1. It’s yet another cut off day in Olympia. (Today is the last day for any bill to pass out of its respective house of origin. Otherwise, it’s dead.) And OMG! The legislation we’ve been obsessing about—the House and Senate bills that mandate density and affordable housing around transit stations—has not made it out of either chamber yet.
2. No big surprise: KC Council Member Dow Constantine, who’s running for KC Exec, got the endorsement of his home turf last night—the 34th District, West Seattle.
But Morning Fizz got its hands on an email exchange between a few 34th District leaders, and it looks like the Constantine sycophants in the 34th scuttled the rules so they could rush the endorsement.
I’ve posted the set of emails below the jump, but here’s the deal: The district chair, Tim Nuse, points out that district rules required a more formal and open process, but then the committee members concoct a scheme to endorse Constantine pronto anyway.
3. Brian Eno 1973 + The Shangri-Las 1965 + The Smiths 1985 = Portland’s Parenthetical Girls. And OMG! They are playing at the Sunset Tavern in Ballard tonight.
4. Re: Cut off day: Serious education reformer, state Rep. Ross Hunter (D-48, Redmond, Bellevue, Clyde Hill) will try to amend the education bill in the House today. If he fails, Washington state may be out $800 million in Obama stimulus education money.
From: Tim Nuse
Sent: Monday, March 09, 2009 10:24 PM
To: Ann Martin; Asha Mohamed; Chris
Porter; David Ginsberg; Ivan Weiss; Kim Becklund;
M STONE; Robin Hess; Stuart
Yarfitz; Beth Grieser; Bill
Schrier; Brian Earl; Greg Doss; Jackie Dupras; Jeff Uppy;
Kimber McCreery; Les Treall; Richard Bartlett; Walter Sive
Subject: Endorsement Process
Hello Executive Board,
At our February eboard meeting we voted to recommend to the
members an early endorsement of Dow Constantine and a
generous campaign contribution. I believe the cart is
before the horse. There are three reasons I have decided a
motion for endorsement will be out of order on Wednesday.
1. Rule and Bylaws – The bylaws read:
”Section 3. The executive board may establish in its
rules the procedures governing the endorsement time line and
process and shall send written notice of the rules to the
members (newsletter is considered written notice for this
purpose.) Adoption shall be by majority vote.
Any rules so adopted shall remain in effect until amended
or replaced.”
The last set of adopted rules are from 2007 and refer to
two specific endorsement meetings for the primary and
general election. They do not clarify early endorsement.
2. Serving our members – Our members expect to know what
business will be before them at a meeting. This is key to empowering them to cast informed votes and key to the general transparency of our organization. We did not notify them in the newsletter that any endorsements or campaign contributions will be considered at this meeting.
Our bylaws committee has prioritized the review of our
endorsement process. Waiting to consider an endorsement of
Dow and a contribution to his campaign is not going to harm
our District or his campaign. I want there to be a clearly
defined process, established by the eboard, and approved by
the members (with prior written notice as required by our
bylaws) before we proceed with endorsements.
Many thanks,
Tim Nuse
34th District Democrats Chair
From: Miki Meahan
Sent: Tuesday, March 10, 2009 1:43 PM
Subject: RE: Revised 34th Dems Budget
I have an idea that might work. just a thought though.
Is there any way that we could present the idea to the members tomorrow
night, as proposed, and then plan an event or present the check at one of
Dow’s events for the photo op? That is of course if his endorsement passes,
which I am assuming it will. This would require some coordination with his
campaign, but it would be a win-win for both us and them, and we might be
able to drum up some press for both camps. “34th LD Throws Support Behind
Dow in a BIG way!” Just a thought.
–
Miki’s idea absolutely WILL work. Nothing — I repeat, NOTHING — in our
bylaws or in our present endorsement rules precludes any member from making
a motion to endorse Dow during New Business, the chairman’s statements
notwithstanding. It can’t be on the agenda now, that is correct. That was an
unfortunate and disappointing oversight. But it is not necessarily fatal.
The motion WILL be made, it WILL be in order, and it WILL pass. I am curious
to see who might oppose it on presumed, but actually nonexistent, procedural
grounds, We can hand DOW the big check later. No, I repeat, NO additional
“process” is either necessary or desirable as regards THIS particular
endorsement.
From: Les Treall
Sent: Wednesday, March 11, 2009 4:26 PM
To: Kim Becklund
Subject: Re: Revised 34th Dems Budget
I agree with Kim. I want to point out that VII.5.c states “Motions for
endorsement shall allow all candidates to be nominated before proceeding to
a vote.” The rules for endorsements 3.3.2 says “There will be no
endorsement vote for any candidate until all candidates for that position
have had the opportunity to be endorsed.” By suspending the rules we may
bypass this hurdle. We need to be ready, should someone bring up endorsing
Larry Phillips. Let’s get this endorsement done and then clean up our rules
and bylaws.
Les Treall
Wow, why did the 34th think they would have to suspend any rules in order to endorse Dow? If they had waited a month, let their members know and allow Larry to be nominated. They (34th Leadership) have been force feeding Dow to their membership, and many have no idea who his opponent is at all.
Plus with the “mafia” attitude that exists in the dist. in regards to this race, I doubt many with any clout would dare stand up against it.
But instead they chose the un-democratic route and it looks bad for everybody involved.
Here is the bylaw in question:
Section 3. The executive board may establish in its rules the procedures governing the endorsement time line and process and shall send written notice of the rules to the members (newsletter is considered written notice for this purpose.) Adoption shall be by majority vote.
Any rules so adopted shall remain in effect until amended or replaced.
Here are the current rules, which seem to be expired, but they haven’t been amended or replaced: http://34dems.org/Docs2007/Endorsement-Rules-2007.pdf
The only thing that needed to be published for the membership was new rules, which the E Board did not adopt.
From my perspective and through my interpretation of the bylaws, there was no need to suspend the rule(s) last night. The endorsement was well within the bounds of the by laws and special rules. There are no rules in place that specify that the membership has to be notified of an impending endorsement.
I think it would be nice to let the membership know when the E Board votes to endorse someone, but nothing in the 34th’s bylaws or special rules require it.
The E Board probably ought to establish rules for 2009, though.
I don’t see exactly which procedural rules may have been violated. The Bylaws state: “The chair will entertain motions to endorse and seconds for all races that apply to all or a portion of 34th District voters. A motion for sole endorsement or a motion to close nominations shall be out of order.” Perhaps it would be considered a “sole endorsement” but that doesn’t appear to be what everyone is squabbling over. Much ado about nothing!
Josh, Robert’s Rules allows a body to suspend the rules with a 2/3 vote. While a body cannot suspend the bylaws, it looks like the 34th acted completely within their bylaws, just not within the separate set of rules adopted.
So as long as they properly suspended the rules, there’s no there there. Just an organization endorsing their home-turf candidate with some typical (and appropriate) pre-meeting coordination.
Wow? There was no reason to wait a month and the membership suspended the rules with a 2/3rds vote in order to do so. All on the up and up. Dow has been a major leader in the 34th district for 25 years, serving as everything from District Chair, State Rep and Senate and 8 years on the county council and now unanimously elected as Chair of the County Council. Why would the 34th not want to endorse him sooner rather than later over a newsletter glitch? Larry Phillips can also be endorsed by the 34th. All he has to do is ask. But so far haven’t seem him in West Seattle yet. One endorsement does not preclude another. The 34th is a bastion and beacon of democracy in this county and making us out to be “mafia” is insulting and simply not true. Get a life.
Ditto what Marcee said. Nobody “scuttled the rules.” Any rule can be suspended with a 2/3 vote under Robert’s Rules of Order. It is quite commonplace. This is just another example of Josh’s abominable journalism. Any *real* journalist would have called around to make some sense of this before posting this judgmental crap.
Larry Phillips or any other candidate for County Executive who is a Democrat is welcome to come into the 34th and tell us why we should elect them, and we hope they do, for they will be welcomed. If any of them can muster a 2/3 vote for a motion to endorse, they will be endorsed.
We know Larry well. We do get around in the 34th, you know. Larry is a good guy, a good Democrat, and a good County Council member. I think he would make a good County Executive, and I’ll be damned if I’ll badmouth him, or tell anybody who likes him *not* to vote for him.
If Dow wasn’t running, I’d be supporting Larry proudly. But Dow will be a *great* County Executive, just as he has been a *great* County Council member.
He has been involved in as many of the communities in his District as it is physically possible to be involved in, and has gone to bat for communities and against corporate and public sector bureaucracies almost every time.
Dow has always been there for us. Why the *hell* wouldn’t we be there for him, as soon as we could be. The 34th is the top LD organization in the state because we follow process, but we aren’t slaves to it. I hope there’s a lesson there for somebody.
Yup overblown. Only a same party KC Councilor who is on the outs with their own district would have any chance of not being endorsed. Larry will come to your district but it will be a lower priority than visits where the endorsment is up in the air. The districts of North East and South King county for instance will be contested. Folks in those districts will provide for a longer process as a result.
The 34th acted entirely properly and within their rules. Not only were the rules followed to the letter, but the new Chair, Tim Nuse, ALWAYS bends over backwards to make sure to manage business properly, fairly and with transparency and inclusion.
This entire issues has been overblown and facts withheld to create the appearance of impropriety. The endorsement was properly motioned and seconded and there was a call for speakers for and against, as is proper. The membership then voted to endorse Dow. And then voted to donate by the same motion process.
The alternative to suspending the rules was to wait a MONTH to endorse. So, a new motion was made by the membership in new business, which is simply logical.
And it’s not suprising in the slightest that Dow got an endorsement. He’s a champ and has worked tirelessly with the 34th.
I invite anyone who has a problem with this endorsement to get their chosen candidate in front of the 34th and all the local districts to secure endorsements and contributions. And, of course, vote.
That, is how democracy is supposed to work.
As Obama says: “You don’t have to boo, you just have to vote.”
I have been a member of 34th District Democrats for many years. This organization discusses issues openly and is not afraid of dissent among its leaders. The emails mentioned in this posting were aimed at airing the opinions of the District’s leadership on interpretation of bylaws and rules. To take one interpretation as the “right” one and then disparage the actions in total is absolutely inappropriate.
Rather than shoving through an endorsement this communication shows how seriously the leadership takes its responsibility to its membership. As we work to bring new people into leadership positions and teach our members about political processes, it is important for us to have these kinds of discussions so that we learn from each other.
Shame on you for failing to see that open discussion such as this is healthy in a democracy. The members of the 34th District Democrats heartily and enthusiastically endorse Dow Constantine, who will be a great leader for King County, just as he has been a great leader for this district.