By Anne Waldron Neumann
Did you know that Princeton has two Democratic organizations? First, and best-known, is our club, the Princeton Community Democratic Organization (PCDO). Before consolidation, the PCDO was the only forum where borough and township Democrats could met together for discussions and political activism. Registered Democrats can join for $15 annually (though $5 is possible).
The PCDO hosts a January potluck and a July picnic. PCDO members also meet monthly, usually at 7:30 on the last Sunday of the month, to hear speakers argue local, national, even international issues. Nearby Democratic organizations joke that ours is the only Democratic club with its own foreign policy. Anyone, Democrat or not, may attend the PCDO’s free monthly meetings. A popular recent event was a panel discussion on Trenton’s future by heads of Trenton grass-roots organizations.
The PCDO also has an executive board, elected from among PCDO members. Here, sometimes, conflicts arise. PCDO members may elect unexpected executive board members. And the executive board may pass motions that some PCDO members disapprove.
More important to other Princetonians, because Princeton Council’s six members serve staggered three-year terms, our municipal governing body has two openings a year. PCDO members vote every March to endorse Democratic candidates to run in the June Democratic primary.
Here’s where Princeton’s second Democratic organization, our Democratic Municipal Committee (PDMC), steps in. The PDMC is legally affiliated with the state and county Democratic Party organizations. It has 44 elected members, two from each of Princeton’s 22 voting districts. If you vote in Democratic primaries, you will see PDMC nominees on the ballot.
According to its bylaws, the PDMC "support
the Democratic Party and its candidates, further
good government, encourage
grass roots participation in the Democratic Party, recruit
Democratic candidates,
an open process for endorsing Democratic candidates in primary elections." That is, the PDMC undertakes get-out-the-vote efforts. And it too endorses local candidates.
Why does the PDMC endorse candidates if the PCDO does? Since the PCDO is a club, its endorsements are, in theory, not legally binding. Nevertheless, the PDMC’s bylaws promise that it will encourage potential candidates to "participate in the PCDO’s endorsement process." And, since it votes to endorse candidates right after the PCDO does, the PDMC also promises to "receive, read, and give consideration to" the PCDO’s results. In fact, the PDMC’s vote usually mirrors the PCDO’s.
Our PDMC is unusual in having ceded so much political influence to the PCDO’s unelected but far more numerous members. Elsewhere, party machines handpick candidates for office. Our PDMC is also governed by Mercer County’s Democratic Committee bylaws, however. After the PDMC’s endorsement vote, it recommends where candidates should appear on the primary ballot to our Mercer County Democratic chair, who makes the final decision.
Where candidates appear on the ballot is considered crucial in winning votes. The most favorable ballot position is "in the column": directly under President Obama or Senator Menendez or Booker or whichever Democrats happen to be running for higher office that year. Even in Princeton, it seems, many Democrats vote the party line.
The county chair also decides, based on the PDMC’s recommendation, which local candidates can use the official party slogan on the ballot ("Regular Democratic Organization"). Just as the PDMC usually follows the PCDO’s vote, our county chair usually follows the PDMC.
But, as part of the Democratic Party apparatus, PDMC and county chair occasionally favor incumbents or long-time, active Democrats more than does the PCDO’s large and fluid membership. In June’s Democratic primary, for example, one incumbent, a close third in both the PCDO and PDMC endorsement votes, received the column anyway, but not the slogan.
Yet these occasional discrepancies between county chair, PDMC, PCDO, and its executive board — the obligation to consider but not rubber-stamp — seem to me healthy. Perhaps they’re our version of the federal government’s checks and balances.
Moreover, this complicated process benefits Democratic candidates in elections. A strong predictor of who will win the Democratic primary (and usually, in Democratic Princeton, the November election) is who can win both wide support among PCDO members and strong commitment from the official party apparatus.
Candidates new to the PCDO, or candidates with new ideas, may find overcoming these hurdles difficult. But they can always collect 25 signatures and be listed on the primary ballot anyway. More power to them.
Anne Waldron Neumann is a member of the PCDO executive board and chairs its new Local Issues Subcommittee. Princeton Democrats wishing to join the subcommittee, the PCDO, or the municipal committee should contact the PCDO president at www.Princetondems.org for more information.
