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By Jenise Porter, Precint 89.
I think you should consider becoming a State Party Committeeperson, and here is why: you have already stepped up as an activist by becoming an elected Precinct Committeeperson, which is a requirement for being a member of the State Party.
The state party meets three times a year, and in normal times that is done in-person at meetings around the state. One of those meetings is held in the Phoenix area, one in the Tucson area, and the third is elsewhere in the state. There are some costs involved for state committee members for travel, unless, of course, we are meeting electronically.
The State Party elects leaders, including our representatives to the Democratic National Committee. They are our representatives, although, in my experience, they do not report back to us on what the national party is up to.
A lack of transparency
I have no idea how my representatives have voted because the votes are secret. DNC representatives pay their way to national meetings, which would seem to preclude anyone who is not willing to invest their own time and money to be a DNC representative.
The lack of transparency continues: I am unable, with a 45-minute internet search, to find out how often the national party meets, or to see past agendas or a list of caucuses in the state party. I’m unable to find a listing of DNC representatives, or other state officers, on the AZDP website (https://azdem.org/). The Wikipedia entry is better but outdated. I wonder who is responsible for updating that site?
We can change this if we work inside the Party, demanding that our voices be heard. (In the interest of full disclosure, I am a leader in the Tucson chapter of Progressive Democrats of America and our mission has always been to work both inside and outside the party)
I think the media story of “moderate vs. progressive” wings of the Democratic Party is ginned up to create controversy. It makes for good copy, I suppose. Yet, LD9 has proven that it is a false dichotomy. All of us who canvassed, phone banked, wrote postcards, donated money and worked our hearts out, and voted a powerhouse after the 2016 elections, vowing that we would not allow democracy to be hijacked.
We work together, we are a team, and we will hold our elected representatives, at every level, accountable. Let’s work together to ensure that all of our brothers and sisters in this country have health care, a living wage, a place to live, and enough to eat.
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