Presidential Politics and Net Neutrality Big Topics at California Democratic Party Executive Board Meeting

Still it didn't help lessen strong feelings about the plan. "The proposal for changing the procedure is retarded," said one member as he ended his comments.

In a nutshell, the plan is to hold delegate selection caucuses in California's 53 congressional districts in April, well after the February primary. Many party members feel this opens the process up to unfair abuse as delegate candidates change their commitments to particular presidential candidates after the results of the primary vote. The concern is that delegate candidates who had shown a strong commitment to a presidential candidate may be displaced by candidates having a change of heart after the primary results are tallied.

The early February presidential primary is being blamed.

There are several suggestions to fixing the problem. The one most often floated would be to require candidates for delegate positions to file before the February 5 locking in their commitment to a particular presidential candidate. This would also require moving up the caucus meetings to early March.

The issue will be taken up more fully tomorrow when the Executive Board holds a hearing to take input and suggestions before a vote on a final plan on Sunday.

The final major issue addressed by the Progressive Caucus was net neutrality. Nearly everyone agreed that nearly everyone, regardless of political party or philosophy, is for net neutrality, "except the telecoms." The caucus is determined to "not allow the Internet to be privatized." To not allow "toll booths" to be put on the information super-highway and to keep an "open, free, and accessible Internet."

There is opposition to net neutrality within the party, however. It comes from the Labor Caucus, which meets tomorrow morning, particularly the Communication Workers of America (CWA) who believe they may realize some gain in jobs if the Internet becomes more restricted.

At the end of the meeting an informal, show-of-hands straw poll was taken on presidential preferences of those in attendance. John Edwards was the clear choice of the getting 47 votes. Next was Al Gore, who is not a declared candidate with 27, followed by Dennis Kucinich (17), Barack Obama and Bill Richardson with 12 each, Hillary Clinton (2), and Joe Biden (1). Six were undecided, and neither Chris Dodd nor Mike Gravel received any votes.

As the meeting came to a close an announcement was made that Elizabeth Edwards will be addressing the General Session tomorrow morning.

This article originally appeared in The Bayne of Blogs and is published with the permission of the author.