RESOLUTIONS COMMITTEE: The Committee, which is chaired by James Zogby (DC) and Maria Echaveste (CA), and includes Barbara Easterlin from Virginia, considered and passed a number of resolutions: (1) Celebrating the life of Senator Kennedy; (2) Recognizing the events of September 11, 2001; (3) Commending President Obama’s leadership and accomplishments setting the country in a new direction with his agenda for change; (4) Supporting the President’s efforts to pass health insurance reform; (5) Commending the President and Democratic members of Congress for enacting the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act; (6) Commending Congressional Democrats for delivering a new direction for American service members and their families; (7) Supporting President Obama’s call for public service; (8) Supporting open, accurate, and transparent elections; (9) Calling for the passage of the EARLY act (promoting breast cancer education); (10) Urging action to promote prostrate cancer screening and testing; (11) Supporting the Convention for elimination of all forms of Discrimination against women; (12) Supporting District of Columbia House Voting Rights; (13) Urging that federal stimulus dollars be directed to products and services that create jobs in America; and (14) honoring the life of Inola Henry (CA Democrat). There were some amendments to originally proposed resolution for Senator Kennedy and stimulus spending, but little controversy. The final versions of the resolutions will be sent out to all DNC members and will be posted on this site.
UPDATE— RULES AND BYLAWS COMMITTEE: The Committee, chaired by Alexis Herman (VA) and James Roosevelt (MA) and includes Mame Reiley and Jerome Wiley Segovia from Virginia. The Committee adopted Rules for the election on Friday of at-large DNC members and members of the DNC standing committees. The Committee also adopted a Charter amendment that that adds “gender identity” to the DNC non-discrimination provision and bylaw revisions that change the names of a couple of caucuses to the Asian American and Pacific Islander Caucus and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender American Caucus, and make corresponding bylaws changes. (The current version of the DNC Charter and Bylaws is available at the Resources page of this site.) The chairs thanked departing committee members and recognized former staff person Phil McNamara and former General Counsel Joe Sandler. Finally, the Change Commission will meet in October.
UPDATE # 2 — CREDENTIALS COMMITTEE – The Committee is chaired by Keith Umemoto (CA) and currently does not include any Virginians (although Sue Swecker, Alfonso Lopez, and I hope to join it tomorrow). The Committee heard a challenge to the election of Georgia National Committeemen and Committeewomen in July 2008; the Committee rejected the challenge, but asked the Georgia party to review and clarify its procedures. The Committee also voted to establish a task force to look at diversity and underrepresentation issues in state party organizations. The Chair thanked staff and outgoing Committee members.
Kudos to Virginian Patrice Taylor who is the chief staffperson of all three committees.
Tonight there will be an event at the LBJ Library.