The California Democratic Party’s executive board voted unanimously Sunday to urge the national party to eliminate most superdelegates and caucuses in favor of a more straightforward primary election system to select the presidential nominee.
The vote is not binding on the rest of the party, but is noteworthy in that supporters of both Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton backed the advisory measure, according to the Los Angeles Times. Clinton has relied heavily on superdelegate support.
The resolution also calls for moving the Democratic National Convention to a weekend, so that more “working people” can watch it, and changing the order in which states conduct their primaries “to be more representatives” of the party’s diversity.
The full text of the resolution is as follows (original emphasis):
RESOLUTION 16-06.17
Resolution To Advance A More Democratic Presidential Nominating Procedure and Party Structure
WHEREAS, the historic 2016 Democratic Primary has engaged and energized many new voters, while raising widespread concern about the structure, process and flow of our Party’s nomination procedures; and,
WHEREAS, we have an opportunity to make the Democratic Party more democratic by reforming outmoded presidential nominating procedures and lending strength and credibility to our efforts to advance voting rights and political participation for all; and
WHEREAS, the current outmoded nominating system of caucuses that limit public participation, unpledged unaccountable “superdelegates” that undermine participation by trumping the will of the voters, and the practice of appointing corporate lobbyists, call us all to democratize our politics and our procedures so that we can more inclusively serve our Party and our country;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the California Democratic Party advocate democratic reforms for the 2020 United States presidential nomination to enhance participation by supporting efforts to: (1) Dramatically limit the pool of unpledged voting delegates to elected and ex officio members of the Democratic National Committee bound at convention to vote for the pledged delegate winner of their constituency, while inviting all Democratic Governors and Members of Congress to attend Convention as non-voting honored guests; and, (2) End the practice of requiring unpledged delegates to announce their intended support before the National Convention; and, (3) Eliminate nominating caucuses and move toward Primary Elections in every State; and, (4) Change the national party Convention from a weekday-only event designed to accommodate the TV networks to include weekend days so that working people are better able to participate in the event while religious observances are also taken into consideration; and, (5) Change the Primary Election calendar to be more representative of the population and geography of our diverse Party base; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the California Democratic Party urges our delegation to the 2016 Democratic National Convention and our Democratic National Committee members to advocate for these proposed changes as we work to unite and strengthen our Party for the future with passion and respect.
Sponsored by CDP Resolutions Committee
The party also passed resolutions endorsing November ballot measures that would legalize marijuana, and convert death sentences to life imprisonment without parole.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. His new book, See No Evil: 19 Hard Truths the Left Can’t Handle, will be published by Regnery on July 25 and is available for pre-order through Amazon. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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