Democrats of Two Minds
[ Excerpt from SBN-P article by JOSHUA MOLINA, 1/22/2005 ]
... County Democrats are engaged in a power struggle over the control, leadership and direction of the local party.
From a divisive Santa Barbara City Council election, to a splintered race for 2nd District supervisor and the creation of new groups calling themselves "progressive," the political landscape in Santa Barbara is shifting...
The outcome of the local political battle has real implications for county residents. The winners of the power struggle would set the agenda for public discourse and shape local government action on housing, the environment, mass transit, public employee pensions, development, and other issues that affect day-to-day life. They also would be in line to run for local and state offices.
Some in the party characterize the split as merely a healthy competition of ideas, while others say it represents a generational and ideological war.
"I think business as usual is over," said Jon Williams, acting chairman of the Santa Barbara Progressive Coalition, a group formed out of the Dean [for President] movement.
"I think the Democratic Party here is morphing into a whole different creature," said Mr. Williams. "I don't know how long it will last. I think it is full of people right now who feel we darn well better keep an eye on what our elected officials are doing."
The party division is pronounced in the current battle for 2nd District county supervisor, where the local Democratic political establishment is pulling out all the stops to keep the seat in its hands. Many current and former elected officials got behind candidate Janet Wolf last year -- seven months before the June primary, weeks before she formally announced and months before the deadline to file for the seat.
These Democrats attempted to pressure another potential candidate, Das Williams, to get out of the race. In return, they pledged their support in future races. Mr. Williams, who has backing from other Democrats, stayed in the race, angering some of Ms. Wolf's supporters.
News conferences held by Ms. Wolf and Mr. Williams to kick off their campaigns captured the party split.
Ms. Wolf announced at Tucker's Grove Park, with Rep. Lois Capps, 2nd District Supervisor Susan Rose, 1st District Supervisor Salud Carbajal, retired supervisor Naomi Schwartz, Goleta School board member Susan Epstein and former Mayor Harriet Miller at her side.
Standing with Mr. Williams at More Mesa were Santa Barbara City Council members Helene Schneider and Roger Horton, Mayor Marty Blum, former supervisor Gail Marshall, and former state Assemblywoman Hannah Beth-Jackson.
At first blush, all of these local Democrats are generally like-minded in their values. The gap between the two groups is much closer than the one between Republicans and Democrats.
The distinctions between them are real, but subtle: They center on personality, political vision and personal relationships.
Party-line Democrats downplay the significance of a split. They say differences within the party are healthy.
"We are not like the Republican Party," said Bob Handy, a longtime party activist and district representative for the state party. "They get their talking points, people like Rush Limbaugh and Michael Reagan, from the Republican National Committee and they stay on message. We are a diverse group of people. We think for ourselves. We may not always be right, but we think for ourselves."
Mr. Handy challenges the notion of a clear-cut split within the party and said efforts to clear the field for one candidate -- like the one for Ms. Wolf -- have long been practiced and will continue to be.
"There have always been efforts to discourage people or encourage people, as long as I have been in politics the last 30, 35 years," Mr. Handy said. "The Democratic Party has always had young Turks, and the young Turks eventually become old farts. There have always been young turks in the Democratic Party, and we welcome them."
Much of the contention within the local party centers on the word "progressive"...
Those who use the term to describe themselves say it means standing up for what you believe in, no matter the political consequences. Voters are becoming increasingly disenfranchised from government because they feel that elected officials, particularly moderate Democrats, cast their votes to stay in power rather than in the interests of the best public policy, they say.
"The core difference is about whether politicians are about taking a superficial look at where people are at and trying to pander to that, versus standing on a set of principles and trying to move the agenda and set the debate in a progressive direction," said Daraka Larimore-Hall, a self-described progressive and vice chairman of the Democratic Central Committee, the local arm of the statewide party. "That means reaching out to those people who have not been included in the political process before."
He said that the moderate-versus-progressive divide exists here in Santa Barbara and, as in many other places, "the elites tend to be moderate and the grassroots more progressive."
Vernon Schabert, chairman of the Democratic Central Committee, who beat Mr. Larimore-Hall by one vote to win that seat, said progressive is an unfair label that boxes people in politically.
"I often think that labels progressive versus moderate are unfortunate because they collapse a lot of difference in opinion into two handy buckets," Mr. Schabert said. "Using a label like moderate or progressive often implies a global position on issues like housing and development."
Mr. Schabert said as a member of the committee, his job is to get qualified Democrats into office, no matter where they fall on the Democratic political spectrum.
"The danger here is when people engage in this discussion about progressive versus moderate, it is often code about individual people not liking each other or not liking personalities."
Santa Barbara City Councilwoman Iya Falcone exemplifies the debate over style and personality among the Democrats. She is popular among voters and even more so within the Democratic political establishment.
But during last fall's Santa Barbara City Council race, a small but motivated group of critics launched a campaign to oust her from office. By the end of campaign, the drive to defeat her was in full force, with Democrats who opposed her holding a news conference from the steps of City Hall, denouncing her values.
But by that time, Ms. Falcone, a former political consultant, had called in the big guns.
She pulled in an A-team of high-ranking, moderate Democrats: Rep. Capps, former mayor Miller, Mr. Carbajal and his predecessor Mrs. Schwartz, who appeared in TV ads praising the councilwoman's "honesty" and integrity. Ms. Falcone easily won re-election. The slate of well-known Democrats sent a powerful message to undecided voters.
... Mr. Carbajal, a strong Falcone supporter, said labeling Democrats is superficial. What matters most are not labels, or personality, but a lawmaker's voting record, he said.
"The words tend to pigeon-hole people," Mr. Carbajal said. "It is not about saying this or that, but reflecting it in past action and experience."
Supervisor Rose said the important issues have shifted in the last eight years... She said the real tension among Democrats is not over progressives and moderates, but over housing and the environment.
When she was elected seven years ago, much of the public discourse centered around the environment. But now, as the cost of living on the South Coast rises to one of the highest in the country, housing is the hot-button issue, she said. Striking a balance between the environment and housing is difficult. "The issues shift," she said. "Alliances shift."
Mr. [Jon] Williams from the Progressive Coalition said the movement to the left will continue...
"There are some people who got themselves elected, and they want to stay in office, and don't want to be challenged and probably don't want a new group of energized people telling them what they think they should do."
But ultimately the differences within the party are necessary.
"I think it is good for democracy," he said.
e-mail: jmolina@newspress.com
Santa Barbara News-Press
... County Democrats are engaged in a power struggle over the control, leadership and direction of the local party.
From a divisive Santa Barbara City Council election, to a splintered race for 2nd District supervisor and the creation of new groups calling themselves "progressive," the political landscape in Santa Barbara is shifting...
The outcome of the local political battle has real implications for county residents. The winners of the power struggle would set the agenda for public discourse and shape local government action on housing, the environment, mass transit, public employee pensions, development, and other issues that affect day-to-day life. They also would be in line to run for local and state offices.
Some in the party characterize the split as merely a healthy competition of ideas, while others say it represents a generational and ideological war.
"I think business as usual is over," said Jon Williams, acting chairman of the Santa Barbara Progressive Coalition, a group formed out of the Dean [for President] movement.
"I think the Democratic Party here is morphing into a whole different creature," said Mr. Williams. "I don't know how long it will last. I think it is full of people right now who feel we darn well better keep an eye on what our elected officials are doing."
The party division is pronounced in the current battle for 2nd District county supervisor, where the local Democratic political establishment is pulling out all the stops to keep the seat in its hands. Many current and former elected officials got behind candidate Janet Wolf last year -- seven months before the June primary, weeks before she formally announced and months before the deadline to file for the seat.
These Democrats attempted to pressure another potential candidate, Das Williams, to get out of the race. In return, they pledged their support in future races. Mr. Williams, who has backing from other Democrats, stayed in the race, angering some of Ms. Wolf's supporters.
News conferences held by Ms. Wolf and Mr. Williams to kick off their campaigns captured the party split.
Ms. Wolf announced at Tucker's Grove Park, with Rep. Lois Capps, 2nd District Supervisor Susan Rose, 1st District Supervisor Salud Carbajal, retired supervisor Naomi Schwartz, Goleta School board member Susan Epstein and former Mayor Harriet Miller at her side.
Standing with Mr. Williams at More Mesa were Santa Barbara City Council members Helene Schneider and Roger Horton, Mayor Marty Blum, former supervisor Gail Marshall, and former state Assemblywoman Hannah Beth-Jackson.
At first blush, all of these local Democrats are generally like-minded in their values. The gap between the two groups is much closer than the one between Republicans and Democrats.
The distinctions between them are real, but subtle: They center on personality, political vision and personal relationships.
Party-line Democrats downplay the significance of a split. They say differences within the party are healthy.
"We are not like the Republican Party," said Bob Handy, a longtime party activist and district representative for the state party. "They get their talking points, people like Rush Limbaugh and Michael Reagan, from the Republican National Committee and they stay on message. We are a diverse group of people. We think for ourselves. We may not always be right, but we think for ourselves."
Mr. Handy challenges the notion of a clear-cut split within the party and said efforts to clear the field for one candidate -- like the one for Ms. Wolf -- have long been practiced and will continue to be.
"There have always been efforts to discourage people or encourage people, as long as I have been in politics the last 30, 35 years," Mr. Handy said. "The Democratic Party has always had young Turks, and the young Turks eventually become old farts. There have always been young turks in the Democratic Party, and we welcome them."
Much of the contention within the local party centers on the word "progressive"...
Those who use the term to describe themselves say it means standing up for what you believe in, no matter the political consequences. Voters are becoming increasingly disenfranchised from government because they feel that elected officials, particularly moderate Democrats, cast their votes to stay in power rather than in the interests of the best public policy, they say.
"The core difference is about whether politicians are about taking a superficial look at where people are at and trying to pander to that, versus standing on a set of principles and trying to move the agenda and set the debate in a progressive direction," said Daraka Larimore-Hall, a self-described progressive and vice chairman of the Democratic Central Committee, the local arm of the statewide party. "That means reaching out to those people who have not been included in the political process before."
He said that the moderate-versus-progressive divide exists here in Santa Barbara and, as in many other places, "the elites tend to be moderate and the grassroots more progressive."
Vernon Schabert, chairman of the Democratic Central Committee, who beat Mr. Larimore-Hall by one vote to win that seat, said progressive is an unfair label that boxes people in politically.
"I often think that labels progressive versus moderate are unfortunate because they collapse a lot of difference in opinion into two handy buckets," Mr. Schabert said. "Using a label like moderate or progressive often implies a global position on issues like housing and development."
Mr. Schabert said as a member of the committee, his job is to get qualified Democrats into office, no matter where they fall on the Democratic political spectrum.
"The danger here is when people engage in this discussion about progressive versus moderate, it is often code about individual people not liking each other or not liking personalities."
Santa Barbara City Councilwoman Iya Falcone exemplifies the debate over style and personality among the Democrats. She is popular among voters and even more so within the Democratic political establishment.
But during last fall's Santa Barbara City Council race, a small but motivated group of critics launched a campaign to oust her from office. By the end of campaign, the drive to defeat her was in full force, with Democrats who opposed her holding a news conference from the steps of City Hall, denouncing her values.
But by that time, Ms. Falcone, a former political consultant, had called in the big guns.
She pulled in an A-team of high-ranking, moderate Democrats: Rep. Capps, former mayor Miller, Mr. Carbajal and his predecessor Mrs. Schwartz, who appeared in TV ads praising the councilwoman's "honesty" and integrity. Ms. Falcone easily won re-election. The slate of well-known Democrats sent a powerful message to undecided voters.
... Mr. Carbajal, a strong Falcone supporter, said labeling Democrats is superficial. What matters most are not labels, or personality, but a lawmaker's voting record, he said.
"The words tend to pigeon-hole people," Mr. Carbajal said. "It is not about saying this or that, but reflecting it in past action and experience."
Supervisor Rose said the important issues have shifted in the last eight years... She said the real tension among Democrats is not over progressives and moderates, but over housing and the environment.
When she was elected seven years ago, much of the public discourse centered around the environment. But now, as the cost of living on the South Coast rises to one of the highest in the country, housing is the hot-button issue, she said. Striking a balance between the environment and housing is difficult. "The issues shift," she said. "Alliances shift."
Mr. [Jon] Williams from the Progressive Coalition said the movement to the left will continue...
"There are some people who got themselves elected, and they want to stay in office, and don't want to be challenged and probably don't want a new group of energized people telling them what they think they should do."
But ultimately the differences within the party are necessary.
"I think it is good for democracy," he said.
e-mail: jmolina@newspress.com
Santa Barbara News-Press
Posted by Malcolm on
1/23/2006
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