Reply #30: I'll tell you my definition

[sonias]

From my personal experience. A ringer would be those 50-75 Boyd Richie delegates (so yes they have delegation credentials) who joined the PPC caucus on Friday to get their voting credentials and stuffed the vote in that caucus. I don't know the exact number because I'm not the membership chair. I was working the line and I saw them all lined up at the membership table with their Boyd Richie stickers.

This line of suits included one Molly Beth Malcolm who I believe is as progressive as Tom DeLay's ass. I never expect to see any of these "new PPC members" at any of our future PPC quarterly meetings. They were there for one purpose only, to fix the endorsement vote for Boyd. As soon as they got their desired result they almost got up in mass and left the room. The business of the PPC is no real concern for them. Shortly after they left the room, a quorum of the membership (which now included the ringers) was not present and the meeting was adjourned.

I made a motion that would essentially have meant no endorsement from the caucus i.e. let the delegates decide on the floor. The race was already being too divisive to these caucuses. My motion to table the steering committee recommendation failed (some say by two votes). The motion to endorse Richie then passed although a call for a recorded vote was ignored by the caucus chair.

Those ringers have essentially invalidated the PPC or at least its reputation. By any means necessary.

And I do use the term "ringers" pejoratively here. I had quite a few people speak to me about Maxey's supporters potentially stuffing the ballot box at our annual meeting and honestly there was nothing of the sort happening in Austin. The few new members that joined are progressives. Now whether they keep coming back to PPC meetings after seeing how the PPC got used in Ft. Worth, is another question.

Sonia