Progressive Caucus Stuff

[Peter]

This is just a reminder for all those in the caucus (list below) about various administrative stuff that needs to be done.

In accordance with caucus rules, the caucus convention will open on April 8th (Friday). Our first order of business will be to elect a new Chairman and new Vice Chairman.

I will be running once again for the Chairmancy; Since Lewis has gone largely inactive in fantasy politics, I doubt he will run for re-election as Vice Chair, so somebody else will probably want to run.

I'd also like measures for additions (or deletions) from the platform, which can be found on the AtlasWiki, to be submitted soonish because then we don't spend forever in convention like we did last time. Obviously we'll be doing endorsements for the Senate races and maybe a few ballot props.

Member List
Peter Bell
Ilikeverin
Akno21
Blerpiez
Defarge
Irish Democrat
Alcon
Wildcard
Al
True Democrat
Siege40
MAS117
Lewis Trondheim
Nym90
Harry
The Bulldog
Immy
Ian
Jake
Gustaf
Frodo
Sam Spade

[Peter]

I'll be proposing (at least) this to add to the platform:

Euthanasia

The Progressive Caucus supports the right of persons to have a dignified death when in great distress and suffering from a terminal illness.

[jokerman]

I'd like to join the Progressive Caucus

[MAS117]

I'll run for Vice Chairman.

[ian]

I'll run for Vice Chairman.

I don't mean to be cruel, MAS, but shouldn't someone with a social score more PROGRESSIVE be in a position of high power in the caucus?

[MAS117]

I'll run for Vice Chairman.

I don't mean to be cruel, MAS, but shouldn't someone with a social score more PROGRESSIVE be in a position of high power in the caucus?

Vice Chair does nothing besides take over if Peter resigns, which I doubt he will.

[Peter]

Vice Chair does nothing besides take over if Peter resigns, which I doubt he will.

And theoretically all I do is open up votes at Convention. I think the posts are much more than that however: They give standard bearers to social progressivism and hopefully organise the Caucus to promote some sort of common ideological agenda.

[Peter]

organise the Caucus to promote some sort of common ideological agenda.

Speaking of which I've been planning to do this one for a while:

End the execution of juvenile criminals throughout Atlasia; It never existed in the Midwest to start with and the Mideast has recently affirmed both that policy and the full scale abolition of the death penalty. The Southeast, Northeast and Pacific Regions still contain provisions within some of their State laws to execute juvenile criminals. I propose that those Regions consider the following initiative:

Statute on the Juvenile Death Penalty

1. The Death Penalty shall no longer be considered as a possible punishment in the [ ] Region for those criminals who were less than eighteen years old at the time of the commission of their crime.
2. Those persons sentenced to death for crimes committed when under the age of eighteen years shall have their sentences commuted to life in prison without possibility of parole.

[jokerman]

So how do I join?

[Peter]

So how do I join?

Oh yeah, sorry, probably should have said something: Your earlier post was treated as your effective point of joining.

Welcome!

[jokerman]

Ok, Thanks

[Peter]

Okay there are some other things I want to do within the Caucus at this Convention in terms of a structural reorganisation:

Amendment to Caucus Rules:

The Board

1. At the beginning of each Convention a census of the Caucus membership by party shall be conducted by the Chairman.
2. Each party shall be allocated a number of seats on the board by taking its number of members in the Caucus and dividing it by 5 and then rounding to the nearest integer.
3. Independents and members of parties lacking any Board representation may affiliate together to elect Board members as though they were a party.
4. Each party may elect or appoint Caucus members from their party to the Board as they shall wish.
5. The Chairman and Vice Chairman shall have seats on the Board ex officio.
6. The Board may endorse ballot measures and legislation by a majority vote.
7. The Board may issue emergency endorsements for elections when it is the opinion of the Chairman that there is insufficient time to hold a full Caucus vote.
8. The Board may pass a vote of No Confidence in the Caucus Chairman by a majority vote.
9. Should both the Chairmancy and Vice Chairmancy be vacant between Conventions the Board shall elect a new Chairman.
Present breakdown [subject to change, please check wiki page for caucus membership breakdown]:
FLP = 8 members = 2 seats on board
ILP = 5 members =1 seat
CUP = 3 members = 1 seat
Free = 3 members = 1 seat
Others = 4 members (3 Inds, 1 Dem, 1 ACA) = 1 seat should 3 of these members choose to affiliate.
then obviously Chair and VC are ex officio members.
This will be the Schedule for the Convention:
Friday 8 April - Opening
Sunday 10 April - Vote on above changes to Rules and vote on Chair/VC; Vote lasting 60 hours in the Booth.
Monday 18 April - Vote on Platform Changes and Election endorsements; Vote lasts until 12 hours before polls open - changes will be permitted due to the frequency with which surprise candidates appear.
If there are no further candidates for the Chairmancy then there will be no election to this post since MAS has stated he only wishes to be the VC, and MAS and I will be declared elected without contest.

Any sort of idea for platform changes are welcome and I also welcome comments on what I proposed above.

[Akno21]

Looks good, I'll represent the others if none of them have a problem with that.

[Josh]

Oh yeah, I meant to join this a while ago.  Oops.  I'd like to join, then.  Thanks.

[Jake]

Looks good, I'll represent the others if none of them have a problem with that.

I won't

[Akno21]

Oh yeah, I meant to join this a while ago.  Oops.  I'd like to join, then.  Thanks.

Would you mind affiliating and then endorsing me to be on the board? We are both independents.

[Josh]

Since I guess I'm an independent now, I guess I'll support you Akno.

[Sam Spade]

I'll probably steal your idea for a Board of Directors for the NRA, once we get settled in a little.

For the spot on the Board for the CUP, it seems like with MAS going to be vice-chair, that leaves the spot up to either Alcon or I.

I personally wish to be sort of a quiet member around here, since I run a couple of things otherwise, so I would be happy to endorse Alcon for the spot. 

[Peter]

*Bangs Gavel*

I call this convention to order.

Voting on the Amendment to Caucus Rules will open during Sunday in the voting booth and will be open for 60 hours.

If there are any further candidacies for the Chairmancy, then we'll also hold a vote on that.

If anybody wants to say anything inspiring, feel free; I probably will do mid-next week. Any more proposals for the Platform should be forthcoming soon for a vote beginning Monday 18 April.

Also could members start thinking about (and possibly have some debate) on who to endorse:

Elections up (and present competitors):
D1 - Supersoulty unopposed
D2 - PBrunsel unopposed
D3 - NixonNow unopposed
D4 - John Dibble, Ebowed, Cosmo Kramer
D5 - Gabu, DanielX
SE - WiseGuy, Harry, StatesRights
MW - ILV, CheeseWhiz
Pac - Gov - Wildcard; Lt Gov. - Immy

When I make an address, I'll do my best to talk about what I feel the Caucus should be doing in each of these races.

[Akno21]

Seeing as we focus on social issues, I really hope we do not endorse Cosmo Kramer, mainly for this

Homosexuals are mostly perverts whos' lifestyle should not be admired. Most of them have very serious mental issues or are child molestors and those two reasons alone are enough to block homosexuals from adopting children.

hear! hear!

I wouldn't mind endorsing John Dibble. We should endorse Soulty and Gabu, I'm undecided on PBrunsel, and no on NixonNow.

Endorse Harry, Wildcard/Immy, undecided in the Midwest, ILV does need to do something though.

[Peter]

I missed that one; I was however going to mention this:

I must say I would be honored, as the possibly the most socially conservative candidate for District 4 Senate, to receive an endorsement.

during my speech. Clearly a person who considers himself as the most socially conservative candidate in the election should not be getting an endorsement from us.

[Akno21]

I missed that one; I was however going to mention this:

I must say I would be honored, as the possibly the most socially conservative candidate for District 4 Senate, to receive an endorsement.

during my speech. Clearly a person who considers himself as the most socially conservative candidate in the election should not be getting an endorsement from us.

At least he's honest.

If we are going purely on social liberalism and fantasy experience, we should endorse John, if we want a more traditional real-life moderate Democrat, go with Ebowed. I'm leaning toward John Dibble at this point though.

However, don't vote against Ebowed only because of abortion. We can't be single-issue people.

[Peter]

However, don't vote against Ebowed only because of abortion. We can't be single-issue people.

Frankly I know very little else about Ebowed on social issues. In part I haven't followed this campaign closely, but I think at least in part he's not too well known and this will give us unanswered questions about his stances. Perhaps Ebowed would like to post in this thread about other social issues to give us a few pointers....

[Lt. Gov. Immy]

Hmm, endorsments.

I'd perfer to wait on Districts 1 and 2 to see if a more socially prgressive candidate enters those races, though I know both Supersoulty and PBrunsel are both find members.

I'd like to do some sort of anti-endorsment of NixonNow in District 3.  Is he seriously running unopposed?  What about blerpiez? 

If we are focusing solely in social issues, then I recomend John Dibble in District 4.  I've been looking over Ebowed and he seems he is all over the place on social issues whereas Dibble is constant.

Gabu and Harry are obviously the most progressive candidates in their respective races.  We should invite Gabu to join our caucus.

I don't know much about the Mid-West candidates, so I'll abstain for now, but I'm leaning lILV just because he's so nice.

And in the Pacific, I'm sure Wildcard and I would appreciate your endorsment as two proud members of this caucus.

[Gabu]

We should invite Gabu to join our caucus.

I've actually considered it in the past.  I probably would fit, but I've decided not to join any organizations purely because I don't want to be beholden to anybody when it comes time to make a decision.  It's nothing against any organization in particular, I simply want to be as objective as possible, and I don't trust myself to be able to achieve that while being a member of an organization who openly supports the advancement of a cause.

Thank you for the consideration, however.