Santa Barbara Democratic Central Committee Chairman Daraka Larimore-Hall is running for Secretary of the CDP.
The Secretary job has not traditionally had a major role in shaping and executing CDP policy, as many of the duties of the Secretary outlined in the Bylaws are handled by CDP staff. But there are opportunities for the Secretary to informally take on aspects of outreach efforts to coalition partners and county central committees in order to strengthen ties between organizations and ensure that the sometimes arcane processes of the CDP are made easier for local entities.
Perhaps more importantly, CDP Executive Board positions are usually held by party leaders from Los Angeles, Sacramento or San Francisco. There have been few Executive Board members picked from the grassroots elsewhere around the state.
As Chair of the Santa Barbara Committee, Daraka is a longtime grassroots organizer from the Central Coast and has done a tremendous job strengthening the county central committee, as well as assisting and making alliances with other neighboring county committees (including the Ventura County committee, of which I’m the Chair.) That’s part of why I’ve personally endorsed him for the CDP Secretary job.
From Daraka’s campaign website:
Over the past two election cycles Party leadership and the grassroots have begun to build a powerful team. Leadership has provided the resources and skills needed to execute effective coordinated plans – and and we in the grassroots have stepped up to do the work. This partnership has translated into historic statewide wins.
Now we must begin the important work necessary for maintaining our success for the long-term. We need to institutionalize experience and workplans so that every win becomes a new baseline, and we are not continually starting over. And we must improve our local partner outreach to bring in new blood, fresh ideas and increase our enthusiasm.
Daraka has already garnered an impressive endorsement list. It will be interesting to see if a non-traditional grassroots candidate from outside the traditional support NorCal/SoCal support bases of the Party can win a statewide race.
A Google news search, however, leads one to wonder if the man the Santa Barbara Independent describes as “prickly, but rhetorically gifted” and the Santa Barbara News-Press calls “embattled” is the best person for the job. His fellow union members voted him out of his executive position. And he seems to have attracted a fair amount of controversy. Of course, I don’t know the background on all of this. I’m sure you do. But it still makes me wonder.