Party building starts from the bottom. But in the fight to make the DNC more accountable and to get dark money out of the Democratic primaries, who’s in office also matters.
After the defeat in the 2024 elections, many in our party were involved in twisting hands and soul searching in an attempt to understand what went wrong – and what we should do differently moving forward. Most of it discussion focused on messages we should have used (or avoided), issues we should have raised (or avoided), or voters we should have paid more or less attention to.
Like any good Democrat, I have my views on all these issues, but that’s not why I’m running for one of the positions of vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee. The issues I intend to raise relate to governance and party building: the need budget transparencyy and responsibility; the need to address financial issues and loss of decision-making control caused by our reliance on outside consultants; the need to build state parties; the need to accept “dark money” from our primaries; and the need to create a sense of belonging and participation that draws young people and others who feel rejected and disenfranchised into our party, finding a place for them in our work.
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For more than three decades I have been a member of the Democratic National Committee, I have had the honor of serving our party in a number of capacities: on the Executive Committee (16 years), co-chairman of the Resolutions Committee (11 years), co-chairman of the Ethnic Council (12 years), member of the Unity/Reforms Commission (2017–18). In each of these positions, I tried to serve our party, help it develop and win.
At the same time, I have had the opportunity to observe the recurring structural and institutional problems we face, which I believe must be addressed now. I managed to raise some of these issues during my tenure at the Unity/Reform Commission. Others were introduced through the Resolutions Committee. As the majority remains undecided, I am taking this opportunity to run for Vice-Chair to engage our members in discussing the necessary governance reforms.
1. Accountability and transparency.
With more than a billions of dollars spending per election cycle (much of which goes to consulting groups), monitoring and evaluating these expenditures and the groups we hire is important to ensure transparency and accountability. That’s what a governing body does, and it’s time for the DNC to function as the party’s governing body.
In 2017, I proposed that the Unity/Reform Commission take steps to implement the Charter’s requirement that the Executive Committee and the full DNC receive “annual reports … on spending goals and objectives, and on spending and staffing results.” To facilitate this process, I proposed creating a select financial oversight committee of elected DNC members to conduct such a review for presentation to the membership.
2. Building DNC Membership Influence.
Many DNC members have complained that they feel more like “props taking seats at meetings” than members of the party’s governing body. This needs to change. In addition to voting to approve or question the annual budget review, there are other ways to empower members to strengthen the work of our party.
For example:
- Instead of being faced with a fait accompli and requiring ratification of lists of chairpersons and members of standing committees drawn up by the chairperson, the composition of these bodies should be determined by election, either by the full membership or by ASDC and regional caucuses. Some slots can be reserved for a chair, but not all slates. The mechanics of this process can be worked out, but the principles that should guide the process should be openness, democracy, regionalization, and empowerment of DNC members.
- At DNC meetings, opportunities should be created for members to engage in discussion and debate. For example, the Resolutions Committee should allow more time to consider proposed resolutions, and some are referred to the full membership for discussion, debate and voting. And when resolutions are passed that include action components, there should be a report to members on whether the call to action was taken and what, if anything, happened as a result.
- At our meetings, we should provide opportunities to present “best practices” where state and local parties can learn from each other’s successful outreach models.
- We must allow for a full discussion of how we reach underserved or misunderstood constituencies: young voters, rural voters, recent immigrant communities (African, Hispanic, Caribbean, Asian, Eastern European, and Arab), and working-class voters. class. everyone we need to include (or, in some cases, re-include) into our ranks to become the party’s majoritarian.
3. Strengthening of state parties.
Too many of our resources are channeled into advisory groups for outreach, messaging and even campaigning or GOTV programs. At the end of each cycle, despite the enormous amounts of money raised and spent and the success of some of these efforts, we see no discernible increase in the organizational capacity of our state or local party organizations.
Greater financial support should be provided to member states, without any states. In conjunction with this increased funding, ASDC should be tasked with creating an oversight and support mechanism to ensure that participating states grow and operate in a manner that is democratic, accountable, and empowers our diverse membership to be active and play an empowered role in of our work.
4. What does it mean to be a member of the Democratic Party? How to find, train and support the next generation of persuasive leaders?
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Party building starts from the bottom. Early in his tenure, Jaime Harrison proposed a task force to examine what it means to be a member of our party. The idea was good, but not implemented. It should be now.
The problem is that for too many Americans, being a member of a party means being on a mailing list, e-mail, text message, or targeted social media. In most cases, these communications simply involve asking for money. Too little is done to create a sense of “belonging” to the party or any sense of excitement and participation. We have to change that.
During the Unity/Reform Commission, we proposed ideas to provide selected participating states with the resources needed to strengthen and expand the role of local party capacity by recreating the roles once held by precinct captains, providing year-round outreach to communities.
Continuous outreach creates opportunities to recruit and train new party leaders and candidates for local elected office. We cannot leave the identification and support of new leaders to chance, the leaders of state legislatures, or the hasty, albeit admirable, efforts of election committee leaders. We need to rebuild our farm in each of the 50 states. Dynamic new leaders will create engagement where people live, talk, scroll, listen and post – and drive lasting change. All studies agree: the effect of TV advertising quickly fades. The impact of community building and leadership will be long-lasting.
5. Eliminate Dark Money from our primaries.
Twice we introduced proposals to exclude black money from the Democratic primaries. In the past two cycles, tens of millions of dollars have been raised and spent by these outside groups — with the money often coming from Republican donors — to sway voters in the Democratic primary. This is something that we and our member states can regulate or call for. Democratic voters should decide who wins our primaries, not outside groups.
I hope that my candidacy will create an opportunity to discuss these proposals to strengthen our party and help it grow with one goal in mind: winning elections. That’s why I run.
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