California Democratic Party

At one of the many gatherings that marked the recent state Democratic convention, the party's future could be glimpsed. As Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom spoke to a group of activists, his eyes briefly darted to a commotion at the back of the room. Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris was trying to leave after her own speech but had been mobbed by admirers begging for autographs and pictures. Moments later, Newsom was surrounded by his own crush as he tried to exit. Democrats have swept the statewide offices in recent elections, but their success has masked a looming problem: The party's top officeholders — Gov. Jerry Brown and U.S. Sens.

Eloise Gomez Reyes' frustration seemed to leap off the pages of her recent complaint letter to the head of the California Democratic Party. She described how she had tried repeatedly to address local party clubs about her candidacy for a hotly contested congressional seat in the Inland Empire, only to learn four of those organizations had endorsed a rival, Redlands Mayor Pete Aguilar. The backing, announced by the Aguilar campaign, "suggests that information needed to participate fully in the Democratic Club endorsement process has intentionally been withheld" from other candidates, Reyes, a Colton attorney and first-time candidate, said in her letter.

The state Democratic Party decided Sunday not to endorse the marijuana legalization initiative on the November ballot after a swift, passionate debate that left little doubt most Democrats in the hotel meeting room intend to vote yes at the polls. The party decided to adopt a neutral position on Proposition 19, leaving the many local Democratic committees and organizations free to endorse the measure. Advocates for an endorsement cited many reasons to back the initiative, but opponents pressed one overriding concern: a yes vote could damage statewide candidates in competitive races.

SACRAMENTO - Sandra Fluke, the law school graduate who became famous after Rush Limbaugh called her a "slut" for demanding that health insurers be required to pay for contraception, made the rounds at the California Democratic Party on Saturday. The 31-year-old Los Angeles resident spoke to party delegates about federal student-loan reform and the California domestic workers' bill of rights, which would require overtime pay, meal breaks and other benefits for housekeepers, nannies and caregivers.

Since his election as California Democratic Party chairman early this year, Jerry Brown has remained pretty much in the background. That's where state party leaders are supposed to remain, although few expected it of the former governor. He tries to play his politics as straight and as dull as possible these days, in contrast to the off-the-wall approach he took while governor of California. During those eight years he acquired such mocking nicknames as "Gov.

Howard A. Fox, 52, a co-founder of many of the gay and lesbian caucuses that exist within the California Democratic Party, including the Stonewall Democratic Club, the first gay-oriented group formed to work within the traditional party structure. A word-processing technician by profession, he helped found and organize the gay and lesbian arms of the California Democratic Council, the California Democratic Party and the Democratic National Committee.

Susan Blad Seldin, 41, former Democratic Party grass-roots organizer who co-founded FieldWorks, a Washington-based campaign consulting and political strategy firm, died Saturday at UC San Francisco Medical Center. Blad Seldin had developed graft-versus-host disease after a successful bone marrow transplant to treat non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Blad Seldin started FieldWorks in 2001 with Laurie Moskowitz, a former colleague from the Democratic National Committee.

The nomination of Mayor Tom Bradley for governor promises to do everything for the California Democratic Party that the nomination of Walter Mondale for President did for the national Democratic Party. The coming California gubernatorial campaign will be full of sound and fury and will signify nothing, except the pointless expenditure of vast sums of money. ROBERT S. COUGHLIN Rancho Palos Verdes

Democratic National Chairman Charles Manatt today threw his support to Nancy Pelosi, a former chairman of the California Democratic Party, in the battle to succeed him as party leader. The strong endorsement from Manatt boosted Pelosi's drive to become the first woman ever elected to a full two-year term as leader of the party. The Democratic National Committee will pick Manatt's successor at a Jan. 30-Feb. 1 meeting in Washington.

SACRAMENTO -- John Burton, the combative chairman of the California Democratic Party, isn't too worried about Republican Abel Maldonado running for governor next year.  "Oh, I bet Jerry Brown is wetting his pants," he quipped Friday before speaking during the opening night of his party's convention here in Sacramento. Maldonado filed paperwork earlier this month to begin raising money for a potential gubernatorial campaign. A former state lawmaker, he was appointed as lieutenant governor by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger but lost the seat to Gavin Newsom in the 2010 election.

They didn't go there. Did they? Did the No on 31 campaign , funded mostly by organized labor and backed by the California Democratic Party, really invoke the "Tea Party" as being on the right (right as in “correct”) side of the issue? Did they really cite fringy populist conservatives who worry about a United Nations takeover of California? Yeah, they kinda did. How else would you interpret the Google ad that says “Learn why California Democrats and Tea Party both say vote No”?

The California Democratic Party opposes Proposition 31 , a measure on the Nov. 6 ballot to change the way budgeting is done at the state level while reframing the relationship between Sacramento and local governments. The California Republican Party supports it. No surprise. Democrats run California and have a vested interest in retaining the status quo. In the game of politics, they're winning here. They have mastered the rules. They will resist efforts to change them.

At one of the many gatherings that marked the recent state Democratic convention, the party's future could be glimpsed. As Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom spoke to a group of activists, his eyes briefly darted to a commotion at the back of the room. Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris was trying to leave after her own speech but had been mobbed by admirers begging for autographs and pictures. Moments later, Newsom was surrounded by his own crush as he tried to exit. Democrats have swept the statewide offices in recent elections, but their success has masked a looming problem: The party's top officeholders — Gov. Jerry Brown and U.S. Sens.

Joe Cerrell, a prominent political consultant who over several decades helped steer successful campaigns for both the presidency and top offices in California, died Friday. He was 75. Cerrell, who had pneumonia, died at St. John's Pleasant Valley Hospital in Camarillo, his family said. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) called him the "indefatigable wise man of California politics" whom "you could always count on ? to give it to you straight, and with a big dose of his characteristic humor.

The state Democratic Party decided Sunday not to endorse the marijuana legalization initiative on the November ballot after a swift, passionate debate that left little doubt most Democrats in the hotel meeting room intend to vote yes at the polls. The party decided to adopt a neutral position on Proposition 19, leaving the many local Democratic committees and organizations free to endorse the measure. Advocates for an endorsement cited many reasons to back the initiative, but opponents pressed one overriding concern: a yes vote could damage statewide candidates in competitive races.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) has been named co-chairman of the Democratic Party's national platform committee, party officials said. Pelosi, 52, who was named to the post late Tuesday, replaces Rep. Mary Rose Okar of Ohio. Pelosi headed the California Democratic Party and fund-raising efforts for Democratic U.S. Senate candidates before she was elected to Congress in 1987.

Los Angeles lawyer and businessman Peter D. Kelly was elected to a two-year term as chairman of the California Democratic Party by convention delegates in Sacramento. Outgoing chairwoman Betty Smith of San Francisco was praised by the delegates for her attention to grass-roots organizational efforts that helped the party's candidates win four of five hotly contested statewide races last November. Kelly, 38, also headed the state Democratic Party from 1983 to 1985.

Walter H. Shorenstein, known as a titan of downtown San Francisco real estate development and a highly influential Democratic Party donor and fundraiser, has died. He was 95. Shorenstein, former chairman and chief executive of the Shorenstein Co., died of natural causes Thursday at his home in San Francisco, said a family spokesperson. "He was a man of extraordinary vision, leadership and wisdom," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) said in a statement, describing Shorenstein as "a proud San Franciscan, a great American and a dear friend."

The state's ethics enforcement agency has found no wrongdoing in its review of a complaint made four years ago against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in connection with a consulting contract he reached with a muscle magazine publisher days before he took office in 2003. The Fair Political Practices Commission, in a letter earlier this month, told a lawyer for the Republican governor that the complaint filed by the California Democratic Party is now closed. The contract with American Media Inc. was estimated to be worth up to $8 million over five years.