No more Green bashing

IF THE LEADERS of the California Democratic Party are wondering why their governor is in so much trouble, they can simply look at what the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee, the party's local operating arm, did July 23. The DCCC considered two resolutions, both aimed directly at the Green Party – and both symbolizing how the Democrats are putting their core constituency, and thus the future of the party, at risk.

The first resolution, as originally introduced by committee members Tom Hsieh Jr., Megan Levitan, Mary Jung, and Dan Dunnigan, would have "condemned" the Greens for "supporting the recall of Gov. Gray Davis." Actually, the California Green Party is neutral on the recall, and the resolution was eventually softened to simply urge the Greens to oppose it and not to run a candidate. The second resolution would have directed local Democratic Party clubs not to endorse Green Party candidates; again, that was softened to exempt local, nonpartisan races.

This is just a local outcropping of a battle that's been going on for many years, ever since the Greens qualified for party status in California despite a blistering assault by the Democratic Party. Top national and California Democrats still try to blame the Greens and Ralph Nader for the fact that George W. Bush is president. But as Democrats scramble to use all sorts of political tactics to attack the Greens, they're forgetting a crucial point: the Green Party exists, and is growing, precisely because the Democrats have abandoned such a key part of their political base. And that's also a major reason that Davis is in such trouble.

Statewide and nationally Democrats like to talk about the need for moderate, Bill Clinton-style candidates, conveniently forgetting that a lot of those "moderates" (Kathleen Brown and Al Gore, for example) have lost California and national races to Republicans after failing to inspire the voters who were once considered central to the Democratic Party. Now that Davis is under attack from the right wing of the Republican Party and facing a recall that might very well be successful, he needs all of the help he can get – and the progressives who make up the most active wing of his own party are decidedly unexcited. Davis has done little or nothing for tenants, for unions (except the one for prison guards), for queers, for communities of color, for seniors, for open-government advocates, for environmentalists.... For just about any of the activist types who could help give the anti-recall campaign some credibility. Instead, he's helped further define the California Democratic Party as the captive of big-business interests and left himself wide open to attacks on his integrity that will appeal not only to the GOP but also to liberal voters – who may be so disenchanted with the governor that they sit out the recall election.

The Greens, at least, are offering disaffected voters an alternative. Peter Camejo, the East Bay investment advisor who ran against Davis last year, will be on the ballot – and the odds are that many of the people who vote for him will also vote against the recall. The leading Democrats, on the other hand, have joined in what Camejo aptly calls a "suicide pact": they've so far agreed to stay off the ballot so Davis can portray the entire recall as a crazy right-wing plot. As long as no mainstream, credible Republicans run, that might work – but if someone like Richard Riordan, the former mayor of Los Angeles, joins the race, Davis and the Democrats could be in real trouble.

And with all of that to worry about, San Francisco's DCCC is spending its time trying to tell the Green Party what to do.

What the Democrats, here in San Francisco and across the state, ought to be doing is working with the Greens – pushing, for example, for a statewide ranked-choice voting system (which would eliminate the "spoiler" role of third parties and ultimately help the Democrats in major races). And the local DCCC ought to be pushing the state party leadership to end the suicide pact and put at least one strong Democrat on the ballot (see "Beyond Gray Davis," 7/23/03).

The Democratic Party has plenty of work to do solving its own problems. Continuing to go after the Greens is entirely the wrong direction.