So, I want to start this by saying that I'm absolutely
thrilled that we managed to bring down Pombo in CA-11. I really can't say enough how much I despise the man; I grew up in the delta, and I can tell you wholeheartedly that the district is too good to be represented by Pombo. I have high hopes for Jerry McNerney.
I also want to say that even though we didn't pull it out, I'm extremely pleased with our results from CA-04, where Charlie Brown gave Doolittle a run for his money (on a very literal level, at that). It's a tough district, and the very hard work that was done there can only portend good things for the future; we came close, folks, in a district certainly not known for its liberalism.
But I have to reflect more negatively on some statewide results, and I can only come to the conclusion that the California Democratic Party needs some serious work. Please continue with me...
First off, there's the painful Governor's race. Now, I'm a practical leftist to a fault, and so I supported Angelides to the best of my current ability -- I know a lot of very good people who did the same, whether it was morally, financially, or via volunteer work. We should never have had such a painful choice in the first place, and we certainly should never have lost by such a margin even with a bad candidate running a doomed campaign.
On the SOS race, I'm thrilled that Bowen pulled it out -- she's excellent on so many levels -- but it should never have been such a nailbiter. This is a supposedly democratic state, and with a strong and viable candidate, I shouldn't have had to worry that I'd wake up to bad news on this front this morning.
The state props worked out mostly ok, though I'm saddened by both 87 and 89. Still, on the balance, the big one for me was 85, the abortion-parental notification law, which was thankfully rejected yet again. We can only hope they'll take the hint that losing twice means not putting it up again.
A final specific note relating to insurance -- Bustamante needs to go do something else. I'm sure he's a perfectly pleasant human being. But he comes off like a used car salesman, and he's utterly unelectable. That he keeps being recycled in California politics brings me to my ultimate point...
We need to rebuild this party in this state. Because California, while it is a solid blue state, needs to work to become an example of what is right with the democratic party. Right now, it's an example of everything that is wrong with entrenched party politics.
We need new blood. We need fighters from the local levels to step up into state politics, and we need to wrangle this party into something that can represent the best of liberal thought, that can talk to rural california and the working class, that can push progressive causes and progressive candidates to the national stage. And to do that, we need some focus from the local to the state levels. We don't just need to crash the national party, we need to crash the CDP.
This is a tough thing. I live in Sacramento, and I can tell you firsthand that the politicians here are among the most entrenched you'll find anywhere. I can tell you, though, that I find encouraging folks everywhere I go; young folks in my city turning out in Cesar Chavez park every sunday morning to feed the homeless through Food Not Bombs, folks supporting the local food co-ops in a painful economy, folks fighting hard on behalf of Oak Park, one of the city's poorest neighborhoods. There are twenty-somethings founding associations for real neighborhood improvement, not simple gentrification, in Alkalai Flat; people arranging for rides for the elderly to go shopping in Arden area. There are a lot of people ready to do the hard work it takes, but we need to recruit them. We need to have a dialogue with them. And mostly, we need to send the message in this state that we need to do better, both as a party and as a political system.
I know that here, we tend to focus on the national landscape. But don't let it overwhelm the state and local. Please check out some more local blogs -- kid oakland has one that also has some great links, and there's also calitics. I intend, as soon as time permits, to start a blog dedicated to local Sacramento politics -- we suffer from a horrible lack of attention at the local level, given that we're the state capital. No matter where you are, please consider doing the same. And please, please get involved locally however you can -- we need, desperately, and nowhere moreso than California, to rebuild this democratic party from the ground up -- for national wins, but also for the benefit of the state and for the benefit of our local districts/cities. It all interconnects in so many ways.
I don't have many answers to end this with; I'm not sure how to go about tackling the immense problems with the state party. But I do know that to get there, we need to start talking about it.
UPDATE: hah, corrected a few typos, misspellings. It's been a long week already, let me know if y'all find more.