In the January Assembly district caucuses to elect delegates to the California Democratic Party, many people reported that union members showed up to support delegates running on a slate for Senator John Burton for CDP chair. Many of these delegate candidates were also union members. I spoke to several of these union members running for delegate at my AD caucus. Both seemed like fine people. Clearly they were dedicated union members. Neither of them were Democratic activists. They had no links to or experience with the party. But, in my district, both are now delegates--or, officially, members of the state Democratic central committee.
I am a firm supporter of bringing new people into the party. But I find this development disturbing for several reasons.
So, I'm quite proud, and excited, to say that I will be serving as a delegate to the California Democratic Party for the next two years. My election on Saturday went quite well, and the entire Ammiano slate cruised through. And hey, I even ended up second overall in the voting.
The election process went remarkably smoothly, all things considered. Almost 250 people showed up on a Saturday morning to vote for the delegates, and 44 people ran. People were outside the doors with literature and doing all your typical electioneering practices. I won't lie...I brought bagels. Most, but not all, of the candidates got up to give a speech.
So, how did you do? How was the process? Did a particular slate take all of the seats? Were they organized by an assembly member, or by John Burton, or an Obama group? I'd love to hear all the gory details.
Yesterday on Daily Kos, I explained how my candidacy for Assembly District Delegate in AD-33 was a classic example of "crashing the gate." Younger volunteers from the Obama campaign are continuing to serve in their communities across the country.
In some communities, there is more than just a tiny bit of friction between us and the old timers and their clubs. I don't begrudge these long term volunteers their positions. But I do begrudge them their monopoly on local party positions.
If San Luis Obispo is famous for anything, it's probably the farmer's market. 20+ years before I moved to the area, I remember my family talking about visiting SLO to go to the Farmer's Market. Tonight, I went there and leafleted for my campaign.
Today is the last day to register to vote. Personally, I'd like to see same-day registration. After all, we are living in the era of cheap and tiny computers. This is a fundamental fairness issue, legal voters simply should not be turned away. Nonetheless, here's the voter reg SoS page. Other interesting stuff:
Frank Russo writes about a S-USA poll in the Rumble in the Bubble (SD-03). (I do some work for Leno.) Leno leads overall 42 -22(Nation)-21(Migden). Besides the fact that Leno is the only candidate with net favorables, a number of note is the breakdown for "liberal" voters. Leno leads that category 47-21(Migden)-17(Nation).
The Bay Guardian has released the audio of their endorsement interviews at their 2008 spring election center. I'm a big fan of news media outlets releasing such interviews. Good work SFBG!
The elected delegates met yesterday in Sacramento. They talked, chose more delegates, and generally had a good time. The media seems to want to make this some sort of bloodbath, but it seems there was more about unity than anything else.
Another item to be slashed in the next budget: Aid for California's disabled. Perhaps the legislators will go and help some of these Californians themselves? Maybe set up an oxygen tank here, help in the process of dressing there. I think Roger Niello and Mike Villines would be excellent at that. After all, they want to cut these funds, so why not provide a bit of their time in leiu of the money that is so desperately needed. That would help, right? Ok, not so much.
Democrat Lockyer, a former state Senate leader and attorney general, traces California's budget woes back to the 1978 passage of Proposition 13 -- the historic property tax cut -- and Sacramento's subsequent decision to bail out revenue-short local governments and schools.
"We've been bailing the sinking ship ever since," he says. "This may be the year when we have to say, 'OK, we're going to make these awful cuts and voters are going to see what the consequences are.' That's kind of a scorched-earth approach, but people somehow think that the budget is going to be balanced by the tooth fairy.
"I don't like it, but there are days when I think that voters need to persuade themselves and reluctant legislators that cuts like these are unacceptable. It's time to do whatever needs to get done to escape this annual torture."
I'd start by placing a measure on the ballot allowing budgets to be passed by a majority vote -- as they are in 47 other states.
But a two-thirds vote is what's ludicrously required today. So the legislators and governor must deal with it.
Under the collective denial mentality that has hijacked media-types and political observers since the February 5th contests, Senator Barack Obama's decisive 56-42 win in North Carolina juxtaposed with Senator Hillary Clinton's narrow 51-49 win in Indiana shows Senator Obama has successfully rebounded from the Rev. Wright controversy and whatever other manufactured non-policy outrages that he's been forced to address. After all, Obama increased his popular vote lead by over 200,000 votes, and more importantly, his 95 new pledged delegates put him 12 delegates further ahead of Clinton. To borrow a catchphrase from former Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman, Obama's got O-mentum. However, while O-mentum plays a role at the margins, a few points here or there, the reality is this contest is already over, and these outcomes were largely predetermined.
I'm getting slightly conflicting reports about exactly where the decision to "prune" the delegate list came from. One report put it the decision in Chicago's hands, another says that it was a California decision. But at this point, the most reliable information that I have was that this was a decision made by the California staff, and a decision that perhaps even angered the Chicago staff.
I don't want to make a huge deal of this because I'm only 90% sure of this, but the signs are pointing to a case of overzealousness. They wanted to a) make it easier on themselves for the running of the caucus and b) ensure that there weren't any hidden Clinton fans. I think they now understand the reaction that this decision has caused and the reasons for that reaction, and even that they made a mistake.
I think we can chalk this up to a more decentralized campaign than we are used to. That's generally a good thing in that it empowers local activists if the local campaign staff has some authority and flexibility. It is nice to be able to talk to a decision maker. But, the down-side of this is that occasionally you get some rookie mistakes. Look, it didn't take a rocket scientist to understand that you would cause more problems than you would solve by pruning the list so dramatically. It's a double-edged sword, but I think I'm ok with that.
As Dave pointed out, it is a good thing that the campaign corrected itself. It is a good thing that the campaign heard the grassroots speaking. Mistakes happen, and for the last seven plus years we had a president who wouldn't admit mistakes and wouldn't correct mistakes. I'll be glad to have a an administration who knows and acknowledges that they are fallible.
There has been an extraordinary outpouring of grassroots support for Senator Obama among Democrats and Independents in all 53 California Congressional districts.
In recognition of this tremendous enthusiasm, our campaign has asked the California Democratic Party to allow all persons who have filed to be a district delegate candidate for Senator Obama at the Democratic National Convention to participate in the caucuses this Sunday, April 13, 2008.
We are confident that delegates elected from this pool will reflect the Senator's commitment to a diverse and unified delegation at the National Convention.
An overwhelming number of supporters have signed up to run for delegate, so there will likely be lines and tight space at the caucus locations. We ask for everyone's patience and cooperation.
Most of all, please enjoy this opportunity to meet other Obama supporters and elect delegate candidates to the Convention in Denver.
If you have any questions, please contact Daryl Sprague at dsprague@barackobama.com.
Thanks for your interest and active participation in Barack's campaign to change politics and change America.
David
David Plouffe
Campaign Manager
Obama for America
In the end, the weird randomness of the pruning and anger from sections of the grassroots necessitated this. I didn't have as big a problem with it as everyone else, but I'm glad it reached a good resolution... until Sunday, that is :)
Delegate rules in Super Tuesday states might not produce clear front-runners
...
In a two- or three-person race such as the Democrats', proportional allocation means candidates will win some delegates in virtually every state, raising the possibility of a tie, or at least an unsettled race, after Super Tuesday. If there's no final decision on Super Tuesday, operatives in both parties said, attention would turn to primaries in Texas and Ohio on March 4, in Pennsylvania on April 22 and in other states.
...
"We're in uncharted territory," said Burdett Loomis, a University of Kansas political-science professor.
[cross-posted from Daily Kos]
Fellow delegates to the CA Democratic Party, fellow Kossacks - let's get together! The San Diego contingent (Dean Nut and I) would like to plan a dinner for Saturday night, someplace close and quiet. Will you join us?
