Reimagining MDP Rules, Part I: Restructuring the Executive and State Central Committees

The Michigan Democratic State Central Committee (a.k.a. “State Central”) is the highest-ranking authority of the

Michigan Democratic Party

outside of State Conventions. The State Central Committee includes two groups of people:

1. Delegates and alternates who are elected by MDP members (currently through district caucuses at State Convention), and
2. The Executive Committee (which includes party officers and Michigan-based DNC members), most of whom are elected by State Central.

MDP Rules (Sec. 8.A.1) allow State Central to elect as many officers as it wants. Traditionally, the MDP uses that to give various stakeholders (labor leaders, caucus leaders, high-ranking electeds, etc.) a seat at the table by naming them Officers-at-Large. That’s a good thing! Our Party is a big tent, and we need the voices of a broad range of Democrats.

Exactly who is and who isn’t named as an Officer-at-Large is often a source of questions and confusion. For example, while many MDP caucus leaders (including my predecessor as Administrative Co-Chair of the Justice Caucus, Paul Stevenson), have been named an Officer-at-Large, some (like your author) haven’t been. (UPDATE: I have since been named as an Officer-at-Large.) This confusion isn’t helped by the fact that the selection of Officers-at-Large is often termed as an appointment, rather than as an election. (This is also the case for the elections of at-large members of the Democratic National Committee, who are often incorrectly said to be appointed rather than elected.) Furthermore, while MDP Rules allow State Central to name as many Officers-at-Large as they want, the fact that the Executive Committee makes up over 1/3 of the voting membership of the State Central Committee has drawn the ire of some, as has the fact that some Executive Committee members also keep their delegate or alternate spots (effectively blocking new people from having seats at the table).

The slate of those named Officers-at-Large at the April 2017 State Central meeting. Notice that they’re incorrectly called ‘appointments.’

Executive Committee Composition

Who, then, should serve on the Executive Committee? I propose that the Executive Committee include:

1. Those of the following elected officials who are Democrats, or their designees: Federal elected officials; Governor; Lieutenant Governor; Secretary of State; Attorney General; House and Senate Democratic leaders; executives of Macomb, Oakland, and Wayne counties; and Mayor of Detroit.
2. All DNC members living in Michigan (as is the case now). Per the DNC Charter, this includes the MDP Chair and highest-ranking Vice Chair of different gender from the Chair (currently 1st Vice Chair Nancy Quarles).
3. Up to 60 others. Included in this limit of 60 would be:

• The other Vice Chairs, Secretaries, Treasurer, and Parliamentarian.
• The presidents of the Michigan Federation of College Democrats and Michigan High School Democrats.
• The heads of each caucus with a certain number of Caucus members (this would at least include the Labor, Justice, Women’s, Youth, Black, and Progressive caucuses, and probably others.)
• The remaining would be at-large members elected by State Central at the odd-year April meeting.

Under this proposal, there’d currently be 81 Executive Committee members: 7 Democratic members of Congress (2 Senate, 5 House); Wayne and Macomb County Executives Warren Evans and Mark Hackel, respectively; Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan; 11 DNC members who live in Michigan but who aren’t in Congress (we have 12, but one is Sen. Stabenow); and 60 others.

Why separate DNC members and certain elected officials from the limit of 60? Because their numbers fluctuate, and it wouldn’t be right to have them effectively deny someone else a seat.

Number of Delegates and Alternates

To increase accountability and ensure that more voices are at the table, I propose that we:

• Require that the number of district-elected State Central delegates be at least three times the number of Executive Committee seats (or at least 75% of the total voting power of State Central).
• Provide that the number of State Central alternates be twice the number of Executive Committee members, or 2/3 the number of delegates, rather than being the same number of delegates. (Some districts sometimes struggle to find interested persons to fill these spots, which is why a reduction in alternate seats makes sense.)
• Require that a State Central delegate or alternate vacate their office upon being named to the Executive Committee.

This rule that 3/4 of State Central members must be delegates — coupled with separating DNC members and electeds from the limit of 60 Executive Committee members — would provide yet another incentive to help elect Democrats: The more of those seats we win, the bigger State Central becomes. If we elect four new Democrats to Congress, sweep the four principal statewide offices, and have another At-Large DNC member in the next year and a half, we’d be looking at 90 Executive Committee members and at least 270 State Central delegates in 2019, for a total of 360 voting members! The more doors we knock, the more seats we get.

Essentially, in addition to your congressional district having a bigger piece of the pie, the pie itself will get bigger. (Currently, the former happens, but the latter does not; there have been 172 delegate seats for as long as I can remember.)

Committees

Committees should play a prominent role in the governance of the Party. Currently, three committees — Finance, Rules and Political Reform, and Policy and Resolutions — report to State Central.

While they report to State Central, MDP Rules don’t require you to be on State Central to be on a committee; you need only be qualified to hold Party office (i.e. an MDP member for 30 days) and be appointed by the Chair with confirmation by State Central.

I propose that we:

1. Add an Affirmative Action Committee. Why an Affirmative Action Committee? Here in Michigan, an affirmative action effort is currently only provided for selection of delegates to the national convention. We should make it a more permanent part of our work to ensure that all races, sexual orientations, ages, gender identities, and so forth are well-represented in the work of the party.
2. Spell out the duties of each committee in MDP Rules.
3. Give each congressional district one seat on each committee, while still allowing the Chair to appoint additional committee members. This would give everyone a chance to try to be on the committees, even those who may not be close to the MDP chair. It would also ensure that all districts are represented on committees; currently, my congressional district (the 2nd) has no members on any standing committees.
4. Require that any course of action recommended by a committee — such as a rules change or a resolution — have the support of a certain portion of District-elected committee members. (It doesn’t have to be a majority; it could be, say, six out of 14.) This would provide a check of sorts to ensure that something doesn’t just happen just because the chair wants it.

These are just some of the rules changes that I’m proposing as part of the MDP’s Rules Review. Stay tuned for a summary of my other proposals.