Sanders backers take over California Democratic Party

[DonViejo]

Source: The Hill


BY REID WILSON - 01/19/17 10:20 AM EST

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) turned out en masse at ordinarily sleepy party caucuses earlier this month, electing a slate of delegates who could be poised to take over the largest Democratic Party organization outside of Washington, D.C.

As final vote totals trickled in, Sanders backers claimed to have elected more than 650 delegates out of 1,120 available seats chosen at this month’s caucuses. Those delegates will choose the next state Democratic Party chairman, along with other party officials.

Sanders supporters say they hope to change the very nature of the Democratic Party.

“One of the issues we’re looking to do is transform the party,” said Shannon Jackson, executive director of Our Revolution, the organization that grew out of the Sanders’s presidential campaign. “This is the first step in that process.”

Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/315040-sanders-backers-take-over-california-democratic-party#.WIDwu7gm3-k.facebook

[xxqqqzme]

1. All the delegates from

the 74th Assembly District are Sanders supporters.


In 2005 (delegates are elected in odd years) we were all Howard Dean delegates.

[Warpy]

2. Good for them

Somebody has to shake up all those stodgy, conservative election losers in the halls of power who want to keep playing things safe.

Those day are over.

[msongs]

3. maybe you missed it but CA is controlled by dems top bottom - pre-sanders era dems nt

[KittyWampus]

10. California is run by Democrats.

[LenaBaby61]

37. California is run by Democrats.

We have a super majority. Rethugs have been put in their PLACE as they should be out here in California

[Percy Cholmondeley]

42. Good point

Kansas, on the other hand, is controlled by tea party republicans. And as we hear all the time, there's not a dime's worth of difference between the two main parties...

[George II]

11. Can't be much in the way of "election losers" if they're in "power" and Democrats control....

...both houses of the legislature (for more than 20 years) AND the Governorship.

So who is "stodgy" and/or "conservative"?

[Plucketeer]

24. It's likey hard to see thru the veil of the Clinton triumph

I believe Warpy was referring to the FEDERAL landscape - not just California's!

[LakeArenal]

34. Some still find it difficult to admit Sanders has a huge following

State or Federally.

[Plucketeer]

43. You bet!

It's like standing at attention on the deck of a ship that's already slid beneath the waves!

[George II]

45. Well, let's just leave it up to Warpy to weigh in, okay?

[pnwmom]

31. The Democratic party in CA is anything but stodgy. This is a case of trying to fix

something that's not broken.

[George II]

46. Bingo!

[Plucketeer]

47. "something that's not broken."

Right. And the establishment contingent is burgeoning outside of CA! That Clinton won the popular vote - will you tell me how that matters tomorrow?

[pnwmom]

48. CA has one of the highest voter rates in US -- more than 75%

Last edited Thu Jan 19, 2017, 07:41 PM - Edit history (3)

in the November election, and strongly went for Democrats. Explain how that means the system there is broken.

[Plucketeer]

55. Hmmmm

I guess I'm posting to the wrong thread.

[Lebam in LA]

52. Thank you

[masmdu]

4. Yay!

[brooklynite]

5. Beyond the internal politics, there's an important message here: show up and get involved...

...it makes a difference.

[IronLionZion]

6. Good! There's no time for ordinarily sleepy stuff

People in our party need to be wide awake for what's happening next.

[geek tragedy]

7. 95% of the party power goes to those who show up at those kinds of meetings nt

[Blue_Tires]

17. +1

[Talk Is Cheap]

8. Great news!

California has to take the lead in pushing a more progressive/liberal (or what I call 'normal') agenda.

[JudyM]

15. You bet. Welcome to DU, Talk Is Cheap.

Check into the Sanders group here if you'd like - much less active now but a lot of us still check the posts.

[Talk Is Cheap]

27. Will do - thanks!

[Plucketeer]

25. Welcome to DU

Yes, we've had ENOUGH of the Dems chasing the same pots of gold as the evil empire. When they get handfuls of those doubloons, it suddenly changes their nature. They get an irrevocable membership pass to the "forget your constituents" club.

[Piedras]

9. The Progressive Slate for CA AD35 won all 14 positions

In San Luis Obispo and northern Santa Barbara counties the sloprogressiveslate won all 14 positions for Assembly District 35 delegates to the California Democratic Party. Well over 700 people turned out to vote for delegates on a rainy Saturday. The SLO Progressives are well organized. I attended the dinner meeting of the SLO Progressives last night to learn more about their agenda.

[JudyM]

18. So, what are their plans? And are they coordinating with similar groups across the state? We are

all looking to Cali to prop up what's going to be left of our democracy... hopefully creating laws that will need to be followed outside the state for uniformity's sake.

[Hortensis]

12. Well, we can't afford California's Democratic Party

being dragged down by the incompetence, inexperience, and intolerant divisiveness so common to the far left (and right), so let's hope some of these guys are good, mainstream progressives, that those have a short learning curve, and that there's a strong, sensible leader among them.

Also huge, California Democrats have been overwhelmingly powerful in late years because of California Hispanics. I'm afraid of what will happen if they are not well represented among this incoming group, which frankly seems unlikely. Afraid for 2018.

[George II]

13. Perhaps the best thing about this is that, unlike their standard bearer, they're all DEMOCRATS!

[Hortensis]

14. :) Well, I'm also hoping there'll be something a liiittle

better than that to this. A little shake-up can be helpful, just please not The Big One.

There are important reasons the far left has never managed to keep their own parties from falling apart, much less be effective. And groups like the Kochs' which are already targeting the far left for seduction will already be focusing attention on how to subvert, or get control of, a possibly newly vulnerable state party.

Sigh. I always saw myself as strong left, but now I'm forced to rush into the breach. I'm afraid I didn't begin to appreciate our stodgy, functional, sausage-making center as I should have before we lost it.

[George II]

19. The thing is the "far left" only represents about 10-15% of all Democrats*, so they don't....

....speak for the majority of Democrats, just as the extreme right only represents about the same percentage of republicans.

But they're loud and pushy (on both ends of the spectrum) so they get heard. Time for mainstream Democrats who have supported the Party and it's ideology for decades to be a little more pushy.

*I know the instant reaction will be "but 43% of Democrats voted for the "far left" in the primaries", but that simply is not true. Unfortunately Democrats allow those from outside the party to vote in their primaries, so non-Democrats contributed to the choice of our candidate. It was speculated that many "unaffiliated" voters and registered republicans voted in our primaries in an attempt to skew the vote and choose, let me just say, a different candidate. As we've seen since November 8, it doesn't take much to change the outcome of an election and/or appear to be more influential.

[Hortensis]

30. +1000.

And we know your last statement is true, based on a lot of good, independent data. Most states didn't approach the 38% and 44% (depending on poll) of primary Sanders voters in a coal-country state who had no intention of voting for him or any Democrat in the general, but the % of spoilers was still large on average (though in this case not enough to change the outcome against an overwhelmingly popular leading candidate).

The big worry, like in any nation, is that the far left could be united under a bad leader with the far and strong right to attack the center and take over. That's how democracies die.

As you say, hopefully these huge setbacks will encourage mainstream Democrats to become more "pushy." Our lack of galvanizing energy from fear and hostility toward change and/or those who are different is our great weakness, one not shared by the far left who attack us above all others and the far right and mainstream right who attack us above all others.

We still have our one huge advantage that has allowed us to win out for well over 200 years now: We are the only group that fully believes in the principles this nation was founded on and that genuinely respects the rights of and wants to represent all Americans. As shown by almost 3 million more people voting Democrat even in the relentlessly corrupted and voter-suppressed 2016 election.

[Aimee in OKC]

56. About a form of sabotage ...

" And we know your last statement is true ... . "

My first encounter with that was at our voter registration drive booth in May 2004, resulting in my being severely ticked-off and indignant. I watched as two women filling out the forms casually discussed needing to re-register as GOP, because they'd switched parties just to vote in the Democrat's February primary.

I secured the paperwork for proper turn-in, but based on that incident wondered if a Republican would do the right thing or just trash it on the sly. Sad to say, the answer's become clearer over the years. Politics is a wargame to them & winning control is the goal.

[Hortensis]

57. Very interesting story, Aimee.

Reminds me of too many people. Here in a Deep South area of the Bible Belt I'm appalled again and again by the intense righteousness of people who believe they have done right by embracing as a way of life what they themselves would consider grave sins in any other area of their lives. Not everyone who spread those filthy lies about Hillary believe them by any means, but that doesn't matter to them. As you say, war.

[Eleanors38]

40. "far left." H-h-h-heh-heh-heh. You mean LBJ? H-h-h-heh-heh-heh.

[Blue_Tires]

16. uh... What the fucking hell?

They decided to "take over" the party in the party's strongest state?? Talk about fixing something that isn't broken... They're going to make Cali even more blue or something?

Why aren't the Sanders folks taking over West Virginia or Ohio or Georgia or somewhere full of those mythical "working class whites with economic concerns who were abandoned by the establishment??" You don't win a battle by re-conquering your own territory...

For that matter why aren't the Sanders folks getting balls deep in the Virginia Governor race, which is pretty much step one of turning this nightmare around?

[JudyM]

20. You sound like you know that they're not doing these things...

Not to mention that there aren't likely as many Sanders supporters in those states.

[Blue_Tires]

44. I haven't seen any of them in VA... Just sayin'

although to be fair it's been awhile since my last local Dem meeting

[JudyM]

54. There's a group I read about that recently formed in NOVA if you live around there.

Pretty sure they're forming all around...

[Blue_Tires]

58. Nope, I'm in Va. Beach

We'll see how well they prove themselves for the governor's race

[George II]

21. Too much work perhaps?

[geek tragedy]

22. I think that's a bit of headline drama.

It's people showing up at the grassroots, party-building level and making their voices heard.

[murielm99]

41. That's hilarious.

Next thing you know, they will try to take over Illinois. I'd like to see them try to budge Madigan.

Why don't they get going in a state we need, like Wisconsin? I know lots of disaffected Democrats there who would like to see someone stand up to Walker. Do some real work!

[Skittles]

59. correct

smoke and mirrors

[deurbano]

23. As long as they aren't the same assholes who chanted "Lock her up" at the convention.

They were a massive part of the problem, not any kind of solution.

[NWCorona]

26. I really don't like the headline of that Hill article. Some just want to sow division in the left.

This one is a bit less charged.
Sanders Democrats claim victories in California delegate elections

http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article125506244.html

[jzodda]

28. Good I hope they take over all of them

The vote to protect us from all those dangerous Canadian drugs made me realize that many Dems are still in the pockets of the donors and big corps.

[stuffmatters]

29. I hope they move the Ca Primary to March/April. Last election Ca voters were ignored.

Our primary was so late on the calendar that our Ca debate was cancelledand the nominee was called the day before our primary voting date. Talk about discouraging Dem voters or even spreading the Dem message in Ca.
This wasn't just insulting to the largest state population of Democratic voters, it actually hurt us down ballot. I know in San
Diego it resulted in us having a Repub mayor who didn't even have to run in Nov, the Dem primary turnout was so low that he got a
majority of primary votes from rank & file Repubs (SD is demographicallya majority Dem city) The Repub did not have to run in Nov & spend real money & seriously campaign.

I'm getting really tired of Ca not counting, having no say in our elections both within the Dem Party and nationally. Even yesterday the
DNC scheduled the debate for its Chair at 7pm EST...4 o'clock here when most Dems are still at work. By the time we got home the Huffpo live stream was over.

Last election Ca, the state with the largest number of Dem voters, had no say or presence in the primary or national election. It's time to move our primary into the main stream where we are represented.

[MindPilot]

35. plus a gazillion!!

A small group of people in Iowa choose who's gonna run, and the primaries are pretty much decided by the time we get to vote. It's doubtful that DC could be any more out of touch with the west.

[pnwmom]

32. How representative are they of California Democrats? Are they mostly white males,

like the group who turned up in my caucus? They need to represent ALL the Dems, not just the Bernie style progressives.

[NWCorona]

39. 7 men and women were newly elected and I think about half or more are minorities

[martigras]

33. Good for them!

Now the DNC! I'm so done with corporate Democrats.

[NBachers]

36. My sister's husband, Mexican - American with a lifetime of commitment,

Is one of the San Francisco delegates. I am extremely proud of him. There was a great turnout on Election Day.

That said, and having watched the process, I love the slate that they ran on and are promoting, but I never once heard the word Sanders in the run-up to this election.

Assign whatever value you want to that statement.

[hrmjustin]

38. Things are decided by those who show up.

Democracy in action.

[Blue Idaho]

49. Can someone tell me the difference between

A Howard Dean Democrat and a Bernie Sanders Democrat?

Not trying to be a smart ass - so thanks in advance...

[Raine]

50. WONDERFUL ... I love my state! nt

[factfinder_77]

51. California primary results: Hillary 53,07 % - B 46,04 % : Sanders lost by 7,03 % or 363 580 votes

Clinton won in all the major cities: Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose, Fresno, Los Angeles, and San Diego; Sanders did well in the northernmost counties bordering Oregon where he had won the month before.

[pnwmom]

53. And CA had a 75% turnout in November, and 4 million more went to HRC.

The party there doesn't need to be fixed. They're an example for the rest of the country.