NEWS RELEASE
OPS-Alaska
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e-mail: md-r@ops-alaska.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
28 January 2006
Contact: Dr. Marilyn Dudley-Flores, OPS-Alaska, CEO
MANHATTAN BEACH, CA In a unanimous vote in its January 28, 2006 Executive Board meeting in Manhattan Beach, CA, the California Democratic Party recommended that the Democratic Party seriously consider the American Plan for implementation in 2012.
The American Plan is designed to solve the problem of "front-loading." Over the past two decades, more and more states have scheduled their primaries increasingly earlier in attempts to capture more political power. This has resulted in shorter, less-competitive nomination races that are more driven by money than by message. In 2004, only 20% of convention delegates had been chosen when Howard Dean suspended his campaign. "That means 80% of Democrats were disenfranchised," said Thomas Gangale, author of the American Plan and executive director of the policy think tank OPS-Alaska, based in Petaluma, California.
"This plan maximizes the involvement of every state and forces candidates to run campaigns responsive to America's great diversity of ideas and needs," said Senator Art Torres (Ret.), Chairman of the California Democratic Party. "It also expands the concept of retail politicking in small venues in the early going, thereby reducing the power of money. Under this plan, grassroots campaigns can go door-to-door in states of diverse populations, score early victories, and build momentum going into later, larger states. At the same time, the plan balances the interests of the large states by giving them the opportunity to be early enough in the calendar to have a meaningful voice in determining the presidential nominee."
Also known by the political scientific name "Graduated Random Presidential Primary System," the American Plan has received the support of Rep. Lynn Woosley (D, CA-06), the Center for Voting and Democracy (http://www.fairvote.org) in Takoma Park, MD, the California Young Democrats, and the Young Democrats of America.
"It is essential that the two major parties work together to reform their very flawed nomination processes. Both parties have the same problems, and they need each other's support to fix them. It is in their interests, and in the interests of the American people," said Dr. Marilyn Dudley-Flores, OPS-Alaska CEO.
In the final meeting of the Democratic National Committee's Commission on Presidential Nomination Timing and Scheduling on December 10, 2005 in Washington, DC, Chairman Torres proposed an amendment to the Commission's Final Report, recommending that the Democratic Party's Rules and Bylaws Committee seriously consider the American Plan for implementation in 2012. The vote on Senator Torres' amendment was taken without discussion and passed unanimously.
For an in-depth explanation of the American Plan, visit http://www.americanplan.org.
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Thomas Gangale is an aerospace engineer and a former Air Force officer. He is currently the executive director at OPS-Alaska, a think tank based in Petaluma, California, and an international relations scholar at San Francisco State University. He is the author of the American Plan to reform the presidential nomination process.
Dr. Marilyn Dudley-Flores is a social scientist and founder of OPS-Alaska. She teaches at Sonoma State University and writes with Thomas Gangale and other scholars affiliated with the OPS-Alaska collaborative.