The California Democratic Council: "Winning Elections One Club at a Time"

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Sharon Kyle and Dick Price

The California Democratic Council (often called “the CDC”) is the statewide association of Democratic Clubs and County Committees. Founded in 1952 by a group of legendary Democrats, including Alan Cranston, at its height, the CDC coordinated hundreds of Democratic clubs in every corner of the state, boasting more than 70,000 members. For many years, the CDC played a greater role in the success of the Democratic Party in California than the party itself.

In the 55 years since its inception, the CDC has continued to be the progressive arm of the California Democratic Party. But in recent years, it has also focused on providing training and resources to Dem Clubs. This year, at its 55th Annual Convention that just concluded at the LAX Sheraton, the CDC demonstrated that it might be re-emerging as the “go to” organization for training, connecting, and coalition building.

With over 25 workshops, the convention offered a wide array of training opportunities presented by members of the CDC as well as representatives from the Los Angeles County Democratic Party, Progressive Democrats of America, and Westside Coalition of Democratic Clubs, among others. Attendees were also offered information from issue-focused efforts such as the “Clean Money Campaign”—we found Clean Money founder Susan Lerner’s session especially instructive. Marcy Winograd and Tom Courbat also offered a solid presentation called “Election Protection” that outlined the deficiencies of electronic voting machines that California Secretary of State Debra Bowen has recently identified.

Dennis Kucinich, the only presidential candidate to make a personal appearance at this convention, left no stone unturned by delivering the kind of stirring speech that has given him the reputation for speaking the unvarnished truth when others so often seem to equivocate. But Kucinich went further by staying for a portion of the impeachment panel with Mimi Kennedy, Stephen Rohde, and David Buchanan. Ultimately, the CDC passed a resolution for impeaching both George Bush and Dick Cheney, and we understand that LA Councilmember Bill Rosendahl will introduce a similar resolution at the LA City Council shortly.

Besides Kucinich, we found the speech on behalf of Barack Obama by LA City Council President Eric Garcetti to be especially riveting as he showed how progressive Democratic leaders can transform once-blighted neighborhoods such as LA’s North Atwater Village by focusing on inclusively, coalition-building, and the delivery of basic governmental services to all residents.