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1st Congressional District Call to Convention

CALL TO CONVENTION

2009 1st CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION

 

1.                  Call.  Pursuant to the authority provided by the Virginia Democratic Party Plan, the 1st Congressional District Democratic Committee (“District Committee”) hereby calls a Convention to convene at 1:00 pm, on Saturday, May 2, 2009, at a place to be decided in the Fredericksburg, Virginia area.

 

2.                  Incorporated Documents.  All appropriate provisions of the Virginia Democratic Party Plan (“State Party Plan”), as amended, and the Guidelines issued by the Democratic Party of Virginia in December 2008 (Guidelines) are incorporated into this Call by reference and made a part hereof.

 

3.                  Purposes.  The purposes of the District Convention shall be:

 

a.                   To elect twenty Democratic State Central Committee members;

 

b.                  To consider resolutions; and

 

c.                   To conduct such other business as may properly come before the     Convention.

 

4.                  Selection of District Convention Delegates.  The delegates to the District Democratic Convention shall be selected by county and city caucuses as follows.   Delegates to the District Convention shall be those elected by city, county or magisterial district caucuses beginning at 12:00 noon on Saturday, April 18, 2009, or 7:30 p.m. on Monday, April 20, 2009.  The caucuses may be assembled or unassembled.  Localities holding unassembled caucuses should also provide for absentee voting in person at a publicized location on April 16, 2009. 
 
5.                  Allocation of District Convention Delegates.  The 189 delegates to the 1st District Democratic Convention shall be allocated as follows:
 
Caroline County                                               3
Essex County                                                   3
Fauquier County                                               8
Gloucester County                                            9
James City County                                            17
King and Queen County                                   2
King George County                                         5
King William County                                         4
Lancaster County                                             3
Mathews County                                              2
Middlesex County                                            3
Northumberland County                                   4
Prince William County                          12
Richmond County                                             2
Spotsylvania County                                         23
Stafford County                                                28
Westmoreland County                          5
York County                                                    15
Fredericksburg City                                          6
Hampton City                                                   9
Newport News City                                         19
Poquoson City                                                  3
Williamsburg City                                             4
 
 
 
 
 
 
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6.         Rules of District Convention Delegate Selection.
 
a.                   Participation and Outreach.  Participation in Virginia's Democratic delegate selection process is open to all registered voters who wish to participate as Democrats.  All meetings shall be open to all members of the Democratic Party regardless of race, sex, age, color, creed, national origin, religion, ethnic identity, sexual orientation, economic status, or disability, and all meetings should be publicized fully.
 
Each District and local committee should conduct outreach programs to encourage full participation by all Democrats in the State Central Committee election process, including notice, publicity and education programs.   Such outreach should be directed to all Democratic constituencies, including group such as ethnic minorities, young people, persons over 65 years of age, lesbians and gay men, persons with a high school education or less, persons with disabilities and persons of low and moderate income.

 

b.                  County and City Calls.  Each County and City Democratic Committee shall provide the call to caucus to the State Democratic Party and the 1st District Democratic Committee Chair by April 3, 2009.

 

c.                   Filing.  Any Democrat wishing to be a delegate to the District Convention must file a certificate of candidacy with the Chairperson of the local county or city Democratic committee, or a designated representative, by the filing deadline.  For caucuses to be held on Saturday, April 18, 2009, the filing deadline is 5:00 p.m. on Monday, April 13, 2009.  For caucuses to be held on Monday, April 20, 2009, the filing deadline is 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 15, 2009.  Only those delegate candidates who have filed by the deadline will appear on the ballots distributed at the caucuses.  Each County and City Committee shall provide notice of the filing deadline and of the date, time and place of the caucus at least seven days but not more than two weeks prior to the caucus.
 
d.                  Declaration.  All candidates for delegate, and all persons participating in the caucuses, shall sign a Declaration form which includes an affirmation that the person is a resident of, and registered to vote in, the jurisdiction holding the caucus; does not intend to support any candidate who is opposed to the Democratic nominee in the next ensuing general election; is a Democrat; is not a member of any other political party; and has not participated and will not participate in the nominating process of any other political party for the 2009 general election.        
 
e.                   Certification of District Delegates.  Within five days after each caucus, each county and city Democratic Committee Chair shall provide the State Democratic Party (DMark@vademocrats.org) and the Chair of the 1st CD Committee (matthe2376@aol.com) with a certified electronic list of delegates, including the name, address, telephone number, fax number and/or e-mail address (if available) in Excel format in the form specified by the 1st CD chair and to be supplied to all county/city chairs herewith.
f.                    Rules and Notice.  Each county and city Democratic Committee within the Congressional District shall establish rules for its caucuses in conformity with this call, the State Party Plan, and the Guidelines.  Such rules shall be adopted in a timely manner and shall provide for required public notification of the time, place and method of Delegate selection.
 
7.         District Convention Committees.  The District Democratic Convention shall be governed by the rules developed by the temporary Rules Committee and rules developed by the permanent Rules Committee and adopted by the Convention.

 

The First District Democratic Committee shall appoint the members of the temporary Committees on Credentials, Rules and Resolutions.  Each Committee shall be composed of a Chair, who is a member of the 1st Congressional District Committee, and 23 members, apportioned one from each city/county committee in the First Congressional District.  On or before close of business April 15, 2009, the chair of each local committee shall appoint a person to serve on each of these committees, and provide the name, address, telephone number, and email address of those persons to Suzette Matthews, Chair, at matthe2376@aol.com, with a copy to the chairs of those committees as follows:

Rules:  Jane Nichols, janejohn@home.hrcoxmail.com and Mary Cottrill, marycottrill@hotmail.com

Credentials:  DougFerguson, dougferg@verizon.net and Sandra Engelhardt, slealbers@cs.com

Resolutions:  Ron Freeman, ronfreeman77@msn.com and Jen Little, LittleJenLittle@aol.com.

The District Convention shall elect Permanent Committees on Credentials, Rules and Resolutions.  Each committee shall be composed of up to 23 members.  The membership of the Permanent Committees shall be apportioned in the same manner as the temporary committees.

 

 

8.         Filing vacancies in Delegations.  Vacancies in each jurisdiction’s delegation may be filled by electing persons within each jurisdiction at the time of the convention.

 

9.         Election of Members of the State Central Committee. 

 

a.         Election.  The twenty members of the Democratic State Central Committee from the Congressional District shall be nominated by jurisdiction caucuses and the names of persons nominated shall be presented to the convention for election.  The caucuses shall select the following numbers of State Central Committee members:

 

King George, Westmoreland, Richmond,

Northumberland, Lancaster                                                       2 (one male, one female)

 

Mathews, Gloucester, Middlesex, Essex                                   2 (one male, one female)

 

King William, King and Queen, Caroline                                   1 (male or female)

 

Prince William County                                                  1 (male or female)

 

James City County                                                                    1 (male or female)

 

Williamsburg City                                                                     1 (male or female)

 

Spotsylvania County                                                                 2 (one male, one female)

 

Fredericksburg City                                                                  1 (male or female)

 

Fauquier County                                                                       1 (male or female)

 

Stafford County                                                                        3 (one male, one female, one M or F)

 

York/Poquoson                                                                        2 (one male, one female)

 

Hampton City                                                                           1 (male or female)

 

Newport News                                                                        2 (one male, one female)

 

 

b.         Prefiling.   Candidates must pre-file for election to the State Central Committee from the Congressional District.  Candidates must pre-file with the District Chair (matthe2376@aol.com) by 7:00 p.m. on April 24, 2009.  

 

c.         Slates.   Any individual or group of Democrats may sponsor or endorse a slate of candidates for election to the State Central Committee.  However, no slate may receive preferential treatment or a preferential place on the ballot, nor may any slate be publicly identified on the ballot or otherwise as the “official slate.”  Person(s) who want a slate listed on a ballot must provide (1) the name of the slate and (2) a list of persons comprising the slate.  This information must be filed with the District Chair by 5:00 p.m., April 27, 2009.

 

10.       Resolutions.  For a resolution to be considered at the district convention, it must be received electronically by the Chairs of the Temporary Resolutions Committee at the email addresses stated in paragraph 7 above, on or before 5:00 p.m., April 25, 2009.  All resolutions adopted by the district convention will be forwarded to the State Central Committee for consideration no later than 10 days after the district convention.

 

 

 

11.       Filing Deadlines and Locations.  All documents to be filed with District Chair or State Party Chair must be received by the stated deadlines.  Filing email will be permitted, provided that the form is received by the deadline.  All papers to be filed with the Chair of the District Committee shall be filed at the following address:  5649 John Barton Payne Road, Marshall, Virginia 20115-2529, or by email at matthe2376@aol.com.  All papers to be filed with the State Democratic Party or its chair shall be filed at:  Democratic Party of Virginia, 1710 E Franklin St., Richmond Va., 23223 (phone, 804/644-1966).

 

 

 

Adopted by the 1st Congressional District Democratic Committee of Virginia, this 23rd day of February, 2009.