Date: Thu,
From: "Dan Proctor" <dproctor@post.harvard.edu>
Subject: Globe editorial on 2000 Dem
convention
To decent Dems
(whether progressive or not):
The recent Charter amendments give
decent Dems no choice but to gain control of the
State Committee and the Party chair. The amendments add greatly to the already
excessive power of the Party chair, while greatly diminishing the power of
active Democrats. The amendments in effect create the Undemocratic Party of
Massachusetts.
Documentary evidence of the chair's
power and abuse thereof will be useful in recruiting people to run for State
Committee and to persuade present DSC members to vote in a new Chair committed
to a reform program (which should be spelled out as part of the recruitment
drive).
As an example of the kind of
documents needed I append a Globe editorial from 2000.
Dan Proctor
= = =
A
This story ran on page A14 of the
Boston Globe on
Democrats behaving badly
It is still the state Democratic Party, but some active members are
understandably asking just how democratic it is after Saturday's state
convention abruptly shut off debate on two controversial issues.
''How can someone turn off the microphone?'' asks Rachel Rosenblum, chair of the Democratic Town Committee in
''This is getting to be familiar territory,'' says Representative Jay
Kaufman, also of
''It's treachery, really,'' says Rich Rogers,
political director of the state AFL CIO, which was offering a resolution
critical of nursing home owner Gerry Schuster, husband of a prominent
Democratic fund raiser. The labor resolution was due to follow the Clean
Elections debate. ''It was very much of a bad faith move on their part,'' says
The irony is that, at the start of the one day convention, party leaders
had revised the agenda to allow for ''new business.'' But after one resolution
that was less controversial passed and the Clean Elections item was being
raised, the entire convention was ended. Ray Jordan, vice chairman of the state
committee and presiding officer at the time, says he determined by visual count
there was a lack of a quorum, although no firm count was made and several
delegates said they believed a quorum of 500 might still have been in the hall.
Rosenblum, Kaufman, and Rogers are bedrock
Democrats, the kind who work tirelessly to promote
issues and elect candidates. Brushing them off so cavalierly is senseless.
Both Jordan and Senator Joan Menard, the state party chair, denied there
was an effort to gag them or their issues. ''We always have controversial
issues,'' says Menard. ''That's what Democrats do.''
At Saturday's convention, however, the party did not live up to its
name….
_______________________________________________________________________
Date: Thu,
From: "Dan Proctor" <dproctor@post.harvard.edu>
Subject: Another document re 2000
convention
Dems vie for shot-self-in-foot title
by Wayne Woodlief Boston
Herald,
Whew! Just when we thought shooting yourself in the foot was now an
exclusive Republican sport here, the Democrats -- on
Capitol Hill and
Take that undemocratic exercise in fast--gaveling and selective
recognition of a quorum that some Aclean elections''
reformers got from the powers--that--be at the state Democratic Convention in
“They shut off our microphones and `doubted a quorum' for our resolution
just seconds after passing one offered by Secretary of State Bill Galvin,''
said Rep. Ruth Balser (D--Newton). Nobody said anything about a quorum for
him.''
But, hey, who really expected the party leadership to play fair on a
resolution rebuking Democratic leaders in the Legislature? I mean, all Senate
President Tom Birmingham and House Speaker Tom Finneran
did was to gut a campaign finance reform law voters approved in 1998 by a 2--1
margin. No big deal.
You'd think the Democrats would recognize the value in getting behind
such a popular issue after Sen. John McCain (R--