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Meeting
of the Volusia County Democratic
Party
The next meeting of the Volusia
County Democratic Party will be
held Monday May 18th, 2009, 7:00
p.m. at the Daytona State
College (Formerly DBCC) room 101
(UCF Auditorium) Building 150,
1200 West International Speedway
Boulevard in Daytona Beach (Map).
For more information call
386-226-2389
2009 Florida
Democratic Party State
Conference Delegate Selection
The Florida Democratic Party State Conference is
set for October 9 - 11, 2009 at the Disney's Yacht & Beach Club Resort in Lake
Buena Vista, Florida. The summary of the Delegate Selection Rules is as follow:
Seventy-five percent (75%), and any fraction
thereof, of the State Conference Delegates elected from each county shall be
members of the County Democratic Executive Committee (DEC), and the remainder
shall be non-members.All Delegates must be
registered Democrats in the
State of Florida. Any registered
Democrat may run for a Delegate
position in the county where
registered. All interested
candidates are required to file
with their County Chair, Vice
Chair, State Committeewoman, or
State Committeeman between
April 6 and May 11, 2009. It
is the responsibility of the
County Party officers to make
qualification forms available to
any Democrat seeking them during
the above
mentioned dates. At the time of
qualifying, all Delegate
candidates shall sign a loyalty
oath and a statement that
commits them to working actively
for the election of Democratic
candidates in the 2010
elections. County DECs are
mandated to hold meetings for
the purpose of electing
Delegates between the dates of
June 1 and July 3, 2009. The
elections
may
take place at regularly
scheduled DEC meetings during
these dates or at specially
called meetings. County Chairs
are required to notify the state
headquarters of the date of
their election at least two (2)
weeks prior to that date. The
election shall be conducted
pursuant to the Charter and
Bylaws of the Florida Democratic
Party. It will be the decision
of the County Chair whether or
not candidates will be allowed
to speak on behalf of their
election. If so, each candidate
will be allowed one (1) minute
to speak. There will be no
speaking on behalf of other
candidates or on behalf of a
slate of candidates. Only
members of that County DEC, or
their proxy, shall vote. At the
time of the election, each
delegate shall complete the
appropriate registration form
and accompany the form with a
nonrefundable $35.00 regular
registration fee or a $20.00
student registration fee made
payable to the County DEC. Each
County DEC shall be responsible
for its own expenses incurred in
holding the elections. County
DECs may vote to add a $15.00
surcharge per delegate to defray
local expenses related to the
Conference. This surcharge
should be included with
registration fee. (NOTE:
Non-delegates will be allowed to
attend conference workshops and
seminars. The fee for
non-delegates is $50.00.)
The
Delegate Qualification Form can
be
downloaded HERE
Drawing the line on rigged
districts - A Times
Editorial - St. Petersburg Times - Feb 2, 2009
The Florida Supreme Court opened the door last week to greater
accountability of elected officials when it approved for the ballot a citizens'
initiative to change how political districts are drawn. Now supporters and
Florida voters need to make sure this important reform comes to pass.
The current system for drawing legislative and congressional districts is
broken. State lawmakers have used the once-a-decade process to draw safe seats
for themselves and members of Congress. The result is incumbents are rarely
threatened, as evidenced in November when a big shift in voter sentiment
translated to little change in the partisan makeup of the Florida Legislature
and the state's congressional delegation.
In response, a coalition of groups have banded together as "FairDistrictsFlorida.org"
to push a pair of ballot measures aimed at outlawing gerrymandering in
reapportionment for both Florida's legislative and congressional seats.
Last week, the Florida Supreme Court — rejecting the Legislature's arguments to
the contrary — unanimously agreed the ballot language for the two measures was
clear, one of the hurdles to getting on the ballot. The group now needs to
collect 676,811 signatures for each measure, hopefully in time for the November
2010 ballot.
The proposals would require state lawmakers to draw districts that are compact
and conform if possible to current political or geographic boundaries — so that
cities and counties are not split apart and districts don't snake along a single
block. No incumbent or party could be intentionally favored.
In a companion ruling, the court also set aside the required financial impact
statement that put the cost of implementing the amendments at "millions of
dollars." That statement, written by a team of state analysts, would have
appeared on the ballot.
The Financial Impact Estimating Conference said its cost estimate was so high
because it expected a sharp increase in court challenges to the districts drawn
under the new standards. But the high court appropriately dismissed this as
"fatally misleading." Justice Fred Lewis, writing for a 4 - 3 majority, said
that no additional costs would be incurred, since litigation already routinely
results after the decennial reapportionment and it presumes that the Legislature
won't duly follow the new guidelines.
"Scare tactics and vague, unsupported predictions of financial disaster have no
place in the constitutional-amendment process," Lewis wrote.
Two recent appointees of Gov. Charlie Crist, Justices Charles Canady and Ricky
Polston, joined Justice Charlie Wells in the dissent. They did not see a role
for the high court in trying to determine the general accuracy of the estimating
conference's conclusions — a view that invites partisan attempts to doom citizen
initiatives by burdening them with outlandish cost estimates.
The hope of the amendments' sponsors is if the voters pass the constitutional
amendments in November 2010, the changes will be in place for the next
redistricting in 2012. Bringing fairness to political districts will make
elected officials more accountable and give voters substantially more power over
the direction of the state. It can't happen soon enough.
Organizational Meeting of the
Volusia County Democratic
Executive Committee
The organizational meeting of
the Volusia County Democratic
Executive Committee took place
on Monday December 1st 7:00
p.m. at the Daytona State
College. The following officers
were elected. Phil Giorno for
Chair, Emma Brinkley for
Vice-Chair, Jeff Shepherd for
Secretary, Carl Thornblad
Treasurer, Dr. Terrence Wayne
Bailey for State Committeeman
and Joan Lane for State
Committeewoman. The officers are
set to meet on January 12th.
 Please
join the 100+ members of the Volusia
County Democratic Executive
Committee as we are getting prepared
for the 2010 Campaign. Help up turn
Florida Blue!
Join our new meetup group to
communicate with other local
democrats and receive email notice
of meetings and events.
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