The Patrick
Henry Democratic Club
Editorial: Orange County PDA Endorsements a Sham
Tonight, the Orange County "chapter" of PDA held its endorsement
meeting, or at least, that's what it was supposed to be.
As one of the more regular attendees of the monthly PDOC meetings, I
expected to be able to show up and vote. I managed to be a few
minutes late, and found out that, because I was late, I would not be
able to vote. I heard that the chapter leader, whom I shall not
name - most of you know him anyway, had already stated that this was to
be the case, and that he was just following "the rules."
Somewhere, these "rules" must have stated that latecomers would not be
allowed to vote. (However, although I did not even receive a
notice that this meeting was to take place, nothing I did see,
including all the little flyers that the chapter leader passed out,
said anything about losing one's vote by being late. That's not
normal procedure, or at least it hasn't been until now. Normal
procedure is that people don't usually show up until half an hour after
the meeting starts.)
Now this is interesting, because the "rules" are PDA's national policy
on endorsement, which can be found here:
http://pdamerica.org/misc/PDA%20Endorsement%20Policy.pdf. Imagine
my surprise when I went there and read the whole policy, and guess
what? There is absolutely NOTHING in the rules about when people
can arrive (or leave).
Here's another cute little tidbit: according to the rules, the
endorsement meeting must be held at least three months before the
election. However, in California, the filing period for
candidates does not close until March 12. (Technically, it closes
on March 7, but there is a loophole for races in which an incumbent
does not file on time, in which case everyone in that race is granted a
five-day extension, so the final day to file papers is March 12.)
So what?
Here's what:
1) Candidates are supposed to be contacted at least 21 days prior to
the endorsement meeting in order to have the opportunity to get an
endorsement.
2) Candidates have until seven days prior to the endorsement meeting to
return the necessary information in order to get the endorsement.
So, how can a candidate who has not completed their filing until right
near the close of the filing period obtain a PDA endorsement?
According to the chapter leader, they can't. Neither can
candidates who happen to be out of state during the specified period,
although that could have been avoided (see next paragraph). Maybe
it has something to do with the Democratic Party high rollers in a
certain CD, who happen to be backing the Republican incumbent, that PDA
is counting on for donations. Sounds more like the Democratic
Party than PDA (but it isn't)....
There is an exception handling clause in the endorsement policy.
It says that if the chapter cannot meet the requirements of the policy
within the state laws, an exception can be created. Looks like
here was a strong and clear case for an exception to be created:
candidates are not certified (and therefore are technically not
candidates at all) until the filing period closes. Was an
exception created, or even applied for? No. Whose job is
that? I think that would be the chapter leader. He didn't
seem to know about that rule, although he did know about the
non-existent rule about late-comers.
I go further. I personally know at least one candidate who was
repeatedly rebuffed in her attempts to get the proper forms for the
endorsement. She finally received them too late to return
them. Tough luck, Ms. candidate.
Here's another clever little goodie. Most of the people who
regularly attend these meetings were not represented at the endorsement
meeting tonight. Why? Because they were late.
Remember? Latecomers could not vote, even though that is nowhere
to be found in the PDA policy. Who was responsible for that
one? Probably the chapter leader.
Surprisingly enough (or maybe not, if you follow politics at all), most
of the people at the meeting who arrived in time to vote were not
regular attendees of the chapter meetings. And two candidate and
their campaign managers who did happen to be there also could not
vote. Why? Because they were late! (Actually, I don't
know if that rule was "bent" to accommodate one of the candidates, just
not me or the other people I know who were late as well.) This
also sounds a lot like the way the Democratic Party participants
routinely get raided in their caucuses and election meetings, so people
who couldn't care less about politics or the party can get in to oust
those who actually participate but have more advanced (progressive, as
in PDA) ideas than the raiders.
One of my friends says that this is what qualifies as vote
rigging. I call it a fraud, and a sham.
Maybe that's just politics as usual for PDA, or PDOC.
I don't know – I walked out in disgust.
Mark Hull-Richter
Executive Director and Co-Founder
Patrick Henry Democratic Club, a PDA affiliate
