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| Who are these delegates, these political animals who give up a beautiful April weekend to hear endless speeches about education funding and welfare reform? They number about 3,000, equally divided between men and women, representing all ages and every ethnic group. Some are newcomers, others veterans of countless earlier conventions. . . . |
| They followed one of three paths to become delegates. One-third are appointed by the most recent Democratic candidates for legislature, Congress, and statewide offices; each candidate gets a certain number of appointments depending on the office they sought and whether or not they won. Another one-third are elected from Democratic Central Committees in each county. |
Delegates rally in the convention center.
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| The remainder are elected in caucuses held in each Assembly District. The caucuses are open to any registered Democrat who lives in the A.D., but they tend to draw only the most committed Democrats, the ones who work on campaigns and join Democratic clubs. |
Dianne Feinstein
greets delegates.
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It's a system designed--at least in theory--to maximize participation by grassroots activists, and the result is a wonderful mosaic in which schoolteachers and carpenters rub elbows with Hollywood celebrities and U.S. Senators.
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These activists are part of a political subculture that quietly pervades the state. No matter where you live in California, a Democratic club is probably nearby. There you will find a group of committed Democrats who eat, drink, and breathe politics. Every two years they are called on to make phone calls, stuff envelopes, and knock on doors for the current slate of Democratic candidates.
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| Then the first Tuesday in November comes and goes, and these Democrats who were once so busy have nothing to do. So they throw their considerable energy into a Byzantine network of clubs, A.D. committees, county committees, and other bodies that sustain the party between elections.
This phenomenon is not limited to heavily Democratic areas. In fact, I had my best experience as a grassroots Democrat in the South Bay of L.A. County. It's now represented by Democrats, but at the time, it was one of the most Republican areas in L.A. County.
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Assembly member Debra Bowen (right) threw a party for delegates from the 53rd Assembly District. She's now a State Senator.
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Gary Shay, chair of the L.A. County Democratic Committee, with Vi Mullins, chair of the 53rd A.D. Democratic Committee.
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There, the active Democrats were truly committed to grassroots politics because we had no choice. When it came to fielding candidates and running elections, we were on our own. (Of course, we were happy when Debra Bowen and Jane Harman came along in 1992 and--taking advantage of redrawn district boundaries--won respective upset victories for state Assembly and U.S. Congress.)
It's a brand of politics that seems to fulfill the noblest vision of democracy, one in which ordinary citizens labor together to elect wise and fair-minded leaders. The reality, of course, is much more complex. Even the most progressive candidate will use a grassroots field operation only as a complement to a paid media campaign, and many field operations are funded by controversial "soft" money raised from corporate special interests.
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It's an irony of our political system that the purest grassroots activities are sometimes funded by the dirtiest money. Many people forget that Charles Keating's notorious contributions to Sen. Alan Cranston in the 1980's helped pay for a massive voter registration drive.
Nevertheless, if there is hope for our electoral system, it lies with the activists who attend these Democratic conventions. They bring a human element to a system increasingly driven by special interest money, political consultants, and public opinion polls. And in many elections--even in these cynical times--the grassroots activists you see here will represent the difference between victory and defeat.
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Jim McGreevy (standing) is a long-time party activist from Torrance.
Mustapha Sesay (seated) heads the Beach Cities Democratic Club.
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