On Sunday, April 28 four Democratic Clubs held an endorsement meeting for Congressional candidates.
Village Independent Democrats, Village Reform Democrats and Downtown Independent Democrats hosted Rep. Jerry Nadler, Rep. Nydia Velazquez and Sen. Chuck Schumer. Rep Carolyn Maloney wasn’t able to attend, but sent a representative.
Read the live tweets from our Secretary Ben Yee below.
Meeting Live Tweets
The Democratic Party is the party of The People. We fight for inclusivity and demand solutions to the inequities that plague communities big and small. Here in Manhattan, we’re using our platform to emphasize the importance of getting involved.
This #TransparencyTuesday we have so much we have to do it over two weeks! This week:
Next time:
We’ll update manhattandems.org, with all of the State Committee members – democratic voters’ representatives to the State Party. We’ll also publish an article explaining the importance of their role in the democratic process.
A new map with electoral information everyone needs to know, but many don’t! And who doesn’t love maps?
Secretary Ben Yee breaks down one of the most important functions of the County Committee and what happened last Sunday.
Chair: Curtis Arluck
Co Chair: Louise Dankberg
Membership: Each Assembly District may be represented by one of its District Leaders.
The Judicial Committee chooses organizations which designates members to a screening panel for judicial candidates. Organizations designate panelists, and panelists review judicial candidates, without party input.
I: Panel Administrator Search
Candidates
Past administrators have been contacted and the committee is awaiting responses. A new Administrator interview date/time will need to be set due to the delay.
Committee members are welcome to submit candidates for Administrator.
A three year layover is required for Administrators and panelists. They may not serve back to back sessions.
Resolution
A past Administrator was contacted mid-meeting and accepted the invitation to serve as Administrator again.
Since this candidate has served in the past, and most committee members are familiar with him, the Judicial Committee voted for an expedited interview process which would not require a meeting of the whole committee (though everyone is invited)
If approved name of the Administrator will be revealed in the official public notice for Judge Applicants in the Law Journal and on ManhattanDems.org
The interview was tentatively scheduled for 2/10
II: Organization Outreach
Organizations which have agreed to designate a panelist
Asian Americans for Equality
Korean American Lawyers Assoc
LGBT Bar
Neighborhood Defenders of Harlem
NY State Defenders Assoc.
Organizations which have declined to designate a panelist
Columbia University Law School
All other organizations are pending a response
Requirement Review
At least 20 organizations should be represented
Organizations must be:
Non-profit
Sufficient affiliation with the County (Manhattan) (Usually satisfied by a local chapter)
Sufficient affiliation with the ideals of the Democratic Party
III: New Organization Applications
National Hispanic Bar Assoc.
Deputy VP Albert Barrueco, Attorney at Pepper Hamilton, addressed the committee
Organization wants to be considered for an invite to nominate a panelist
Local Chapter President is counsel to NYC Bar
Thousands of members nationally
Over one hundred members in the NYC area
Hispanic Bar invited by acclamation
IV: Organizational Designees
Alan Flacks submits Designee from Association of the Bar of City of New York (City Bar Assoc.)
Names of organization designees are not released prior to the convening of the panel to prevent lobbying by judicial applicants
V: Old Business (last week)
Committee voted to extend invitation to Nigerian Bar Assoc – but question: Does Nigerian bar have NY presence
Verified intent to invite Nigerian Lawyers Association not Nigerian Bar Association
Nigerian Lawyers Association found to have sufficient affiliation and invite extended by acclamation
Committee voted down extending invitation to National Bar Association (National African American bar)
The National Bar is represented in the NY region by Joseph Drayton
National Bar resubmitted by and voted up for extending an invitation by acclamation
VI: District vacancies in Judicial District 4, 6, 7
Judicial Screening Panels
District Leaders in the 6th, 7th and 9th are holding their own panels and soliciting groups for designees independently
The 9th is an incumbent judge and is non-competitive
The 4th is incorporating its screening panel with the County Independent Judicial Screening Panel
Judicial Applicants may go before multiple panels and all panels will use same application
VII: Current Timeline (subject to change)
2/17 Law Journal and online Notice for Judicial applicants
2/25 Designees appointed
2/25 Applications begin being accepted
A unified application for all panels is suggested and agreed to
3/9 Panel Convenes
The #IowaCaucus is tonight & it’s unlike any other election. Get to know the process that gets to know the President with this short breakdown.
The primaries are upon us and soon both parties will be selecting their nominees. But if the residents of States vote in the primary, what’s the role of the Party Convention? Where do SuperDelegates fit in? Who is really choosing the Presidential candidate?
As we covered in the last two posts, the Presidential nominee for a political party is not directly elected by all voters. Instead, delegates are selected in a variety of ways; most often exclusively by registered members of a particular party. These delegates are then sent to a party’s National Convention to pick the nominee.
Nothing Is For Sure
Oftentimes it is clear who will win the nomination before Convention. However, even with primaries done and delegates pledged, the results are not predetermined. People can walk in expecting to be the Nominee and walk out an also ran. How? Let’s find out.
Voting Share
Unlike in general elections, representation isn’t necessarily based on the number of residents, or even eligible voters. Instead, every State is given a certain number of delegates proportional to the number of votes people in that State cast for the Party’s Presidential candidate in previous elections. So, the more votes your state give to a Democrat (averaged over the last three elections) the delegates your state gets to the Convention.
Who Can Delegates Vote For?
At the Convention, elected (not Super) delegates are bound to vote for whoever won the primary or caucus in their state; and in the same percentage. So, if a candidate on 40% of the vote, they get 40% of the delegates. Whoever wins a majority of the of Convention Delegates receives the nomination.
If no one wins a majority, delegates are released from their pledges. At this point, horse-trading and deals can be struck in a Brokered Convention. Voting continues through successive rounds until one candidate wins a majority.
The Democratic Party actually changed its rules in 1936 because nomination required ⅔ of the delegate vote and made brokered conventions incredibly common. As a result, many nominees ended up being compromise candidates who weren’t even front-runners before the Convention!
And The Winner Is…
Whoever gets the required majority of delegates becomes that party’s nominee. This candidate will receive the prodigious support that a National Party can offer – from local organizing apparatus (like local parties and Democratic Clubs), to the Party’s political brand and, of course, money.
It is up to the Party to come together after a nominee has been chosen and put aside the differences which were expressed in the primary period. Whatever issues were raised, the job of the primary was to air them and give Party members a chance to make the decision of who would perform best in the General election with their eyes open.
The primaries are upon us and soon both parties will be selecting their nominees. But if the residents of States vote in the primary, what’s the role of the Party Convention? Where do SuperDelegates fit in? Who is really choosing the Presidential candidate?
In the last post we saw that many of the delegates are elected. But it’s not always clear who can vote for them. In this post we’ll examine who chooses them.
How Many Delegates are There? Who Can Be a Delegate?
Each state is awarded a set number of delegates based on Party rules. In the Democratic Party, for example, delegates are awarded based on a State’s historical electoral vote and its turnout for the Democratic candidate in previous elections. In this way, more Democratic States are given more voice.
Parties may also set representation goals, requiring that some number of seats be reserved for specific classes such as young members, or members of specific ethnic groups. This is often done to bring delegations in-line with the census report for each State.
Who Chooses the Elected Delegates?
Possibly the most important piece of all this – Delegates are RARELY chosen by voters at large. Even though the media makes it sound like caucuses and primaries are open to all, they generally aren’t. There are four kinds of election processes, each with their own rules.
Closed Primaries
In order to vote in a party’s primary, you must to be registered with that political party before the election.
Deadlines for registration vary but if, for example, you want to vote in the Democratic Primary and you haven’t registered as a Democrat, you won’t be able to. New York actually has the most stringent laws in the country, with registration deadlines month before the vote.
There are 12 states that use a strictly closed primary process, including:[5][4][6]
Open Primaries
Any voter can vote in one party primary of their choice, regardless of registration. So, it’s basically the opposite of the closed primary.
There are 14 States that use a strictly open primary process:
Mixed Primaries
Mixed primaries are anything that’s not strictly open or closed. They have all sorts of rules ranging from some parties being open and others being closed, to using past voting history to decide in which primary a person can vote.
There are only 8 states which use mixed primaries and you can check out all their rules on Ballotpedia.org.
Blanket Primaries (Jungle Primary)
The least popular kind of primary, everyone can vote and the top vote-getter from each party for a particular office wins. So instead of voting by party, voters vote on candidates for office. But if one Democrat gets 100 votes, another 80 votes and the Republican gets 50; the top Democrat and top Republican both go on to the General election as the nominees of their party.
States which use this system are
Happy New Year, Manhattan Democrats!
This year promises to be a critical one for our Party. With Republican extremism at full throttle, there’s never been a more urgent need to turn out votes for Dems up and down the ballot. Spread the word about how to get involved today!
Support the local clubs and organizations that make New York County so great. Check out these upcoming events in your neighborhood—
Ansonia Democratic Club
Annual Holiday Party
Sunday, January 10th from 4-6pm
Spring Natural Kitchen
474 Columbus Avenue between West 82nd & 83rd Streets
RSVP here
Concerned Democratic Coalition
celebrate Dia De Los Tres Reyes
Sunday, January 10th from 4-6pm
Broadway Temple
4111 Broadway between 173rd & 174th Streets
Details
Judicial Induction of Hon. Lyle Frank
Thursday, January 14th at 4:30pm
111 Centre Street, Manhattan
Democratic Presidential Debate
Sunday, January 17th, 9pm on NBC
4th NYC Grassroots Debate Watch for Hillary
Sunday, January 17th from 7:30 to 11pm
STITCH Bar and Lounge
247 West 37th Street
Contact Jamie.Ansorge@gmail.com or TrudyL@tmo.blackberry.net/
917-443-3315 & RSVP
National Women’s Political Caucus
January Meeting
Tuesday, January 19th at 5:30pm
Murphy Institute
25 West 43rd Street
Four Freedoms Democratic Club
Annual Election Meeting
Tuesday, January 26th at 7pm
Church of the Holy Trinity
316 East 88th Street, between 1st & 2nd Avenues
Ansonia Independent Democrats
Presentation & Conversation on Voting Rights
with Ari Berman
Tuesday, January 26th at 7:30pm
Stephen Wise Free Synagogue
30 West 68th Street
Registration required 212-877-4050 x280
You’ve read about Democratic Clubs and you’ve decided you’d like to get involved. How do you get started? And which Club’s district are you in, anyway?
When it comes to political districts, the first thing you need to know is your Assembly District, or “AD” for short. Don’t feel bad if you don’t know it! Lots of folks don’t, and the numbers change over the years so it may be different then you remember.
The best bet is to click here and do a quick search. When I put in my address, I learn that I’m in the 73rd AD, and that my Assembly Member is Dan Quart.
Now, for me, this makes things easy. The whole of the 73rd AD, from 96th down to 32nd, is represented by one Club: the Lexington Democratic Club. So my next step would be to go to the Lex Club’s website, join the Club and sign up for the e-mail newsletter.
But here’s where it gets confusing. Some clubs cover more than just one AD, and lots of ADs are covered by more than one club! Confused? Let’s look at an example.
Suppose my friend Keiko lives on Roosevelt Island. She goes online and finds out that she lives in the 76th AD and is represented by Assembly Member Seawright. But the 76th AD has two official Democratic Clubs: the Lenox Hill Democratic Club and the Four Freedoms Democratic Club. Which one covers Keiko?
To find out, we have to dig deeper and look at how ADs themselves are politically divided. Next time we’ll look at what are called Assembly District Parts, and learn how to sort out exactly where we stand.
The primaries are upon us and soon both parties will be selecting their nominees. But if the residents of States vote in the primary or caucus, what’s the role of the Party Convention? Where do SuperDelegates fit in? Who is really choosing the Presidential candidate?
In this post we’ll be examining how the delegates which choose the nominee are selected.
Elected Delegates: It Could Be YOU
Delegates don’t come out of thin air; a vast majority of them are elected (we’ll address the ones which aren’t below).
It all starts with petitioning…(unless you’re in a caucus state)
Requirements for getting on the ballot vary by State but there’s always an option to gather signatures from some percentage of the population. Again, depending on the State, petitions may be directly for the candidate (sign for Presidential candidate x) or they may be for specific delegates pledging to vote for that candidate (sign for delegate candidate who will vote for presidential candidate x).
If you want want to petition for a candidate and run as a delegate for him/her, you should contact the campaign.
In New York…
Delegates petition for themselves (or a slate running together) within a Congressional District (CD). They are listed in a predetermined order and, for every delegate a candidate wins in that CD, another delegate candidate is elected. Delegate order is determined in coordination with the Presidential campaign they hope to represent. A campaign may also reject specific delegate candidates.
It builds to the Primary…(unless you’re in a caucus state)
In the primary, voters either select the candidate or individual delegates. Either way the result is the same, the percentage of the vote determines how many delegates a candidate receives and a proportional number of delegate candidates become real delegates.
*NOTE*: Not everyone gets to vote for delegates all the time! In the next post, we’ll be talking about just who gets this critical power.
Ok, you’re in a caucus State…
Though outside the purview of the Manhattan Democratic Party (where we use primaries) we’ll cover it. In a Caucus there’s no petitioning. Party members go to caucus and then select, sometimes over hours of discussion, who they should support and who should be delegates. In this system, delegates may be elected as “uncommitted” to any particular candidate.
Super Delegates
SuperDelegates are unelected delegates. They are politically important people such as Elected officials. The Democratic Party uniquely gives seats to former high-ranking electeds such as past Presidents.
