The Fear of Losing Control in the California Democratic Party

By Thomas Gangale
California Progress Report
24 November 2007

I have spent several days turning over in my mind the events at the California Democratic Party's recent Executive Board meeting in Anaheim. Having taken that time to reflect, I flatter myself that this article is not a knee-jerk reaction to campaign strategist Bob Mulholland's characterization of supporters of the Feinstein censure resolution as "armchair activists," "fringe," "pre-nursing home," and "worse than Bush," Resolutions Committee co-chair John Hanna's pushing Eden James and grabbing his sign, and Art Torres' exhortations before the Resolutions Committee and the General Session.

I have had several encounters with Bob Mulholland, none of them overly pleasant, and this Executive Board meeting was no exception. While the Resolutions Committee was taking a ten-minute break on Saturday night, Bob approached me and demanded, "How many resolutions did you submit?"

I gathered from his demeanor that he felt that the Sonoma County Democratic Party had an excessive number of resolutions before the committee. What Bob didn't know was that half of them were submitted in time for earlier meetings, but somehow they were misplaced by the CDP, and therefore delayed, so the backlog of old resolutions and the new resolutions happened to be stacked up on the committee's current consent calendar.

I shrugged as I craned my neck to reply to this voice from ten inches above. "I don't know exactly."

Immediately he went on the attack. "What that tells me is that they aren't very important. A lot of people are saying that you're sending too many resolutions, but they won't say it to your face."

"Let them say it to my face. I don't care. Anyway, how much money do you have in your wallet? You probably don't know exactly. If that means it's not important, why don't you give me all of your money."

Bob's response was barely audible and not at all intelligible. Next time I see him, I'll ask him, "What's in your wallet?"

FULL STORY