Michigan May Be Having a Real Caucus Afterall

The The Democratic Primary is Dead! Long Live the Caucus!

From the Detoit News:

Senate Republicans have decided not to take up the presidential primary bill passed Monday by the House, meaning New York Sen. Hillary Clinton likely will be the only top Democratic candidate on the [meaningless, delegateless] Jan. 15 ballot.

From the MLive blog:

The state Senate today refused to take up legislation that would have restored the names of four Democratic presidential candidates to Michigan's Jan. 15 primary ballot.

Thank you Democratic Senate Caucus and our brave 35 NAYs on HB 4507 in the State House.

The fake "primary" with no candidate visits, no campaigns (no offices, mailings, ads, nothing), no actual National Convention delegates, and no voice for Michigan is now a completely meaningless joke.

Only Hillary, Dodd, Gravel (and Kucinich by accident) remain on this meaningless beauty pagaent ballot (that won't even make it out to overseas voters in time for them to get it back).

But, there are those (led by Debbie Dingell, Governor Jennifer Granholm, and our clueless Senator Levin) who still want to schedule a DNC-breaking date for a caucus (in Michigan, a "caucus" is a Party-run primary, not an Iowa-style debate and vote system).  All candidates have signed The Pledge (based on DNC rules) and will not campaign in a state that breaks into the Front Four window.

So, in order to get a caucus that has delegates and candidates and campaigns and stuff like that, Michiganders need to contact the Michigan Democratic Party NOW.  The MDP Central Committee is meeting tonight to finalize a caucus date.

So, contact the Michigan Democratic Party and ask them to go back to a 9 February DNC-sanctioned caucus date so that Michigan Democrats can have candidates, campaigns, delegates and a voice.

Call the MDP: [phone]
Email the MDP: [e-mail]

A sample email:

I want Chairman Brewer to opt-out of the 15 January beauty contest (as a delegate-selecting election) and go to a DNC-sanctioned caucus where candidates will campaign, Michigan Democrats can vote for who they want to vote for. I want a DNC-sanctioned caucus on or after 5 February so that all the candidates will be on the ballot and so that the DNC will be in a position of power to enforce primary calendar reforms for 2012. And I want it now, since we're losing valuable time when the candidates could be coming to Michigan this month.

We're almost there folks, keep working!

The Michigan Democratic Party Central Committee

Board
Chair: Mark Brewer
First Vice Chair: Tina Abbott
Second Vice Chair: Lupe Ramos-Montigny (Kent County)
Third Vice Chair: Ismael Ahmed
Secretary: Rosa Holliday
Treasurer: Dianne Byrum

DNC Committee Members
Tina Abbott
Lu Battaglieri
Elizabeth Bunn
Carolyn Cheeks-Kilpatrick
John Cherry Jr.
Eric Coleman
Debbie Dingell
Joel Ferguson
Robert Ficano
Jennifer Granholm
Kwame Kilpatrick
Joyce Lalonde
Jeffrey Radjewski
Virgie Rollins
Richard Shoemaker
Debbie Stabenow
Michael Tardiff
Richard wiener
Lauren Wolfe

Officers at Large
Gerald Acker
Massoud Al-Awamleh
Tami Arreguln
Kay Beard
Dan Bennett
Ray Beydoun
Rick Blocker
Sharon Bommarito
Denise Cadreau
Sean Carlson
Raymond Cheeks
Nick Ciaramitaro
Ben Cloetens
... I'll fill the rest in later when I'm back home.

If you know these folks, let them know what you think.

I'm working off letter head that's been faxed, so there may be some misspellings based on unclear letters.

Contact the MDP NOW!