Democratic National Convention Committees to Meet

The Democratic Convention Committees will meet to do their work before the National Convention begins.  See DNC Release re: Commitees.  Platform is meeting this weekend – report to follow.  Rules is meeting the saturday before the convention, but the Credentials meeting on sunday may revisit the Florida/Michigan delegation issues.

The Platform Committee will meet on August 9th – many of you participated in the 1200 Obama campaign platform meetings held around the country last month.  Kudos to Maureen Markham and her team for the excellent “Platform Café” at Celias in Arlington (see similar Listening to America – Platform for Change results).  Virginia’s Platform Committee members are invited to submit their comments on the meeting, and we will post them here.

The Rules Committee will meet on August 23, the Saturday before the Convention at 10:00 am.  No agenda has yet been circulated.  I served on the Rules Committee at the 2004 Convention – we assembled, heard some good speeches, unanimously voted to approve a few minor changes to the Rules, and adjourned.  This year might offer more excitement, but (despite the name of this site), let’s hope not.  Convention excitement should be provided by our candidates, not procedural debates.  (Check this site for a report after the meeting.)

Credentials Committee will meet on Sunday, August 24, at 10:00 am, and promises to be more interesting.  The DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee (RBC) basically moves over to the Credentials Committee for the National Convention. 

The Obama campaign has submitted a letter urging full votes for the Michigan and Florida Delegations, which the Credentials Commitee has promised to consider.  Recall that the Michigan and Florida state parties held primaries in violation of the DNC calendar rules and without DNC approval.  THe RBC in December 2007voted to not seat any delegates elected as a result of these unauthorized primaries.  In May 2008, the RBC voted to seat all the delegates, but impose the mandatory 1/2 vote sanction.   A unified convention is the most important goal.  We’ll worry about precedent later.