WeHo Mayor Calls 'Bullshit' During Democratic Club Meeting, Storms Out [UPDATED]

Last night I had the "pleasure" of witnessing the end result of the most divisive and arcane political process the California Democratic Party has to offer - the local Democratic Club endorsement meeting.

The reality is Osborn's campaign and her supporters followed club rules to the letter. Most clubs have deadlines for registration (usually 30 days before an endorsement meeting), but almost none of them have residency or attendance requirements. And club treasurers happily deposit new member's checks - whether that check comes from a single supporter or individually, from the new members themselves.

On their part, Osborn's supporters say they had to move aggressively to seek the support of local clubs because of Sacramento's outside influence and interest in the race. Assembly Speaker John Perez publicly backs Butler, and reportedly secured forty-two out of the sixty-four delegate votes Butler received at the CDP's pre-endoresment meeting by "borrowing" them from assembly members in districts as far away as San Francisco and Riverside.

Butler won 57% in that endorsement meeting, sending the recommendation for another vote at the yearly CDP convention in San Diego. It's widely believed Osborn will be unable to block the final endorsement.Are these practices unfair?

Do they reward the candidate who's best able to "game" the system? Yes. Absolutely.

But under CDP rules, neither of these candidates are cheating.

And that's the problem. 

To the layman, club and party endorsements are assumed to mean that local activists have weighed the merits of each candidate and chosen one through a democratic consensus process. But club and CDP rules often produce the opposite result, with candidates winning endorsements by strategically utilizing those rules, as well as existing political connections to produce the desired result.

With our state's new "top two" primary system, where two Democrats could end up running against each other in the general election, the integrity of the CDP and local club endorsements is very much in doubt.

So how do we fix this?

It has to start at the top. At a minimum, politicians from other areas should not be allowed to "lend" their delegates to candidates in CDP pre-endorsement caucuses. Both the delegates themselves and the politicians controlling the delegate assignments should be local to that election's district.

At the club level, clubs could require each member register and pay for their own memberships (the Santa Monica Democratic club requires this for instance). They could also require that members be registered Democrats within a certain geographical area. Or they could require members attend a certain number of meetings in advance of an endorsement vote. The clubs have many ways to skin this same cat.But until that happens, it's a fool's errand to blame candidates for using the existing rules to gain competitive advantage.

Unless the California Democratic Party gets serious about reforming the endorsement system, the party risks endangering the integrity of the Democratic "brand" in this state, confirming the worst fears of a cynical and disengaged electorate that already believes our political system is broken and unresponsive.

We have a chance to fix this, but we need to do this, and we need to do it now.

Duran is gay.

Don't hate the player, hate the game. Both sides played, one won.

So then Torie likes to play the game as the politician she is and then play victim and say, "Oh I'm a grassroots". You can't have it both ways!

she didn't play the victim, she used the grassroot tactic of organizing people who showed up to support her

Huh?

LOL! Typical diva. He really DOES represent WeHo, and very well. Can we please start an alternative to WeHo and it's similar trendy counterpart Silverlake? Come on my fellow T-Shirt and jeans gay guys out there... We need a gay sports bar with plenty of pool tables, A few TVs showing something other than pop music videos or porn and a great selection of craft beers. A decent dance floor wouldnt hurt either... Why is this not possible? Come on NoHo! Haha Anyway, I've veered off topic: back to Mayor Duran: *snap snap* do yo thang guuurl!

No support? Perhaps you weren't aware that she raised $520,000 from 1,639 donors? Seems like an awful lot of support to me -- more money raised than any other candidate in any race for CA Assembly this early. Maybe her supporters are just more willing to show up for her than Betsy's? 

Torie got 43 votes that night and bought all of them!"The organization has about 125 members, 35 to 40 of whom are actively involved, according to the club's president, Lillian Raffel. She said the club received 45 new members on Dec. 29—all paid for with a single check amounting to $1,125."
She has no real support unless she buys it. 

The point is not the system.  Congrats to Torie's campaign for organizing.  If a club wants to fix their rules to prevent gaming of the system, than so be it.  Both sides tried to game the system, and only one did. 

The point of THIS video is the complete level of disrespect that Mayor Duran shows anyone who disagrees with him.

Prior to 2011 John and I were friendly, and I supported him every time he ran for office.  In 2011, we were on different sides of the John D'Amico / Lindsey Horvath fiasco.  I was offended by the complete lack of respect he showed Lindsey and her supporters.  He even has been known to call fellow council member John Heilman "Sieg Heilman."  One of his supporters called Heilman this on Duran's facebook page.  Duran liked it.  When I replied that as a polish, Jewish, gay man, I am deeply offended by comments comparing anyone to Hitler, and asked John to remove the comment, he instead told me that I am just pissed because my candidate is going to lose and then unfriended me on Facebook. 

Look at how Betsy Butler was reacting to Duran's comments.  She was not happy.  She was downright bothered.  Everyone was.  Duran needs to go.