California Democrats elect traditional candidates

from Maya S. MillerCalMatters

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The California Democratic Party is betting that a proven strategy and traditional standard candidates offer the best chance to take back the U.S. House of Representatives in November. instead of new faces and more populist political proposals.

The largest state Democratic party in the country approved a slate of veteran congressmen in yours convention in San Francisco, after a weekend that illustrated just how high the stakes are in this year’s midterm elections. In currently unrepresented congressional districts, the party has endorsed a handful of state legislators who, though younger, are members of the party establishment compared to mainstream politicians running as Democrats in the most contested races.

Among the incumbents who received endorsements were Congressman Mike Thompson, 74, of St. Helena, who is running for his 15th term, and Congressman Brad Sherman, 71, of the San Fernando Valley, who is running for a 16th term.

In the open race for the heir of the deceased Republican Rep. Doug LaMalfa who represented the state’s rural north for more than 13 years, a state senator Mike McGuire won overwhelming party support despite a internal dispute with the party leadership which nearly forced a vote by the entire Congress.

The result, while not surprising, disappointed several grassroots politicians seeking to give their party a new face and move beyond the anti-Trump rhetoric its leaders have relied on since President Donald Trump was first elected in 2016.

“This weekend reaffirmed why we need to push for new leadership in the Democratic Party. It also reaffirmed to me why people are leaving the Democratic Party,” said Mai Wang, a progressive member of the Sacramento City Council.

Wang is the first elected official to run against Congresswoman Doris Matsui in the 20 years since she took over her late husband’s Sacramento-area seat in the 7th Congressional District. Matsui, 81, ultimately won the endorsement despite a challenge from Wang, who argued the advocacy group unfairly allowed Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, who is not a delegate from the 7th District, to deliver a speech in support of Matsui, a 10-term incumbent.

Jake Levine, a former Biden White House aide who is running against Sherman, argued that Democrats cannot keep beating the same anti-Republican and anti-Trump drum without also laying out a clear vision for addressing the concerns of young voters about issues such as high housing costs and a lack of good-paying jobs.

“Yes, we need to transform the House, but we also need a new generation of leaders when we take over,” Levine said. “To sustain a party that can continue to win for many years to come, we need a new message. And those who got us to where we are today remain trapped in the politics of the past.”

The weekend also served as Goodbye to Pelosi the San Francisco political titan and first female speaker of the House of Representatives, who announced last year that she would retire after her term. Pelosi has been repeatedly praised for cultivating the trust of generations of elected officials, including Sen. Adam Schiff. His unusually fiery and profanity-laced speech at the convention underscored pent-up anger and frustration with the Trump administration, which has turned even the party’s most meek figures into hard-nosed fighters.

Schiff shouted from the stage that the mass turnout of Proposition 50 which redrawn congressional districts in favor of Democrats, sent a resounding message to the Trump administration: “When you poke the bear, the bear takes your goddamn head off!”

We need people who know what they are doing

In their own defense, seasoned incumbents say now is not the time to usher in a whole new class of lawmakers as House Democrats try to put limits on a second Trump administration.

“This is not the time to cower,” said Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, chair of the California Congressional Democratic Caucus and a close friend and supporter of Matsui. “We need people who know what to do. And she does.”

Still, Levine and others have complained that the party has recently been limited to talking about fostering the next generation of leaders instead of giving younger voters a voice in elected office. He argued that failure to tailor the party’s message to younger voters and instead insist on the party’s historic respect for seniority will continue to alienate voters.

A potential bright spot for progressives and the party’s antiestablishment wing was the endorsement race for Congressional District 22, a Central Valley seat that Democrats hope to rebound on Moderate Republican Rep. David Valadao .

The deputy Jasmeet Bains a physician and moderate politician from Bakersfield, was declared the Democratic front-runner and had the support of the powerful California Service Employees International Union, a labor organization and a broad group of state and federal elected officials. However, she fell short of the party’s endorsement after her Democratic opponent, Visalia educator and college professor Randy Villegas, generated massive support and also raised more funds than her last quarter. In the end, the party did not support a single candidate in the race.

Villegas said several delegates told his campaign they wanted to support him, but “there was intimidation, absolute coercion” by Baines’ team.

Baines, through a spokesman, denied that she or any of her supporters coerced or intimidated delegates into voting for her.

Jeanne Kuang and Juliet Williams contributed to this report.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under license Creative Commons Attribution/Attribution-Noncommercial.