The people who set policy for the California Democratic Party are elected as delegates. Not all of them – the Democrats who hold public office get to be delegates automatically, which means it’s harder to move the party in a progressive direction. But every two years, in a genuine nod to democracy (which sometimes seems like a nod to chaos and power politics) the registered Democrats in each Assembly district get to choose delegates to the state party convention.
This time around, there’s no big meeting in an open space, no gathering to collect and count paper ballots. Instead, the vote will be entirely by mail – and only people who register with the party by Jan. 11 (even if you are already registered to vote, you have to sign up for this particular election) will get ballots. (You can sign up for a ballot here; it only takes a few minutes.)
As usual, there are competing slates, one representing the corporate Democrats and backed by Assemblymember David Chiu and Sen. Scott Wiener and one supported by the progressives including local Party Chair David Campos.
We are encouraging all our readers to sign up for a ballot, and we are endorsing the progressives slates in the hope that they can move the party in a better direction in the first two years of the Biden-Harris Administration.
Under state Party rules, seven people who identify as female and seven who do not identify as female will be elected from each district. Here are our choices in D17:
Susan Solomon
Gaynorann Siataga
Karol Ruiz
Nomvula O’Meara
Jackie Praeger
Joy Zhan
Venicia Margarita
Marc Dantona
Julian LaRosa
Njon Sanders
Vanessa Pimentel
Bill Shields
Robert Sandoval
Corey Hallman
Here are our endorsed candidates in the 19th (West Side) district
Sophia Andary
Manufou Liaiga-Andai
Alondra Esquivel
Alida Fisher
Kalimah Salahuddin
Jasper Wilde
Kaylah Williams
Brandon Harami
Gabriel Medina
Joshua Ochoa
Gilbert Williams
Ryan McGilley
Alan Wong
