Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin will call for DNC officials’ neutrality to be codified in the party’s official rules and bylaws, two Democratic sources tell CNN. Martin has already been telling DNC members of his plans and will explain more in a call with members Thursday afternoon.
. . . “No DNC officer should ever attempt to influence the outcome of a primary election, whether on behalf of an incumbent or a challenger,” Martin told reporters on a call Thursday. “Voters should decide who our primary nominees are, not DNC leadership.”
The DNC’s Rules & Bylaws committee is expected to vote on Martin’s proposal next month in a virtual meeting. If the committee approves the proposal it will advance to a full vote of the DNC membership in August.
The push for the new rule comes days after Hogg, who beat out a crowded field to become one of three DNC at-large vice chairs in February, announced his plan to help primary incumbent Democrats in safe districts through his group Leaders We Deserve. The organization plans to spend a total of $20 million in next year’s midterms supporting young people running for office.
Hogg stressed that his effort would not target Democrats in competitive districts or use any DNC resources, including voter files or donor lists. He told CNN in an interview last week that he would not endorse in the presidential primaries if he is still a DNC leader.
“I don’t take it personally,” Hogg said of the criticism of his primary challenge. “There’s a difference in strategy here, and the way that we think things need to be done.”
DNC lawyers argued that the Democratic Party doesn’t owe anyone a fair process and that it has every right to disregard its own rules or interpret its rules how it wants because it is a private organization.
That’s what the lawyers are supposed to argue. That prevents Jill Stein from saying she’s a Democrat and then suing because they didn’t give her the presidential nomination.
It may be what lawyers do, but it is not what a democratic system is supposed to do.
If voters decide Jill Stein is what a democrat stands for, she is a Democrat. It’s not up to whoever controls the DNC to decide that she shouldn’t be a candidate.
It’s technically right, but the problem is there’s just one DNC and no other viable party. If you had dozens of viable parties like other western countries, then it would no longer matter that one of them has opaque nomination processes, because there would still be competition on political positions.
It’s a shit sandwich.
But changes to the rules to say no more shit sandwichs will just be ignored.