Sen. Bernie Sanders Strategic Appearance at Dems ‘Blue Wave Rolling’ California Convention
There will be plenty of (mostly pointless) punditry in San Francisco this weekend as Democrats from all over the Golden State gather for their Organizing Convention. Events impacting national and statewide politics with implications for the future of the party promise to make the gathering a memorable one.
Senator Bernie Sander's speaking slot on Sunday will serve dual purposes. In addition to generating enthusiasm for his political campaign, the timing may influence the outcome of what is essentially a three way contest for Chair of California party.
The state’s large block of delegates and a March 3rd primary (with early ballots being mailed out the same day as the Iowa caucuses) now make it a force to be reckoned with for presidential candidates. The convention will host the largest gathering of contenders so far, featuring appearances by 14 of the 23 declared candidates.
On Saturday, aspirants set to speak before the delegates include: New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Texas Rep. Julián Castro, former Maryland Rep. John Delaney, Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, California Sen. Kamala Harris, former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, California Rep. Eric Swalwell and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
Notable by his absence (he declined the invite) will be former Vice- President Joe Biden.
Other VIPs appearing on Saturday include former Speaker/San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown and current San Francisco Mayor London Breed, House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Governor Gavin Newsom; Lt. Governor Eleni Kounalakis; Attorney General Xavier Becerra; Controller Betty Yee; Secretary of State Alex Padilla; Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara; State Treasurer Fiona Ma and Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond.
Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, and California Congressional Delegation Chair, U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren will address a Legislative Leader Lunch Program Saturday afternoon, with Reps Adam Schiff and Maxine Waters speaking at the dinner program.
The MoveOn Big Ideas Forum, where Democratic presidential primary candidates have been asked to present their big ideas will take place on Saturday, June 1 at 12:45 Pacific Time.. The event will be live streamed via Facebook.
Appearing at the MoveOn event are: Senator Cory Booker, Secretary Julián Castro, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Senator Kamala Harris, Senator Amy Klobuchar, Congressman Beto O’Rourke, Senator Bernie Sanders, and Senator Elizabeth Warren.
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While the media chatter has and will be mostly about the A-listers, the party’s culture is facing a fundamental challenge. The most visible manifestation of this transition will be the special election for Party Chair.
Seven candidates- Lenore Albert, Kimberly Ellis, Rusty Hicks, Mike Katz-Lacabe, Daraka Larimore-Hall, Rita Ramirez, and Mike Saifie will make their case to the delegates during on Saturday, June 1st, 2019 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. The first round of voting will take place later that day; should no candidate garner more than 50% of the vote, a runoff election will occur the following morning.
The leaders in the contest at this point are considered to be Kimberly Ellis, a Bay-area Democratic activist; Rusty Hicks, president of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor; and Daraka Larimore-Hall, who heads the Santa Barbara County Democratic Party.
Politico's California Playbook explains why the timing of Sen. Bernie Sanders' appearance may influence the outcome:
Normally, Sunday is a wind-down day at these conventions,as delegates peel off, head home and try to lower the impact to their pocket books. Hicks has amassed the backing of many elected officials, labor leaders and other major names in CA politics who are regulars at these conventions (and can more likely pay the freight or have the support to stay on in expensive SF for the duration). But Sanders' scheduled Sunday speech almost guarantees that Ellis — a Berniecrat with the backing of his Our Revolution organization — gets the boost of an energized grassroots crowd who will stick around to hear their candidate, and may be more motivated to cast round two ballots.
Each of the candidates has a constituency in the party. And each of them are running from the winner of the last election, namely Eric Bauman, who was forced to step down following accusations of sexual harassment and assault, which he denies. Three lawsuits have been filed.
Bauman won the top position in 2017 by just 60 votes, beating out Kimberley Ellis, in what was widely seen as a reflection of conflict within the party between its traditional leadership and the newer wave of activists energized by the 2016 candidacy of Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Here’s some insight from Ben Christopher at CALmatters:
“There’s much to celebrate and to be excited about,” said Rusty Hicks, president of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor and one of seven people bidding to replace Bauman at this month’s convention. “At the same time, I think there’s some very serious issues that we should address.”
But, he added: “If not addressed, and Democrats don’t feel safe in engaging with their party, then it could absolutely impact both the energy, the activism and the ability to have real capacity throughout the state.”
The allegations made in the various lawsuits indicate that those issues go beyond Bauman. They depict a boozy workplace environment that allowed harassment, disparagement and assault of its own employes to go on unchecked or unnoticed. Amid all of this, questions have arisen about whether the party that claims to represent inclusion, tolerance and the spirit of the #MeToo movement lacks credibility with voters and donors.
“Of course it wasn’t just Eric,” said Daraka Larimore-Hall, the party’s current vice chair who is also running for the top seat. “The dysfunction is that someone was able to behave that way and get away with it for far too long,”
The three of the top contenders for the chair position in this year’s election have pledged to rid the organization of the boys club culture,and remain neutral in presidential contests.
An article at The Hill contrasted the approaches of activist Ellis and labor leader Hicks:
“This is a time when our party must do more, be more and mean more in people’s everyday lives,” Ellis said in an interview. “They want this party to be a platform for educating the community, a platform for connecting the dots as to how politics touches our everyday lives, a platform for empowering people.”
Hicks is less willing to say the party should exert ideological pressure.
“At this particular moment in the party’s history, I think it’s important we have a thoughtful, strategic leader who both understands and can build upon the victories of 2018,” Hicks told The Hill. “The state party can play an important role in partnering with grassroots leaders to ensure that elected officials on the local level are carrying out the Democratic values that you see at the state level.”
Former Assemblymember Delaine Eastin and former LA Supervisor Gloria Molina contributed an op ed to the Fresno Bee saying Rusty Hicks backers were “fighting to maintain an old boys’ network in the party that does not welcome diversity except as a talking point.”
In the special election for chair, labor’s candidate Rusty Hicks made a serious misstep by refusing to sign a binding non-retaliation agreement put forward by delegates from the grassroots of the party. Candidates for chair who signed the pledge include Daraka Larimore-Hall and Kimberly Ellis.
The agreement calls out a “culture of fear and retaliation” in the state party that “kept survivors and witnesses from coming forward.” Signatories also pledge that their campaigns “will not harass, victimize, or threaten anyone associated with this election.”
I expect the right wing media will do their best to sensationalize the contest for party chair. The increasing presence of the rapidly growing Democratic Socialists of America in the party has the far fringe types in a tizzy.
Both Ellis and Larimore-Hall are considered to be DSA infiltrators looking to gain more influence over elected officials, according to Trevor Loudon, writing at the Epoch Times:
If the DSA and its allies succeed in dominating the CDP, which has a near-monopoly in the state, the economic, political, and social consequences for California would be dire.
Worse, it would pose a major national security problem for the whole country as more socialists would be planted in the U.S. Congress and U.S. Senate, and thousands of Marxist radicals would be appointed to California state jobs.
California is already in near-open rebellion against the Trump administration. If the DSA and their Marxist allies gain a controlling influence in the CDP and, by extension, the fifth-largest economy in the world, we can reasonably expect disastrous consequences on all fronts.
A more realistic view of what’s expected can be found at the Los Angeles Blade:
For months, many politicos feared grassroots activists would bitterly squabble over who would replace Eric Bauman, the first openly gay chair of the California Democratic Party (CDP) who resigned amid allegations of sexual impropriety. But the imperative of replacing Donald Trump has relegated the chair contest to more of an internal matter, enabling delegates to spend May 31 to June 2 debating how to win the presidency and hold the House.
Seven candidates are vying for CDP chair, with election results announced on June 2. Bay Area activist Kimberly Ellis, whose dramatically contentious challenge to Bauman in 2017 was a shocker to party stalwarts and Daraka Larimore-Hall, a millennial activist primarily based in Santa Barbara, are the top two contenders. But less flashy longtime union organizer Rusty Hicks, who has a slew of endorsements from numerous LGBT politicos such as Los Angeles County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl and LA County Assessor Jeff Prang, appears to be the candidates many are hoping will restore order and the CDP’s reputation.
While that party business is going on in the background—as well as the race for new chairs of the LGBT Caucus—delegates will mostly focus on organizing for the big 2020 races, given the 8.6 million registered Democrats in California.
This weekend’s Organizing Convention is the first of two State Conventions the California Democratic Party will hold this year. The second will be the party’s Endorsing Convention, slated for November in Long Beach.
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