While mainstream media outlets continue to create daily anti-Trump editorials and stories from coast-to-coast, it is the Democrats, including the Democratic Party of California, that are in danger of collapse. Saturday, after state party chairman candidate Eric Bauman defeated rival Kimberly Ellis by 60-plus of 3,000 votes cast, Ellis has refused to concede and is instead consulting with legal counsel to determine her options.
After loss, Ellis calls for an audit
Ellis, a political activist, had been in a tumultuous electoral scrap with party favorite Bauman to decide who will lead the Democratic Party in California before her defeat on Saturday.
Ellis is African-American and Bauman is white and a party insider. Bauman lives in North Hollywood with his husband and is a senior consultant to Speaker of the Assembly Anthony Rendon, while Ellis is on the Finance Committee and serves as the Recording Secretary for the African American Caucus of the California Democratic Party. For her part, Ellis is looking to voting irregularities as a possible explanation for her loss.
Maxine Waters unplugged
The angry contest to chair the California Democratic Party became more incited on Saturday after officials cut off the power to U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters' microphone as she led a rousing anti-Trump protest at the party's convention. The Democrats' platform theme devolved into chaos as the angry audience chanted and fumed.
Outside the Sacramento Convention Center just after 7 a.m., Elilis' supporters expressed their outrage and demanded a recount, but identified no reason as to why there should be a recount.
“We got shafted,” said Alexis Edelstein, founder of Berniecrats of California.
The latest derision inside the Democratic Party comes a short time after Democratic Party establishment candidate Tom Perez ousted Rep.
Keith Ellison in their race for the Democratic National Committee chair. Perez was an Obama administration Labor Secretary and supported Hillary Clinton, while Ellison, an African-American/Muslim representative from Minnesota, was an avid supporter of Bernie Sanders for president.
Huge tax increases fuel anger
Even as California Democratic Party leaders fought amongst themselves over the weekend, voters are upset with the party for legislating huge tax increases to fund mountains of debt accumulated over recent years. Many pundits argue that the Democratic Party has divided its constituents into many competing groups by addressing the needs of segments of society without paying much attention to the whole.
