SDEC Meeting Report April 2003
By Stan Merriman - Date: 2003-04-30 21:58:22

REPORT FROM THE FRONT
Progressive Populist Caucus Observations about the 4/26 SDEC Meeting

We saw both progress and continued denial of our Party’s (and nation’s) crisis.

First the denial. There was a most disturbing ?lock out? of rank and file from a ?pre-meeting? called for SDEC members, apparently on request from the Party’s attorney, Charles Soechting. Pretty amazing advice from one who purports to be an officer of the court and defender of the Constitution. The excuse used were ?legal matters? related to the Hughes estate bequest to be discussed, rank and file attendees to the meeting. This was a clear violation of Party rules. Members of the PPC, in particular David Van Os and John Courage voiced loud objection to our exclusion as did both SDEC members Gary Horton and Jesse Martin from the floor. But to no avail. We were excluded. Couple this with a recent attempt by a Parliamentarian of the Party, Corrine Sabo, under a pseudonym, to have legitimate and serious issues communications to SDEC members as ?Spam? and her attempt to have the sender’s access to his internet provider for such communication revoked and her written suggestion that their should be some restrictions put on such free speech, one wonders if some in the Party leadership grasp the concept of Democracy? In an atmosphere of national suppression of citizen participation by the current Bush administration, it is both ironic and tragic that our Party chooses to emulate such un-democratic behavior.

Additionally, there was a failed attempt by one Party staffer to exclude both rank and file and non-members of the Finance Committee from their meeting at the Party headquarters on Friday, prior to the SDEC meeting on Saturday. Additionally, the Vice Chair of the Party, Juan Maldonado and his attorney, John Pouland, were stood up for a meeting on Thursday to discuss disclosure of Party finance matters, set by the Party Chair, the Party attorney and Co-Chair of the Finance Committee. Maldonado had traveled up from the Valley and Pouland from the DFW are for this meeting.

A most alarming outcome from this meeting was the refusal, a second time, of the Resolutions Committee to even engage in debate on the presentation of the proposal by Bruce Barrick to create a Party Reform Commission. The most substantive statement made on the proposal by a Committee member was that (paraphrased) since it was being made by the PPC it should be rejected. This pathetic and ignorant statement was greeted by most Committee members, save one, with nearly unanimous rejection, conducting themselves again as furniture, rather than engaged citizens and Democrats. Does this give you a clue as to what happens to those Resolutions we generate from our Precinct and Senate District Conventions?

Overall, it appears from my perspective that while there are indications of improvement, Party leadership is still muted in its acknowledgment of a national crisis of Democracy and a Texas Party crisis of relevance. You do not get any sense of urgency about solving either problem. I think many are overwhelmed by the task and absent leadership which inspires them to rise to the challenge, they seek the comfort of denial, a very natural human reaction. The very sparse attendance at the afternoon Grassroots training demonstration among SDEC people seems to support this observation. Still absent from our leadership is open discussion on big ideas or major strategic discussion about long term solutions. We lurch from one crisis to the next with small ideas and tactical solutions to put out the fires.

Now some positive indicators and signs of progress. The PPC distributed the first edition of the Progressive Populist Reformer. People were reading it with overt curiosity and several went out of their way to thank and compliment the PPC on it’s content, including some significant leaders in the Party.

In spite of our issues with the Party chair, staff have been highly deferential toward us and very professional in their interaction with us.

Key Committees and their leadership have been open and inclusive, going out of their way to hear us and engage with us; Finance, Rules and Grassroots stand out. The co-chair of Finance, Jewell McGowan was very supportive of giving us an audience on financial transparency and our encouragement of their greater engagement in the business of the Party. Theresa Daniel, Rules, went out of her way to invite re-tooling of resolutions on Reform, Party decentralization and SDEC campaign involvement and encouraged re-submission to her Committee. Dr. Dennis Teal, Grassroots, has reached out to us by encouraging participation on his Committee by PPC leadership and went out of his way to attend our 5 p.m. Caucus meeting.

This is real progress, folks. The Party Chair deserves acknowledgement and a compliment on her very candid presentation to the Finance Committee on both the role of the previous Chair in an enormous personal financial contribution toward eliminating the Party debt and providing a detailed report on the Party’s income, expenses, surplus and 2003 budget. While details on the Hughes bequest remained sparse in her presentation, for the first time, she broached it’s contribution to the Party’s renewed financial health. There was repetition of the denial from the Chair that ?she lost the election?; Vice Chair Maldonado rose to state that ?We all lost the election?. The Chair elaborated to the Finance Committee that she had no control over the candidates ?because they had control of the money?. As a point of commentary, this most eloquently supports the PPC’s assertion that leadership, structural and possible rules changes are necessary to put the Party in control of these relationships and that massive reform in the way money controls the people’s agenda, through the Party and its candidates, is our highest priority. The tail wags the dog.

The State Party is making a genuine effort in supporting the dire need for grassroots training and mobilization with the training sessions offered in the Valley and East Texas and the agenda for a Harris County training. Major urban County trainings will begin in August. The Staff, including Katie Griffith and Daniel Clayton (now recovering from surgery) are high in energy and goodwill.

We continue to support Bruce Barrick’s Reform Committee idea, our resolution on decentralizing the Party’s communications and the resolution creating an SDEC campaign committee. Our list of thirty (30) party reform ideas are in broad circulation and we gained further exposure to these ideas and a positive reception for collaboration in presentations to both the Environmental Democrats and the Young Democrats. The crisis in Bexar County now deserves our attention in solidarity with 40 to 50 Precinct Chairs taking the initiative to re-energize their County Party with reform in the face of hostile opposition from intransigent County Party leadership.

Stan Merriman Chair