Sen McEachin: “This is new day for our party.”
In addition to the issues discussed at Steering Committee, Saturday’s DPVA Central Committee addressed the 2012 delegate selection allocation issue which Steering Committee did not resolve. The issue was whether to allocate the delegates to the 2012 state and national convention among jurisdictions based on Democratic vote or a combination of Democratic vote and population. Using only Democratic vote usually gives the more Democratic areas of the state (including Northern Virginia and predominantly African-American areas) more delegates. The proposal, like the 2008 plan, used Democratic vote only. We reached a compromise which allocated according to Democratic vote/population for the State Convention delegates and Democratic vote only for the National Convention delegation, which the Central Committee adopted. This will be included in the draft plan which will be posted for public comment — it will be considered by Steering Committee and then the plan will be submitted to the DNC by May 2, 2011. The Central Committee, however, will have the opportunity to consider the issue at its June meeting and submit a revised plan if it so wishes. (Note that this issue just relates to the 2012 Presidential race – the Central Committee will vote separately on the Senate nomination process at an upcoming meeting.)