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| Nahabedian | Gatto |
In a shock to most political insiders, Nayiri Nahabedian, Glendale School board members and AD-43 candidate, won the endorsement of the Stonewall Democratic Club, one of the oldest and most prominent LGBT democratic clubs in the country, despite the fact that her main opponent Mike Gatto, has been a longtime paid member of the club for well over a decade and a strong LGBT ally.
MadProfessah is a Stonewall Democratic Club board member (technically, elected Steering Committee member) of Stonewall, and although I have participated in other endorsement panel hearings, I was not on the committee that recommended an endorsement for Gatto by a vote of 4-3. However, at the meeting of the membership on Monday March 22nd, the vote was 23-10 to endorse Nahabedian, which observers chalked up to an impassioned speech by former Assemblyperson Jackie Goldberg, who is openly lesbian and best well-known for the primary author of AB 205, California's Comprehensive Domestic Partnership Act. Stonewall does not allow candidates to speak at a club meeting in which their race is being considered by the membership, but allows 3 people to speak in favor and in opposition to motions on the floor.
Gatto has been endorsed by yours truly, but more importantly he has been endorsed by the California Democratic Party. This surprising result at the Stonewall Democratic Club is the second time that Nahabedian has mobilized (some would say "packed") a Democratic club meeting to overturn the recommendation of a club's endorsement committee for Gatto. DPSFV (Democratic Party of San Fernando Valley) had recommended Gatto but the endorsement was changed to open endorsement by a vote of the membership.
The special primary election will be help on April 13th to see who will replace Paul Krekorian and then on June 8th the Democratic primary will be held for who gets the nomination for the November election to represent the 43rd Assembly district in January 2011.
Being a steering committee member of the Stonewall Democratic Club, you should already know that Stonewall, like most clubs, can't be "packed" as it requires people to be members for 30 days prior to voting on an endorsement.
ReplyDeleteNayiri has been a passionate advocate for progressive values throughout her life. That's why Stonewall and other grassroots Democratic Clubs have endorsed her.
No shock here, Nayiri IS the more progressive candidate.
ReplyDeleteTwo good Democrats; but it is an easy call for me, we need more women in office.
ReplyDeleteNayiri is it.
What evidence do we have that Mike Gatto is less progressive than Nayiri Nahabedian?
ReplyDeleteOn what issues?
11:52
ReplyDeleteGatto is telling every he is a moderate business Democrat in Sacramento. So what give you the idea he is progressive?
this just does not happen in LA and CA and I was part of an organization that a similar thing happened and the 30 day rule wss put into effect to avoid packing but it still occurred .. it has to be a longer period to avoid what happened here
ReplyDelete