Establishment Democrats and “Berniecrats” clash over California chairmanship

May 22, 2017

At a testy convention, the former head of the Los Angeles County Democratic party narrowly defeated a community organizer in the race for the state party chairmanship, prompting a walkout, protests and allegations that the election was rigged. Now, the loser of the election is announcing the sate party will conduct an audit of the vote, beginning Tuesday morning.

On Saturday, nearly 3,000 delegates cast votes for party chairmanship at the Democratic state convention in Sacramento. According to the party’s tally, Eric Bauman defeated challenger Kimberly Ellis by 62 votes. [Politico]

Bauman gave an acceptance speech Saturday night that was marred by a chorus of boos coming from progressive supporters of former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders who backed Ellis in the race for state chair. On Sunday, protests continued and supporters of Ellis walked out of the convention when Bauman was introduced as chair.

Ellis, in turn, refused to concede the race. Many of the progressives backing Ellis left the convention with complaints that they had been railroaded by the Democratic establishment in similar fashion as what took place with Sanders’ defeat to Hillary Clinton and, more recently, the loss of Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison to party insider Tom Perez for the Democratic National Committee chairmanship.

Perez, now DNC chair, spoke at the California convention over the weekend, and like other speakers, was shouted down by progressives.

“Hey hey, ho, ho, corporate Democrats have got to go,” many progressives chanted at the state convention.

At one point, outgoing state party chair John Burton went so far as to tell the protesters to “shut the fuck up or go outside.”

With tensions simmering and some activists threatening to leave the party, Bauman issued a statement acknowledging California Democrats have a problem.

“Regardless of the outcome of today’s election, and regardless of the fact that we have proven that California is the one place in the nation that knows how to do it right — there is no denying that there is a problem when so many of our hardworking activists feel that they are not welcome within our party and that they have been slighted and shut out of the process,” Bauman said.

Bauman, who garnered the backing of many top California Democrats, became the first openly gay chair of the state party. Bauman had been head or vice chair of the Los Angeles County Democratic party since 2000, and he entered the statewide race as the clear favorite.

However, last year, Bauman came under fire for failing to disclose political consulting work he was doing on behalf of the pharmaceutical industry in its successful effort to defeat a ballot measure that would have forced the state to lower its spending on prescription drugs. Bauman likewise did not disclose that he was a paid consultant for backers of more popular ballot measures.

During the race for state party chair, progressives rallied behind Ellis, who previously headed an effort to get Democratic women elected. At the convention, Ellis assembled an army of followers wearing pink shirts saying “unbought and unbossed.”

On Monday evening, Ellis issued a press release stating an audit of the party chairmanship election will begin at 9 a.m. Tuesday at the California Democratic Party headquarters.