Washington State Democratic Chairs Organization

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

On April 21, 2008, The King County Democratic Central Committee,(KCDCC), submitted a resolution for consideration at the Washington State Democratic Convention to be held in Spokane, June 14, 2008. This resolution, titled “Creation of a Task Force to Review the Caucus and Primary” was amended and passed. The purpose of the resolution was “to create a Caucus and Primary Task Force to review the lessons learned from the 2008 Presidential selection process and to propose improvements.” It further resolved, “that this task force hold hearings in several parts of the state and report its findings and proposals for improving the delegate selection process to the WSDCC within one year.” This was a direct result of the leadership of King County Chair, Suzie Sheary. She held hearings to allow discussion of the concerns many people were expressing, regarding the 2008 caucus cycle. From this process, the resolution was formulated and submitted.

Many people thought the Task Force’s charge was to consider whether Washington State should have a caucus or a primary. The pros and cons of each were brought up in our discussions and talked about at length. But our task was charged to make recommendations based on the 2008 presidential selection process and to propose improvements.

The concerns about the presidential selection process aren’t unique to Washington State. A memo from the Democratic National Committee stated: “Last summer, President Obama first announced his intention to form the Democratic Change Commission at the Democratic National Convention. A resolution creating the Commission was introduced and passed by the Convention body. The Democratic Change Commission has 37 members and Washington State has one representative, Susan Levine from the 36th legislative district. The Commission is tasked with recommending changes to the Party’s 2012 presidential nominating process. It is addressing three issues: 1) changing the window of time during which primaries and caucuses may be held, 2) reducing the number of super-delegates, and 3) improving the caucus system. The Commission must issue its report and recommendations to the Democratic National Committee Rules and Bylaws Committee no later than January 1, 2010. The Rules and Bylaws Committee will determine the presidential nominating process and will authorize the delegate selection plans submitted by the states.

In December 2008, State Party Chair, Dwight Pelz, sent a memo to the legislative district chairs asking for volunteers to be on the task force. The following people volunteered: Cathi Bailey-Bright, Judy Carter, Carin Chase, Peter House, Kisa Jiles, Bryan Kesterson, Rick Lloyd, Matt Loschen, Barbara Geller, Richard May, Sharon Paige, Pat Roberts-Dempsey, Shar Allen, Al Swindell, Terry Thorsos, Tomas Sandoval, Norm Banks, Alec Stephens, and Karen Willard. Dwight asked me to chair the Task Force and I was given the ability to conduct the process as I decided and discussed with him. I appointed Aaron Belenkey as my secretary.

The Task Force held its first meeting in Tacoma on Sunday, April 26. We had a very broad statewide representation. I divided the members into three break-out groups composed of urban-rural, easternwestern, congressional district representation, as well as additional considerations. The groups were asked to consider and discuss what worked, what didn’t, why, and what recommendations they felt were needed. When the sub-groups finished, we came back together to share the groups’ findings.

At the conclusion of the meeting, in order to complete the second part of the resolution, and since we had congressional representation from all nine districts, I instructed the members from the respective Congressional Districts to conduct hearings to gather additional input and to complete the hearings by the end of July. Every member was given the leeway to decide what would work best for their district. The Task Force then met a second time on Sunday, August 16 and again went into break-out groups to consolidate the input they had gathered. We came back together as a whole to consolidate the groups’ input. This final distillation of information is the attached report to be presented at the Washington State Democratic Central Committee, (WSDCC) meeting, September 26, 2009, in Walla Walla.

Submitted by:
Sharon Mast, Chair
Caucus Review Task Force

Read the Caucus Review Report here.