Davis throws down marker in presumed challenge to former ally Ly for Elk Grove mayor

Gary Davis (left) in a mailer supporting Steve Ly's 2016 mayoral election. | 

Former Chicago Mayor, chief of staff for President Obama, and U.S Representative Rahm Emmanuel famously said, to paraphrase, no crisis should go to waste. Seizing on that political philosophy is former Elk Grove Mayor Gary Davis, who is expected to announce his challenge to current Mayor and former political ally Steve Ly.  

What is slightly different about this crisis, as framed initially by Emanuel, was this was not of Davis' making. Instead, it is a crisis for Ly. 

That crisis for the Ly centers on allegations made against him by a former campaign manager that has evoked wide-support among several elected officials, led by women officeholders.

After Linda Vwj made accusations that Ly, who allegedly enlisted several Hmong male elders (Ly and Vwj are of Hmong descent) to harass and threaten her, several other women have come forward to say they too have been similarly harassed, bullied and maltreated by Ly and associates. Ly has denied Vwj's assertions.

The elected female officials criticizing Ly over the growing controversy are Cosumnes Community Services District Director Jaclyn Moreno and Elk Grove Unified School Dsitrict trustees Nancy Chaires and Bobby Singh-Allen. Chaires and Singh-Allen both told the Elk Grove Citizens how they were allegedly bullied by Ly or his associates.

Elk Grove City Councilmember Steve Detrick has also posted comments of support for Chaires and Singh-Allen on social media.

Stepping into the fray is Davis, who is expected to challenge Ly in a bid to regain the seat he left in 2016 after serving two two-year terms. When Davis left the 2016 race, he encouraged and supported Ly, who was Vice Mayor at the time, to be his elected replacement.

When Ly ran for reelection in 2018, Davis initially supported Ly's second term, but less than two weeks before election day, he did a robocall throwing his support to challenger Darren Suen. Despite an independent expenditure committee campaign against him and loss of support from Davis, Ly easily won reelection over Suen and Tracie Stafford. 

In his social media post linked to the Elk Grove Citizen story, Davis said the following:

We need to have a community conversation about leadership and respecting others.
‘My way or the highway’ is not leadership. Fostering harassment is not leadership. Silencing other points of view is not leadership. Making every issue about yourself is not leadership.
It took courage for Bobbie Singh-Allen Jaclyn Moreno Jackie Cheung Linda Vwj Nancy Chaires Espinoza to share their experiences and I choose to stand with these incredible community leaders and believe they have a shared vision for better future built on mutual respect, decency, and doing what is right - Leadership.

By wading into the controversy, Davis has indicated his willingness to leverage Ly's crisis not to go to waste, at least from his political perspective.  

Copyright by Elk Grove News © 2020. All right reserved.










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Atticus Finch said...

Davis seems to have some idea of what leadership is not. He exemplifies it well. Does he have any idea of what leadership looks like?

Mr. Davis, what is your vision for Elk Grove's future? The city is where it is now, largely because of your lack of leadership. Now you expect voters to trust you to get us out of the mess you helped get us into? Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me...

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