Biafore

Biafore

CHARLESTON — Belinda Biafore, the chairwoman of the West Virginia Democratic Party, is facing a call to resign from one of the largest county executive committees due to a perceived slight to minorities and people of color.

The Wood County Democratic Executive Committee issued a statement Saturday calling for Biafore’s resignation as chairwoman of the state Democratic Executive Committee and called for her removal from the Democratic National Committee. They also unanimously passed a motion for a vote of no confidence in Biafore.

Judy Stephens, chairwoman of the Wood County DEC, accused Biafore of forcing a vote on an affirmative action plan for the state party over the objections of the party’s Affirmative Action Committee.

“There is no room for exclusion or racism in our party,” Stephens said. “We are Democrats and we stand for the rights and representation of all Americans. As the Wood County Democratic Executive Party, we are calling upon Belinda Biafore, our state party chair, to step aside so that our party can work to better reflect the values of diversity, inclusion, and democracy we hold dear.”

During a June 3 meeting of the state DEC, members voted for an affirmative action plan to meet a June 4 deadline set by the DNC. The DNC ordered the state to develop a plan in 1974. Executive committee member Pat Maroney said the plan is still a draft and can be changed later on by the DEC.

“It is our understanding the DNC put us under a deadline … to submit to them an affirmative action plan approved by the committee,” Maroney said during a livestream of the June 3 meeting. “This is merely the first draft of it, and we can amend it, add to it, subtract from it whatever to fully develop it.”

Members of the Affirmative Action Committee and caucuses representing people of color, women, indigenous people, the LGBTQ community, Latino, Asian and pacific islanders, and other underrepresented minorities accused Biafore and state executive committee members of pushing a plan without their input and violating their own bylaws to do so.

“As a co-chair of the Affirmative Action Committee, we would like input on the draft,” said Hollis Mason in response to Maroney. “We appreciate your hard work in drafting it, but we want input on the draft.”

A request for comment from Biafore was not returned. During the June 3 meeting, Biafore told committee members that since the Affirmative Action Committee had only been recently formed, the executive committee would need to approve the draft plan and get Affirmative Action Committee’s input at a later time.

“The passage of an affirmative action and outreach plan by this executive committee does not prevent further amendments and revisions in the future,” Biafore said. “As a matter of fact, we encourage them and we want to work with them to make it happen.”

The state party bylaws, updated in March, allow the Affirmative Action Committee to recommend six at-large members for the state executive committee, an agenda item that came after the committee’s vote on the draft affirmative action plan. Those same bylaws require the Affirmative Action Committee to develop the affirmative action and outreach plan.

“Who was supposed to draft the affirmative action plan if there was no committee created already,” asked committee member Susan Miley. “Why are white people drafting a plan for Hispanics and black people?”

“You can’t draft something on behalf of us,” Mason said. “We just now threw these affirmative action committees together within the last two weeks. We’ve had no time to thoroughly review the plan and we didn’t see the plan, so we should be able to at the very least have a thorough review of it before any voting takes place on it.”

In an undated letter, members of the Association of State Democratic Committees released a statement of support for Biafore.

“Over the last year, Chair Belinda Biafore has worked diligently and reviewed best practices from affirmative action programs around the country to enact updated bylaws with the focus of ensuring the State Party expanded its affirmative action program and implemented best practices to make the party more open and transparent,” the letter stated. “We stand in full support of the efforts by the West Virginia Democratic Party to build a more inclusive party that represents who we are, the people we serve, and the issues that unite us as Democrats.”

Biafore became state party chairwoman after Larry Puccio — the former chief of staff to Gov. Joe Manchin, lobbyist, and political operative — stepped down as chairman in 2015. She was elected to the position in 2016 and reelected in 2020. Biafore has come under fire for major losses of Democratic seats in the Legislature, the loss of the remaining Democratic seat on the Board of Public Works, and the loss of a majority of registered Democratic Party voters in 2021.