California Democratic Party – Stop the Vote Stacking for Candidate Endorsements

We, the undersigned, call upon the California Democratic Party, the Executive Board and the Rules Committee to restore local control to the endorsement of local candidates by the California Democratic Party.

Local Democratic Party activists should be given every right to choose their own candidates for endorsement without interference and vote stacking from Sacramento and legislators from outside districts.

The current practice, whereby elected officials from any State Assembly, Senate or Congressional District can insert voting delegates into a local endorsing caucus that is not in their district and stack the vote for their candidate is anti-Democratic, leads to wasteful spending on candidates that don’t have local support and is, in some cases, discriminatory.

As an example, under the current bylaws, a legislator from Marin County can insert voting delegates into a local endorsing caucus in Los Angeles. In one case, a local endorsing caucus swelled from 40 local activists to over 120 of which over 80 were picked by legislators outside the district, thereby reducing the local voice to 1/3 of their voting power.

Our elected officials in the State Assembly, State Senate and Congress already have access to a bully pulpit from which they can try to convince local delegates to vote for their candidate of choice. But using vote stacking methods to control the local endorsements and drowned out the voice of the local community is unconscionable. Local Democratic Party activists walk precincts, make phone calls and give what little money they have to candidates and the Democratic Party. To take their voice away is to show disrespect for the tremendous amount of time and effort they give to the Democratic Party.

A disturbing proposed “compromise” to this bylaw is to reduce the number of delegates and allow the Speaker of the Assembly and Senate Pro Tempore to control these delegates in the future to stack the vote in local endorsing caucuses, thereby further concentrating power in leadership as opposed to local grassroots leaders. This is unacceptable.

We call on the California Democratic Party to end the practice whereby delegates are appointed by out-of-district elected officials.

The Rules Committee will meet on Sunday October 6, 2013 at 11:15 am – 1545 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90017.

The Executive Board will have final approval at their meeting in the San Francisco area on November 22-24, 2013 at the Westin Hotel - 1 Old Bayshore Hwy, Millbrae, CA 94030

After you sign the petition, please call the California Democratic Party at (916) 442-5707 and tell them to stop this practice of vote stacking which takes away our local voice in endorsing candidates.