A Behind the Scenes Perspective from a Democratic Club President on Stacking for Endorsements in California

We are most proud of the work we did for Debra Bowen, our endorsed candidate for Secretary of State in 2006. When she was locked in a tight primary race we worked with Latinos for America to raise $10,000 over a few days to run Spanish-language radio and cable television ads. And our members worked for her at the Valley Democratic Headquarters for the general election, with her name second on the call script after Phil Angelides. Her margin of victory in Los Angeles County was 448,000 votes while her margin statewide was only 260,000 votes. We believe that the 140,000 calls made by our members and members of other Valley clubs promoting the Democratic ticket made a big difference in helping Los Angeles County take her over the top.

The 40th Assembly District has a Democratic majority of 21 percentage points which means the winner of the Democratic primary will be the winner in November. The incumbent, Lloyd Levine, is being termed out and is running for the 23rd Senate District against former 41st District Assemblymember Fran Pavley. The four candidates for the 40th are Bob Blumenfield, district director for Rep. Howard Berman; Stuart Waldman, former chief of staff for Assemblymember Levine; Laurette Healey, deputy state controller under Steve Westly; and Dan McCrory, a union activist. It will be a tight race between four great candidates who unfortunately all live in the same district. Bob Blumenfield has one key piece of baggage which has some activists opposing his candidacy: his boss, Rep. Berman, has a voting record on the war that isn't necessarily in line with the views of his constituents or the progressive activists. Fairly or unfairly, Bob is being seen as a proxy for Rep. Berman.

(Full disclosure: I endorsed Stuart Waldman over a year ago, long before I considered running for club president. As Stuart will attest, and to his annoyance, I have not personally done much work for his campaign. I have tried to be as fair as possible when dealing with all the candidates and have not heard any complaints to the contrary.)

The sequence of events that Linda describes regarding the 40th AD endorsement needs some clarification and correction. It is true that both Bob and Stuart signed up new members just before the 60-day deadline in early January to be able to vote at our March endorsement meeting, with Bob signing up many more than Stuart. (Our dues are only $10 so we didn't make a lot of money off of it.) Bob sent out an email to his friends asking them to join Democratic clubs, VGFD included, in order to influence the endorsement, also stating that Stuart had done the same thing at a different club. (The part about Stuart was edited out of the version that was later being circulated by anti-Bob activists.) I personally called Bob and expressed my concerns that our members would not look kindly on a stacked house for the endorsement vote and it would probably backfire.

The leadership was NOT on board with the stacking but under our bylaws there was nothing we could do to stop people from joining. I called an emergency Executive Board meeting immediately before our January general meeting where we discussed the attempted stacking. The board unanimously voted to recommend to our membership that, since the integrity of the process had been compromised, that we take no position in the 40th.

At the general membership meeting I presented the information to the club members about what happened and the board's recommendation. While some members were aware of the email and were passing out a flyer with an edited version of the email, most members had not and were surprised to learn about had happened. We had an open discussion and and we voted as a club to adopt the board's recommendation to take no position in the 40th. The two candidates in attendance talked to me after the meeting and both said they thought we handled the issue well.

We ended up holding a candidate forum in February with all four candidates so that our members could decide for themselves who to support.

As Linda points out, our experience with stacking is not unique. The backlash in this race and others has shown how much the Democratic Party has changed. Consultants may have been able to get away with it in the past but now it's seen as an affront to the integrity of the endorsement process. I have asked our bylaws committee to look at ways to prevent stacking in the future and I have talked with the presidents of other clubs about holding a bylaws summit where clubs can come together, exchange ideas, and develop best practices going forward. Do we extend the amount of time one must be a member from 60 days to a longer period? Do we require attendance at a certain number of meetings? These are some of the questions that we must consider.

The reality is that if a club endorses in the primary and someone wants that endorsement bad enough they will be able find a way to work within the rules to get what they want. Our challenge as club leaders is to maintain the integrity of the process and the integrity of the good name of our clubs so that the voices of our hard-working members are truly represented.

Chad Jones became involved in grassroots Democratic activism in 2003 with the Howard Dean campaign. He currently serves as President of Valley Grassroots for Democracy, and is the elected member of the California Democratic Party Executive Board from the 38th Assembly District. In 2007 he was was named the CDP Region 13 Volunteer of the Year and was honored as the VGFD Volunteer of the Year at the DPSFV Truman Awards. He is a native Angeleno and has worked in computer networking at UCLA for the last 16 years.