Green Party Drama Continues

by dave | Sat, 02/07/2009 - 4:16pm

The day ACC made its Green Party or Parties Update, Green Party candidate Don DeVivo filled out paperwork to add Green Party St. Louis City Central Committee to his list of party of one entities. His latest filing with MEC pits his committee against the previously established Green Party Central Committee City of St. Louis. There can be only one central committee for a political party in a county, including St. Louis City.

Ironically, if Devivo was elected Mayor, he would have to resign as Green Party committeeman. Being he is the only committeeperson for the party in the City and he constitutes the Central Committee, the party would cease to exist here.

Comments

by liljazz | Tue, 02/17/2009 - 4:42pm

If Don did accept the fees, shouldn't he be giving those back to the city treasurer now? Then if Don still plans on running he needs to pay his own way or be taken off the ballot..  Either way it goes....he doesn't even have a chance. I have yet to meet someone who would vote for him. He doesn't even have enough people who trust him or even like him as a person to fill a committee. 

by Howard | Sun, 02/08/2009 - 4:46pm

Oracle is correct. Section 115-617 RSMo says vacancies are filled by appointment by the remaining members.
 
However, is it a moot point? Section 115.615 RSMo says county central committees had to reorganize on third Tuesday in Aug. 08. In order to conduct that meeting, the Green Party needed: a) their former central committee chair to call the meeting and initially run it, and b) at least one committeeman elected in the Aug. 5th primary, and c) at least one committeewoman elected in the primary. The committee had to start out with at least two members before it could fill vacancies. Devivo was the only Green Party candidate for a committee post on the Aug. ballot.
 
The primary results show Devivo was elected Green Party 22nd Ward committeeman with one vote. But there were also write-in votes citywide- 1 committeeman, 4 committeewoman- doesn't say which wards.
Unlike other positions that require a Declaration of Intent in order to have write-in votes count, Section 115-453 RSMo does not require write-in candidates for party committee to file anything. I could only find three requirements for party committee write-in candidates in the City: 1 year registered voter in City, 1 year residency in the ward (Section 115.607 RSMO) and not be a convicted felon (Section 115-350 RSMo). The no back city taxes only applies to candidates for municipal office (Section 115-346 RSMo). 
 
Now, if at least one of those write-ins for a committeewoman counted, then there was at least one committeeman and one committeewoman duly elected to constitute a Green Party central committee here. If not, if it truly is Don Devivo's party of one, then the Green Party failed to meet the statutory qualifications to organize a committee and neither of the two St. Louis City Green Party central committees which have filings with MEC as party committees qualifies to do so.
 
If there is no legally organized Green Party central committee here, no one could legally accept filing fees from Green Party candidates for the March ballot. If there was no legal committee, Devivo had no authority to require or accept filing fees from candidates.
 
If there is no legally organized Green Party central committee, can there be Green Party candidates on the upcoming ballot? I understand a party qualifies for ballot status based on percentage of votes cast in past elections. It just seems to me very peculiar that you can get on the ballot as a candidate for a party that has no party organization in place.
 
The same thing goes for the Libertarian Party. There's a Libertarian candidate for mayor, Robert Cunningham, a finalist in the Last To The Ethics Commission Contest. There were no Libertarian candidates for committee posts last Aug. but citywide there were 7 write-in votes for committeeman and 5 write-ins for committeewoman. If at least one man and one woman were duly elected by one or more write-in votes each, then they could have formed their central committee. If not, Cunnigham is on the ballot for a party that legally does not exist here in committee form. MEC does not show any Libertarian central committee for the City, though there is one for St. Louis County.
 
Don't get me wrong. Competition is good. But I don't think there's anything competitive about most GOP, Green, or Libertarian candidates here, the same way most Democratic challengers aren't competitive here, because for the most part we're talking about candidates and parties who do not have their act together. That's not the fault of the structure of our process, it's their own fault.  

"Dance like nobody's watching. Love like you've never been hurt. Sing like nobody's listening. Live like it's heaven on earth."- Mark Twain

by St Louis Oracle | Mon, 02/09/2009 - 9:50pm

Excellent research, Howard, but allow me to disagree on some of your conclusions.

While statutes require the election of a chair and a secretary of different genders, I don't think the absence of any committee members of a particular gender necessarily means the committee doesn't exist.

I also disagree that the presence of the outgoing central committee chair is a prerequisite to having an organizational meeting. That would have been especially difficult for the Green Party, because I don't think they ever replaced Willie Marshall as chair after he died. I think a meeting of all of the duly elected committee people (all one of them) would constitute an organizational meeting.

If you're correct, though, and no committee existed to collect filing fees, the City Charter provides that the filing fees go to the City treasury instead of to the (nonexistent) party committee. It would be up to City Treasurer Larry Williams (ironically the person DeVivo ran against last November) to get those fees from the E Board or ersatz party committee, as the case may be. Is Larry sleeping at the switch? But candidates still get to file and run on parties that have ballot status, whether or not they have a central committee, as long as they pay their filing fees.

I have heard (but cannot confirm) that all but one of the persons elected to the Green Party committee by write-in votes were ineligible because they either didn't exist or didn't live in the ward where the vote electing them was cast. And the one who did live in her ward (drum roll, please): 7th Ward Alderwoman Phyllis Young (although the voter spelled Phyllis with just one L). She is ineligible to be both alderman and committeewoman (whether or not from the same party) and would have to resign one. While she clearly would reject the Green Party post, I'm not aware that she has yet (perhaps because no one told her she got the GP vote). Isn't this fun?

by Howard | Mon, 02/09/2009 - 11:35pm

Oracle, do not fight my awesome powers of useless information retrieval. Larry accepts the filing fee and sends it to GR only in cases of Independent candidates.

 2.08.070 St. Louis City Revised Code - Independent candidate payment.

Any person desiring to file declaration papers, or propose as a candidate on any independent or nonpartisan ticket, who does not announce by declaration papers as a candidate for any political party as defined by law, and is not a member of a political party having a state or city committee, or treasurer thereof, shall pay the sum of money required by this chapter to be paid by the candidate for the office for which he proposes to the treasurer of the city; take a receipt therefor, and file this receipt with his declaration papers. The sum of money, so paid, shall go into the general revenue fund of the city. (1948 C. Ch. 20 § 13: 1960 C. § 76.070.)

The statute about the organizational meeting- "At the meeting, each committee shall organize by electing one of its members as chair and one of its members as vice chair, a man and a woman,..."- clearly says it takes two to tango and the two shall be of opposite gender. What's the most important word in any law? The may or shall. This one says shall.

Ms. Young likely has all the Green needs in her life from Mr. Young, who is to the left of GP and walks the walk. No Mike Mitchell scenario there.

"Dance like nobody's watching. Love like you've never been hurt. Sing like nobody's listening. Live like it's heaven on earth."- Mark Twain

by St Louis Oracle | Sat, 02/07/2009 - 9:04pm

Not completely. State law allows the committee members (i.e., DeVivo) to appoint other members of the committee. (That's how vacancies are filled on the Democratic and Republican central committees.) If DeVivo were to be elected mayor, the committee would continue to exist so long as he had appointed one or more other members prior to his own resignation.