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Choosing A Presidentcontinuedand includes mostly black Crown Heights and part of Bedford Stuyvesant, whereiiiuat wi aiva 5 pu^ouidtiuii 1 5 , uuiwhere far fewer registered voters live. No matter where the caucus will be held someone is bound to be upset.%u201c REAL CHAOTIC SITUATION%u201dConsidering the new national party rules, was it possible for the State legislature to come up with a plan where delegates could have been elected in the primary as in previous years? Jerry Konig, Program Analyst for Election Law of the New York Slate Assembly, and an authority on the Stales%u2019 complex election law provisions, says: %u201c It wasn%u2019t impossible to elect delegates%u201d and goes on to point out that the State Committee is made up of equal numbers of men and women and are elected in a primary. The difficulty would not have been in creating a ballot, but counting the votes to make certain (he proper proportion of delegates for each candidate was reflected in the winning slate. %u201c I foresee a real chaotic situation in 1980 where a lot of people will be disenfranchised,%u201d Konig says of the caucus system.And so most Assemblymen and State Senators responsible for the long-drawn out and confusing process seem to be reluctant to talk about why it was approved by the State Legislature last month. Assembly Speaker Stanley Fink%u2019s office refers callers to the Election Committee Office, when questioned. Repeated phone calls to Democratic State Senate Minority Leader Manfred Ohrenstein%u2019s office were returned by numerous staff members. The Senator himself would not come to the phone or return calls. Repeated calls to Brooklyn Democratic Leader Meade Esposito%u2019s office went unanswered.On the other hand, people who voted against the new Stale Party Presidential Primary plan are much more willing to talk. Senator Marlin Connor (Dem.-DowntownBrooklyn-Lower Manhattan) who voted against the bill, says %u201c If you ask me will it work? It depends on what you mean by work. But if you ask me will people be happy with it? My answer is no.%u201dJoe Polsner, press aide to Senator Ohrcns'.cin (Dc%u201d! Wnrt c%u00ab/4n\\ ^n%u00ab>ever, disagrees. He says %u201c It%u2019s a step in the right direction.%u201d When asked if there might be a problem with transportation in the 17th Congressional District he said %u201c you%u2019ll have the ferry,%u201d and adds that he issure of %u201c getting good turnouts%u201d of voters at the caucuses.Assemblyman Harvey Strelzin (Dem.- Ft. Greene, Williamsburg), one of the few elected officials voting for the caucus plan and willing to go on record about what he%u25a0 r ? i %u201e ? ___ ._____ . l %u201e . i i i m a o v/A 11*- vv !_,!*-*. 1ivzii L/U %u00bbv , a a j a m a tthe improvement this year is that a Presidential candidate will have more control over the delegate selection process because he will %u201c pick the ones he can rely on.%u201d and that %u201c will strengthen the hand ofPresidential candidates%u201d and %u201c that makessense to me.%u201dPresidential canpaigns can approve or disapprove delegates who apply to run in the caucuses pledged to a Presidential candidate. And so Presidential candidateso n H 1G C o ] p n l i f i o o l I o n H o r c ___o r o e u r o f nbe consulted%u2014have significantly increased their control over the process. Strelzin does concede that taken into account the long and difficult delegate selection process it \bosses.%u201dChanging Laws To Please Party Leaders?The latest change in the way New York State chooses its delegates to the Democratic National Convention is the result of a national party decree that New York State change its ways or have it%u2019s 282 member delegation refused seating at the 1980 convention.The National Democratic Party itself has undergone tremendous changes since the watershed 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago where protesters charged that the Party was not representative of Democratic voters. Changes in 1976 made major strides to broaden representation after sporadic changes in 1972. The 1980 Democratic National Convention in New York City will see 3331 delegates who, if nothing else, arc in compliance with elaborate rules seeking to insure a broad-base representation of party members by orienting delegate selection based on race, sex, age, color, creed, national origin, religion, ethnic identity, and economic status.Half of the delegates at the 1980 convention will have to be women, and attirmattve action goals have been set for minority groups, for Native Americans and for youths. The Party has also modified the %u201c winner-take-all%u201d system so that Presidential candidates can now,for the first time, count on receiving some delegate votes%u2014at least on the first ballot%u2014at the Conventioreven though they do not win a majority or plurality of the voters in any State Primary election. And finally the National Party rules now require that regardless of what system is used to select delegates, the name of the Presidential candidate must be listed on the primary election ballot in every state.But how to devise a ballot and make sure the voters vote the way the party rules would like the outcome to be? New York State party officials decided they would not let the voters vote for delegates themselves. At least not in a primary. They may have been reading %u201c Boss%u201d William Tweed%u2019s maxim; \the voters do all the votin they want as long as they leave the nominatin to me.%u201dOf the 282 New York Delegates who will go to the New York City convention in August 1980, a plan was devised where: 192 delegates would be elected in Congressional district caucuses around the state; 26 party and elected officials will be selected by the delegates who emerge from the caucuses; and 64 at-large delegates will be picked at a meeting of the 300 member Democratic Slate Committee, made up of 150 men and 150 women who are elected, one from each of New York State%u2019s 150 Assembly Districts.State Party Chairman Dominick Baranello presented this plan to the State Committee which had received prior approval from the Democratic Compliance Review Commission, a committee of the National Democratic Party. It was adopted by the State. However, the entire reform caucus of the State Committee voted against the proposal. Miriam Bockman of Greenwich Village, Manhattan Democratic County leader, spoke out against it, as did downtown Brooklyn State Committee members Eileen Dugan and Sal Ferraiolli, as well as Irene Barbaro of Bensonhurst and Louise Finney of Park Slope.What was especially galling to the reform caucus, says Bockman, was that a majority of the State Committee present at the meeting voted against the plan,but most county leaders from around the state including Brooklyn%u2019s Meade Esposito voted for it, and carried the day because they were holding proxies for State Committee-men and -women absent from the debate and the vote.The next step in the process, the official change of the State Election Law by the State Legislature was anticlimactic. Legislators from both sides of the aisle had few objections to the Democratic Party plan and with little debate it passed overwhelmingly%u2014122 for, 21 against in the Assembly; 48 for, 5 against in the Senate.%u2014IVSI T ' S T H E E N DPF THE LINEThis month is the last chance for expiring subscribers to renewtheir annual mail subscriptions to The Phoenix.If you received a post card renewal notice in the mail withinthe past few weeks and have not returned your payment, yourPhoenix subscription will end this month.The Phoenix has becom e must reading for keeping up with allthe excitement of Brownstone Brooklyn: %u2605Stories on the arts.%u2605 News of the Neighborhoods. %u2605 Interesting shopping opportunities. %u2605 The biggest area classified a d section around. These are alipart of what you get each week with The Phoenix. You aren%u2019t athome in Brownstone Brooklyn without it.And coming early next year, every Phoenix subscriber will get afree copy of the annual Phoenix Brownstone Guide, our new\know for living in our Brooklyn neighborhoods. A $4 value free aspart of your Phoenix subscription.If You Haven%u2019t Renewed Your Subscription, Don%u2019t Delay.No Downtown Brooklyn Home Should Be Without It%u2019s Phoenix.To renew, either return your postcard notice right away withpayment, or fill out the coupon below.Don%u2019t put off Sending Your Renewal Today: It%u2019s the End of theLine If You Don%u2019t Act Right Now.Please, don%u2019t cut m e off. 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