{"id":8663,"date":"2009-04-26T08:42:36","date_gmt":"2009-04-26T08:42:36","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2009-04-29T19:12:07","modified_gmt":"2009-04-29T19:12:07","slug":"groundswell-of-support-for-reform-in-the-california-democratic-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/2009\/04\/26\/groundswell-of-support-for-reform-in-the-california-democratic-party\/","title":{"rendered":"Groundswell of support for reform in the California Democratic Party"},"content":{"rendered":"

The California Democratic Party elected statewide officers today, and the results showed a seismic shift away from insider politics in Sacramento.<\/p>\n

The party has been roiled by internal controversy over the diversion of funds for campaigns by the former speaker of the state Assembly, Fabian Nunez.  Many Central Committee members in swing districts have also been disgruntled at the lack of state contributions to funding for regional campaign infrastructure, including campaign offices and staff.<\/p>\n

As a result, two grassroots candidates stepped up to run for statewide officer positions.   Hilary Crosby, a CPA and activist from the East Bay, ran on a platform of financial transparency and accountability of the party to its elected delegates and executive board representatives.      <\/p>\n

In a major upset, Crosby defeated the incumbent controller, Eric Bradley, by 54% to 46%.    <\/p>\n

In a move seen by many as hopelessly Quixotic, Chris Finnie, a CDP standing committee member and party activist from Santa Cruz, stepped up to challenge former state Senate leader John Burton  for the position of chair after Los Angeles Democratic Party chair Eric Bauman and CDP Vice Chair Alex Rooker withdrew from the race.   <\/p>\n

Finnie ran on a platform of reform of the state party.   Her platform included twelve auggested bylaws revisions<\/a>.  The new bylaws would mandate that the party write a statewide strategic plan in consultation with the executive board, and then develop a fundraising plan and tactical campaign plan in consultation with the appropriate executive board committees.   <\/p>\n

Finnie received 24% of the vote, which was a strong showing considering that Burton had swept the endorsements by elected officials and labor unions.<\/p>\n

Burton has promised to work with Finnie on implementing her draft bylaws changes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The California Democratic Party elected statewide officers today, and the results showed a seismic shift away from insider politics in Sacramento.<\/p>\n

The party has been roiled by internal controversy over the diversion of funds for campaigns by the former speaker of the state Assembly, Fabian Nunez.  Many Central Committee members in swing districts have also been disgruntled at the lack of state contributions to funding for regional campaign infrastructure, including campaign offices and staff.<\/p>\n

As a result, two grassroots candidates stepped up to run for statewide officer positions.   Hilary Crosby, a CPA and activist from the East Bay, ran on a platform of financial transparency and accountability of the party to its elected delegates and executive board representatives.      <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":826,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[87],"tags":[921,967],"class_list":["post-8663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-87","tag-921","tag-967"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Pvhz-2fJ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/826"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8663\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}