Thursday, September 20, 2012

MoCo Democrats Make Referenda Endorsements // See MCDCC Positions on Marriage, Dream Act, Gambling, Redistricting, Etc.

UPDATE: Maryland Juice has received a copy of a chart showing how the final recommendations of the MCDCC differ from the votes of the precinct officials and from the votes of the Democrats' "Ballot Question Advisory Committee." The MCDCC ignored the committee recommendations on three issues: 1) gambling, 2) redistricting, and 3) police bargaining rights. See below:
MCDCC Votes vs. Ballot Question Advisory Committee Recommendations


BACKGROUND: The Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee (MCDCC) made recommendations for its sample ballot mailing last night. Numerous attendees report that the convening of precinct officials was sometimes quite contentious. We previously noted that based on early recommendations on the ballot questions, the MCDCC might adopt positions against gambling and the redistricting plan and also support a measure reducing police bargaining rights. You can see the results of the votes below. These recommendations will now be featured on the MCDCC's sample ballot mailing to MoCo Democrats.

MCDCC Precinct Officials Vote on Referenda (Source: Isaac Salazar on FourSquare)

Below Maryland Juice presents the final recommendations of Montgomery County Democrats on the November referenda -- courtesy of Almina Khorakiwala, the MCDCC's communications director. We also include a few comments from readers and details from Twitter:

MCDCC Ballot Questions Results 9-19-12


MCDCC OVERTURNS RECOMMENDATION OF PRECINCT OFFICIALS ON GAMBLING: Notably, the sample ballot endorsements above come from the members of the Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee. But before these recommendations were voted on, the larger group of MoCo Democratic precinct officials voted on the questions. The MCDCC members were bound to either accept the precinct officials' recommendations or to take no position at all. Paul Bessel of the Leisure World Democrats explains that the MCDCC neutralized the recommendations of the precinct officials on one vote:
PAUL BESSEL: At last night's meeting several of the Ballot Committee's recommendations were not accepted. As you probably know, the MoCo Dem party Precinct Organization (about 250 people) first considered and voted on the recommendations of the BQAC (Ballot Questions Advisory Committee), and then the MCDCC (MoCo Dem Central Committee) voted on whether to accept the decisions of the Precinct Organization on each ballot question or to be neutral on that ballot question. The Precinct Organization differed from the Ballot Committee on 3 ballot questions, and the Central Committee differed from the Precinct Organization on 1 of its decisions.
Delegate Aruna Miller was live-tweeting the results of the various votes. You can see by her comments, that the precinct officials narrowly voted to support a "VOTE AGAINST" Question 7 (gambling), but that the MCDCC later neutralized that recommendation and turned it into "no position." Also, despite heavy lobbying on both sides of Question B, the Fraternal Order of Police's effort to maintain "effects" bargaining rights failed in a lopsided 105 to 18 vote:




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