Priority/Inclusion Must Be Given to Minorities,Women, Gays/Lesbians According To Democrat Committee

[Geraldine Ferraro is correct in saying that she, as well as minorities in general, get a boost in Democrat Party for being female, black, and transgendered, I might add.] From http://a9.g.akamai.net/7/9/8082/v001/democratic1.download.akamai.com/8082/pdfs/2008delegateselectionrules.pdf

A. In order that the Democratic Party at all levels be an open Party which includes rather than excludes people from participation, a program of effective affirmative action is hereby adopted.

B. Discrimination on the basis of "status" in the conduct of Democratic Party affairs is prohibited.

C. In order to continue the Democratic Party’s ongoing efforts to include groups historically under- represented in the Democratic Party’s affairs, by virtue of race, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation or disability, each state party shall develop and submit Party outreach programs, including recruitment, education and training, in order to achieve full participation by such groups and diversity in the delegate selection process and at all levels of Party affairs.

A. The promises of a democratically elected government and the right to vote have not always been extended equally to all Americans. Historically, certain groups of Americans have been Page 6 2008 Delegate Selection Rules for the Democratic National Convention

explicitly denied the right to vote or have been subjected to discriminatory and exclusionary practices with the intended effect of denying them voting rights. In recognition of this past history of discriminatory denial of the franchise and in order to encourage full participation by all Democrats in the delegate selection process and in all Party affairs, the national and state Democratic Parties shall adopt and implement affirmative action programs with specific goals and timetables for African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, Asian/Pacific Americans and women.

1. The goal of such affirmative action shall be to encourage participation in the delegate selection process and in Party organizations at all levels by the aforementioned groups as indicated by their presence in the Democratic electorate.

2. This goal shall not be accomplished either directly or indirectly by the Party’s imposition of mandatory quotas at any level of the delegate selection process or in any other Party affairs.

3. In the selection of each state’s at-large delegation, priority of consideration shall be given to African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, Asian/Pacific Americans and women, if such priority of consideration is needed to fulfill the affirmative action goals outlined in the state’s Delegate Selection Plan. Such remedial action is necessary in order to overcome the effects of past discrimination. Use of the at-large delegation to fulfill the plan’s affirmative action goals does not obviate the need for the state party to conduct outreach activities such as recruitment, education and training. Priority of consideration shall also be given to other groups as described in Rule 5.(C), which are under- represented in Democratic Party affairs, in order to assist in the achievement of full participation by these groups.

B. Performance under an approved Affirmative Action Plan and composition of the convention delegation shall be considered relevant evidence in the challenge to any state delegation. If a state party has adopted and implemented an approved affirmative action program, the state party shall not be subject to challenge based solely on delegation composition or primary results.

C. State Delegate Selection Plans shall provide for equal division between delegate men and delegate women and alternate men and alternate women within the state’s entire convention delegation. For purposes of this rule, the entire delegation includes all pledged delegates and alternates and unpledged delegates (including unpledged party leaders and elected official delegates and unpledged add-on delegates).

1. State Delegate Selection Plans shall, as far as mathematically practicable, also provide for equal division between district-level delegate men and delegate women and district-level alternate men and alternate women.

2. The DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee shall have continuing jurisdiction to ensure compliance with this equal division requirement. No at-large delegate or alternate from a state shall be placed on the temporary roll of the 2004 Democratic National Convention unless the Rules and Bylaws Committee has certified to the Secretary of the Democratic National Committee that such state’s delegation complies with this equal division rule. It shall be the duty of the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee to determine such compliance as soon as Page 7 2008 Delegate Selection Rules for the Democratic National Convention

practicable following the certification of the state’s at-large delegates and alternates.

3. Notwithstanding sub-paragraph A.(2) above, equal division at any level of delegate or committee positions between delegate men and delegate women or committeemen and committeewomen shall not constitute a violation of any provision thereof.

D. For purposes of providing adequate notice of the delegate selection process under Rule 3, the times, dates, places and rules for the conduct of all caucuses, conventions, meetings and other events involved in the delegate selection process shall be effectively publicized, bilingually where necessary, to encourage the participation of minority groups.

E. State Democratic Parties shall ensure that district lines used in the delegate selection process are not gerrymandered to discriminate against African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, Asian/Pacific Americans or women.

F. Each state Affirmative Action Plan shall provide for the appointment of a representative state Affirmative Action Committee by March 1, 2007. Before the state party submits its Plan to the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee, the Affirmative Action Committee shall review the proposed outreach program required in Rule 5.C.

G. Each state affirmative action program shall include outreach provisions to encourage the participation and representation of persons of low and moderate income, and a specific plan to help defray expenses of those delegates otherwise unable to participate in the national convention.

H. State parties in their Delegate Selection Plans shall impose reasonable specific affirmative action obligations upon candidates consistent with the delegate selection system employed by the state.

1. State parties shall require presidential candidates to submit statements that specify what steps such candidates will take to encourage full participation in their delegate selection process, including, but not limited to, procedures by which persons may file as candidates for delegate or alternate. Provided further that presidential candidates submit such full participation statements to the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee at the same time they are submitted to state parties.

2. State parties shall require presidential candidates to submit demographic information with respect to candidates for delegate and alternate pledged to them.

I. Each state party shall certify to the Rules and Bylaws Committee whether each Presidential candidates (including uncommitted status) has used best efforts to ensure that their respective delegations at each level within a state’s delegation shall fulfill the requirements of Rule 6 and Rule 7 established by the state’s Delegate Selection Plan and that the respective delegations of each presidential candidate within the state’s delegation shall be equally divided between men and women.

The Democratic National Committee recognizes that other groups of Americans in addition to those described in Rule 6 may be under-represented in Party affairs. These groups include Page 8 2008 Delegate Selection Rules for the Democratic National Convention

members of the LGBT community and people with disabilities. The National and State Parties shall adopt and implement Inclusion Programs in order to achieve the full participation of members of these and other groups in the delegate selection process and in all party affairs, as indicated by their presence in the Democratic electorate. As is already the practice in some states, State Parties may use goals to achieve these ends; however, in no event may such participation be accomplished by the use of quotas.

Thank you for posting. The democrats proclaim at each convention that their delegates are more representative of American than the Republicans but you’ll not hear a word of the quota system they use to achieve this diversity.

It is actually much worse than these rules indicate. For example, in California, each district is given a number of women they must seat as delegates. There is a rotation. The first delegate in the first district must be a woman and the second a man. If there are three delegates then the third must be a woman. Etc., etc. The second district first delegate continutes the alternative. IOW, the first delegate selected in the first district is the woman who recieves the most votes and the second is the man who recieves the most votes. You can get more votes than anyone else but still not be seated.

In other states, the voter must select delegates from multiple lists. If the district has two delegates then the voter must select from a list of all women and from a list that is all men.

You’ll note the rules you posted state that this is not a quota system.

“In the selection of each state’s at-large delegation, priority of consideration shall be given to African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, Asian/Pacific Americans and women”

That list, plus the people with disabilities (disabilities? shouldn’t that be “differently-abled”?) mentioned later on in the piece, must make up at least 75% of the population.

Anyway, what about Italian-Americans, Irish-Americans, Greek-Americans, Turkish-Americans, German-Americans, American-Americans, American-Scot-Americans, American-American-American-American-Texan-Eskimo-American-Americ... (sorry I’m slipping into a monty python sketch here)

The simple fact is that the USA is made up completely of minorities, some are just scarcer than others. I’m sure this affirmative action honestly seeks to redress discrimination of the past, but in fact all it actually does is reinforce it in the present and preserve it for the future. The opposite of discrimination is non-descrimination, not reverse discrimination.

“Send it to Hannity and Rush.”

This has been one thing I’ve been tracking since an article on this appeared in the WSJ back in either 1992 or 1996. I sent it to the editor of Rush’s newsletter back in 2000. Never a mention on the air or in the letter.

The WSJ article was written by an attorney that was in charge of the Clinton delegate selection process in ‘92. He described in great detail how the Democrats manage to ‘represent the face of America’. They have quota systems for every democrat constituency. So many delegates have to be women, so many african american, so many hispanic, all keyed to the particular state they represent. As described, this is something the lawyers representing each campaign have to deal with in complex negotiation sessions. Each state delegation must represent all the consituencies in proportion to the state. Therefore, each candidate’s lawyers have to agree that Candidate A, B, C will have x, y, z number of handicapped delegates where the total equals the required number.

Now here’s what frosts me. The dems go on national TV at their convention and brag that there delegates match the makeup of the nation but no one pegs them on the fact that they get that by a quota system. It leads one to believe that if the dems got their way, then any position should be filled by quota. BTW, that would mean congress too since the delegates are ‘selected’ by ballot.

The other thing that really frosts me is that they have the sheer audacity to claim that this quota system is not a quota system.

I remember raising this issue with a dem on Compuserve years ago. He kept repeating the part that says this isn’t a quota based system. I kept asking him what exactly made the requirement for proportional representation not a quota system? His reponse was that since the dems said it wasn’t a quota system then it wasn’t.

BTW, each state is required to post thier implementing procedures on their websites. It is fascinating to actual see how each state implements this. Some states even segregate their delegates by gender. For example, if a particular district has three delegates and two must be women, then some states are like a chinese menu. You must vote for your three choices within three separate lists. Two lists are all female and the other male.

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