[GPCA-SGA-Votes] GPCA Needs and Internal Primaries: SOS No Endorsement

Nicole Castor nmcastorsilva at gmail.com
Mon Apr 9 11:12:53 PDT 2018


I appreciate discourse which helps us to operate in the most fair and
democratic ways.

This email, which I’ve seen twice now, is not such discourse and my concern
is that such commentary might be construed as such by members of our state
party who read these forum posts, because of a group of individuals who
enable such discourse to run rampant in our state party forums, unchecked
for accuracy or relevance.

The purpose of voting thresholds is to ensure a small majority does not
affect important decisions. Our threshold is two-thirds (67%), not 75% as
it is inaccurately stated  above. To win a contest where a threshold is
required means that the winner is not just the one with the most votes- the
winner has to show that a minimum amount of votes were cast towards that
contest.

This is an important aspect of our internal decisions, particularly when
there is lower participation (80% in this case). Essentially, if you don’t
pass the threshold, the results are showing that not enough voters are
supporting your cause.

Lowering the threshold only serves to concentrate the power of
decision-making into fewer hands. We have, unfortunately, voted to pass a
related proposal into our policies and I do not believe further
centralization of our internal party structure is ever the right solution.

For those of you who read and/or participate in these forum discussions, or
perhaps vote as GA/SGA Delegates, I urge you to pay closer attention to the
narratives you’ve witnessed or have been convinced to subscribe to from
within our party. Compare these narratives to our Ten Key Values and ask
yourself if they are a reflection of our values before making decisions
which affect how we operate and who/what we support as CA Greens.

Nicole Castor
GP Sacramento County

On Mon, Apr 9, 2018 at 9:54 AM Erik <erikrydberg34 at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Content preview:  Erik Rydberg for Secretary of State ​ Michael Feinstein
>   for Secretary of State ​ [...]
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> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Erik <erikrydberg34 at gmail.com>
> To: GPCA Discussion List for SGA Votes <gpca-votes at sfgreens.org>
> Cc:
> Bcc:
> Date: Tue, 3 Apr 2018 16:20:48 -0700
> Subject: Re: GPCA Needs and Internal Primaries: SOS No Endorsement
> Erik Rydberg for Secretary of State
>
>> Michael Feinstein for Secretary of State
>
>>
> On Tue, Apr 3, 2018 at 4:17 PM, Erik <erikrydberg34 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> When one candidate receives the majority of the vote to endorse them...
>>
>> Erik Rydberg for Secretary of State
>>
>> and the other candidate receives the majority of the vote to oppose
>> them...
>>
>> Michael Feinstein for Secretary of State
>>
>> ​and the result is that the Green Party of California endorses no one...
>> changes must be made.
>>
>> We are going to grow as a party exponentially. There will be more and
>> more candidates running for the same seats. This is why I suggest creating
>> an internal primary system where endorsing more than one candidate is not
>> an option. Endorsing two candidates for the same office is meaningless...
>> and not endorsing anyone when you clearly have a candidate that the party
>> is in favor of is hindering. Now GPCA cannot do anything for either
>> candidate.
>>
>> 75% is too high of a threshold when you have two candidates running for
>> the same seat. Especially if both candidates are highly liked by the party
>> which is not the case in this scenario... it was a landslide for one
>> candidate over the other... but if it was a close race, it would be a much
>> tighter in percentages and neither candidate would come out with an
>> endorsement every time.
>>
>> We need to prepare ourselves for multiple good candidates in the same
>> race in the future. We need to take back our primaries that were taken from
>> us by Top Two. We need this internal primary system to be conducted early,
>> well before the filing date closes. We need to lower our endorsement
>> threshold so that we never have a "No Endorsement" outcome and we must
>> never endorse more than one candidate.
>>
>> If we make these kind of changes we will empower our state party to be
>> ahead of the game in terms of campaigning for endorsed candidates, in terms
>> of fundraising for them and in terms of submitting our endorsements to the
>> California Voter Information Guide on time. We cannot afford to be behind
>> the curve when we're running against capitalist funded parties.
>>
>> I hope everyone has paid close attention to who it is among us that
>> fought these endorsements every step of the way. We have to make bold
>> changes if we want bold results.
>>
>> I am very proud that GPCA is going to send a loud signal to Peace and
>> Freedom Party and all socialist and Corporate Free Independent Candidates
>> that we will be inclusive and endorse them. It's the least we can do for
>> Peace and Freedom seeing as they endorsed 5 Greens in comparison the 4
>> Peace and Freedom candidates we endorsed.
>>
>> This is a step in the right direction. We have a lot more work left to
>> do. I couldn't be happier to be doing this work alongside every member of
>> Green Party CA who wants to grow and build the party. Thank you to every
>> SGA Delegates that voted for me and to those that didn't you will see in
>> time that I am here to help grow the party and take our power back rich
>> capitalists and corporations.
>>
>> Solidarity
>>
>> "Dream big, but it's always one step at a time."  - C.T. Lawrence
>> Butler(Food Not Bombs/Green Committees of Correspondence)
>>>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> *Erik Rydberg *
>>
>> *Green Party of California(GPCA) Spokesperson*
>>
>>
>> *erikrydberg34 at gmail.com <erikrydberg34 at gmail.com>530-781-2903*
>>
>>                 cagreens.org
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> --
>
> *Erik Rydberg *
>
> *Green Party of California(GPCA) Spokesperson*
>
>
> *erikrydberg34 at gmail.com <erikrydberg34 at gmail.com>530-781-2903*
>
>                 cagreens.org
>
>
> --
> gpca-votes mailing list
> gpca-votes at sfgreens.org
> https://list.sfgreens.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/gpca-votes
>
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