California Democrats loudly lean left - but quietly make a safe choice
https://www.elkgrovenews.net/2019/06/california-democrats-loudly-lean-left.html
By Ben Christopher, CALmatters |
Anyone who
spent the weekend at the California Democratic Party’s convention—watching 14
White House contenders try to impress what one Congresswoman called “the wokest
Democrats in the country”—observed the following:
Saturday’s
most rapturous cheers went to Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who declared
“the time for small ideas is over, advocated “big, structural change” and said
“I am here to fight.” Sunday’s thunderous applause went to Vermont Sen. Bernie
Sanders, when he demanded there an be “no middle ground” on climate
change, healthcare or gun violence.
But those
who strayed from progressive orthodoxy did so at their peril.
Ex-Colorado
Gov. John Hickenlooper dismissed the push for single-payer health care by
insisting “socialism is not the answer” Saturday and drew a sustained barrage
of boos—not just from those who embraced the label, but from those who resented
it. The following day, Maryland Rep. John Delany’s dismissed Medicare-for-All
as “not good policy,” and faced heckles and jeers.
The San
Francisco confab is was the state Dems’ first get-together since last year’s
blowout election returned the party to its majority in the House and devastated
the ranks of elected Republicans in California. The delegates left no doubt
that as they prepare for the 2020 election against President Donald Trump, they
are in no mood for compromise or equivocation.
At least
not when it comes to ideas that energize them.
But state
party conventions—dominated in decibels by faithful partisans and zealous
activists—often offer an exaggerated, funhouse-mirror reflection of what the
party’s voters statewide actually think. And even the delegates can be more
temperate than the room might suggest.
In one of
the few choices that the 3,200-plus delegates actually made, a majority
eschewed more progressive candidates and easily elected as the party’s next
chairman Los Angeles labor leader Rusty Hicks. He’s a soft spoken white guy
from Los Angeles who represented what many called the “safe choice.”
Still, they
gave an effusive reception to speakers who jettisoned safe choices. Here was
Warren: “Too many powerful people in our party say, ‘Settle down, back up …
wait for change until the privileged and powerful are comfortable with those
changes,'” she said. “Here’s the thing — when a candidate tells you all the
things that aren’t possible … they are telling you they will not fight for you,
and I am here to fight.”
Few of the presidential candidates addressed California issues
specifically, in the way they become conversant about, say, ethanol in Iowa.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, who’s made climate policy a thrust of his campaign,
talked about visiting the wildfire devastation in the California community of
Paradise, and some candidates called for greater regulation of tech firms. But
mostly their speeches sidestepped California-specific concerns and aimed wide
in appealing to what Oakland Rep. Barbara Lee called the “most progressive and
the most democratic and the wokest Democrats
in the country.”
“This is
obviously a group of activists and there are obviously some candidates who
appeal more to the activists,” Dave Min told CALmatters at a meeting of the
Chicano and Latino Caucus. He lost a bid for Congress in 2018 to Rep. Katie
Porter, who was backed by Sen. Warren and supported Medicare-for-All. Now he’s
seeking a state senate seat.
As if to
illustrate his point, minutes later Sanders, who has done more than virtually
any other politician to turn support for universal Medicare into a litmus test
for progressive Democratic candidates, entered the room—and was nearly trampled
by selfie-seeking delegates.
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Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper made national news by irritating progressive California delegates. Photo by Ben Christopher for CALmatters |
Next Beto
O’Rourke, the former Texas Congressman who nearly beat GOP Sen. Ted Cruz in
Texas, entered the room, unleashing fresh pandemonium. Minnesota Sen. Amy
Klobuchar, a relative moderate, was treated to a much more restrained, if
polite, reception.
That
courtesy was not extended to Hickenlooper.
“If we want to beat Donald Trump and achieve big progressive
goals, socialism is not the answer,” he told the convened Democrats. He was
booed for roughly 30 seconds by delegates who either objected to his
characterization of single payer healthcare as “socialism” or, in fact, believe
that socialism is the answer.
Regardless,
the scene was unadulterated Fox News fodder.
The next day, Delaney of Maryland took the same approach. On the
heels of Sanders’ raucously well-received speech, Delaney told the audience
that universal access to Medicare “is actually not good policy.” The audience
disagreed, vocally and persistently. Even New York Rep. Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez got in the act, tweeting that Delaney should just “sashay away.”
If this is the first time you’ve heard of Delaney or
Hickenlooper, that may have been the point. Hickenlooper later told the San
Francisco Chronicle that he was not seeking the crowd’s vitriol. But the
fact that his campaign blasted out a press release the day of the event with
the title, “Hickenlooper to California Dems: “Socialism is Not the Answer”
suggested he might have been aiming his appeal far outside Moscone Center. The
following day, his campaign issued a press release citing coverage from the
Washington Post and exulting: “Hickenlooper lost the room but gained a national
audience.”
Besides,
the Democratic Party has a history of candidates strategically saying something
sure to elicit boos from a leftist crowd in order to establish their
independent cred with moderates: Consider President Bill Clinton’s Sister
Souljah speech, and California Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s defense of capital
punishment at her state’s convention—which her campaign gleefully turned into a
TV commercial.
For Julian
Castro, who served as Housing and Urban Development secretary in the Obama
administration and who has struggled to gain much popular support, the
interpretation was clear.
“You heard
the reaction,” he said, when asked by a reporter whether Democrats can compete
without supporting a single payer health care policy. “Probably not in this
state. Who knows?”
Joe Biden might disagree. The former vice president supports a
policy that would allow those under qualifying age to purchase a Medicare policy, which constitutes a moderate
position among the current Democratic candidates. But at least for now, he leads
in the polls—even among California Democrats.
The Biden
campaign explained the candidate’s conspicuous absence at the San Francisco
convention as an unavoidable scheduling conflict, though attendees for the 2018
Democratic convention may recall the chilly reception that Sen. Feinstein,
another moderate, received.
The Democrats in attendance largely shrugged off Biden’s
decision not to show up. Alex Gallardo-Rooker, who has served at the party’s
chair since the resignation of Eric Baumann earlier this year, said that
Biden was “being pulled all over the place.” Gov. Newsom also gave the former
vice president a pass: “It’s a big country.” When asked about it, Sen. Kamala
Harris literally shrugged—and said nothing.
The one
exception was Sanders who, during his speech in the convention hall on Sunday
morning, referred to “presidential candidates who have spoken to you here in
this room and those who have chosen, for whatever reason, not to be in this
room.” The crowd happily booed.
Sanders was cheered as he argued that there is no “middle
ground” on climate change, a not-so-subtle dig at Biden who used the term to describe his environmental policy plan.
But to
some, both supporters and detractors, the party’s choice of Hicks for chair
represented its own kind of middle ground. Kimberly Ellis, Hicks’ strongest
opponent who narrowly lost the race for party chair in 2017, had argued that
the party needs to take a more assertive role in political messaging and agenda
setting.
But with 57% of the vote, Hicks’ victory was decisive and the party avoided a
much-predicted runoff election. Ellis got 36%.
For close observers of California politics, this might feel like
deja vu. Earlier this year, the California Republican Party held its own election for chair in which Jessica Patterson, the pick of
most of the party establishment, beat out an ideological upstart, Travis Allen.
At a Friday
evening forum hosted by the Democratic Party’s progressive caucus, candidates
for chair were asked, rapid-fire, about single-payer health insurance, a
statewide ban on fracking, the Green New Deal and a moratorium on new charter
schools. All six candidates were unanimous in their support.
Where
disagreement arose, it was less about policy and more about the role of the
party itself—whether the priority should be on building up the party as a
political institution or promoting the most progressive agenda.
Asked
whether the party should abandon the practice of automatically endorsing
incumbent Democratic lawmakers or substantially reduce the power of elected
office holders within the party, Hicks was the only candidate to say no.
Karen
Araujo, a delegate from Salinas who supported Ellis, called Hicks “a safe
choice.”
Still, she
added, “it was a clear decision. I’ll honor that and I’ll work hard for my
party.”
“It’s good
to have a decisive moment where we decide, ‘okay, fair election, fair result,
now let’s work on the next thing,’” said Josh Newman, a former Orange County
state senator who was recalled and is running for his old seat again. “And the
next thing has to be 2020.”
Elizabeth Castillo contributed to this story.
CALmatters.org is a
nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and
politics.
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