Daily Kos

My Calls to the California Democratic Party

by Rex Freedom

Fri Mar 10, 2006 at 02:53:50 PM PDT

Inspired by this diary by AnthonySF, and our longstanding efforts to track and fill all US House races, I decided to call around California and see whats going on in CA-22 and CA-42 which look like they will have no Democratic candidate unless some unforeen miracle happens. (the DCCC, BTW, lists a candidate in both of those races)

Anyway,.... my "interesting" calls are documented below....

I first called the Orange County Democrats, where I was told that "District 42 was mostly in Los Angeles County", which is WRONG, at least geographically (I don't know population-wise). "Call them and I bet they've got someone who's running".

I asked "Do you have 40 people who could sign a petition and get it to the courthouse in 2 hours?" and the answer was "Oh my, we don't have anything like that." Now I thought California was ridden with humans. Cant you just go to the mall? Well anyway...

Now to be fair, the woman on the phone at the "OC" dems was the nicest and most helpful--she gave me the numbers of both the LA Dems and the State Democratic Party.

So I called the LA County Democratic Party.

I asked for information on anyone running in CA-42. The woman who answered said they didn't know anything about that. So I asked if there was anyone who did know. And they said there was no one there. So I asked if there was anyone that I could call, and they finally produced a name and a cell number.

I asked "If I were to produce a candidate, could you get 40 names on a petition and get it to the courthouse in the next 2 hours?" and they said "Why did you wait until now?"

NOW WE'RE GETTING SOMEWHERE Aside from the fact that I live 2000 miles to the east of CA, have my own life and campaign that I'm working on, why wait until now is a GREAT question. But I'm allowing some of my post-call-to-the-state outrage to bleed into the story too soon.

I called the cell number I got at the LA Dems and got voice mail. Hopefully this guy was too busy to answer cause he was out getting a candidate. We can only hope.

So, I called the state party up in SacraMENTo! (Like in those Punchline comedy club ads)

I asked for information on CD 22 and 42. I was put on hold for many minutes. They came back and said "Lewis Myers". I said "In which District?" They said "In District 42" I said "What about 22?" They said "You want 22 also?" I said "Yep". I was put on hold again.

They came back and said "Ronald Carter" (I realized that they were most likely just reading the DCCC site) I said, "do you have any information that they have filed?" They said, "These are just rumors" I said "Any contact information on these guys?" They said "Nope"

So I said "Well I hope you succeed in filling these races" and they said "We?" in an incredulous tone. And I said "Well of course, all races should be filled, and ultimately its the party's job"

And they said "Okey-dokey" (and hung up on me).

And all I'm left with are questions:

Who (and where) are Ronald Carter and Lewis Myers?

Why did *I* wait so long?

Should I have diaried about the Contract With America: Renewed and Barry Welsh's reply instead?

Tags: 2006 elections, 50 state strategy, California (all tags) :: Previous Tag Versions

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