members should be able to
> make an informed choice. At least two members of Adcom and/or the CDLC
> will
> meet with the Secretary of State's
> office to insure proper training of poll workers, insist on the same
> balloting procedures as the other ballot access
> parties, expedite removal of GPUS and that the Secretary's office work
> with
> the municipalities to correct previous and
> ongoing incorrect party designation of GRP voters.
>
> b. If the State Committee believes that we will be unable to successfully
> deal with the above problems, we should
> have a convention in addition to the primary. The convention, maybe 4-6
> weeks after the primary, would be the
> place to evaluate the level of success of the primary and be empowered to
> make decisions about the composition of
> the delegation.
>
> There are many problems with having a convention after the primary. Will a
> convention be perceived as being
> democratic? What will be the turnout? What would happen if the turnout was
> small and there was an organized
> attempt to pack the convention? Also, the work to organize for a
> convention
> could be better used on other projects.
>
> It is my hope that such a mechanism will not be needed. We have a
> responsibility to be proactive and take steps to
> do what we can to make sure that our members make informed choices and
> that
> their votes will be accurately
> counted. Will we be willing and able to take on these
> responsibilities effectively?
>
>
> What should we do if our members are not inadequately informed (by the
> presidential candidates campaigning in our
> state, by the state and by our party) when they vote in our primary next
> March? And what should we do if there are
> problems with the vote and we can't trust the count? I believe that we
> need
> to have a plan in place before the "game"
> begins. It could become very divisive if we changed the rules for the
> selection of our delegates "the
> day after" the primary.
>
> c. How can we choose a delegation that will be "faithful" to the decision
> of our members (voting in the MA primary)
> that will be "faithful" to their candidates, and also be diverse?
>
> The State Comm. must adopt rules that will mandate the sending a diverse
> delegation to the Green Party's national
> convention. Appropriate proportional representation based on the primary
> vote (and if necessary, the convention
> vote) will determine the number of delegates for each candidate and
> volunteers who can represent different
> candidates will contact the candidates to be their designees for the
> national convention. If we decide not to have a
> convention (and hopefully one will not be needed for the reasons already
> described), we will need some kind of
> mechanism/meeting to democratically select the members of our diverse
> delegation.
>
> It is predictable that if our party leaves the decision of who should be
> the delegates to the national candidates that
> this process will benefit our most privileged and active members. Our
> party
> needs to set up affirmative action rules
> in the selection of our delegation. To the extent that we don't, we will
> lack diversity.
>
>
>
> d. The GRP Finance Committee will do some fundraising in order to make
> sure
> that attendance at the Green Party's
> national convention will not be an economic obstacle for any of our
> delegates.
>
> 3. The 2007 GRP Convention will establish a "Diverse Presidential 2008
> Committee" to plan and implement our
> support for our national ticket. This will be a subcommittee of CDLC and
> will need the support of other GRP
> Committees.
>
>
>
>
>
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