An amazing thing happened in California last week, but it went almost unnoticed by the national media. It's an encouraging story, and an object lesson in the power of citizen involvement to create real change and accountability in the Democratic Party. Last weekend progressive activists from all over California stood together to oppose the agenda of most of the Democratic elected leaders in the state--and we won.
A little background: The California Democratic Party Convention was held last weekend in Sacramento. The most important business at hand (outside of electing Party leadership) was endorsements on propositions 1A-1F coming up on the May 19th special election ballot, the most important of which is 1A.
To make a very long and complicated story short, California's state politics make it an essentially ungovernable mess. That's a real problem, given that California is the world's 10th largest economy, and gets only 79 cents back from the federal government for every dollar it pays in. If California goes under, the United States as a whole is in big trouble.
An anti-tax revolt just prior to and during the Reagan years led to the passage of Proposition 13 and other measures that severely curtailed the ability of the state to pay its bills, especially during recessions when the California's disproportionate reliance on regressive sales taxes as opposed to property taxes causes the State's budget to crater as people pull back on household spending. At the same time, voters approve major spending increases on social services and prisons almost every year through the ballot initiative process, such that 30% of the budget is currently set aside for spending that cannot be touched by legislators. Most importantly, California is one of only three states in the nation with a 2/3 rule to pass a budget--meaning that a small minority of Republican legislators whose only electoral fear is a primary from the even-more-psycho wing of the GOP can essentially hold the entire budget process hostage.
This untenable situation has led to a disastrous situation in which revenue enhancements are rarely able to passed--and when they are, they tend to be regressive taxes--while deeper and deeper cuts are forced to the very educational and environmental initiatives that are the keys to the state's economic future. Meanwhile, legislators have increasing difficulty moving need funds around to cover shortfalls in various programs.
This year California is a whopping $42 billion in debt. Rather than allow sane tax increases balanced by responsible cuts, the 35% Republican minority in the Legislature held the state hostage for months, and threatened to drive the State off a cliff by simply refusing to pass a budget, allowing the entire state infrastructure to grind to a complete halt.
To prevent this from happening, a budget was agreed on by governor Schwarzenegger and the two parties that depended on the passage of a number of voter initiative propositions, since they constituted changes to the CA Constitution, and/or alterations to previously passed initiatives.
Unfortunately, most progressive activists and bloggers believe that these deals constitute a cure worse than the disease. The board of Calitics recommended No on all the propositions, as have numerous other progressive organizations.
Primary among the bad deals is Proposition 1A, which allows for two years of tax increases in exchange for an indefinite spending cap disguised as a "rainy day fund" on steroids. If this were to pass, California's already painfully low spending on education and social services would be curtailed even in good years, leading to disastrous results. Also particularly gruesome and unnecessary are 1D and 1E, which raid Pre-K and mental health funding respectively to attempt to cover a small portion of the budget shortfall.
But the Democratic legislators who spent countless hours crafting the budget "deal" are loathe to see it scuttled, and have been strongly urging the passage of these propositions.
The battle over endorsements came to a head last weekend on Sunday, when the recommendation of the Party to endorse all six ballot initiatives came to a vote on the floor of the convention by all the delegates in attendance. The live thread from Calitics tells the story, and it's a dramatic one. It is worth noting here that fully 1/3 of all the delegates are appointed by legislators and other party leaders, who were under intense pressure to vote the will of those who appointed them.
In order to pass, each recommendation needed 60% of those in attendance on the floor. When all was said and done, the vote on Proposition 1A was 758 yes & 542 no: California progressives had defeated our own party leaders by a mere 22 votes, of which I was proud to be one, to deny the endorsement of this poison pill by the State Party. And while the endorsements of the much less problematic propositions 1B, 1C and 1F passed, the particularly egegrious 1D and 1E were rejected by the delegates on the Convention floor.
This stunning victory, combined with the approval of the resolution to impeach Jay Bybee and the election of Hilary Crosby as Controller, was a serious flexing of the muscle of the progressive contingent in California that would have been utterly impossible just two years ago. As our own eugene (Robert Cruickshank) says:
As I look back on the weekend, I am reminded of what I wrote after last year's convention, including some themes that were clearly in evidence this weekend. From last year:
The Leno-Migden fight certainly reached a dramatic climax today, and the result was stunning. After the vote was finalized Eden James argued that it was a representation of the power of the grassroots within the party, and I think that analysis is absolutely right....Migden's failed endorsement is also further evidence, along with the rescinded AD-40 endorsement and the split over Prop 93 earlier in the year, to a huge divide between the party grassroots and the Sacramento leadership in particular. Senate Democrats and their staffers had worked hard over the weekend to get a Migden endorsement and the delegates would not go along with it.
Switch out "Leno-Migden" and "Prop 93" for "Proposition 1A" and you'd have essentially the same story from this weekend in Sacramento. Progressives flexed their muscle yet again at this convention, showing that they are the force to be reckoned with in the party - even if progressives did not always speak with a single voice. The refusal to endorse Propositions 1A, 1D and 1E was a sign that progressive delegates are not going to be dictated to by Democratic leaders, and that they feel empowered to say "No" when it is warranted. That's a sign of a healthy and mature progressive movement. People power is here in the California Democratic Party - and although it has yet to find sustained expression, it's only a matter of time before that power revitalizes the party.
Ultimately, it appears from the latest Field poll that all of these propositions (except for the essentially irrelevant 1F) will go down to defeat, forcing a return to square one on the budget, and a battle royale to eliminate the 2/3 rule in November. A Constitutional Convention is also a possibility to rectify this mess.
Still, the ability of progressive and Democratic activists with a long-term rather than short-term mindset to stand up to the vast majority of the power base in the State should stand as an inspiration to activists all across the country.
Become a part of your local Central Committee. Get elected as a delegate. Attend your State conventions. Crash the Gate. Ultimately, you can make a real difference in how your state party does business.
We just saw it happen here in California, and it was a beautiful sight to see.