2.1 Endorsements process and planning

Continuing the topic of endorsements from the last meeting, we discussed a few contested races for the Democratic nominations for the state House in various districts. Some in attendance wondered whether we felt we knew enough about the races to make good decisions; others felt that we should in any case invite the candidates to submit statements (and especially so in the races where we feel under-informed).

CH suggested that we reconsider the question of endorsements in the contested statewide races, and adopt a single policy on all contested statewide races and all contested races for the House: invite candidates to ask for our endorsement, and then decide. There was some discussion.

Resolved unanimously (5:0): to open the possibility of endorsement in all contested races for (the Democratic nomination for) statewide offices and seats in the state House of Representatives, with a final decision to be made after we have heard from the candidates.

CH noted that Patricia French is occupied with family affairs at the moment, and replaced her on the committee to develop our question for candidates with Athena Christodoulou.

We then discussed the process of collecting input from members and the scheduling. The May member meeting might do from a scheduling point of view, but NO pointed out that the May meeting of the caucus is scheduled to be held at O’Niell’s Pub and that it will be difficult for caucus members from other parts of the state to be there. We discussed various possibilities: a Zoom call to decide on the candidates, with quick polls of the members, or an online vote in OpaVote, or a Zoom call with discussion, or an electronic discussion. Allowing discussion in a Zoom call risks a very long meeting (and spotty attendance); not allowing it does not seem a great way to gather input from the caucus. Also, having anything that looks like a vote will raise the expectation that the caucus will be bound by the result of that apparent vote, whereas the caucus’s endorsement policy requires that the decision be made by the executive committee. We converged on simply asking the caucus for feedback by email.

We discussed timing and dates.

Resolved unanimously (5:0): to run the endorsement process as follows:

• by Friday 1 April: committee of Maurreen Skowran, Jane Yee, and Athena Christodoulou to send their draft question (with cover paragraph) to the EC for review
• by Saturday 2 April: EC to review the draft question and revise as needed
• Sunday 3 April: questionnaire to be mailed to all candidates with an invitation to seek our endorsement by answering the question and specifying a deadline for answers
• Sunday 10 April at 11:59 pm Mountain Time: deadline for responses from candidates
• Monday / Tuesday 11/12 April: Ivan Pfeifer to place all candidate responses in some non-public location where members can read them
• Tuesday 12 April: email to all caucus members in good standing pointing them to the candidate responses and asking for comments from the caucus on which candidates to endorse or not endorse
• Monday 18 April at 5:00 pm Mountain Time: deadline for member feedback
• Tuesday 19 April at 1:30 pm: EC meeting to review input from caucus and decide on endorsements

It was noted that the caucus endorsement policy (https://adelantecaucus.org/endorsement-policy/) specifies that a 2/3 vote is required for endorsements.

2.2 Confirmation of Cricket Courtney as CD-2 chair

CH said that in accordance with Article IV section C of the bylaws she wished to appoint Cricket Courtney as Chair from Congressional District 2 and asked for the executive committee’s approval.

Resolved unanimously (5:0) to approve the chair’s appointment of Cricket Courtney as Chair from CD-2.

2.3 Other

The chair noted that she would like to undertake some revisions of the bylaws; in particular, she would like to make the positions of political director and administrative director elective rather than appointed positions, and to have both a chair and a vice-chair from each Congressional District. If the CD chairs have someone else to work with, it might make it easier to get things done.