Rules for the 2023 November California Democratic Party Endorsing Convention
1. The Officers of the Convention shall be the Officers of the Democratic State Central Committee.
2. The Chair of This Committee shall be the Chair of the Convention and the Secretary of This Committee shall be Secretary of the Convention. In the absence of the Chair of This Committee, the Vice-Chair of This Committee of the self-identified gender other than that of the Chair, shall serve as the Presiding Officer and Chair of the Convention.
3. Delegates to the Convention shall be those delegates (Democratic State Central Committee Members) who were duly credentialed to the 2023 May California Democratic Party Convention subject to the provisions for replacement and filling of vacancies set forth in the By-Laws, and received by the State Party Sacramento office by 12:00 PM, September 15, 2023.
4. Seating of the delegates shall be by the Assembly District within the Region.
5. No one will be admitted to the Convention floor who is not a delegate, or proxy holder, except by special authorization of the State Chair.
6. Credentialing will close at posted times, unless special circumstances exist. At that time, consideration will be given by the Credentials Committee, which can stay open or reopen credentialing. In order to vote, and have one’s vote counted, at this Convention, a member must be qualified to vote for that specific office per This Committee’s Bylaws and have timely:
a) paid their annual DSCC dues and registration fee (or had them waived, by request from the DSCC Member) to This Committee,
b) registered for the meeting, if registration was required,
c) obtained their credential prior to the close of credentialing,
d) completed and returned to the proper authority any ballot that may be issued, and
e) agreed to the CDP Code of Conduct, prior to the close of credentialing.
7. Proxies will be subject to the provision set forth in the By-Laws.
8. The Credentials Committee shall issue its final report and provide the official voting list of delegates to the CDP Staff subsequent to the close of credentialing.
9. Candidates seeking statewide endorsement must submit a complete application by October 13, 2023 at Noon. The Chair, in consultation with the Statewide Officers of this Committee, will determine which Democratic candidates for Statewide Offices are viable and eligible to seek the endorsement.
10. Requests to hang signs, banners, and placards must be submitted before the Convention to the Convention Coordinator. A fee may be charged per sign, banner, and/or placard at the determination of the Chair of This Committee.
11. The purpose of this Convention is primarily the adoption of a Party Platform, endorsement of district-level and statewide partisan offices, and possible statewide ballot propositions on the 2024 ballot as deemed appropriate. All other Party or State matters, reports, etc. will or will not be considered at Convention as determined by the State Chair. Matters not heard at the Convention will be received by staff for the Secretary and held over to the next meeting of the Executive Board. All resolutions submitted will be held over to the next Executive Board meeting.
12. The Chair, in consultation with the Rules Committee Co-Chairs, may promulgate administrative procedures relating to voter assistance for the legislative endorsement balloting as appropriate.
13. In all cases at this Convention, proxies shall vote in districts where the delegate is registered to vote.
14. The By-Laws and Rules of the California Democratic Party shall govern over these Rules for the 2023 California Democratic Party Convention in the event of a conflict.
15. In general, motions subject to floor debate, whether via committee reports or from the floor, shall be subject to the following limits on debate. There shall be three (3) speakers on each side of a motion, including the maker of the motion, and each speaker shall be limited to one (1) minute each, plus one (1) additional minute for those speakers with speech impairments, using translation services or ASL. These rules may be suspended by a motion to amend these limits on debate, but such a motion shall not be debatable and may only apply to the specific motion before the body.
16. Any matter not provided for in these rules or the California Democratic Party By-Laws and Rules shall be governed by Robert’s Rules of Order.
PROCEDURES FOR THE AMENDMENT AND ADOPTION OF THE 2024 CALIFORNIA DEMOCRATIC PARTY PLATFORM
Rule #16. The Platform Committee’s Draft Report shall be sent to all Convention delegates no later than September 20, 2023.
A. AMENDMENT PROCESSES: The Platform is a statement of principles and any amendments must be germane to the Platform. If any delegate wishes to amend the Draft Platform, then the delegate shall follow the process outlined below:
1. Each delegate must submit, in writing, to be received by the CDP Sacramento Office no later than October 11, 2023, at 5 PM, the delegate’s written amendments to the Platform Committee’s Draft Report. Said written amendments must be signed by five (5) different Members of the Democratic State Central Committee, one (1) each from five (5) different Assembly Districts or five (5) registered Democrats (one of whom must be a Member of the Democratic State Central Committee), one (1) each from five (5) different Assembly Districts and must include their addresses, phone numbers, and the Assembly District in which they reside; one, and only one, of which shall be identified as the sponsor of the amendment. Any amendment must additionally contain the following:1a) whether the delegate submitted the proposed amendment or an amendment with substantially similar language during the open written testimony period ending on August 19, 2023, at 5 PM; 1b) if not, why not; and, 2) why the current Platform draft language does not address the proposed amendment.
(a) The Platform Committee shall meet in person or virtually by Saturday, November 4, 2023, to consider all written amendments submitted with five (5) valid signatures. The Platform Committee, at its pleasure, may take any additional testimony it desires and may, by majority vote, adopt an amendment or any part thereof. Should any amendment or any part thereof be adopted, then said amendment shall become part of the Platform Committee’s Draft Report.
(b) If said amendment, or part thereof, is not adopted, then said amendment may be brought to the floor of the Convention only if all the submission and certification provisions of Rule 16, Section A.2. of these Rules are met.
(c) All amendments, or any parts thereof, which are adopted by the Platform Committee shall be made available to all delegates at the Convention, promptly after the Saturday Platform meeting.
2. An amendment which had been timely submitted by October 11, 2023, at 5 PM, but failing to be adopted in its original form, may be submitted by its sponsor in writing, in whole or part thereof, to the Secretary of the Convention no later than Saturday, November 18, 2023, at 5 PM on a form provided by California Democratic Party Platform staff. Said amendment must be signed by no fewer than three hundred (300) credentialed delegates to the Convention (or their qualified credentialed proxies) whose signatures shall be collected after the Saturday Platform meeting of the Convention and must contain the name, phone numbers, Assembly District, and signature of the original sponsor of the amendment. Any amendment must additionally contain the following: 1a) whether the delegate submitted the proposed amendment or an amendment with substantially similar language during the open written testimony period ending on August 19, 2023, at 5 PM; 1b) if not, why not; and, 2) why the current Platform draft language does not address the proposed amendment.
(a) The Secretary of the Convention shall certify each amendment by determining that no fewer than three hundred (300) delegate signatures are valid.
(b) No later than 6:30 PM on Saturday, November 18, 2023, the Platform Committee shall meet to review each amendment certified by the Secretary of the Convention. All sponsors of each amendment must attend this meeting; failure to do so shall void the submission of the amendment unless excused by majority vote of the Platform Committee. The Platform Committee may, at its pleasure, take any additional testimony it desires and may, by majority vote, adopt said amendment, or any part thereof. Should any amendment, or any part thereof, be adopted, then said amendment shall become part of the Platform Committee’s Draft Report.
(c) If said amendment is not adopted in its entirety, then the amendment or any part not adopted, shall be introduced to the full Convention for debate and vote. However, the sponsor of the amendment may, at any time, withdraw the amendment from consideration by the Platform Committee or the Convention delegates.
(d) All amendments, or any part thereof, which are adopted by the Platform Committee shall be made available to each delegate at the time that they enter the Convention Hall for Sunday morning session.
B. ADOPTION PROCESS
1. On Sunday, November 19, 2023 the Platform Committee shall present its Draft Report to the Convention for its approval. The Convention shall follow the below-listed procedures when considering the Draft Report and amendments thereto:
(a) The Draft Platform Report shall be presented by the Lead Co-Chairs of the Platform Committee or their designees.
(b) As each report is completed, the Lead Co-Chairs of the Platform Committee or their designees shall call on each sponsor of an amendment to present their amendment and said presentation shall be no longer than three (3) minutes.
(c) After each amendment has been presented by its sponsor, then the opponents of the amendments shall have three (3) minutes to present their position. Debate will be automatically closed unless a motion is made to extend debate and adopted by a majority vote. Said extension shall not exceed three (3) minutes equally divided between opponents and proponents to the amendments.
(d) Following the debate on the amendment, delegates shall vote on the amendment.
2. Following the presentation of each report and after the amendments have been voted on, then the delegates shall, by majority vote, adopt or reject each report. The final report of the Convention shall be known as the California Democratic Party Platform.
3. The co-chairs of the Platform Committee are authorized to make any punctuation, grammatical, or spelling changes as needed in the Final Report.