Democratic endorsement process has a strange relationship with the grassroots

by Brian Leubitz

The pre-convention caucuses are one of the most grassroots friendly processes in California politics, while at the same time, there is a potential to game them from above.  Last weekend, a number of competitive races, especially in Southern California where redistricting tossed a number of districts into chaos.

Around the Capitol has a great district by district listing of the competitive races and the CDP has a PDF of all the races, but the dynamic is worth focusing on.  As John Myers points out, in a Top-2 world, these could make a bigger difference than in the past:

For casual political watchers, it may be hard to believe that small gatherings of diehard Democrats in January will decide who wins races for the Legislature or Congress come November. And yet, in some cases, that’s exactly what could happen after this weekend. Welcome to the world of intraparty competition under California’s new primary election rules. (KQED Capitol Notes)

Typically, the value of the CDP’s endorsement is limited.  You get to ask the party to work with you on mailers, and use their lower mail rate, which can save a few dollars.  (It’s like a coupon!) And the party can spend money on your race. But, traditionally, the party itself will likely spend very little, if any, on the endorsed candidates in the primary.  But with Top-2, the word “primary” is something of a sketchy term, and candidates are labeled only as preferring one party or another.  So, the state party’s imprimatur could mean something more this cycle. The biggest thing is that this year, the sample ballot will include a listing of the endorsed candidate.

Since John Myers referred to the IKEA-instruction-like voting eligibility, I figured I would explain that as a way of explaining how thinks like Torie Osborn winning every Dem club endorsement but losing the Dem party happens.  To that specific district, AD-50, it seems clear that Torie Osborn, a progressive grassroots rock star and organizer for the California Alliance, has the support of the grassroots Democrats.  But Butler is getting support from the Assembly Democratic caucus.  Why does that matter, you ask?

Well, here is how the voting eligibility works for the pre-convention caucus:

1. Democratic clubs get one vote for every 20 verified active members in the district.
2. Democratic County Central Committee members in the district get a vote.
3. Democratic State Central Committee members in the district get a vote.  But this is where it gets complicated, as there are a number of ways you can become a delegate to the state party.
   • 12 members per assembly district elected in January of every odd year.
   • Members appointed by the county central committee
   • Members appointed by legislators and executive office holders.

The last two is where it gets really dicey.  The County chair usually appoints all of the central committee members to be delegates and in a county with an abundance of Democrats like LA, will have some left over. Those that are left over can be moved around into a district of need for endorsement. I don’t know if that happened with LA County chairman Eric Bauman or not.  (UPDATE: Most counties, including LA, elect their additional delegates, so it wouldn’t really be possible to game the system this way.)

The bigger target of delegate movement is the legislators.  Legislators can appoint half of their delegation outside of their own district, and those appointees get to vote in their own districts. Speaker John Perez has been pretty vocal in encouraging Ms. Osborn to “wait her turn” until Ms. Butler is termed out.  The problem with that is that she had been waiting her turn for Asm. Mike Feuer to term out in 2012.  Butler’s district barely touched this new AD-50, in fact she represents less than 10% (CORRECTION: Less than 2%) of the new AD-50 now.  However, as Butler decided not to run for the now more Republican friendly district that encompasses much of her new district, Osborn is now being told to wait again by the Assembly caucus.  Except she is not waiting, and has continued to run her campaign.

As a result, Speaker Perez has been organizing a dump of delegates into the new district, tilting the balance from Osborn to Butler.  At the convention, where the Democratic club members do not get to participate, this tilt of power towards legislators becomes more pronounced.  If Butler is able to get 2/3 of the delegates in her column, the only way to remove the endorsement from the consent calendar is to get 2 members from the Pre-primary endorsement review panel (PERC) to agree to pull it off the consent calender for PERC review.  If less than 2/3 support Butler, Osborn supporters will be able to gather 300 signatures to bring the endorsement to the floor.

(UPDATE: Note that the PERC consists of all DSCC executive board members in the district as well as the regional director, two e-board members appointed by the Chair and the state officers)

This process can happen in a few more districts around the state that are marked “caucus” on the PDF of all the races.  If you are coming to San Diego, keep an eye out on that 2/3 threshhold in the district level caucuses.