t is still the state Democratic Party, but some active members are understandably asking just how democratic it is after Saturday's state convention abruptly shut off debate on two controversial issues.
''How can someone turn off the microphone?'' asks Rachel Rosenblum, chair of the Democratic Town Committee in Lexington, who was about to offer a resolution supporting the state's Clean Elections Law when the convention was suddenly terminated. ''It's infuriating.''
''This is getting to be familiar territory,'' says Representative Jay Kaufman, also of Lexington, who has at times been critical of debate limitations in the House. Kaufman was scheduled to speak in support of Rosenblum's resolution.
''It's treachery, really,'' says Rich Rogers, political director of the state AFL-CIO, which was offering a resolution critical of nursing home owner Gerry Schuster, husband of a prominent Democratic fund-raiser. The labor resolution was due to follow the Clean Elections debate. ''It was very much of a bad faith move on their part,'' says Rogers. ''We were none too pleased.''
The irony is that, at the start of the one-day convention, party leaders had revised the agenda to allow for ''new business.'' But after one resolution that was less controversial passed and the Clean Elections item was being raised, the entire convention was ended. Ray Jordan, vice-chairman of the state committee and presiding officer at the time, says he determined by visual count there was a lack of a quorum, although no firm count was made and several delegates said they believed a quorum of 500 might still have been in the hall.
Rosenblum, Kaufman, and Rogers are bedrock Democrats, the kind who work tirelessly to promote issues and elect candidates. Brushing them off so cavalierly is senseless.
Both Jordan and Senator Joan Menard, the state party chair, denied there was an effort to gag them or their issues. ''We always have controversial issues,'' says Menard. ''That's what Democrats do.''
At Saturday's convention, however, the party did not live up to its name.
