The California Democratic Party will hold its midterm convention at Moscone Center in San Francisco this weekend, and while there’s not a whole lot of suspense, it’s always an opportunity to see which way the party is leaning in a crucial election year.
The message so far: Don’t talk about economic inequality—and don’t mention the billionaire tax.
All the candidates for governor, and all the candidates for the other statewide offices, will be there. Mayor Daniel Lurie will address the crowd.
The party issues endorsements in contested primaries, and the San Francisco Congressional race was wired from the start for state Sen. Scott Wiener. The 151 super-delegates who voted in the pre-endorsement caucus are mostly party insiders—elected officials and representatives of some Democratic clubs. Wiener, to the surprise of nobody, got 117 votes as the candidates of the party establishment (which is, at this point, controlled by corporate Dems. Sup. Connie Chan got 30 votes Saikat Chakrabarti got none.
So Wiener will get the party nod on the consent calendar.
No candidate for governor is close to a front-runner, but they will all have a chance to make their case to the delegates—and to the news media. Most candidates hold press conferences after their speeches, and we get to ask the kinds of questions that get ducked in debates and formal campaign events.
The party will be voting on endorsements for all Constitutional officers, but it’s unlikely any candidate for governor will get enough of a majority. On the other hand, Working Families Party leader Jane Kim is running for insurance commissioner, and there’s a chance of an endorsement in that race.
Other than Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, no big names are speaking. For whatever reason, Gov. Gavin Newsom, the top Democrat in the state and a candidate for president, is not on the agenda.
Sen. Bernie Sanders is in town; he’ll be speaking at Stanford Friday, with Rep. Ro Khanna (who some suggest might also be a presidential candidate), but neither of them is on the list. Sen. Elizabeth Warren is also in town, speaking Thursday night at Manny’s; she didn’t make the cut, either.
That seems silly to me: Sanders, Khanna, and Warren are both immensely popular with the party’s grassroots, and if this convention is about generating energy for the mid-terms, they could help.
But that’s a sign that the party today is very much in the control of the Corporate Democrats, who don’t want anyone to talk about, for example, the billionaire tax.
Several union leaders are scheduled to speak—but nobody from SEIU-UHWW, which is leading the campaign for taxing the rich.
Put Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren on the stage and that’s exactly what they would promote—which is what Newsom and his allies fear.
So I am looking at a tepid, predictable convention, with very few speakers challenging the billionaires or the “abundance” agenda that Newsom supports. Not a good sign for a voting populace that is fed up with business as usual.
We will be there, and will bring you the details as they happen.
