December 2005 State Committee Meeting Notes

The folloowing is lifted wholesale from County Chair Bob Bland's notes from last Saturday's state committee meeting, which was attended by over 50 people including close to 40 of about 45 committee members. This may have been a record turnout.

The three major developments were:

• Voting to permit endorsement of candidates
  
• Announcement of additional DNC-funded staff positions
  
• Revision of sub committee structure of the party

The details:

1. Probably the most significant development is that the committee voted 30-4 to adopt a bylaw change that will allow the committee to endorse candidates for statewide and federal offices before the primary and that does not restrict such endorsements to people running for the Democratic nomination. Endorsement would require petition by no less than 10 committee members followed by a warned vote that would require a 50 percent quorum to take place. Then it would require a two-thirds vote to move the endorsement of the candidate. Multiple endorsements are possible.
   
   Larry Drown was cited as one of the reasons for this endorsement procedure. He has run for statewide offices on various parties including securing the Democratic nomination for Congress in the last election and gaining seven percent of the vote. He has announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for Senate. Mr. Drown was present for the vote and protested vigorously, labeling the party the "Demgressives" and using much the same anti-Democratic rhetoric as is used by the Republicans.
   
   Today, I received a call from Bernie Sanders asking for my support for the Vermont Democratic Party's endorsement of his candidacy. I agreed that I would sign his petition and would support this motion to endorse in the committee.
   
   
2. State Chair Ian Carleton announced that the VDP has hired a Communications Director to start with the first of the new year. He is Andy Bouska, who comes to use from Kansas via Washington D.C. he has professional communications experience as well as democratic legislative experience. He will take charge of the state party's messaging and ensure that we become proactive rather than reactive. This position is actually employed by the Democratic National Committee but the hiring is done by the local state committee. In addition, the VDP will now move to the hiring of a DNC-employed Field Director to work with county committees and local candidates to help ensure victory. And next will come a fundraiser, who will be funded from within the state committee budget that has been freed up by these DNC grants.
   
   
3. We also clarified the subcommittee structure of the party, creating three committees: (1) Budget, Finance, & Fundraising (chaired by the Treasurer (that's me!) with fundraising and budgetary oversight and work with the fundraiser), (2) Message, Communications, & Platform (to work with the new communications director and help hone and test the framing) and (3) Field and Grassroots committee (to work with the new grassroots staff). This take the professional staff of the VDP from two (Exec. Dir. and Voter File Coordinator) to five!

In addition to these developments, we also heard from Billi Gosh about the exciting progress that is taking place at the Democratic National Committee. She had just returned from the DNC meeting in Phoenix.

The next state committee meeting will be Sat. Jan. 21 from 10:30-12:30 at the Randolph Elementary School.

Finally, the Vermont Democratic Party is hosting a "Legislative Session Kick-Off Reception" on Monday evening, January 2 in Montpelier. The suggested contribution to attend is $50 but for State Committee members, please come and just give what you can afford. Click here for details: http://www.vtdemocrats.org/jan2