Left In Lowell

All right, I’ll admit my post earlier this week indicating it was important for delegates to attend the Dem convention on Friday night was prompted not just because I feel delegates have a responsibility to be there. It is, in fact, because several sources were telling me of rumors they’d heard that the party insiders were going to attempt to change the rules of the convention during the convention, in order to facilitate getting Gabrieli onto the ballot because he can’t get on by the rules in place now. Adam Reilly has details of the speculation:

Most convention-watchers are bracing for a proposal to lower the 15 percent threshold. Obviously, this would help Chris Gabrieli and Tom Reilly get on the ballot.

He also links to this Boston.com article, worth a read to get up to speed here.

The other rumor floated this week was that the insiders/Gabrieli would try to add a second ballot back onto the process, thereby halfway returning to the previous rules from before last year (three ballot attempts to get 15%, once you get yours, your delegates can vote for someone else).

I didn’t want to write about rumors when I had no proof, because if there was an outcry and the insiders decided not to do it, it would make us blogs look silly for sounding the alarm (because of course they would never cop to considering it). Well, now it’s in Adam Reilly’s blog, so I’m talking about it.

These people have issues with being honest. They will whine and claim they’re only interested in preserving a democratic and open process with a move such as this. Why is this total bullshit? Because these are the same people (Phil Johnston, et company) who forced a rules change down the throats of the last issues convention, undemocratically, which changed the number of chances a statewide candidate has to get his 15% of the delegates to vote for him - down from three, to only one.

If the Mass Dems were so very keen on participation from just anyone, why did they do this in 2005, only to change their minds this year? I’ll tell you why. These people had backed Tom Reilly, and in May 2005, he was the presumptive nominee. Since then, we’ve learned that Reilly is “no good at politics” what with his disastrous decision to pick a Lt. Governor. So in a panic, because Deval Patrick is the outsider candidate not interested in their little reindeer games (and hence, there goes their access if he wins the nomination and the governorship), they turned to Gabrieli. Only, it was really late in the game, the caucuses had already been held (with Patrick’s huge wins there). They decided to interpret another set of rules - that of who is included in the rule which says a candidate can attend the convention if he gets 500 signatures of elected delegates. What constitutes ‘elected?’ Well, as BMG’s Charley says, without precedent and with the rules vague, it could go either way. However, do we doubt that if an outsider like Deval Patrick or Robert Reich were asking for an interpretation of the delegate signatures rule, it would have gone the other way? (Despite the protests I know the party’s leaders would evoke.)

The fact is, the party insiders screwed themselves with their own damn rules change last year which all of us complained bitterly about (both the method of its passing and the rule change itself), and now want to revoke or modify its stricter, limiting effect. At the last minute (literally)! Sorry, I don’t buy the “we want a bigger field and more participation” crap these people are going to use if they pull such a stunt. Simply put, they are hypocrites if they decide to go through with this. Deval Patrick played by the rules, worked hard, got his access utilizing the process, and suddenly, now they don’t like the process?

The debate about whether or not the 15% rule needs changing, whether or not we need to go back to more ballots, how to give enough access to potential candidates while still weeding out unserious or crazy rich people, that debate is definitely needed. But it should be taken up at next year’s 2007 issues and platform convention. We should not be changing the rules midstream for one person, whoever that person is.

And for the record, if Patrick were pulling this kind of stunt, it would be enough to shake my faith in him. The reason I endorsed and volunteer for him was because I know he’s above this sort of crap. Only the best get my endorsement. He plays by the rules, but he also hasn’t once played dirty. You can’t say that at all about Gabrieli or Reilly. Just in case you want to accuse me of being a shill for the Patrick campaign.

[Edit: and I will be liveblogging at the convention as mentioned earlier, so if they do pull a stunt, I’ll be there for it…unless they decide to bar my entrance at the last minute for muckraking.]