The announcement of a new date for the Democratic Party caucuses and presidential primary poll would look pretty routine to most people, but it has reportedly prompted a mini-rebellion within the ranks of the state Democratic Party, and spawned calls from some quarters for censoring of state party chair, Stephanie Ohigashi.
Here’s the announcement, which is posted on the website of the Democratic Party of Hawaii:
Hawai‘i helps choose the Democratic Presidential Nominee with a Presidential Preference Poll. The 2016 Poll will tentatively be held on Saturday, March 26, 2016. This will be held in combination with our precinct and district elections. If you want to vote for the Democratic Presidential Nominee and join our grassroots Party please come out to the March 26th elections!
Apparently the change in the date for the presidential poll, part of the Democrat’s precinct caucuses, was anything but routine, according to a very interesting analysis in a comment posted on the website, TalkLeft.com.
The dispute should be seen in the context of infighting between the party establishment and the party’s progressive wing that has emerged over issues such as the extremely limited presidential debate schedule, believed by many to reflect the Democratic National Committee’s perceived bias in favor of Hillary Clinton and against the candidacy of Bernie Sanders.
And that brings us to the scheduling of the party caucuses in Hawaii.
According to the commenter, who uses the name “Donald from Hawaii,” the move has brought protests from local party activists for several reasons. First, the caucuses and presidential preference poll were formerly held on so-called “Super Tuesday,” which allowed the party to piggyback on the national media and public attention given to primary votes and caucuses going on the same day in several important states.
Second, it will be the first time the caucuses will be held on a Saturday afternoon, a problem for anyone working on Saturday. The caucuses have previously been held on a weekday evening.
Third, the particular Saturday selected falls between Good Friday and Easter, a three-day holiday weekend, which will make drumming up attendance more difficult.
And one additional factor that Donald didn’t raise…In Hawaii, March 26 is also Kuhio Day. Although the public holiday will be the preceding Friday, March 25, Kuhio Day activities often extend over the weekend.
Not only will that likely render our caucuses completely irrelevant in the primary race for the nomination, but it also constrains the ability of our district chairs to secure public venues for the caucuses because Good Friday is a state holiday in Hawaii, so it’s a three-day weekend.
And, at least according to Donald’s account, the decision was made unilaterally by Ohigashi without consulting with members of the party’s State Central Committee.
Our state’s caucuses are also being held on a Saturday afternoon for the very first time, thanks to the deal cut between DNC Chair Wasserman Schultz and our own State Chair Stephanie Ohigashi, upon a promise that Hawaii would receive 10 extra delegate slots for our national convention.
Ohigashi presented the party with what amounts to a fait accompli at the meeting of the State Central Committee (SCC) last month, and I can tell you, party members from across the islands — myself included — are downright livid with her, particularly since we’ve further learned since that meeting that DWS then reneged on her end of the bargain, and Hawaii will be receiving only three additional delegate slots instead of the ten that were promised.
Ohigashi was told to her face by members at that SCC meeting that she had absolutely no right to enter into any such negotiations with the DNC, without first consulting with the SCC and obtaining its prior concurrence for the date shift. Her attitude was blasé at best, literally telling us, “Well, what’s done is done.”
The primary contest has already created a schism nationally between backers of Sanders and supporters of Clinton, prompting fears that the party could have difficulty uniting behind the eventual Democratic ticket.
How this plays out here remains to be seen.
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“Done as done”? Since the National Chair renege on her end of the deal, it ain’t done at all!
You would think hawaii would have more pull with the DNC since Tulsi Gabbard is a vice chair. Or maybe the renege of the deal is futher retaliation from the feud with DWS? Sounds like hardball politics
Wasseman Schulz knows Tulsi Gabbard tells it like it is. Tulsi is right about the need for more debates. DWS…makes Clinton look like a bully who bulldozes everyone. That is a dangerous trait to have in a leader of the U.S. Clinton doesn’t need to resort to the dirty ways of DWS and her cronies. I guess they believe voters are stupid to not see through all this. (post slightly edited)
wow, politicians are this *desperate* for votes. voter turnout has gotten this pathetic. this is one of many reasons Hawaii has a disgusting culture of inequity despite the weakness of the GOP in this state.
the list of long-term consequences for this trend includes corruption and power-mania. good luck with that. at what level of voter participation is a “Democracy” no longer a democracy at all?
Whether it’s real or not,… whether it’s fair or not, it seems like nearly every policy decision being made by DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz is perceived as power play maneuvers to boost the Clinton campaign. Thing is, Hillary doesn’t need any strong arm tactics to secure the Democratic nomination. DWS is becoming more of a liability than an asset for HRC, as far as maintaining party solidarity in the post-primary stage.
Thanks for this post, Ian. However, there are at least a couple of points where “Donald from Hawaii” gets it wrong.
1) The Democratic Party of Hawaii’s State Central Committee (SCC) is a relatively large body made up of party members from across the state, of which I am one. Rarely, if ever, does the State Chair make decisions “unilaterally.” In particular, Chair Ohigashi has done an exemplary job working with members of the SCC and the County Chairs in a way that I haven’t seen previously.
2) Specifically to the decision to move the date of the Party’s Precinct Meetings and Presidential Preference Poll, it was approved, overwhelmingly, by the SCC. I was only one of a handful that believed the gift of a few additional delegates wasn’t worth the trade-off of moving and, arguably, upending our process here, but given the overwhelming support, no one objected to the change.
3) The deal, as I understand it, was for an additional 15% of Hawaii delegates to the National Convention was/is contingent on Hawaii joining other states in moving their caucus/primary. Not 10 additional delegates, but 15%, which works out to about three (which he refers to). If all the State Parties involved agreed, each will then be awarded additional delegates. If not, then none are bound by the agreement. The DNC hasn’t reneged on anything.
4) “Donald from Hawaii’s” comments about conversations between the Chair and SCC members are just not accurate. The decision to change the date and time of the precinct meetings was part of a broader conversation on the Party’s Delegate Selection Plan, which needed to be approved by a vote of the SCC BEFORE it was sent to the DNC for review and final approval.
I understand there are people who don’t like that the precinct meetings will take place on the Saturday afternoon of a holiday weekend, I’m not thrilled about it, but the decision was a collective one.
fyi, web site is doing it again: home page lists 6 comments but this page only shows 4 comments………….
the comment issue seems to be fixed again
When was the last time we actually had a party chair who DID something for the state party? Organize, raise money so we dont get evicted from headquarters office etc. Possibly the last who treated it as a job rather than an awarded position was brian Schatz. We need a party chair who does the real work. Maybe someone from the next generation like aj halagao, stanley chang,etc
Ian, I call “bullpucky” on “Donald’s account. Too many of his fact are wrong. “Hawaii Democrat’s” account is much closer to the truth. The decision to move the date of the caucus was made with the full participation of the SCC. The procedures governing our caucuses are part of a “Delegate Selection Plan” the party develops based upon a template sent from the DNC, but tweaked to fit the particular circumstances of the Hawaii system.
The DNC was provided to members for feedback fro a period of several weeks. And the DSP included the proposal to move the date to Saturday. Some concerns were expressed about it being inconvenient for Jewish members who might not feel free to participate on the Sabbath. Ironically, as far as I remember, nobody brought up that it was smack between Good Friday and Easter.
The DNC has had an incentive plan in place for the last couple of primary seasons, whereby they would offer extra delegates to a state in exchange for an agreement to “bundle” our caucus with those of other “nearby” states. For Hawaii, this would mean shifting our date to coincide with the Alaska and Washington state votes. We were offered an increase of 15% more delegates. #1 delegates X 15% = 4.65 delegates. So most of us were assuming this meant 5 more delegates.
Let me share a shameful secret. A lot of SCC members get thrilled by the possibility of being elected to a national convention. I have seen some cutthroat tactics employed to grab one of those slots. So when we were told we could get 5 more slots to share amongst ourselves, a lot of people lost the ability to think clearly.
I will confess that I had misgivings about shifting to a Saturday vote. But because it was obvious many others were salivating at the dangle of the extra seats, I held back from pushing the point.
But there was no “secret deal” between Stephanie Ohigashi and Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Nonsense. And I say that as someone who has been very vocal with my anger at the way DWS has rigged the nominating process, not just the debate schedule, but also the primary schedule, to favor Hillary Clinton, her favored candidate. But in the Hawaii party, Chair Ohigashi has been very explicit that the party shall treat the campaigns equally and remain neutral. That is a pleasant change from the way the previous leadership saw the party as an extension of Governor Abercrombie’s campaign.
I am a diehard Sanders guy, so I am watching to see if there is any favoritism between the campaigns. And I have not seen it. A lot of us have been through this before and know our relationships need to continue beyond the storms of passion aroused during a presidential primary campaign.
“Donald” is free to contact me directly. I assume we know each other. While I appreciate his inclination towards skepticism, I do not think the facts support his theory. And I have a pretty close seat from which to watch the action up close.