Rum, Romanism and Rebellion

Over on Random Musings, they issued me a sort of challenge:

There is an as-yet-unconfirmed rumor that one of the Clinton superdelegates may challenge the election of [Charlene]Fernandez. I’ll look into this, but if anything comes of it, Tedski [That's me!] will probably have the scoop first.

Well, I poked around, and I was forwarded this:

To: Members, Bylaws Committee
       Officers, State Democratic Party

I urge immediate consideration of a bylaw limiting the number of proxies any one person can carry to a State Committee meeting and cast in any Party election.

At the meeting of April 26, one person carried 45 proxies. Based on the outcome of elections - not only for party first vice chair but also for presidential delegates - these proxies were cast as a block, clearly swaying outcomes. I learned during the meeting that this had been prearranged by a small handful of committee members.

This created an unfair advantage at the onset to the many candidates who spent a great deal of time and money running campaigns in good faith.

These 45 proxies represent people who for the most part have never attended a State Committee meeting and have no stake in our process.

They certainly did not know the majority of candidates and, of course, did not hear any campaign speeches.

While nothing currently prohibits carrying 45 proxies, we should all be reminded that our State Committee is a very small universe.

Actions by one or a few are keenly felt by all.

We suspended Democratic National Committee rules applying to delegate selection due to an honest error that had created confusion. DNC rules clearly state one person can cast votes no more than three proxies. This is clearly aimed at preventing this kind of conduct.

I appreciate your consideration of this request.

Janice Brunson
National Committeewoman

Brunson is a Hillary Clinton supporter, but there were guesses that she was doing this on behalf (unofficially) of Harriet Young.

First as to her allegation that “one person” cast all of Yuma County’s 44 votes: as it turns out, it wasn’t true. In fact Brunson herself had to add a post script to her e-mail correcting this:

Clarification from Luis Heredia, an especially bright young man representing Yuma County on the State Committee.

“On Saturday, Yuma County had 44 votes and were carried by four members - Charlene carried 13, Gail Beeler carried 10, Lisa [Fernandez] carried 10, and I carried five.” Others present from Yuma were State Senator Amanda Aguirre and Paul Beeler.” - Luis Heredia

(Luis, no doubt, appreciates being called “an especially bright young man.” I’ll never let him live that one down.)

So, her main allegation, that Yuma County had only one member who carried their votes, by her own admission is incorrect (oh, I mean, unclarified).

Yuma County always turns out to be a player at State Committee meetings. For one thing, they have done a great job of making sure that they have plenty of elected precinct committee persons, which guarantees that they have a big chunk of state committee members. The other thing that they do is make sure that they all of those members are represented by proxy at committee meetings. This is made easier for them because of a rule that allows members from some counties to carry an unlimited number of proxies. This is done to make sure that there is representation from counties far from the convention site.

Given that as Brunson made her way up the state party ladder, she had some very strong support from the rural counties, she has been a beneficiary of this rule in the past.

A bit of rhetorical gymnastics here: Brunson praises the fact that we suspended DNC rules regarding proxies during delegate selection, but complains about the use of the proxies during the vote for vice chair. What made Bloc Yumacois so powerful is that they could horse trade for delegate votes since they had proxies, something they would have been unable to do without the rule change.

But the funny part is, the allowing of proxies for delegate selection actually violates DNC rules (Bivens was able to get a last minute exception), but Vice Chair election is a function of our state committee. Proxies can get used for that just as proxies can get used on votes for other state party offices. So, she’s cool with getting exceptions to long standing DNC rules that we have followed in the past (and calls the error that prompted the exception, one that could have jeopardized seating many of the delegates, an “honest mistake”), but she has a problem with following a rule that has existed for years.

This all seems to come down to the frustration that, in her view, the wrong woman won. Yeah, heck, she beat my mom. I guess I should argue for a rule change only allowing Polish surnamed Hispanics to run.

It sounds like she is angry that her candidate was out campaigned and Fernandez was able to do vote trading. Gasp! Do you mean that there were politics at a political convention? I am so disgusted.