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I assume that as the Ohio Democratic Party's Executive Committee gathers this evening to consider the ODP's screening committee's recommendations, they'll all have reminded themselves of the provisions in the party's principles, outlined here for them in an easily printable page, and the bylaws, available for them here, also in an easily printed format.

I've read both documents and, as I've mentioned before, I'm on the constitutional review committee of a large synagogue. I can tell you, it is a very arduous and kind of thankless job, to take a document created to provide an infrastructure and general rules and update it so that other people understand it and so that it makes sense in the current day.

I did pretty well with a pretty tough teacher in Con Law in law school, but I'm no expert and I'm sure, given my relative inexperience with the ODP, I may be getting some thing either not quite right or outright wrong, especially in practice. (And that goes to needing a person on the street version of all this, since the Party principles clearly attempt to address all Ohio Dems, not just those who can make sense out of the ODP's bylaws.)

With that caveat and invitation to be corrected, I provide my reading of the document, as it pertains to the endorsement process:

1. The constitution appears to lack any language that would address the existence, rules or conduct or an endorsement screening committee. Also, although Chapter 9 outlines the Pre-Primary Endorsement procedure, there's no section on endorsements in general, as in, before the general election.

Now, I didn't see a catch-all section that says the Chair of the ODP can make whatever committees necessary, or he can be empowered to make such committees as necessary, or that the Exec. Comm. or the Central Comm. can make committees as desired (in fact, the bylaws only specify the existence of a Central Committee, from which comes the Executive Committee and then the Exec. Comm. creates a Finance, and Auditing and a Budgeting Committee).

So, I'm in need of back story on how the screening committee was created. I understand that Chairman Redfern spoke in early January about creating one, but how do the party bylaws provide for him to do so? Where might an interested Democratic party member find the rules created to govern what that committee does and so on?

2. Pre-Primary Endorsements are addressed in Chapter 9. That chapter looks, in appearance and structure, very different from the others. There are no sections and it's not written in the same style of language. My recollection is that such endorsements didn't exist before 1994, so I'm guessing that this section was offered and then approved as an addition.

Now, in regard to when the Executive Committee goes to vote on endorsements, I read this to say that executive committee members can vote and ultimately endorse as many candidates as they want - it's not one candidate over another.

"The Executive Committee may endorse one or more of said candidates upon the affirmative vote of sixty (60%) percent of the members of the committee present and voting on such question [about endorsement]."

Note that "present and voting" which means that you can be present but not vote, so the sixty percent is sixty percent of whomever is present AND votes - 60% of the total number of people who actually vote.

And then, there is this:

"Any member of the Executive Committee may vote in the affirmative for as many candidates for the nomination as desired."

So, if committee members want, they can endorse both Dann AND Chandra - that's that dual endorsement thing. Why there would be a vote at the screening committee level that resulted in not issuing a dual endorsement makes no sense to me, since the bylaws clearly provide for dual or triple or quadruple etc. endorsements. (Again, this goes to, where are the bylaws that govern the screening committee?) Does the screening committee's vote to not dually endorse override the Executive Committee's final votes? I think that the answer is no because the screening committee is only offering recommendations. At least, I hope the answer is no.

Finally, the section goes on to say, in support of this idea that you can vote for as many as you want,

"Any candidate receiving such sixty (60%) percent of the vote shall be considered to be endorsed and a public announcement of said endorsement shall be issued forthwith."

So, if Marc Dann and Subodh Chandra (Attorney General candidates) get that, or Ben Espy and Peter Sikora (Supreme Court), or Richard Cordray and Hugh Quill (Treasurer), the ODP, through these rules for the Executive Committee's endorsement procedure, allows for the Ohio Democratic party members to be told, we have great choices, now go vote for one of them.

3. Just how many people does it take to give someone an endorsement? Well, again, I'm the farthest thing from an expert that I know, but my understanding is that there are 137 members of the Executive Committee. A quorum is needed to conduct any business. The bylaws define a quorum as 40%, which would be 54 bodies. So, for the endorsement meeting to move forward, at least 54 folks need to be there.

Then, a candidate needs 60% of that 54 to get an endorsement. That would be 32.4 votes, if the minimum quorum is there, and, if there are more than the minimum quorum, then obviously that 60% number goes up.

4. So, given how long it took me to figure this out, I was wondering, do committee members understand all this? Will they get some language when they enter the meeting this evening to help them know? Have they already gotten booklets or handbooks or something that outline all this? I wish I knew, but mostly, I hope they're well-informed about the process.

I'm even thinking that maybe they are all in the know, and I'm not. I'm just trying to teach myself because, frankly, I don't join anything without knowing something about it and I think for too long I've let myself slide as a Democrat. Or the party has let me slide by not engaging me (I recently commented about how I've never met anyone who is a precinct anything or who has tried to get me to be involved and so on).

However, I pray to God that if there are folks in that room who don't know their options when they walk in, that they find someone who can explain to them exactly what the bylaws provide.

Because, since the Executive Committee members are ultimately representing me, a member of the Ohio Democratic party, I need them to know what their rights are, and to not rubber stamp what 25 selected members of the Executive Committee decided - including the decision to not provide dual endorsements - which seems to go blatantly against the word and the spirit of Chapter 9, which governs pre-primary endorsements (even though it doesn't mention a screening committee).

Okay those in the know - start red-lining and tell me how it really works.

UPDATE: A response to this post, from an email I received, written by someone who works on an Ohio campaign but wishes to remain anonymous:

First, the screening committee will offer their suggestions (that's really all it is) of who should be endorsed. Sometimes, the vote is a rubber stamp. Don't think that will happen in the vote tonight, especially Chandra/Dann.

BTW - This committee was voluntary. They mailed to the executive committee a letter that said the party had been asked to endorse by several candidates, and they needed a committee to interview everyone. ODP took volunteers for this, as there is not a standing committee. As far as rules, the only ones I was aware of were that candidates got 20 minutes alone with the committee, then a simple majority was needed to endorse. You might be right on the no endorsements before 1994, though I'm not 100%.

Tonight's meeting does offer those present any number of options to endorse. They can endorse one candidate, both, or neither. Again, the screening committee was just offering their suggestions. Yes, you can be present and not vote. In fact, two statewide candidates are on the executive committee (Cordray and Sykes). Neither were allowed on the screening committee. They also will most likely be prohibited from voting in their own races.

The non-duel endorsements may just come down to who was on the screening committee and past relationships, or maybe someone said something in the interview that didn't sit well with some of the members. My understanding is that if there is a duel endorsement, then I would imagine that both candidates will be on the sample ballots, phone calls, etc.

I'll trust you on the numbers as to how many votes are needed. Not a math wiz.

Most of the committee members have been around for a while, so they'll know most of the rules. However, if it's like the County Chairs Association has been in the past, someone will make a point to ask at the beginning if there are questions. Some people will most likely bring up the options you mentioned with each contested race.

Just as background about the duel endorsements, the votes were to endorse, not votes to issue duel endorsements. The vote to endorse Chandra failed 11-12. I don't know the vote numbers to endorse Dann, though I don't think they were over 20. The vote to endorse Cordray was 21-3. The vote to endorse Quill failed 4-20.

You pretty well nailed everything.