California DSA Legislative Endorsement Framework

Written By CA DSA State Committee
To recommend or request that California DSA endorse a specific piece of legislation introduced in the California State Legislature, please fill out this form.

Background

California’s legislative calendar:

  • Year 1 January: Session Starts, budget introduced

  • Year 1 Mid-February: Deadline to introduce bills for two-year cycle

  • Year 1 February-June: bills get amended or reshaped in policy committees

  • Year 1 June 2: Final budget passed, bills make it out of house of origin

  • Year 1 June-August: bills start getting killed across the two houses

  • Year 1 September: bills move to the floor to pass or fail

  • Year 2 January: Session starts, bills introduced in Year 1 Feb but not passed/killed are considered, new bills may be introduced

Axioms

  • CA DSA will decide and express DSA’s positions on California state legislation are, but will defer to local chapters on more local legislation.

  • CA DSA will sometimes aim to prioritize a campaign in support of state legislation. This will require a large-scale grassroots campaign to contact a broad base of working people in support of such legislation (e.g. Tax The Rich or Build Public Renewables in NY).

  • Large scale campaigns in support of state legislation will be the exception, not the norm. Such campaigns may be proposed and adopted outside of this framework through a detailed campaign proposal brought to any State Council meeting.

  • Lobbying legislators in Sacramento will not be our primary activity in CA-DSA, though it’s a tactic we may occasionally use. Our strength in the legislature will follow our on-the-ground strength, which primarily requires mass organizing.

  • This framework will cover the adoption of legislative endorsements outside of large-scale campaigns.

Political Framework

Goal: CA-DSA will take positions on state legislation only where doing so serves the larger political goal of enhancing the consciousness of California’s diverse working class that (1) it is in struggle against the forces of capital, and (2) only socialists, and not the Republican or Democratic Parties, consistently stand up for the interests of working and poor people. 

Criteria: CA-DSA will take positions only as follows:

  1. CA-DSA may oppose legislation that nakedly promotes the interests of capital against those of the working class.

  2. CA-DSA will support legislation only if one or more of the following conditions are met:

    1. It is introduced by a socialist in office, or supported by a caucus of socialists in state/local office and will directly promote a demand in CA-DSA’s electoral program;

    2. It is associated with a campaign (whether led by DSA or another working class organization) that includes mass working class action at the state Capitol or another site of struggle;

    3. It proposes a transformative policy change that will measurably shift power and the terrain of struggle in favor of the working class, the author and sponsor(s) have vowed to accept no amendments to its core provisions, and it is not foreseeable that intent of the bill will be thwarted in the implementation;

    4. It will accomplish a major demand of a political, workplace or social movement campaign in which two or more chapters are directly engaged at the local level, and serves as an effective rallying point for that campaign; OR

    5. It touches on an issue that has led to mass action by working class people and is an effective vehicle for enhancing working class consciousness of its struggle against capital and/or of making graphic the importance of the independent political organization of the working class.

Process Framework

Consistent with the Political Framework, and its goals and criteria, CA-DSA’s State Council will consider the adoption of legislative positions according to the process in this section.

Priority campaigns

Priority campaign endorsements ideally precede bills being introduced, and may be introduced at any time. Priority campaigns may be proposed in any state council meeting, and should be adopted from national priorities, an existing campaign that has already begun in a California chapter or else offer a high-leverage opportunity for California DSA chapters to engage in a mass grassroots campaign.

Priority campaigns should be offered as a full campaign plan that will engage a significant number of chapters and a variety of tactics that emphasize outreach to working class people – both members and non-members – in order to pressure the state legislature to pass specific legislation.

Regular endorsements

Outside of priority campaigns, California DSA may endorse simple bill positions at State Council meetings between March 1 and September 1.

At least once and no more than twice per legislative year, the CA DSA State Committee will prepare a folio of legislative endorsements to be ratified by the State Council:

  1. CA-DSA will post a member-facing form intended for use by DSA members, chapters, and coalition partners in California to identify bills that CA-DSA may want to take a stance on (either in favor or against).

  2. At least one week before a State Council meeting in which a folio of legislative endorsements are to be considered, the State Committee will hold a meeting open to all CA DSA State Delegates to review submissions and any other potential bill positions identified by the State Committee, as well as posting on the CA DSA Slack to encourage discussion.

  3. Legislative endorsements considered at State Council meetings will be subject to the following special rules, intended to minimize the amount of organizational time & energy spent debating legislative policy.

    1. By default, the entire folio of endorsements will be presented as a unit on a consent agenda. Removing an individual bill position from the consent agenda will, as normal, require a simple motion + second by two distinct State Council delegates

    2. All bill positions moved off of the consent agenda will be put to a non-debatable vote, requiring support from a simple majority of delegates voting, in order to be placed later on the agenda. If voted down, California DSA will not take any position on the bill

    3. Bill position motions removed from the consent agenda and placed later on the agenda will be subject to a strict 3 for, 3 against speaker limit during debate, and will require a 60% supermajority of voting delegates to be adopted

  4. Following endorsement, the State Committee will publish endorsements on the California DSA website, social media, and email all DSA chapters and California DSA-endorsed state legislators in California

  5. As appropriate, the State Committee will be empowered to organize various forms of support such as but not limited to submitting or signing onto letters of support, or organizing a committee call-in for endorsed legislative positions.

  6. After a legislative position is adopted, if the political conditions that were cited in support of California DSA’s endorsement change, such that the criteria invoked for the position no longer apply under the new circumstances (e.g. if a bill author breaks a promise not to accept amendments) and there is not sufficient time to convene a State Council vote, the State Committee is authorized to withdraw or amend the endorsement by a two-thirds (⅔) vote.  If such an amendment is passed, the State Committee shall poll the State Council to confirm the change in position by the next regular Council meeting. Whenever the State Committee changes California DSA’s position on a bill, it shall provide a written explanation of its rationale.

Addendum 1: 2023 Interim Framework

Interim Framework

As the next California DSA Council Meeting will take place on September 16, after the end of the 2023 legislative session, the State Committee will use the following process as a temporary method to determine a set of California DSA legislative positions for the 2023 legislative session prior to the adoption of the remainder of this framework for future years:

  1. The State Committee will launch a form for delegates to nominate bill positions before the legislative summer recess begins (July 14). 

  2. The State Committee will host a special meeting, open to all DSA members in California, to discuss nominated positions, prior to the end of the legislative summer recess.

  3. The State Committee will launch a form for delegates to submit written statements in favor or against all legislative positions proposed, open for at least seven days.

  4. The State Committee will vote on a set of recommendations for the position folio, and distribute the recommendation as well as all written delegate positions alongside an asynchronous ballot prior that will close on September 1st or earlier.

  5. Bill positions that receive at least a two-thirds supermajority of support from voting delegates will be adopted for the 2023 cycle.

  6. Following endorsement ratification, the State Committee will publish endorsements on the California DSA website, social media, and email all DSA chapters and legislators in California.

    1. As appropriate, the State Committee will be empowered to organize various forms of support such as but not limited to submitting or signing onto letters of support, or organizing a committee call-in for endorsed legislative positions.

Adopted by the California DSA State Council on September 16, 2023

Amended by California DSA State Council on December 2, 2023

CA DSA State Committee
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