{"id":5790,"date":"2017-08-12T13:33:07","date_gmt":"2017-08-12T20:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=5790"},"modified":"2017-08-12T14:31:24","modified_gmt":"2017-08-12T21:31:24","slug":"democratic-fight-california-warning-national-party-adam-nagourney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2017\/08\/12\/democratic-fight-california-warning-national-party-adam-nagourney\/","title":{"rendered":"“Democratic Fight in California Is a Warning for the National Party” by Adam Nagourney (nytimes.com)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Eric C. Bauman, the chairman of the California Democratic Party, at the party\u2019s headquarters in Sacramento last week. His opponent in a May election, Kimberly Ellis, has not conceded defeat.<\/span>Credit<\/span>Max Whittaker for The New York Times<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

August 9, 2017 (nytimes.com)<\/p>\n

SACRAMENTO \u2014 For Democrats across the nation, California has offered a bright if lonely light this year. The party controls every statewide office and commands supermajorities in the Legislature.\u00a0Gov.<\/a>\u00a0Jerry Brown<\/a>\u00a0and legislative leaders have become national voices, steering the party as it pushes back against President Trump on issues as varied as the environment and immigration.<\/p>\n

But in recent weeks, California Democrats have emerged as something else: a cautionary tale for a national party debating how to rebuild and seize back power. Even at a time of overall success, state Democrats are torn by a bitter fight for the party leadership, revealing the kind of divisions \u2014 between insiders and outsiders, liberals and moderates \u2014 that unsettled the national party last year and could threaten its success in coming years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we are seeing in California is similar to what we are seeing on the national level,\u201d said Betty T. Yee, the Democratic state controller. \u201cIf we don\u2019t do our work to really heal our divide, we are going to miss our chance to motivate Democrats.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fight pits Eric C. Bauman, a longtime party leader, against Kimberly Ellis, a Bay Area activist. Mr. Bauman won the election by just over 60 votes out of 3,000 cast at the party convention in May, but Ms. Ellis has refused to concede, claiming\u00a0voting improprieties<\/a>, like permitting ineligible people to vote for Mr. Bauman.<\/p>\n

The party is expected to issue a final ruling on Ms. Ellis\u2019s allegations by Aug. 20; in an interview, she said she would go to court if the party ruled against her. This has left Mr. Bauman, who encountered a barrage of shouts of \u201cnot my chairman\u201d when he delivered his victory speech, struggling to put behind him a contest that has\u00a0been the subject of recounts<\/a>\u00a0even as he seeks to position Democrats for a challenging congressional election in 2018.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThe truth of the matter is, Kimberly Ellis cannot accept that she lost the election,\u201d Mr. Bauman said. \u201cShe\u2019s willing to allow the party to be torn asunder in an effort to prove that she really did win. My attitude about this is, I was elected chair under the rules. I have attempted to be the most open and transparent chair this party has ever seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Ellis, 44, has from the start presented herself as an outsider: It is her first run for party leadership. She has spent several years as executive director of Emerge California, which recruits and trains women to run for office. Ms. Ellis \u2014 who backed Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary race last year but has gained the support of Senator Bernie Sanders \u2014 presented her candidacy as a challenge to the way the\u00a0Democratic Party<\/a>\u00a0in California does business, starting with an animating promise: \u201cGiving the Democratic Party Back to the People.\u201d If she had been elected, she would have been the first African-American to lead the state party<\/p>\n