Last week, John Burton (the new Chair of the California Democratic Party) sent an update to members of the CDP’s Executive Board about what the organization has been doing since he took the helm in late April.

Please see the message below in its entirety (edited slightly to make it easier to read).  

Congratulations on your election to the California Democratic Party Executive Board!  Our first meeting will take place in Burlingame on the weekend of July 17th through the 19th.  I am looking forward to seeing you there.

And I also wanted to thank you for making the April 09 CDP Convention such a positive and high-energy event.  Our team has hit the ground running. (See the update below)

During this transition time, we are looking for the best ways to address the needs activists expressed to us during the campaign, and putting the programs in place to answer the call.  

During my campaign, I promised I would focus on the basics: getting Democrats elected – from local races all the way up the ticket:  Push to move red areas to blue, in all 58 counties;  Increase Democratic voter registration; give activists the tools and assistance they need to be successful; support our young Democrats; and re-energize the state party.

(Letter continued over the flip)

We are already laying the groundwork so that, together, we can meet these goals.  Plans are in the works for very extensive training program, including:  field strategy, community and online organizing, voter registration, data management, messaging and press tips, and more.  And we are excited to announce our program will also include Controller Hilary Crosby’s Finance Boot Camp.  We will work together to give instructions on PAC reporting, building finance plans and effective small donor fundraising.  

And this is just for starters.  After our trainings, we will launch voter registration drives around the state, focusing on building a base for new farm teams in red areas.  

We have also met with Alissa Ko, President of the California Young Democrats, to review plans to work together to keep young voters involved for 2010.  

In order to communicate more effectively with party leaders, we have distributed a questionnaire to Caucus Chairs and Regional Directors so we can get their ideas on ways to improve our effectiveness in the field.  We also plan to talk with the Regional Directors once a month so we can hear what’s going on in their areas, identify best practices, share information and coordinate messaging around the state.

In our first steps to overhaul the messaging of the party, enhance our communications technology and place a priority on new media, we have hired the CDP’s first Communications Coordinator.  

In order to elect a Democratic Governor, protect Senator Boxer and our legislative and congressional Democrats, as well as elect more local Democrats – we came away from the convention with a pretty ambitious agenda.  We are already hard at work developing the necessary programs.   These programs will give us the foundation to pass a Majority Vote Budget, defeat the Top Two Louisiana Primary and fight for real marriage equality.

There is a lot to do, and we want to do all of it well.  So at the Executive Board Meeting in July, you will see a complete roll out of our plan to elect more Democrats around our state, give the grassroots the tools they have been asking for, and build the foundation for big gains for next year and the years after that.

This is exciting, and I really think it’s going to be a lot of fun.  Onward to 2010!

Chairman’s Update:

1. Eboard Save the Date!:  The Executive Board will take place July 17th through 19th in Burlingame at the Crowne Plaza Hotel.  Please save the date!

2. Tell us your ideas!   Please tell us about your convention experience, and let us know your suggestions on how to improve by filling out this survey.

3. Staff Communication: In order to enhance communication with our staff, please find a new staff roster online.  The CDP staff stands ready to respond quickly to inquiries from local party leaders and volunteers.

4. Training Programs: We are currently developing a comprehensive training program to begin in Summer 2009 and continue through mid 2010.  In the interim, we compiled a list of current trainings sponsored by other Democratic organizations to help activists obtain access to new tools now.

5. Meet the new staff: There are a few new faces at the CDP.  You can find out who joined our team by clicking here.

6. Special Election Activity: Continuing our fight for Democratic values, the CDP recently sent a mailer in support of the party’s position on Proposition 1C.  If passed, 1C would mean an immediate $5 billion dollars to protect social services.  In addition, at the request of the LA County Committee, the CDP got involved in support of Democrat Jack Weiss for LA City Attorney.    His opponent, Carmen Trutanich, has defended polluters and is supported by The California Rifle and Pistol Association, a right-wing affiliate of the NRA..

I wanted to share a couple of thoughts with Calitics readers about my experience running for chair of the California Democratic Party.

First, I really did mean it in my speech on Saturday when I said most of the good ideas were on the floor of the convention. Of the 12 points I presented in that speech, a couple were mine. A few came from things I heard at central committee meetings or regional events I attended across the state during the campaign. In some cases, they were things political friends of mine suggested, or even stuff I read on blogs and listservs. One friend of mine at the convention called it crowdsourscing, another fellow said it was the essence of democracy, and a third observed that that’s what representatives are supposed to do–listen to their constituents. Of course they’re all right. But the point is, all you have to do is show up and listen. We have a lot of bright, experienced people in the Democratic Party in California. They have a lot to teach us.

The other thing people kept telling me is that I was so brave to do this. Anybody who knows me can tell you I’m not an inherently brave person. Foolhardy on occasion perhaps. But I was so nervous on Saturday that my son had to type the changes to my speech because my hands were shaking. What motivated me was the belief that what I was doing was important, and that’s not much different than most of the people who do extraordinary things in our party every day.

I told a bunch of people on Sunday that I expect them to run for something at the next convention. And, if they did, they’d have my vote.

I meant that too. I believe that anybody can do it. It helped that I work for myself and so have flexible hours. But that also means I have no steady income and an inherently erratic workload. So I still maintain anybody can do this.

And a lot of people should.

It would shake things up. Get more ideas out on the floor. And open up the Party.

I was talking to a new regional director on Sunday. She’d been honored on Saturday night for setting up a paid voter-registration program in her county. She and a friend decided to do it she told me. So they put together a plan, raised money, hired staff, and registered a lot of voters. When I said “Wow!” she shrugged and said, “We thought it needed to be done. Nobody else was doing it. So we did.”

She didn’t let people tell her she needed more experience, should leave it to the professionals, or that it was too big a job for her. She saw something that needed to be done, and she did it. I tried to do much the same thing. If we can do it, so can you. And I hope you do.

The California Democratic Party “split the baby” on the six propositions for the May 19th ballot – endorsing Propositions 1B, 1C and 1F, while not supporting Props 1A, 1D and 1E.  This shifts the dynamic for the last three weeks.  No longer can Prop 1A’s defeat be a mandate against tax increases – because the measure’s “spending cap” is why progressives oppose it.  Likewise, “no” on Props 1D and 1E is now a vote for the state to fund children’s health programs and mental health services.  And while many liberals fear the short-term “budget gap” if the measures all go down, the Party endorsed a “yes” vote on Prop 1C – which would have the most immediate impact.  The Party’s support for Prop 1B is a mandate for public schools – and while Prop 1A’s defeat would prevent 1B from going into effect, a “yes” vote could pressure Governor Schwarzenegger to stop gutting education money.  Democrats in the legislature promoted all six measures as a “budget package” to avert fiscal disaster.  But it was a rotten deal, and the strategy would leave us no better off on May 20th towards a long-term solution.  With this new dynamic, we can build momentum for scrapping the “two-thirds rule” in the state budget.

This weekend’s State Convention showcased the disconnect between the Party grassroots and the Sacramento leadership.  Our legislators cut a deal with Schwarzenegger they honestly believed was the right thing to do, but the rank-and-file was angry at sacrificing core fiscal values just to kick the can down the road.  California’s budget woes are structural, and until the state passes major reform the right-wing Republicans will keep holding a gun to our heads.  Getting rid of the two-thirds rule – as soon as possible – is the only acceptable “budget reform” for the ballot.

At the Young Democrats’ caucus on Friday night, various legislators urged us to support these flawed measures – because there would be dire consequences if they failed.  As a friend said to me while we listened to each politician, “Q: How do you get young people to disagree with you?  A: Tell them they have no choice.”  That summed up the sentiment of many delegates, who felt pressured to back something they had no power in crafting.

Some of the arguments we heard in favor of Proposition 1A were: (a) our right-wing foes at the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer’s Association oppose it, and (b) if it fails, it will send a message that the public opposes tax increases.  Of course, the latter is only true if the sole opposition is right-wing zealots and the Republican Party.  Prop 1A is a lot more than just extending a few temporary tax increases.  It gives the state – which already has layers of fiscal straitjackets on the revenue side – another fiscal straitjacket on the spending side.

After the Democratic Convention vote on Sunday, press coverage on Prop 1A started to change.  The Los Angeles Times called it a “state spending cap,” while the San Francisco Chronicle said it was a “proposed spending cap and rainy-day fund.”  Before progressives began to oppose Prop 1A, the media only focused on tax increases – even though these temporary measures will stay on the books for two years if Prop 1A fails.  That’s because the only ones complaining about 1A were Republicans like Steve Poizner and Meg Whitman, and the “tea party” crowd.

Rather than allow right-wing zealots to “own” the opposition, liberals began to articulate a fiscal agenda to drive the post-May 19th debate.  If our ultimate goal is to scrap the “two-thirds rule,” it is smart politics to influence what happens when the Governor and legislature go back to the drawing board.  Because the state will have an $8 billion deficit even if all measures pass, making the progressive case against 1A is a sound strategy.

Going back to the drawing board will mean choosing what budget priorities need to be fought for.  If the Democratic Party had endorsed Propositions 1D and 1E, it would have sent the message that children and the mentally ill are expendable.  And the combined “savings” from diverting these funds to help balance the budget is less than one billion dollars – or about 1% of the entire budget.  Non-profits who directly work with these constituencies have campaigned against the measures.  Defeating them will be a mandate to protect progressive fiscal priorities.

Nevertheless, liberals are anxious and fearful about the next round of painful budget cuts.  It’s understandable that many delegates at the Convention held up placards to endorse the measures while holding their noses.  Which is why the Democrats endorsed Proposition 1C, the measure that borrows up to $5 billion against future lottery revenues to balance this year’s budget.  Of all six measures on the May 19th ballot, Prop 1C has the biggest short-term downside if it fails.

Robert Cruickshank wrote a solid piece yesterday on Calitics, advising Democratic leaders to dump the “yes on everything” strategy – and focus on Prop 1C.  “Aside from the flawed nature of the proposals and how they came onto the ballot,” he wrote, “selling them as a single package was a disastrous move. If they want to salvage anything from this sinking ship, they could tell Californians why take a chance on borrowing against the lottery via Prop 1C, and how it will help our Democratic leaders more strongly resist Republican demands for massive cuts, instead of assume those cuts are a foregone conclusion.”

The Democratic Party endorsed Proposition 1B, which would give the public schools $9.3 billion of money that already belongs to them.  But because it would only take effect if the voters approve Prop 1A, legislators have dismissed progressive groups who are “No on 1A” and “Yes on 1B” for being inconsistent.  However, it has become popular for liberals to “hedge their bets” in case the voters pass Prop 1A.  If the state is going to have a spending cap, it makes sense to secure a slice of the money for schools.

On the other hand, advocates have an alternative to Prop 1B – which is to go to court to enforce the Constitutional requirement of education funding.  But if voters pass 1B while defeating 1A, it could strengthen the hand of Democrats who negotiate with Arnold and the Republicans – because the voters have affirmed public schools.

At the Democratic Convention, newly elected Chairman John Burton urged delegates who disagree on the propositions not to let these divisions keep us apart.  The state will be in bad fiscal shape regardless of what happens on May 19th, and progressives must keep their focus on eliminating the “two-thirds rule.”  This weekend’s split decision on the various budget measures can help forge a path towards a sane fiscal policy.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Paul Hogarth is the Managing Editor of Beyond Chron, San Francicso’s Alternative Online Daily, where this piece was first published.  He was a delegate at the California Democratic Party’s convention, and gave one of the floor speeches against Proposition 1E.

Thanks again to all of you who signed petitions and made phone calls and helped push the resolution to open a Congressional inquiry into Torture Judge Jay Bybee, which the California Democratic Party adopted at its convention yesterday.  I have been told by the authors of the resolution that the pressure from the outside really aided their efforts.  

The passage of the resolution was a beginning, not an ending.  On the flip, come and join us in the next step.

UPDATE: Ryan Grim of The Huffington Post has the full story of the passage of the resolution at the convention.

I view the impeachment of Jay Bybee from the 9th Circuit Court as a moral and legal imperative, but also an entryway into the larger fight for justice and accountability for those who authorized and directed torture in our name.  I agree with Jerrold Nadler that impeachment should not be seen as a compromise measure, a way to satiate those concerned with accountability.  “There can’t be a compromise — you have to follow the law … If the facts say that some former high-ranking official should be prosecuted, the fact people will get angry should be irrelevant … If we do not investigate the torture that is clear that it occured, and if the evidence is there prosecute, not only are we disobeying the law, not only are we being immoral, but we are inviting torture of our people in the future.”

Bybee’s impeachment can start us down the path to restoring the rule of law.  And now the largest state Democratic Party in the country has spoken.  They have said that the myth about torture being a useful tool to extract actionable intelligence from terror suspects is not only irrelevant when it comes to lawbreaking but also entirely false, according to the CIA’s own inspector general.  They have said that Judge Bybee’s appalling judgment and slavish acceptance of John Yoo’s flawed legal reasoning represents a greater evil – the evil of thoughtlessness – and a greater responsibility for the actions committed thanks to his off-handed signature.  They have said that Bybee’s understanding of his own wrongdoing outweighed by his desire to be a federal judge shocks the conscience, and that far from being rewarded for his obedience to his conservative minders, he should bear responsibility for it, to the fullest extent possible.

So what do we do now?  Members of the California Democratic Party include 34 members of Congress, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and six men and women who sit on the House Judiciary Committee, where an impeachment inquiry would be remanded.  They need to hear that their party just recommended that they open an immediate Congressional inquiry into Judge Bybee, with all appropriate remedies and punishments available.  In fact, the entire House Judiciary Committee needs to hear this.  Thanks to my friends at Firedoglake, they will.  We have put together a contact list for the entire House Judiciary Committee, and you can, with just a few clicks, compose a letter to any member of that Committee telling them of the CDP’s action and demanding immediate action on an inquiry.

In addition, you can call your members of Congress and tell them that they must support an immediate inquiry into the actions of Jay Bybee, federal judge on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.  The Congressional switchboard at 1-866-220-0044 can connect you to your member of Congress as well.  Here are some talking points:

• Jay Bybee signed the August 1, 2002 memo approving certain torture techniques to be used on mentally ill terror suspect Abu Zubaydah.

• The CIA’s Inspector General found that the torture of Abu Zubaydah and others foiled no terror plots and sent intelligence personnel on wild goose chases and false leads around the world. (McClatchy, 4.24.09)

• The California Democratic Party is the largest state party in the country, and they have spoken with one voice to demand hearings on Bybee.

• We are required by the Convention Against Torture to investigate and prosecute to the fullest extent of the law those who authorized and committed acts of torture.

• Judge Bybee’s presence on the 9th Circuit disgraces the federal bench and saps at our moral authority in the world.  Congress has a duty to step in and impeach him.

We now have this resolution as a tool.  Let’s use it to pry open the Congress and provide the opening of some accountability for these heinous acts committed in our name.

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Budget Reform Now group released their first TV ad yesterday, full of buzzwords and bullet points (“Hold the politicians accountable!”) and admitting that the package includes a “spending limit,” which is certainly further than the Democratic legislative leadership has been willing to go.  But as one-line summations of the election goes, you can’t get much better than future chair of the CDP John Burton, who took a pass on giving his specific voting choices for May 19, but who uttered this classic quip:

In any case, pressed on the question of whether his lifelong bleeding heart liberalism would allow him to back some of the permanent budget cuts that would result if Prop. 1A is passed, Mr. Almost Chairman responded with a classic Burtonism:

“I think when it’s all over, the ones getting fucked will be the poor people.”

Now, I could give you the charts showing how spending will be forced down and payments to the reserve fund mandated even in bad budget years, or offer the example of TABOR’s spending cap in Colorado, which was disastrous.  And I could follow you through the contours of this bad public policy and how it does nothing to relieve the structural problems that can get California out of the ditch.  But I cannot improve upon that line.  I’ve been critical of Burton in the past, based on the need for forward-thinking strategies at the CDP, but I’ve never questioned his liberalism.  And you have to give him the credit for this, er, bon mot.

Now who will have the guts to put it on a mailer?

Since it referenced me, let me start by shouting out to fellow Calitician Lucas O’Connor, writing on the front page of MyDD:

Since approximately the morning after election day in November, Dave Dayen has been writing over at Calitics about the dramatic Congressional pick-up opportunities in California that were missed in the Obama wave. Specifically, Obama carried 42 of California’s 53 districts (I won’t even begin right now to get into the state leg breakdown which is also a debacle), including eight districts held by Republicans in Congress. Well all of a sudden this week, the whole world is waking up to the Dayen gospel.

Attention started building about two weeks ago when the DCCC announced it would target all eight of these Obama-Republican California districts. But an announcement of DCCC targeting hasn’t always meant a lot, so to really get going it took a new report from California Target Book finding in part:

Not only is the current statewide Republican registration of 31% a historic low, but for the first time there is not a single congressional, state senate or assembly district that has a majority Republican registration.

Apparently Bob Mulholland sent out a press release waking up to these facts last week.  Now, I’m not going to hate on Mulholland for finally getting with the program.  But let’s make ourselves clear – this was true in 2006 and 2008 as well, and yet the state party failed to capitalize, by their own admission.  So it’s going to take more than one press release to show a commitment.  Republicans have obviously become repellent to the broad majority of Californians, and they’re too busy trying to recall each other to notice.  It’s upsetting that we haven’t used this unpopularity in the past two election cycles, and I hope that the CDP can catch up with the curve.

They can start with effective recruitment.  John Garamendi, who spoke to Greg Lucas as if he’s still a gubernatorial candidate but who by all accounts will be running for Congress, ought to be pushed to run in the 3rd District, where he is the largest landowner and where there is currently no viable candidate to beat Dan Lungren in a district that is trending Democratic, instead of the 10th, where there are multiple viable candidates.  Recruitment is an often-unremarked-upon but crucial element to winning elections.

Speaking of which…

• CA-04: This CapAlert piece certainly makes it sound like Charlie Brown might challenge Tom McClintock once again.

At the Jefferson-Jackson dinner at the Blue Goose Fruit Shed in Loomis, Brown and his wife, Jan, were honored as photographs flashed of Brown and supporters during four years of campaigning. The production was accompanied by songs from Bruce Springsteen’s “No Surrender” to Neil Young’s “Long May You Run.”

And then Brown stirred huge cheers when he hinted he might have the stamina for one more try for Congress in 2010.

“We’ll see what happens over the next few months – and whether you’ll have the opportunity to get into any pictures again,” Brown said.

In an interview, Brown said he is still mulling his prospects. He said he expects to decide by this fall.

We’re big fans of Charlie here at Calitics, and should he run again we’ll stand with him.  McClintock would have the power of incumbency and a red-leaning district but the rumblings I’m hearing out of there signal that residents and local pols aren’t all that enthused by the new Congressman’s performance.

• CA-32: The LA Times weighs in with an overview of the 32nd race to replace Labor Secretary Hilda Solis set for May 19.  They list Judy Chu and Gil Cedillo as the front-runners (though Emanuel Pleitez is profiled) and suggest that the race is a harbinger of the changing, minority-majority face of Southern California politics.  They also mention the Betty Tom Chu controversy, as well as some allegations on the Cedillo side.

Judy Chu supporters suspect that Republican Betty Tom Chu, a Monterey Park councilwoman and a political opponent of Judy Chu, entered the race to confuse voters and harm the chances of her distant relative by marriage. Tom Chu said last week she did not have time to discuss her candidacy, but earlier told the San Gabriel Valley Tribune that she is running because she could not support any of the other candidates and wanted to offer voters an alternative.

Apparently motivated by concerns that the large number of Latino candidates in the race would split the vote in that group and give Judy Chu the edge, there also were signs of jockeying.

Democratic candidate Francisco Alonso, a former mayor of Monterey Park, and a campaign official for Democratic actor/filmmaker Stefan “Contreras” Lysenko each said Cedillo called them shortly before filing closed and urged them to drop out. A Cedillo spokesman said the state senator was merely inviting the others to “work together” with him and did not intend to discourage them from running.

Over the weekend, Cedillo won the endorsement of the LA County Young Democrats, while Chu garnered the endorsement of the state Democratic Party.

My Internet connection at the Bay Area New Media Conference is agonizingly slow, but I just wanted to call your attention to Joe Eskenazi’s report on the riveting Regional Director race between Chris Daly and August Longo.

Intriguing Matchup for Next Democratic Regional Director: Chris Daly (Hothead) vs. August Longo (Convicted Felon) By Joe Eskenazi

When Supervisor Chris Daly tossed his hat into the ring for the low-profile position of Democratic Party Regional Director earlier this week, much of the ensuing media coverage focused on Daly’s history of polarizing and combative behavior. In short, was this man constitutionally capable of handling a job that, essentially, calls for him to bring together various segments of the party and impartially organize meetings in which party endorsements are decided? Can Chris Daly be anyone’s “liaison”?

Little was mentioned of Daly’s six-year incumbent opponent, August Longo. Yet Longo’s background is arguably more disturbing than Daly’s past experiences walking out of meetings or engaging in shouting matches with members of the public. Longo, also a member of San Francisco’s Human Rights Commission, was in 1981 indicted in New York of impersonating three different doctors, filling out false credit-card and loan applications, and passing more than 40 bad checks — to the tune of $467,000. He pleaded guilty to nine charges involving around $125,000.

In 1984 he “absconded” from New York and skipped his probation to travel to California — where he was later convicted of felony credit-card fraud in 1985. He was paroled in 1990, violated parole in ’91 and went back inside, and then left prison for good one year later and began traveling in Democratic Party circles (all of the above was covered during a thorough — but brief — series of articles by the Hearst Examiner’s Scott Winokur in 1997 — long before many of the 150 party apparatchiks voting for Regional Director were paying attention).

Information obtained from Jack Ryan, spokesman for the New York Department of Probation, indicates that a warrant was issued for Longo in 1984. This came to light during Winokur’s reporting in 1997 and Longo said at the time he would clear the matter up. Ryan reported that it wasn’t until 2002 that Longo returned to Manhattan where he was re-sentenced to probation, which was transferred to California. Longo’s case was closed in January of 2004.

Longo said his background was ancient history, and accused Daly of attempting to plant the story with “every paper in town.” This came as a surprise, as Daly had not returned your humble narrator’s calls since that one time in 2007.

“I’ve been vetted and I think this race will be decided on who will be the best regional director,” Longo said. “The fact Chris Daly is trying to bring this up … I think he can count the votes just like I can count the votes.”

Our subsequent call to Daly was returned (!) — and he denied spreading stories about Longo’s past. Daly said he sees his role as reaching out to the young, largely politically inexperienced folks energized by Barack Obama’s run to the presidency and bringing them into the Democratic Party — and these people would be turned off if he ran a nasty campaign. “I’m not going negative. I’m not going to run a negative race,” he said. “There have been negative e-mails from the other side against me, and I’m trying not to take the bait.”

Longo said he was confident he’d win the election, which will be held on April 25 in Sacramento. He carries endorsements from a number of elected officials and is a longtime ally of likely future state party chair John Burton. Yet a handful of city progressives told the Weekly they are eager for “new blood” and are backing Daly. And while no voter would say on the record that Longo’s criminal background would influence the election — it certainly can’t help, and, in this contested race, it could become a factor.

If you believe Longo, it already has.  

This post was written by Asm. Hector De La Torre (D-South Gate) and is being promoted pursuant to our policy to bump post from candidates and electeds.

Democratic Party activists have complained to me for years about the Party’s finances.  Alex Rooker and Eric Bradley have also been concerned, and shared  their frustration with me.

If we agree there is a problem, then we need a solution.  That is why I decided to introduce a Resolution at the upcoming Democratic Party Convention and asked Alex and Eric to join as co-sponsors:  to fix our Party so we can get more Democrats elected!

But we can’t do it alone.  This common sense CDP finance reform resolution is the beginning of coming together for reform.  I strongly believe that when delegates come together in support of this resolution, it will send a loud message for positive change throughout the Party.

The companion measure to our resolution is a bylaw amendment that will block cash payments to politicians’ campaign accounts (especially those that are termed-out).  I am confident that broad delegate support will build momentum to make this long-overdue change happen–to stop spending that does not meet our main goal of electing more Democrats at the federal, state, and local level and supporting worthy ballot measures.

I encourage every delegate, and every Democrat, to visit our website: www.LetsFixCDP.com and sign up for our reform effort.  As we saw in November, we can accomplish amazing things when we unite for change as Democrats.