(March 16, 2008) -- LBReport.com has obtained and lists below the names and openly-cast votes by some of the local Dem Party loyalists who met on March 15 to decide whom, if anyone, the CA Democratic Party should tell thousands of LB/San Pedro/PV Dems to vote for in June when at stake is our voice in Sacramento.
We do this because we believe it's an important part of the news story, providing some "who, what, why and how" basics. It shows what the "official Party endorsement" really means at its roots. The vote wasn't secret; it was open (we deleted the official delegate numbers) but in looking at the list, it's clear how much of it is elite and insider, not grassroots.
Now comes Round Two with more Party wrestling and Party votes before a formal state Party endorsement (if there is one).
But what the Party decrees isn't always what Dem voters do. Ask former Assemblywoman, now Congresswoman, Laura Richardson (D., Carson). A loyal Dem, she beat the "officially endorsed" state Party candidate for Assembly in June 2006, then did it a second time in besting the "officially endorsed" state Party candidate for Congress (June 2007).
And what some Dems are helping Sen. Barack Obama do to the supposedly unstoppable Clinton campaign is making history (with an admittedly still uncertain outcome).
Vice Mayor Bonnie Lowenthal and Councilwoman Tonia Reyes Uranga both want to become LB's voice in the Assembly for the next two years (and likely beyond).
LB Dem voters have every right to hold them accountable -- praise and pillory, cheers and jeers -- for every one of their Council votes that has affected and continues to affect LB taxpayers and homeowners and neighborhoods.
What LB-area Dems do in June remains to be seen, but it's undeniable that it's the choice of Dem voters and not the state Party's machinery that ultimately counts. Demo-cracy...from the Greek roots: Demos (people) and cracy (power). People power. What a concept.
Here's the tally of the March 15 pre-convention 54th district Party endorsement vote, whatever it's called:
