CALL TO ACTION!!!!!!!! Tuesday at 4pm they will take up the vote on Senate Privileges and Elections! SB507 and HB194 are naked power grabs masquerading as a military rights bill. The real motivation here is by some elected officials who fear Conventions and mass meetings and canvasses, because their direct influence and control is diminished in these processes Please call the following Senators TODAY and ask them to vote NO on SB507 – and let them know the grassroots will be watching and holding folks accountable on this (particularly Reeves, Vogel and Garrett). Senate P&E: Obenshain (Chairman), Howell, Martin, Deeds, Edwards, McEachin, Petersen, Smith, Vogel, McWaters, Carrico, Reeves, Garrett, Alexander Russ Why Legislators need to summarily reject SB507 and HB194 and similar bills: 1. SB507 and HB194 and similar bills are clear violations of our 1st Amendment Right of free speech and association. SB507 and HB194 ban conventions, canvasses, and mass meetings, and force all political parties into state-run Primaries for nominations. These bills remove from political parties any choice whatsoever -- either by appropriate Party committees, or even by incumbent elected officials supposedly representing the Party under the so-called “incumbent protection” statute. State-run primaries don’t allow political parties to decide their membership, and thus force them to allow non-members to participate in their nomination processes (ie Republicans forced to allow Democrats, Greens, Communists, Libertarians, independents, etc). Thus, SB507, HB194 and similar bills are fundamental violations of our 1st Amendment right of free association, and free speech as well, since Party members cannot nominate a candidate entirely of their choosing to represent their views in the election. This type of legislation is plainly unconstitutional according to established Supreme Court and 4th Circuit precedent. 2. Nothing in the VA Republican Party bylaws or rules prohibits or excludes or discriminates against the military – nothing. In fact, under the VA Republican Party Plan, active duty military and civilians who are deployed overseas are perfectly allowed to file as Delegates to be elected by their respective unit Mass Meetings, and attend a state Convention to vote for their choice for the Party nomination. Just like anyone else who is normally deployed outside the US, or required to work weekends, or out of state, military members are free to take leave and attend a Convention as a Delegate. It is only the DoD guidance – not the political parties -- that seems to prohibit military members from participating as Delegate at a Convention. Efforts are underway in earnest to get DoD policy guidance modified or interpreted to allow military members to serve as Convention Delegates, and to allow absentee voting by military members in the Delegate selection process. 3. Nominations are inherently rights of private political parties, not that of the state. No where in the Virginia or Federal Constitution can one justify the State has a compelling interest to tell political parties how they must nominate or who their members must be. In Virginia, political parties have enjoyed the freedom to choose their nominees however they wish since the days of the Founders. Nothing has changed since then that would justify using the power of the state to compel parties to utilize only primaries. The parties, and representative incumbent legislators, often choose primaries…that is their choice to make, not the states. 4. Legislatures and Conventions are similar representative-democratic bodies, and one no more excludes the military than the other does. Legislatures and Conventions are constructed similarly, and treat the military similarly to how they treat any other class of voter. a. Legislatures consist of elected representatives of their constituents, who represent them by voting on things like legislation or Speaker of the House or Senate Majority Leader or Committee Chairs. Conventions consist of elected Delegates representing their Party membership (over 1 million in VA), who represent them on things like Party nominations for office, resolutions, bylaws, etc … b. Absentee balloting in legislatures is prohibited as it is fundamentally understood legislators are elected with the fundamental job of representing their constituents in the legislature in their absence. So for example, Legislatures do not permit absentee voting by a military member of the Legislature (ie Reservist legislator called to active duty in Afghanistan), and legislatures do not allow constituents who aren’t legislators to vote directly on any matter (eg. Speaker or Committee Chairs or legislation). Similarly, Conventions do not provide for absentee balloting by Delegates, and don’t allow party members who aren’t Delegates to vote directly at Conventions. But you don’t see the Legislature banning the legislative process because the military can’t vote absentee in the legislature ! c. Sometimes, legislatures do allow all constituents to vote directly on a matter in the form of a referendum. Similarly, sometimes Party Committees select primaries or party canvasses or mass meetings to allow their membership to vote directly on nominations, just like the legislative referendum process. d. Perhaps the one distinct difference in how the Legislature and Conventions treat the military: full-time active duty military are prohibited from serving in the Legislature, but the Party puts NO restrictions on the military serving as Delegates in Conventions! 5. SB507 and HB194 are naked power grabs masquerading as a military rights bill. The real motivation here is by some elected officials who fear Conventions and mass meetings and canvasses, because their direct influence and control is diminished in these processes. Their maximum influence is in open primaries where their advantage in money and name ID gives them superiority. 6. Conventions represent our military better than primaries do. Military absentee balloting numbers in VA Primaries are anemically low. Conventions by comparison are filled with scores of Delegates who are retired active duty, reservists, military family members and other pro-military Delegates that represent the interests of our men and women in uniform in far greater percentages than Primaries do. SB507 and HB94 are bills which the rank-and-file military members aren’t even asking for.
Posted on: Fri, 17 Jan 2014 21:50:36 +0000