Earlier this year, YDWA members attending the state Democratic Convention attempted to pass an amendment to the state party charter which would have provided YDWA with two full-voting members of the Washington State Democrats Central Committee (WSDCC). The WSDCC is the governing body for the state party. It is governed by State Party Chairman Dwight Pelz and the other elected state party officers. Membership in the WSDCC consists of a female representative and male representative of each legislative district and county organization in Washington State.

YDWA’s amendment would have ensured young people in Washington state two votes on this committee – something we believe is essential to ensure the voice of young voters is heard in the state party.

Our effort was supported by more than 80 percent of the delegates who attended convention, however, a technical error in the calculation of the number of delegates present at the convention lead to the defeat of the amendment. Despite this heartbreaking loss, we’re not giving up.

YDWA will again propose our charter amendment on Saturday, September 30th at the WSDCC meeting in Tacoma. Once again, we must meet a threshold of 2/3rds of entire voting body of the WSDCC. This means that every officer of the WSDCC who is not represented at the meeting will count as an automatic ‘No’ vote on our amendment. In order to ensure our amendment passes, we need to ensure that every voting member of the WSDCC is represented.

How can you help? We need to find Young Democrats from every county and legislative district in Washington who would be willing to attend the state party meeting and serve as a proxy for committeemembers who are unable to attend the meeting. A proxy must live in the same county or legislative district as the person whose proxy vote they will hold.

If you would be willing to attend the meeting on September 30th, please contact Sean Barrat (seanjeremy@yahoo.com) and Hillary Hunt (h.hunt@comcast.net) – who are working with YDWA Communications Director Jon Brumbach to coordinate this effort. They will then contact you if they have located a committemember who needs a proxy. Housing for YDs attending the meeting who live outside the south Puget Sound region may be available – please let us know in your email if you would need such assistance.

If you can’t attend the event but still want to help – please contact your local state party officers and encourage them to support this effort!

Other Links We Like