What if the Nye County Democratic Party’s Central Committee threw an election and nobody showed up to vote?
To understand the question and the reason for it you may need some history, unless you are a Democrat and live in Pahrump, Nye County Nevada.
For those of you who live in the civilized United States, that is in another state in the Union, you should know that Nye County is the third largest county in the United States. For those of you who read this blog in the U.K, or China, or South America or Africa unfamiliar with the hassles and ups and downs of the practice of democracy you may be surprised of the gap that exists between the theory and the day to day realities of it.
The population of Nye county in 2007 was estimated to be 46,308. It covers 18,159 total square miles. The county seat is Tonopah. The 2000 census placed the population of Tonopah at 2,627. The largest community in the county is Pahrump. Nye County has 9,433 registered Democrats. Of that number of registered Democrats the overwhelming majority live in Pahrump. Nye County, is a rural county, 10,734 registered Republicans live in it, outnumbering Democrats. [Nevada Secretary of State]
Nye county is the home of Yucca Mountain, the proposed national nuclear waste dump, and the Nevada Nuclear Test Site. Tonopah is 160 miles north of Pahrump. Art Bell is a resident of Pahrump. The county borders Death Valley.
The Nye County Democratic Central committee consists of five members; a Chair, 1st Vice-Chair, 2nd Vice-Chair, Secretary and Treasurer. They are elected every two years by grass roots members of the Democratic Party.
The Central Committee conducts monthly meetings in Pahrump. All of the members of the Central Committee live in Pahrump. It is rare that anyone attends any of those Central Committee monthly meetings from Tonopah because of the 160 mile one-way distance. Attendance by a Tonopah Democrat would require driving 320 miles on a round trip. That is why it is rare.
This year, 2009, is the year for another election of the Central Committee members. But this year is different. In past years Democrats of Nye County basically remained indifferent and uninvolved in politics. Attendance at Central Committee meetings was sparse, sometimes 15-20 or on a good night up to 30-35. Meetings tended to be too long, were generally consumed with non-directed political talk of no consequence, no direction, no goal. Roberts Rules of Order was generally ignored.
But the political character of Pahrump began an evolutionary change a few years ago. Residents from other states, chiefly California, moved into Pahrump. On the whole more progressive in their political views. Then, two years ago, the political makeup of Democrats in Nye County underwent a dramatic transformation. Democrats emerged from invisibility manifesting themselves as interested, active and engaged in the political activity of the county. That emergence was a product of the Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton presidential campaigns. Historic firsts were experienced by campaign visits by Senator Christopher Dodd, Senator Hillary Clinton, Governor Bill Richardson, and Senator Barack Obama.
The Clinton and Obama campaigns opened offices in Pahrump. Hundreds responded as volunteers in each campaign. They zipped about Pahrump daily, door-to-door canvassing, voter registration drives, phone banks ad nausem. Grass roots Democrats were energized motivated by the prospect of change to the political landscape. Historic voting caucuses followed to select a Presidential nominee for President of the United States. Democrats were crammed into small rooms like sardines anxious to cast their vote for the nominee of their choice. It was clear, even to the casual political observer that something was in the air. The masses had been stirred and were politically involved. The Central Committee maintained its required neutrality through the Primary season.
A lull followed the Primary. Then the nomination of Barack Obama as the Democratic Party’s Presidential nominee re-energized Nye County Democrats. It was back to the daily, door-to-door canvassing, voter registration drive, phone banks and getting out the vote.
The Central Committee remained as before—without participation in the efforts of the grass roots Democrats, except lending a tent and the use of their parking lot for use in the Obama campaign efforts. The intense person to person toils of the grass roots Democrats remained their exclusive domain.
President Barack Obama was elected. Nye County Democrats still with the words “Yes We Can” fresh in their minds turned their attention to local politics. Many decided they wished to run for a seat on the Central Committee. They attended the Central Committee’s January 26, 2009 meeting prepared to present a Motion to the Committee to hold the 2009 election for Central Committee seats in Pahrump on March 30.
Summarily ignoring the requirements of Roberts Rules of Order the Chairman arbitrarily rejected the motion declaring it had been decided (whether by the Central Committee, or the Chairman personally is not known) the election would be held in Tonopah on April 4, 2009 at 10:00; furthermore that no one would be permitted to vote in that election unless they had attended at least four Central Committee meetings during the preceding year. A copy of 2001 by-laws mysteriously materialized as governing that election. Up until that point it had been believed that those by-laws had been lost.
Those grass roots Democrats being blocked to run for a Central Committee seat or even vote in the election are enraged. They justifiably view their work for the Democratic Party in the daily, door-to-door canvassing, voter registration drive, phone banks and getting out the vote, entitles them to run for a Central Committee office seat and vote in the election. And they are right. Their work in the campaigns has far more value than setting in a seat at a Central Committee meeting each month.
The Central Committee remains intransigent. So do the grass roots Democrats snubbed by the Central Committee. They feel insulted. They’re fighting back.
Which brings me back to the question posed at the beginning of this blog post. Valid elections require quorums of voters.
What if nobody participates or even appears at the April 4 election date? What if it was boycotted and there was no valid election? What then Central Committee?
A lesson in democracy.
Related posts:
- Where is the list of the 128 “anointed” voters who the Nye County Democratic Central Committee has deemed eligible voters for members of the Central Committee?
- Wake the Nye County Democratic Central Committee Up!
- Nye County Democratic Central Committee
- New Nye County Democratic Central Committee Members Elected
- The Nye County Democratic Central Committee ballot
Regrettable; but not surprising….
So…welcome to the wonderful meatgrinder underworld of the NevaDUH State Democratic Party and the tentacles of Boss Reid.
If you’ve missed the subtle nuances going on right now, there is a helluva struggle already going on between President Obama and Reid (“I don’t work for Obama”). In a nutshell, Reid resents Obama’s rise to the head of the party which put him in a rather irrelevant role. Given that Nye County is so overwhelmingly in support of Obama, by 2010 that will put them against Reid as he escalates his war with the President. So Reid is taking the county party back now to ensure it remains loyal to him and his re-election.
The NevaDUH Dumocratic party is nothing but a cabal – no two ways around it. They will use people and throw them away with less regard than given to a dirty tissue. And this has been going on for years. And will obviously continue for years.
There’s not anything at all your group can do about this coup as it probably is a state-down action. Except feel that now you are liberated from pulling the straight “D” ticket and start voting for people the old way – on their merits and performance.
My suggestion is to do what you all did this year. Pick out a candidate and support them with all you have; but stay the hell away from the Dummocratic Party at all costs. It’s just not worth another kick in the gut to associate with that sort of people. Your work will be felt – and appreciated – much more by a candidate than the cabal.
Yes indeed Tex. These are sad days in Nye County and Pahrump. One would think the Central Committee has shifted from a Democratic philosophy to that of the Republican Party.
Much wailing and gnashing of teeth among hundreds of Nye Democrats who worked their asses off during the past election and now being told they can’t vote or even run for a seat on the Nye County Democratic Central Committee unless they had attended 4 Central Committee Meetings during the year preceding the election.
One of the significant problems is that the Central Committee didn’t hold a meeting in May, November or December of 2008 so nobody could chalk up an attendance gold star during those three months.
Another minor problem exists as well, the central committee can’t find all the attendance records.
Administrative functions, such as record keeping, isn’t viewed very highly here in the Kingdom of Nye.
But, I think you are mistaken about Senator Reid’s responsibility in any of this. I’m afraid this is wholly a homegrown mess.
I’ll try to keep you posted if Nye County withdraws from the Democratic Party.