Democratic State Committee Reorganized Today

The first meeting of the quadrennium is usually also the longest, mostly due to all the elections that have to take place.  Today’s meeting, while not as long as its 2008 counterpart (Back then you needed majorities; now it’s top X vote-getters depending on slots available), was called to order shortly after 10AM and adjourned shortly before 4PM.  We began by hearing from, among others, Senator Warren and Congressman Capuano.  There were presentations by Secretary Galvin and OCPF Director Michael Sullivan reminding us of our obligations and restrictions for local committees.  (Our meeting was at Roxbury Community College, a public facility – YOU try plugging the Roosevelt Dinner without actually soliciting money in a public place!)

We proceeded to elect the various add-on seats.  See here for the list of candidates as well as the names of DSC members eligible to vote today.  The latter group includes winners of last Saturday’s contested conferences; Pete Christopher of 1SM, Michael Clark of 1HH, Elizabeth Coughlin of 1MI, and David Kazis of 2SM.  (Here are the ballot results for district DSC men and women, for anyone who is interested.)  Here are the results:

• Disability Female – Cheryl Cummings
• Disability Male – Robert Cassidy
• Labor Male – John Dumas, Ed Mills, Archie Gormley, Mark Flaherty, Dave Holway
• Veteran Female – Christine Tron
• Youth Male – Tyler Carlton, Michael D’Ortenzio, DJ Napolitano, Samuel Segal
• Affirmative Action Female – Nazda Alam, Sandi Bagley, Celia Blue, Kate Chang, Cheryl Clyburn Crawford, Marcia Cruz-Redding, Linda Dorcena Forry, Marilyn Flowers-Marion, Elizabeth Gervacio, Charlotte Golar-Richie, Dorothea Jones, Linda Monteiro, Sheneal Parker, Blessing Rogers, Denise Simmons, Jacquetta VanZandt, LIsa Wong, Michelle Wu
• Affirmative Action Male – Feliz Arroyo, Leonard Cooper, Brian Corr, Ralph Edwards, Louis Elisa, Dylan Hayre, Sam Liao, Nadeem Mazin, Mel Poindexter, Ricardo Quiroga, Jay Rivera, Ervin “Tootsie” Russell, Jon Santiago, Randy Tatum, Steve Tompkins, E. Henry Twiggs, Parwez Wahid, Adrian Velasquez

All other add-on seats were unopposed and the names of those candidates can be found at the above link.  There are still vacancies for both a man and a woman in 1st Plymouth and Bristol, so if you are interested contact the state party by May 9th.  The conference will be held June 18th if either seat is contested.

Then we proceeded to elect officers, except the Chairperson whose term expires in November.  The following were elected:

• Male Vice-Chair – Longtime incumbent Ray Jordan stepped down.  Leon Brathwaite prevailed over Mel Poindexter by a single vote margin.
• Female Vice-Chair – Incumbent Deb Kozikowski re-elected without opposition.
• Secretary – Incumbent Carol Aloisi re-elected without opposition.
• Treasurer – Incumbent Nicole LaChapelle stepped down.  Paul Yorkis elected without opposition.
• Male Deputy Treasurers – Tom Holloway and Mike Lake re-elected without opposition.
• Female Deputy Treasurers – Sharon Stout and Lisa Wong prevailed over incumbent Phyllis Tyler.

We adopted rules for the 2016 convention which are very similar to the 2015 rules, but with a lower signature threshold for charter amendments.  There was a bylaw amendment adopted to increase the total number of disability seats to three men and three women, and another amendment proposed to do likewise for veteran seats.  There was discussion on an amendment to require subcommittee chairs to be DSC members (a no-brainer IMO), but it was postponed along with other mostly housekeeping amendments until next meeting.

Next meeting will be May 7th at the Newton American Legion.  The agenda will include:

• Election of DNC members (two men and two women)
• Election of at-large and PLEO national convention delegates (evenly divided between Clinton/Sanders and gender-balanced)
• Vote on a site for the 2017 Massachusetts Democratic Convention
• Election of additional disabled DSC members pursuant to the bylaw amendment adopted today
• Continued action on pending bylaw amendment proposals
• Election of add-on delegates to the 2016 state convention (filing deadline April 15th)

I was not the only BMGer in attendance so if there is anything I missed or erred on please drop in the comments.

Please share widely!

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