From my sfgate blog http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/… :

Saturday night at the Democratic EBoard.  Fires are raging all around. Outside, it is eerily calm, with only a hint of the earlier Santa Ana winds and smell of smoke in the air, while the TV tells us the fires are right here in Anaheim.

We are across the street from Disneyland. Will they shoot off their customary fireworks tonight? I would expect not.

On TV the whole left sid of the stucco house in Anaheim Hills, where the NBC crew is stationed, has collapsed. It is the hotttest day on record.

Believe in global warming yet?

Firestorms

Sunday morning; the firestorms are still raging, the triangle fire I think of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of 1911. Out my window, a huge plume of smoke rises into the blue.

New fire in Yorba Linda; we think of Oakland in 1991.

Firefghts

After the fizzle of the Death Penalty plank, the biggest excitement is the race for Chair of the Party. The candidates are John Burton, recruited by Barbara Boxer, arriving with a long list of elected officials supporting him, Eric Bauman, who has been running for a while, working hard to break into the red districts in LA, and surprisingly sans endorsement list; and Alex Rooker, current co-chair and the only woman.

Too soon to call; the vote is at the April Convention in Sacramento.  I am torn.  Although I “beat the Burton machine” to elect a Marin Count Supervisor, I embraced it to work with Senator Carole Migden last year. And there is no one with a longer track record for supporting progressive causes. The greasy underside to machine politics is the well-oiled gears and pulleys that determine elections, the flow of money to favored candidates, not always the best for the seat they seek, the high school quality of in and out crowds.  I walk a line.

Another race already gaining traction is the decidedly un-machine like race of Hilary Crosby for Controller, challenging the incumbent.  She is a terrific candidate, smart, funny, and lived in Cambridge during my time. Her campaign is based on transparency and an open process, obviously protecting the integrity of the budget process.

Go Hilary!

Fear of the Republicans getting all our secrets is rampant.  Newsflash: They already have them.  We the people, the rank and file of the party need in on the secret.

In the Rules Committee, a simple request that has been on the table for years, failed again; and that is to request Democrats seeking Party endorsement to read the Platform. Not agree to it; just say, yes I know what my Party stands for.

Again, there were those who said, this will give the Reps ammunition. Guess what, they have it; they’ll use it; they’ll make it up. Let’s arm our own candidates with knowledge and the strength of principle.

Good thing I’m not running.