Dear friends:

We have reserved the Charlottesville High School Performing Arts Center for Saturday, February 23, 2002, at 10:00 AM, for our nominating convention/caucus for City Council.

The City Committee has agreed that we will have a one-step procedure, and the Call to Convention will go out incorporating that decision. In framing the Call to Convention, and in thinking about some organizational difficulties that might arise, we have added a few other rules as well.

Most notably -- all candidates should pre-file a declaration of their candidacy with either of the Co-chairs, to be received by one of them no later than 12:00 noon on Monday, February 18, 2002. This will enable us to plan the meeting and to get the computer programs ready to make it all go smoothly.

The procedure will include the following characteristics:

1. Participants must be Democrats, and they must agree that they do not intend to support anyone who is opposed to a Democrat in the May election.

2. Participants must be registered voters in the City of Charlottesville.

3. All participants must register on the morning of the meeting, no later than 10:00 AM. We will not literally "lock the doors" at 10:00 AM -- we just will not hand out any more certification forms after that time.

4. For each spot on the ticket to be filled, each precinct will have as many Convention Votes as it has City Committee members (elected, not including ex officio). For example, Clark has 6 Committee members; Clark will get 6 Convention Votes for each of the two spots.

5. We will hear from the candidates at that meeting on February 23. After hearing from the candidates, the precincts will caucus. In the
precinct caucuses, all participants will cast a ballot for up to two candidates. The ballots will be counted by precincts, and the Convention Votes will be apportioned based on the percent of the ballots cast.

6. Any candidate who receives more than 50 Convention Votes will be considered nominated, unless more than two candidates receive more than 50 Convention Votes, in which case the top two will be nominated.

7. If there is more than one ballot, the bottom Convention Vote getter, and any other person not receiving 15 Convention Votes, will be eliminated before the next ballot.

8. Balloting will continue until both spots on the ticket are filled.

Now that we have put Creigh Deeds in the Senate, we are free to turn to local affairs. We know that many people will be hard at work in the next few months. We hope that everyone will remember, as we argue, cajole, persuade and debate, that we are all Democrats; that when the nominating process is over we will all be Democrats; and that there are many more things that unite us than divide us.

Let the games begin!

Lloyd Snook
Rus Perry

Co-Chairs, Charlottesville Democratic Party (electronic mail, December 20, 2001).