The gauntlet has been thrown down - time to pick it up and fight back to WIN!

Some of the same people who attacked David Parker last year and called for his resignation in the wake of the Adriadn Ortega sexual harassment scandal were supporting a candidate besides Randy Voller for Chair of the NCDP.

They cannot seem to accept the fact that Randy won.  They promised to never let up on him and to run him out of office.  They have never let up on that promise.

Some of these same folks tried to state a coup by hijacking the April 28th State Executive Council meeting in Raleigh.  They tried to run an alternative agenda and ram through several resolutions designed to weaken the powers of the NCDP Chair. 

When they failed at that attempt, different members of the group filed a petition against Randy Voller with the NCDP Council of Review.  The details of that petition were leaked by documentary film-maker Frank Eaton from Winston-Salem.  He admitted that he was asked to sign the petition.  Then Frank released a video (presumably shot in his own home) entitled: "For the Good of the Party".  Links to the video were posted on Facebook and various blogs, and written about in various newspapers. 

• Stacking the State Executive committee

There was no stacking of the State Executive Committee.  Frank and his friend allege that Randy Voller stacked the State Executive Council - a different body altogether.

They claim that Randy Voller appointed more than three Sustaining Fund Co-Chairs to the NCDP State Executive Committee, which violates the letter and custom of the NCDP Plan of Organization. 

Randy did appoint a number of people as Sustaining Fund Co-Chairs because many people with lots of experience in the Party were retiring from more active roles in the NCDP, and he wanted to retain their experience to help raise money for the Party.  What rational person could have a problem with that? 

The relevant section of the NCDP Plan of Organization (4.06) does not specify how many Sustaining Fund Co-Chairs the NCDP Chair may appoint.

Composition. The members of the state executive council shall be: the state chair, each of the three state vice chairs, the secretary, the treasurer, the chair or co-chairs of the Sustaining Fund, the chair for minority affairs, the advisor to the Teen Dems, the state presidents of all state auxiliary organizations with by-laws approved by the state executive committee, the congressional district chairs, the members of the Democratic National Committee from North Carolina, the national committeeman and the national committeewoman of the Young Democrats of North Carolina, and three at-large members appointed by the state chair. These three members appointed by the state chair shall reasonably reflect the geographic, racial, ethnic, and gender makeup of registered Democrats in North Carolina. The state chair shall serve as chair of the state executive council.

Here is Section 4.03 of the NCDP Plan of Organization:

4.03 APPOINTED OFFICERS
The state chair shall appoint a treasurer, a sustaining fund chair or co-chairs, a chair for minority affairs and a state advisor for the Teen Dems, all of whom shall serve at the pleasure of the state chair as appointed officers and all of whom shall be voting members of the state executive committee.

It should be significant that while the POO does not specify the specific number of co-chairs of the Sustaining Fund that the chair can appoint, the POO is very specific about the three at-large members of the State Executive Committee appointed by the state Chair:

...three at-large members appointed by the state chair. These three members appointed by the state chair shall reasonably reflect the geographic, racial, ethnic, and gender makeup of registered Democrats in North Carolina.

Even P.R. Latta agrees with me that Randy Voller appointing more than 3 Sustaining Fund Co-Chairs is not a violation of the NCDP POO!

Some - like the 4 people who filed a petition against Randy Voller with the NCDP Council of Review - suggest that custom dictates no more than three such Co-Chairs may be appointed, but there is nothing in the NCDP POO that requires a Chair to follow "custom".

Roberts Rules of Order do address custom (RRONR 11th edition, Section 2 Rules of an Assembly or Organization, page 19), but when a question is raised about custom vs rules, custom loses. Especially when a vote is taken and the rules win.

• Derailing investigations into his own behavior and actions

What specific behavior and actions are they claiming need to be investigated? Frank's video suggests things need to be investigated, but he mostly he does not go into specifics.  When he does, he gets the details wrong.

Unless Randy is violating either the NCDP POO or state or federal laws, nothing needs to be investigated. Neither Frank Eaton nor any other Democrat in the state has the God- or POO-given right to look over Randy's shoulder!

• Bullying NC Democratic Party employees

As someone who has been in and out of Goodwin House for years, the NCDP staffers have not had adequate supervision over the years. It's been a frat-house mentality with no adults in charge. I've seen state party employees almost start physical fights between themselves with party activists and officers present. I've seen staffers drunk on duty, whether stay on their feet or fall on their asses, and otherwise make jerks out of themselves at Party functions in our state and in other states as well. I've been drunk-dialed and drunk-texted by NCDP employees, and when I complained to party officers about it - I was told they would be disciplined AFTER the next election. And I've been called in to provide volunteer labor when other staffers who were supposed to do the work (or arrange for other volunteers) never showed up nor delivered on the volunteers.

Not quite sure how this juvenile and unprofessional conduct of the staff might have contributed to our party's losses over the past few elections, but now is not the time to reward such behavior by pretending it doesn't exist. If certain NCDP employees want to consider proper supervision and oversight to be bullying - they are free to look for jobs elsewhere. As an officer of the Party, I want staffers to be professional and not embarrass the NCDP!

• Naming himself Executive Director of the NC Democratic Party

There is nothing in the NCDP Plan of Organization to prevent him from naming himself the ED. Other NCDP Chairs have been Executive Directors in the past - including David Price.

Since the ED works at the pleasure of the NCDP Chair (according to the NCDP Plan of Organization), all Randy Voller had to do was hold a State Executive Council meeting to ask them for 

What it sounds like Frank is ticked off about is that to name himself interim ED, there had to be a vacancy for the position of ED.  Which gets into the next subject:

• Improper firing and hiring practices

This goes back to the issue of oversight and supervision of NCDP staff. There hasn't been enough of it. And when NCDP Chair Randy Voller tells a staffer to do something - whether to produce a document, send out a letter, or come in and work on an event - they need to do it and stop bitching and moaning about it. Randy was elected to reform the Party and cut the unprofessional frat-house nonsense. If NCDP staffers don't like it - they are free to leave and go elsewhere.   And if they won''t do what Randy tells them to do - he needs to fire them.  They should also not be thinking that they can use or steal NCDP resources for their own personal use or for their consultant friends.

• Misuse of Party funds including hiring un-needed political consultants and using the NC Democratic Party Credit Card for a personal trip to Las Vegas.

Frank Eaton appears to be upset because he was one of three consultants who turned in a proposal to Randy for the NCDP to hire him as a consultant for $15K fee (and expenses estimated between $3-5K).   Randy ran it by the other elected State Party officers, and they shot it down because they were in the process of hiring an ED.  Why spend this money which would make up a good chunck of the new ED's salary when they could let the ED access the situation and come up with a strategic plan?

I guess Randy is not misusing Party funds if he hires Frank, but is misusing them if other consultants are hired?

And Randy Voller did not use an NC Democratic Party credit card for a personal trip to Las Vegas. Randy did to go Vegas to see about getting fundraising opportunties set up in other states. President Obama had a fundraiser in Law Vegas in October 2012. Is Frank saying that what's good for Obama is not good for the NCDP