Growing Pains for the California Democratic Party: Records Set at Convention in San Diego

But this year, Democratic progressives are attempting to make inroads by beating out establishment types who are running. The progressives include a bunch of bloggers - lordy, help us - such as David Dayen from the Santa Monica area, who writes about the "first campaign speech of my life." [Emphasis added]

He later appended to this: "UPDATE: Dday thinks I'm a bit cynical. OK, maybe a tad. But only about the dying party system!"

I'm glad to see in today's LA Times, Salladay is quoting now delegate Dayen. If you read Dayen's posting, you'll see that he has a nuanced understanding now of the politics of the California Democratic Party, even with the power move at the end of the convention, a quorum call, that prevented the body from dealing with a 14th resolution calling for the United States to refrain from starting a war in Iran and to rescind the authorization for the war in Iraq.

This parliamentary procedure prevented those remaining at the convention on Sunday afternoon from passing on that last resolution which party leaders and the insurgent progressives had worked out a last minute deal to allow a floor vote on. A cabal that included a rogue member of the party resolution committee, noting that most had left the convention and were not on the floor (only about 600 were on the floor) pulled the plug on the last resolution and there was little or nothing that Art Torres who pleaded for this procedural request to be withdrawn, could do after he took over chair of the meeting at that point.

Before then the convention managed to pass resolutions putting the party on record supporting the Vote the U.S. Out of Iraq ballot proposition proposed for the February 5, 2008 election and other resolutions on state and federal matters.

I spoke with Dday 9pictured at right)after the convention and he's coming back to next year's convention, convinced all the more that changes are needed from within the California Democratic Party. He has subsequent articles on the convention including "net neutrality" and his own interview with Bill Richardson.

Thee are many other indicia of the party's growth in the red areas of the state. The California Democratic Party has 21 regional directors who help coordinate the activities of the clubs and county central committees throughout the state. In the Central Valley and northern California areas alone, there are 5 new regional directors, each of whom are worker bees committed to expanding the party in these red counties, the largest potential for growth.

Many of those active in groups such as Take Back Red California are disappointed that resolutions for a 58 county strategy were sent to a task force for study. But the task force has many of those who were backing the resolutions on it. And its leader, Mayme Hubert, is one of the newly elected Regional Directors to boot. They want California Chair Art Torres' plan beefed up and funded at a higher level.

Roger Salazar, a spokesperson for the state party said "This is the kind of debate, the passion that will only make us stronger." He is right. In the Democratic Party, as opposed to the Republican Party, our edge comes from the bottom up.

Those who came have learned lessons about democracy. But without pain, there is no gain. This is the way political muscle is added. I say, build it and flex it.