Floor Sponsor:

Merelice (Norfolk County)

Vetting:

This proposal has been previously vetted (for the Fall 2012 State Committee meeting). Will re-send to AdCom and CDLC.

Proposal Text:

The bylaws of the Green-Rainbow Party are hereby changed as follows: Redefine the county-based districts which currently hold regional conventions at which proportional representatives are elected to the State Committee. Instead of being based on counties, 12 regions [to be defined] are to be based on the 40 State Senatorial districts. The terms of the State Committee representatives appointed as a result of these conventions are four years, to run concurrently with the four-year terms of state committee delegates elected as part of the presidential primary election. Terms of State Committee representatives who were appointed in 2012 or later are hereby extended until 2016.

Background/Rationale:

Regional biennial GRP conventions are one of three ways that GRP-registered members can be elected/appointed to the State Committee. This particular method was developed to provide proportional representation on the State Committee, supplementing the state regulations of electing a non-proportional fixed number of State Committee delegates on the same party ballot as the presidential primary every four years.

Regional conventions are currently organized by county and have been the source of most GRP State Committee representatives. Most counties exist only on paper and have no electoral, legislative, or fiscal responsibilities for StateCom reps to monitor as a team.

This proposal changes the basis of regional elections from counties to State Senatorial Districts. In this way, GRP StateCom members could organize their constituents and work together to have some influence on their common State Senators, providing some electoral glue which does not exist in counties.

In addition, this change would mirror how State Committee delegates are elected every four years as part of the Green Party presidential primary election. In the event the GRP does not qualify for a presidential primary, this would become the sole means of forming a GRP State Committee.

Currently there are 12 county-based districts. In recent years, districts have combined to organize fewer regional conventions at which they have then had separate district-based break-out sessions to conduct their county StateCom elections. 

To reduce the number of regions from 40 state senatorial districts to 12, it is suggested that 8 regions combine 3 state senatorial districts (= 24) and 4 regions combine 4 senatorial districts (=16). As with counties, it would be possible for these resulting 12 districts to combine further if they wish to organize fewer regional conventions as long as they held separate district-based elections.

It is further proposed that the terms of proportional representatives thus elected mirror the four-year terms of the delegates elected as part of the GRP presidential primary election. This would mean holding regional conventions every four years, thereby reducing the burden of conducting regional conventions every two years. The terms of those State Committee representatives who were appointed in 2012 or later would be extended past 2014 until 2016.

Changing the basis of defining the regions and terms of office for the State Committee’s proportional representatives is a bylaw change and requires two-thirds approval.

 Financial impact:

no immediate impact; less cost for conducting less frequent regional conventions.

Implementation:

A request will go to CDLC to make recommendations -- with input from local chapters and GRP members -- regarding the best combination of 40 state-senatorial districts to constitute 12 regions. When the regions are defined, the proportional allocation of 60 State Committee representatives will be recalculated for the new regions, current appointed State Committee representatives will be assigned to the redefined regions, and their terms will be automatically extended to 2016. Bylaws will be changed accordingly.