46th District Policies

Operating Rules and Policies (PDF)

Policy for posting candidate material on the website

Background:

Questions have been raised about the role of the 46th District Democrats in promoting or providing information about a candidate on www.46dems.com when a candidate has not been endorsed or is not eligible for endorsement by the 46th District Democrats. In some cases, candidates do not even attempt to solicit our endorsement because they know in advance that they are not a Democrat and would not be eligible. It is assumed that candidates who are serious about earning our endorsement will proactively contact our organization and meet the endorsement requirements.

The 46th District Democrats has a long standing policy of distributing campaign literature only from those candidates who have been endorsed by the organization. Campaign literature, much like a website, is a method by which a candidate shares his or her message with the voters. The Sample Ballot that is published by the 46th District Democrats and distributed by PCOs clearly identifies who is endorsed for a particular office. While all candidates are listed, the intent of the Sample Ballot is clearly to promote our endorsed candidate. Promoting and distributing information about candidates in this way is one of the benefits of being endorsed by the organization.

These longstanding policies are rooted in two areas of our Bylaws:

ARTICLE II – POLICY.

Section 2: The purpose of the organization shall be to promote citizen participation in the Democratic Party, advance the 46th District Democrats’ platform, and support and work for the election of Democratic candidates and candidates or nonpartisan office who demonstrably espouse the principles contained in that platform.

ARTICLE XVI – SUPPORT OF CANDIDATES AND BALLOT ISSUES

Section 6: No candidate shall be considered for endorsement without having (a) declared his/her past and present party affiliation within the past five years (with the exception of candidates for judicial office), and (b) completed and returned to the District Chair, prior to the endorsement meeting, any Candidate Questionnaire required by the District. Responses to candidate questionnaires shall be posted for public inspection at endorsement meetings.

Section 7: For partisan offices, the 46th District Democrats shall endorse only those candidates having declared affiliation only with the Democratic Party for a period of at least one year prior to the endorsement meeting. For nonpartisan offices other than judicial office, the 46th District Democrats shall endorse only those candidates having (a) declared affiliation only with the Democratic Party, or (b) publicly indicated nonaffiliation with any political party for a period of at least one year prior to the endorsement meeting.

Purpose of the website:

The website of the 46th District Democrats is www.46dems.com. The purpose of the website is to:

1. Promote the Democratic Party, including our values, meetings and events;
2. Serve as a resource for the Democratic Party, including bylaws, resolutions, rules, etc.;
3. Advocate for candidates, ballot measures and issues that are supported by our organization;

Policy for listing candidates, campaigns on www.46dems.com:

For purposes of posting information about campaigns, www.46dems.com shall be considered an advocacy tool. As a result, and in alignment with our other practices, the website will promote those candidates and ballot measures that are supported by the organization. Further, the website is not intended to be an apolitical unbiased campaign information portal. This policy recognizes that the 46th District Democrats is an advocacy organization and that there are many other community organizations that fill the role of providing unbiased apolitical information about candidates. As such, information about candidates and races shall be posted in much the same way as the 46th District Democrats utilizes Sample Ballots and advocates for campaigns via the distribution of campaign literature. The guidelines for posting information on www.46dems.com are as follows:

1. www.46dems.com shall list all candidates who have filed for public office in races for which the 46th District Democrats will consider an endorsement. Candidates will be listed and grouped by the position for which they have filed.
2. www.46dems.com shall initially post the questionnaire of all candidates who submit a questionnaire and are eligible for endorsement by the district. Further, the website shall initially post an active link to a candidate’s website if available. However, if a candidate is found to be ineligible for endorsement, then that candidate’s questionnaire and active link to their website shall be removed from our website. The candidate’s name shall remain posted on the list as a candidate for that race.
3. www.46dems.com shall clearly note which candidates are endorsed by the 46th District Democrats.
4. With respect to campaigns for the President of the United States, www.46dems.com shall list all announced candidates and post active links (if available) to candidates’ websites.