Democratic National Convention

[CROSS-POSTED FROM MICHIGAN YOUTH POLITICAL ALLIANCE]

Obama's message of hope and change has reached out to millions of young voters, and I do not understand how some people can not understand why. Republicans think it might have to do with the age of the candidate, so they bring in Palin. Now, she may be "young," but she certainly does not bring nearly the same understanding to issues that concern youth voters the most as Obama does.

With a young population experiencing piled-up college debt and the pressure of finding new jobs, they refuse to believe that a continuation of the current administration could be the solution, especially since John McCain barely shares the compassion Obama does for education and job growth. Our youth have also become disillusioned by the failed policies of the Iraq War and have felt the stress of escalating costs of health care within their families. Who deals with these issues with an eye out for how we feel? I don't see McCain caring much about what we think. The latest Gallup polls from September 7 reveal our thoughts exactly--60% favor Obama while only 32% favor McCain.

But putting all political affiliation aside, will youth participation shock us this election season?

Even though Trojan Condoms launched its Evolve America tour last April, the safer sex campaign still made quite an appearance at both the Democratic and Republican conventions. Calling it the "condomvention" Trojan's bus rolled into Denver, Colorado for a huge party the first night of the festivities.

With special guests including Ja Rule, Spike Lee, Alan Cumings, Josh Lucas, Tony Goldwyn, and Gloria Reuben, the party started with open bar and a little comedy.

The Evolve tour targeted delegates, sexual health advocacy groups, policymakers and the presidential candidates themselves, urging them to acknowledge safer sex issues and get them on the political and social agendas.

According to the International Business Times, the tour is designed to engage Americans directly by pledging to use a condom every time and sign a petition for change. This, they say, is in light of:

"condom advertising restrictions on network prime time television in effect, and over a billion dollars spent on abstinence-only education that does not advocate condom use..."

There are two tours continuing from the conventions. Evolve Yourself and Involve Yourself plan to crisscross the country through the final months of the Presidential campaigns.

"Trojan Evolve is a call to action," says Jim Daniels, Vice President of Marketing for Church & Dwight Co Inc. "We're quite literally going city to city asking Americans to pledge to use a condom every time, sign a petition for change and help turn the tide on the unhealthy state of sexual health in this country."

See my video on the campaign below and take the pledge at TrojanCondoms.com

Editorial rant: Why is it that we don't see Democrats hitting the GOP on how these programs didn't work and opposing them because republicans still want to do abstinence only education?? if 90% of American is for comprehensive sex education ... then why aren't we standing up and saying - so are democrats and republicans aren't. Just curious why more people aren't pushing this issue given new facts, data, the Trojan tour, and .... need I mention the VP's own little at home experiment?

Crossposted from Wiretap Magazine

I was pretty much off the grid last week in Denver during the convention, and since Sarah, Mike, and others have authored some excellent coverage on the convention, I am going to stick to this single post with an overview of my thoughts and experiences.

CNN iReport of Isaac Robinson

Outside of Forest Room 5 on the Saturday before convention Jose Williams AKA Mr. Man, a CNN iReporter, interview YDA Labor Caucus Chair and Political Director for the Michigan Teamsters Isaac Robinson. I was enlisted to actually film the interview, which is now available online.

Crystal Strait and Francisco Domenech Re-elected

At the YDA National Committee meeting, which actually ran ahead of schedule, DNC Woman Crystal Strait of CA and DNC Man Francisco Domenech of PR were re-elected unanimously.

Interview with Moby

At the DoSomething/Flashbooth party at Jet I had the chance to ask Moby a couple of questions about the election. Unfortunately, I was without video camera so I don't have live footage. The interview went something like this:

Bondelli: Thank you for taking the time to answer some questions Moby.

Moby: No problem.

Bondelli: What are your thoughts on the involvement of youth in this election?

Moby: It is amazing and inspiring.

Bondelli: What role do you think musicians can play in engaging voters?

Moby: Well I think that depends on the genre of music and their audience. Different things will work better for certain musicians. It is up to the artist to find out what works with their audience.

Bondelli: Thank you for your time.

I Get Quoted in the NY Times

Shortly after my interview with Moby I was approached by Julie Bosman, style reporter for the New York Times, for an interview. I ended up being quoted in an article about Denver's Convention night life being lackluster. Here is my quote:

“The one thing that Democrats have learned is that if anyone can lose an election, it’s the Democrats,” said Kevin Bondelli, the owner of a design and consulting firm in Arizona. “In the last eight years, we’ve become a lot more respectful of the Republican political machine.”

Youth Orgs and Great Marketing

Mike has a lot of full posts about the marketing campaigns done by Rock the Vote and Trick or Vote, but I just wanted to add my thoughts in general. I was really impressed with how these organizations took advantage of the Convention and used it to make Democrats aware of both young voters and their organizations.

Trick or Vote, in my opinion, did the best job of this. Throughout the week people in Halloween costumes were attending events, hanging around the convention center, and talking to attendees all over the place. The Trick or Vote party did exactly what organization parties should do: combine a bunch of people meeting and drinking with an actually sell of your organization. Once they showed their excellent videos at the party, everybody was sold.

Youth Seen but Not Heard

Mike wrote an excellent piece about this, so once again I will offer my additional thoughts.

This is the impression I get from older establishment Democrats within the party. They think it is great that young people are showing up to the polls in huge numbers for Democrats. They like to see the young energetic faces at their events. They do not want to have to share power, influence, access, or even speaking time with them.

This is going to continue unless something is done about it. The youth of this party have reinvigorated it, and there should be some reflection of that within the actual party. I am going to address what I think needs to be done in an upcoming post.

I'm still pretty exhausted, but I'm trying to upload things as quickly as possible and cut them for blogs.

One event I was able to attend while at the Democratic National Convention was the HRC Concert Rock to Win featuring many performers including Kansas's own Melissa Etheridge, Cindy Lauper, frequent Kansas visitor Rufus Wainwright, Thelma Houston, and Margaret Cho.

The concert began with a short press conference where all agreed that young voters were essential to the election in November. Cindy Lauper said it was important for all people to vote, and that was a key component for her concert with the HRC as well as her national True Colors tour.

"Hopelessness comes out of helplessness. We put the tour together to give information to the people, because information is power, and I strongly believe that this nation was built on the power of the people."

Lauper's endorsement for Barack Obama was announced officially a few days prior to the Democratic National Convention.

"I believe we are at a crossroads and the next ten years will determine the future of this country. . . In particular, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community is closer than ever to gaining full equality. We are teetering back and forth right now, and we need to act together to push us in the right direction. What we are asking for is only fair and right. We as a society, LGBT or straight, can show that civil rights are important and discrimination is wrong across the board through our vote. I believe by voting for Barack Obama we will do just that."

Melissa Etheridge agrees, and is frustrated by the mainstream media's focus on what she deems an imaginary rift in her party with regard to LGBT rights. Etheridge had previously asked Senator Hillary Clinton a tough question at the HRC's candidate forum this time last year. Etheridge said she felt "thrown under the bus" in the 1990's during the Clinton administration because of policies such as Don't Ask Don't Tell and the Defense of Marriage Act both supported by the Clinton White House.

When asked about the rift Etheridge adamantly disagreed any existed with regard to the old Clinton administration or any rift from the primary candidates.

"I think it is a dangerous thing that the media has been focusing on 'The Divided Democratic Party: Hillary/Obama' I think that is not true. . . We had an awesome woman and an awesome man to pick from . . .and we came up with Barack Obama and we are all united behind that. And its a fallacy, its a lie, to put out there that we are not."

Lauper agreed encouraging people not to vote "insane."

"I would say, if you want to vote for your pocketbook, which maybe you might. Think of if it's been picked already."

The Human Rights Campaign also spoke briefly about their program that trains young activists, giving them organizing skills that can build a movement of LGBT sensitive political and non-profit workers across the country.

"Generation Equality (GenEQ) is the current crop of high school and college aged Americans. GenEQ is more supportive of queer equality than any generation ever - from widely supported issues like hospital visitation for same-sex couples and workplace fairness, all the way to full marriage equality. But achieving full equality takes action. HRC's GenEQ helps queer youth go from being out to being active by providing the skills, tools and knowledge to make full GLBT equality a reality.

I also caught Melissa Etheridge's performance on the DNC stage Thursday evening.

Update: So here's a question. I wonder what youth representation will be at the RNC?
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The DNC Youth Council just put out a press release announcing that young people will make up 16% of convention participants in Denver:

Washington, DC – Growing on the strong performance of young voters during the primaries, young people are set to make up just over 16% of all convention delegates, alternates, standing committee members and pages, at the end of the month in Denver, beating all previous records.

Based on information from the Office of the Secretary of the Democratic National Committee, there are scheduled to be 631 delegates aged 36 and under helping to select the Democratic Party presidential nominee. This record performance tops the 11% of youth delegates in 2004 and the 9% in 2000.

Bear in mind that youth is being defined here as 18 - 36, not the usual 18 - 30 we talk about. The DNC (and YDA) both use that metric as the definition of "youth" for the purposes of internal matters.

Technically, the DNC delegations are supposed to represent youth at levels equal to their share of the Democratic electorate in the previous cycle. According to YDA (pdf), who fought the DNC over affirmative action goals to assure proper representation for youth at the convention, that means that youth should make up 19% of convention participants. So the number should be higher, and we still have a ways to go to achieve full representation.

Nevertheless this is a huge improvement. A big congratulations to everyone who worked to get as many young people as possible involved in the convention - as a delegate or otherwise. The full press release is after the jump.

While you are waiting for the PA results to come in, check out these stories around the internets:

• The DNC has an excellent primer on all things related to the Democratic Convention: Delegates, Super Delegates, and more.
• The New York Times notes that age is the biggest predictor of support (aside from race) in the Democratic primary, a trend I'm sure we'll see play out later tonight.
• MySpace has teamed up with NBC news to produce a snazzy new political section to their website: Decision '08. This is very similar to the partnership ABC forged with FaceBook. For MySpace's sake, I hope it's more effective. And if anyone is reading, or goodness sake, please stop the video from auto-playing. The last thing I want is Chris Matthews blaring at me whenever I hit your site.
• U.S. cell phone voters would like to be able to vote via text.
• Bush's approval ratings are the lowest of any President in the last 70 years. Maybe that's why he decided it was a good idea to appear on Deal or No Deal last night.
• The Nation has launched their annual student writing contest.
• CNN's League of First Time Voters, which you may be hearing about tonight, is catching flack from youth activists.
• Finally, students in Washington and Arizona are competing to see who can register more new voters on Facebook:

The Young Voter PAC has put together a resource guide for young people looking to run as delegates to the convention. A valuable resource for those struggling to navigate the process, especially amid all the cuts by the campaigns.

Navigating the Last Stages of the Delegate Process:
A resources guide from the Young Voter PAC and Young Super Delegates

The Young Voter PAC and Young Super Delegates want all young people to be able to run in their state’s delegate races. While we understand the rules affirm campaigns can cut their lists to the minimum amount required by the rules (which we post below), we still believe it is critical, in order to continue to build the Democratic Party and secure the youth voting bloc, that young people be given the opportunity to run and that young people be considered for “At-Large” or “PLEO” delegate spots.

Since this is the first time so many young people are running as delegates, making sure young people know the rules so they have the best possible shot at getting elected to represent their candidates as a delegate in an important role for everyone involved in the Democratic family.

There are some things you can do as a young person in order to get elected in your state to be a “pledged delegate” for your candidates of choice in Denver, CO at the DNC’s National Convention.

It should be noted, that we are talking about pledged delegates. There is no room (this time around) for you to become an “unpledged delegate” at this point in the process because those slots are given to your State Party leaders, state DNC Members, Democratic Congressional Members and Distinguished Party leaders. But, if you are looking ahead to 4 years from now—you can and should try to become a DNC member in your state.

If you have any questions, please email info@youngvoterpac.org or visit www.youngvoterpac.org.

General Tip

Get known by all the decision makers and opinion leaders. Being known is critical. Do NOT be humble in this process. Create a Facebook or MySpace page making the case for your delegate status, talk to the campaign, write letters to your DNC members especially the Chair (and share a copy of the letter in the resources section), write letters to your elected officials…reach out to folks and make the case.

If You Were Cut or Think You Might be Cut

If your state has NOT gone through the “cutting” process yet, now is the time to make your case to opinion leaders (e.g. vocal youth voting advocates in your state, young staff at the State Party level who might be able to help you make the case, young elected officials, etc.) as well—and most important-- as the campaign you are supporting that you are one of the best people to represent the candidate as well as young people. You should locate the Regional or State Director of the campaign you want to serve as a delegate for and reach out to that person.

State Party staff does NOT decide who or if someone is cut, that is a decision by the campaign. State The reality is, often times the “cutting” process is staff in a room looking at the list and doing their best to figure out who their top supporters are—and since this is often young people’s first time running as a delegate, the staff might not know who you are, so you have to make that happen.

If you state has gone through the “cutting” process and you got the rejection email, now is the time start to Plan B. If you happen to be a young elected official or a Party leader, you might be able to get to serve as a delegate in the role of a “PLEO” which means you are in the category of "Party Leaders and Elected Officials." Even if you are not an elected official or Party leader, the DNC’s Youth Council and the Association of State Party Chairs, Mike Brewer, sent a letter to all State Party Chairs encouraging them to appoint young people as PLEOs, so you can and definitely should, try that strategy in order to become a delegate.

Otherwise, you could also try to get one of the “At-Large” delegate slots that your Party has control over. These are positions that go to people for various reasons—some to reach diversity goals, some to reach gender balance, and there is no reason you can’t make the case to your State Party that young people are critical this election cycle and that you want to serve as a leader in the Party to help secure that voting bloc.

Other Resources

The Democratic National Convention Committee has a great resource up that walks you through the process of becoming a delegate, the definition of the various types of delegates and an interactive map of your state that shows the number of delegates pledge and unpledged your state is allotted.

The DNC’s Youth Council and the Association of State Parties sent a letter (pdf) to each State Party Chair encouraging them to appoint young people as PLEOs, use this letter to help make your case for a PLEO delegate spot.

The DNC’s Youth Council is holding conference calls to help people navigate the process in your state, check out their Facebook page to see when one is happening in your state.

Jane Fleming Kleeb wrote a piece on MTV’s chooseorlose.com site that she tailored for her state. You can take her blog post and simply edit the state section and post on your blog or Facebook or MySpace page.

Delegate Selection Rules

The full document of rules is on the Democratic National Convention Committee’s website. Below are a few pertinent rules.

According to Rule 12.D in the 2008 Delegate Selection Rules for the Democratic National Convention, state parties are required to supply to each presidential candidate a list of all persons who have filed for a delegate or alternate position pledged to that candidate. Candidates and their campaigns have the right to remove from the list those individuals that are not considered bona fide supporters of that candidate.

According to Rule 12.E, those individuals that have been removed from the list of bona fide supporters are not at all eligible to run for a position as delegate or alternate.

According to Rule.12.E(1), presidential candidates may only remove individuals from the list of bona fide supporters if at a minimum, there will be three (3) names for every one position in which that presidential candidate is entitled.

According to Rule.12.E(2), presidential candidates, in consultation with the state party, may remove any candidate for at-large and pledged party leader and elected official delegate or alternate position if at a minimum, one (1) name remains for every delegate position that candidate is entitled.

According to Regulation 4.23.A, when removing bona fide supporters, presidential candidates shall use their best efforts to make sure that delegate candidates meet the equal division goals and the affirmative action goals.

According to Regulation 4.23.C, delegate candidates removed from the list of bona fide supporters by a presidential candidate may file to run for another level as delegate, such as PLEO or at-large, and may also pledge to another candidate.

Each State Party Democratic Chair is required to certify to the Co-Chairs of the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee that each presidential candidate used their best efforts to ensure that their district-level delegate candidates meet the affirmative action and inclusion goals of the Affirmative Action plan for each state.

The DNC Youth Council has announced three more trainings for the state delegate election process. If you don't want to get cut, you might want to get on this call:

Subject: Upcoming DNC Youth Council Delegate Selection Trainings

Friends and Colleagues--

One of the goals of the DNC's Youth Council is to increase the number of young delegates (those under 36) to the Democratic National Convention. We have already held several conference call trainings on the process to be a delegate. The trainings were extremely successful and we are eager to get underway with our next round of calls.

Below one will find a listing of some of our upcoming calls. Please spread the word to as many people as possible about these. On each call we will be joined by a member of that respective state's party to go over the process to be a Congressional District, PLEO, or At-Large delegate to the Democratic National Convention. In addition to the specific training, we will be sure to provide information on how to get more involved with the State Party and other youth organizations. (If you or your organization have specific information you would like to have mentioned, please email me and let me know as soon as possible.)

The upcoming calls are:

Vermont - Thursday, April 17 at 7pm EST

Phone: 866-810-8093
Code: 822-976-6817

North Carolina - Tuesday, April 22nd at 6pm EST
Phone: 605-475-6006
Code: 792994

Texas - Monday, April 28 at 7pm EST
Phone: 605-475-6300
Code: 85383

Many of you might already know about this - or at least some of it - but the last five days have seen something of an uproar in the youth community as young political activists and candidate supporters found themselves cut out of the state-level Democratic National Convention delegate selection process, first in California, and now apparently in other states as well.

I've refrained from commenting on it as youth advocates worked behind the scenes to rectify the situation, but now I think it's time to present a summary of what has happened, what is at issue, and where we stand.

What Happened
Young people running for delegate positions on behalf of their candidate at the Democratic National Convention in California were informed earlier this week that they had been cut from the process. This happened within both the Clinton and Obama campaigns, but the issue became particularly focused on the actions of the Obama campaign, which cut far more potential delegates and which relied heavily on young voters to secure victory in the primary contests held thus far.

To be clear, it is within the rights of the campaigns to make these cuts. I believe the technical term is that the campaigns are exercising their "right of refusal." Campaigns are granted this right in order to ensure that those delegates attending the convention are indeed hard core supporters of their candidate.

The Issues:

Nevertheless, this was problematic for several reasons:

• First, the criteria for being cut was (and continues to be) non-transparent and arbitrary. The campaign stated that it's purpose was to weed out potential Clinton supporters or all but the most hard-core Obama supporters, but a quick glance at the names of some of the youth who were cut put the lie to that claim rather quickly. Many were not only leaders in youth organizing, but solid Obama supporters as well. A second explanation that the campaign was concerned with the logistics of the nominating process and the sheer number of applicants was more reasonable, if still less than satisfactory.
• Second, the cuts showed a startling lack of recognition for the support that young voters gave to the Senator in his many victories and reinforced the worst tendencies of the Democratic Party in discouraging young people from participating within the party structure as a vehicle for change.
• Third, the move undercut the work of many youth groups, including the DNC Youth Council, which has actively run a campaign to encourage young people to run for delegate slots to the convention within their states.
• Fourth, and perhaps most importantly, the Obama campaign made promises to a number of youth leaders that the right of refusal would not be exercised against young supporters.

There is also another angle to this as well, having less to do with the Obama campaign than with how the DNC treats young people at the state and national level.

In 2006, the Young Democrats fought the DNC over affirmative action language in the DNC charter and mandatory goals for young people in each state delegation to the convention. You can read a write-up of that fight here, but in short it boiled down to this. YDA claimed that language in the DNC charter requires mandatory affirmative action goals for youth in each state delegation. The language in the charter mandates that young people be represented within the state delegations commensurate with the level at which they participated in the prior election (eg, if youth were 15% of a state's Democratic electorate in 2004, they should make up 15% of a state's delegation to the convention in 2008).

The DNC claimed that a rule issued at a later convention made those goals advisory/voluntary, and elected to ignore the language in the charter, which should supercede any committee rule. This has resulted in a hodge-podge or commitments/goals for youth delegates at the state level. Some states like California do have mandatory goals for youth in their delegation. Other's don't, creating the chance for young people to be underrepresented at the convetntion. And here's the rub. Whether states do or don't have mandatory affirmative action goals for youth, striking young people from the delegate lists can exacerbate the problem of unequal and nondemocratic representation for young people at the convention.

If too many young people are struck, it can make it difficult for the state party to meet its targets for youth delegates. The only way for the party to overcome that deficit is to use PLEO (Party Leader and Elected Official) and at-large delegate slots. Youth, particularly unconnected party activits, tend to get screwed over in this situation. Young people are are not, for the most part, Party Leaders or Elected Officials (though the latter is changing). And at-large delegate slots are more likely to go to the children of party leaders or donors than to Joe Activist who put in 1000 hours on the campaign trail.

On multiple levels, the system weeds out young people, particularly unconnected young people. The Obama campaign potentially made that situation worse by cutting so many young people from the prospective delegate pool.

Resolution?
Late last week, these concerns were all made known to the campaign privately by youth leaders, and publicly by Young Voter PAC , which released a statement echoing the concerns listed above. Not long after, the campaign relented and agreed to reinstate the cut youth candidates in California. At the time, they issued this statement:

There has been an extraordinary outpouring of grassroots support for Senator Obama among Democrats and Independents in all 53 California Congressional districts.

In recognition of this tremendous enthusiasm, our campaign has asked the California Democratic Party to allow all persons who have filed to be a district delegate candidate for Senator Obama at the Democratic National Convention to participate in the caucuses this Sunday, April 13, 2008.

We are confident that delegates elected from this pool will reflect the Senator's commitment to a diverse and unified delegation at the National Convention.

An overwhelming number of supporters have signed up to run for delegate, so there will likely be lines and tight space at the caucus locations. We ask for everyone's patience and cooperation.

Most of all, please enjoy this opportunity to meet other Obama supporters and elect delegate candidates to the Convention in Denver.

David Plouffe
Campaign Manager

The statement was bizarre in that it seemed to lay blame for the situation at the feet of the California Democratic Party, but it was a welcome move by the Obama campaign to rectify the situation, and it was applauded by the youth vote community. Unfortunately, it didn't end there. On Saturday, Kevin Bondelli, the YDA Southwest Regional Director, received this letter from the Obama campaign:

Dear Kevin Bondelli:

Thank you very much for applying to be an Obama At Large Delegate to the Democratic National Convention. When we started this campaign, we knew that our only path to victory was to inspire grassroots activism across our state, and we know you have made that possible. We are thrilled to have so much interest among Arizonans to represent the Obama campaign in Denver.

In compliance with the rules of the DNC, the campaign has opted to limit the list of candidates that have filed to run as an at-large delegate. The campaign understands the desire of all of our supporters to participate in this process, but to fully achieve the DNC’s goals of a diverse pool of delegates, and to accommodate the time this selection process will take, we have trimmed the list. Please know that we value every single Obama supporter and all of the hard work and energy that you have shown in working to make Senator Obama the Democratic nominee.

Our campaign understands and appreciates all of your tireless enthusiasm and commitment to Senator Obama. We thank you for your time and efforts on behalf of our campaign and we look forward to working with you in the upcoming months to elect Senator Barack Obama as President of the United States.

Sincerely,
(Staffer Name)

Kevin was gunning for one of those at-large delegate positions, different from those which were cut in California, but the letter raised the prospect that the campaign's reinstatement of youth delegates in California was not being replicated in other states. Which is where we are now.

Kevin wrote an open letter to the Obama campaign and the DNC in response to these cuts. He's knee-deep in this situation, as a rejected at-large delegate from Arizona, and he's been doing a play-by-play of his own situation as it unfolds.

To my knowledge, the Obama campaign has yet to issue a statement about the process and the status of youth delegates in other states. The DNC Youth Council is working to put together a guide for potential youth delegates to help maximize their chances of navigating the selection (and right of refusal) process. That guide should be ready later today pending DNC approval, and I will post it here after it is approved for distribution.

This year's convention promises to be the most interesting since the McGovern floor fight that Hunter Thompson so ably covered in Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail, 1972. Chris Bowers at Open Left is already at work analyzing delegate counts and projecting a fight over the nomination taking place on the credentials committee. It's going to be interesting as hell, and potentially some of the most vicious politics we've seen in a long time.

And now the point of my post. Wouldn't all you political junkies like a front row seat on the action? If so, go fill out this form and YDA will help you navigate the process of becoming a delegate representing your state at the convention.