Democratic observers to keep tabs on Nevada party’s leadership elections
Representatives from the Democratic National Committee will be in Nevada’s capital city Saturday to monitor the state party Central Committee’s leadership elections, an unusual move some members say is necessary to maintain trust over this weekend’s vote.
In an email to state Central Committee members, Nevada State Democratic Party officials said they invited staff from the DNC and the Association of State Democratic Committees to help conduct the election.
Nevada State Democratic Party Chair Judith Whitmer is fending off a challenge to keep her post from Assemblywoman Daniele Monroe-moreno, D-north Las Vegas, who has coalesced a Democratic “unity” slate to unseat her.
“We believe inviting the DNC to work alongside us is an opportunity to affirm the integrity of our election process while demonstrating the absolute commitment of the State Party to protecting the voices of our members,” the email said. “We look forward to Nevada Democrats coming together to shape our party’s future.”
Whitmer, a member of the DNC, denied that the national party was sending in officials because of the outcry from certain committee members. She told the Sun in a phone interview that officials were expected to take part in the voting process all along, even before a controversial purge last month of members on the Central Committee.
“I know a lot of people are trying to claim that letter was what inspired us to ask the DNC, but it wasn’t that at all because we were already in conversations with the DNC,” Whitmer said. “We sent them our election rules after they were approved by our executive board, when all of this misinformation and all these claims of purging came out. … When that escalated, we actually had already invited them to join us at the election and help conduct the election so that there would not be any allegations of rigging or not doing something correctly, or any of the other allegations I’ve seen out there.”
DNC spokeswoman Brooke Goren declined to comment on its intervention and deferred to the letter sent by the state party.
Among those attending Saturday’s meeting will be DNC Deputy Executive Director Roger Lau, Party Affairs and Delegate Selection Director Veronica Martinez, as well as ASDC Deputy Executive Director Sam Parkinson and their respective staffs, according to the email.
In separate letters, dozens of state Central Committee members had voiced concern as early as January regarding guardrails for the upcoming election.
In a letter to Whitmer and DNC officials dated Feb. 10, more than 40 Central Committee members said they had “serious concerns regarding the impartiality and validity of the upcoming election. Immediate action is required to ensure a truly democratic election takes place.”
The letter was sent two days after news broke that more than 230 members of the Central Committee were removed from the membership list, including Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager and Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro for what Whitmer called a lack of attendance.
Many of those removed were subsequently added back to the membership rolls after discrepancies were discovered with the party’s online attendance records.
Members may not miss more than two meetings consecutively, which was a reason for purging the membership roster by nearly 40 percent, Whitmer said.
“Due to an outpouring of concern about our upcoming elections, we felt it was important to publicize the attendance records going back to the start of the 2022-2024 membership term,” Whtmer said in a Feb. 14 statement. She called the step unprecedented but necessary, given the circumstances.
“As is clearly shown in our attendance records, only individuals who have missed two meetings without a proxy or an excused absence have been removed, as is required by our bylaws,” she said. “It’s our hope that these steps will dispel the misinformation being circulated.”
Still, the situation was mentioned by Central Committee members in their Feb. 10 letter as the top reason for concern ahead of Saturday’s vote. They said without transparent access to attendance records, it is impossible to independently verify whether members in good standing were improperly removed.
Members also said election procedures violated the state party’s charter and bylaws, citing issues with an email-based voting system used by members who attend meetings virtually.
“The procedures fail to provide any information regarding the type of electronic voting system being used, how ballots will be digitally signed, how ballots will be tracked and counted, how individual votes will be made public, or how deliverability issues will be avoidable,” the letter states.
In Tuesday’s email to Central Committee members, Nevada State Democratic Party officials said they would be using the Election Buddy system to record attendance and facilitate the election of officers for the 20232025 term.
Members attending in-person who do not have a digital device for voting will also be able to use voting kiosks on-site, the email said.
The letter to Whitmer also included a demand that Saturday’s vote not be held in secret and that all candidates running for leadership positions be able to observe voting records in realtime, including who is voting and for whom their vote is cast.
Finally, members allege Whitmer has been using state party resources, including the official party Twitter account, the official party email list and official press releases to promote her slate’s reelection.
“The misuse of resources by NSDP officers not only undermines the impartial administration of the upcoming elections,” the letter reads. “But (it) also undermines confidence among both State Central Committee members and the public regarding the integrity of the NSDP as an institution.”
In recent weeks, several prominent Nevada Democratic politicians have publicly urged their conference to support Monroe-moreno’s “unity” slate. Those politicians include Yeager, Cannizzaro and the entirety of Nevada’s progressive federal congressional delegation, including U.S. Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto, who won reelection last year, and Jacky Rosen, who is vying for a second term in 2024.
On Tuesday, former Gov. Steve Sisolak, who lost in November to Republican Joe Lombardo and was the only incumbent Democratic governor to lose in the last cycle, issued a statement supporting Monroe-moreno.
“The Nevada State Democratic Party plays a critical role in Democrats’ success in the state and across the country — from our status as a battleground to our place in the early nominating calendar — and especially when it comes to close elections,” Sisolak said.
“It is the role of the party to support Democratic candidates — not make things harder. Yet in 2022, when Democrats were already facing headwinds in a tough midterm cycle, current party leadership decided to withhold critical voter information from my team, divert critical resources to allies instead of investing in strategic organizing, and went so far as to endorse and financially back my appointed Lt. Governor Democratic primary challenger,” Sisolak said.
In his endorsement of Monroe-moreno, Sisolak said her slate was the “right choice because they understand the responsibility of the State Party and they know what it takes to win tough elections.”
“It’s time to get our reputation as a national model for state parties back,” Sisolak said.
Infighting between the progressive and establishment wings of the Nevada State Democratic Party have plagued Whitmer’s tenure, dating to her controversial win over Clark County Commissioner Tick Segerblom for the state party chair in March 2021. Whitmer, who advocates for “grassroots” candidates at the local level, was once the face of the Las Vegas Democratic Socialists of America and was instrumental in Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2016 Nevada Democratic Caucus win.
Several progressive candidates, backed by the local chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, swept all five state party leadership positions, prompting nearly every employee with the Nevada State Democratic Party to resign, according to a March 8, 2021, report in The Intercept. Shortly before the progressive faction took over the reins of the party, establishment figures who were running the party emptied its coffers to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
Those who quit started a new group, Nevada Democratic Victory, and endorsed more moderate candidates like Sisolak and Cortez Masto. Whitmer’s NV Dems also supported Sisolak and Cortez Masto, but focused their energy on down-ballot races.
In May 2021, NV Dems Treasurer Howard Beckerman resigned after Whitmer made controversial statements critical of Israel, garnering criticism from such high-profile Nevada Democrats as U.S. Rep. Susie Lee and Rosen.