Thursday, August 15, 2013

Humboldt County Democrats leaderless! And Grumpy!

The Humboldt County Democratic Central Committee (HCDCC) met last night in a HOT packed headquarters. 2nd District Assembly hopefuls John Lowry and Hezekiah Allen were present as well as Eureka City Schools candidate Lisa Olliver and College of the Redwoods trustee candidate Ginger Olsen. Speeches were a given and received well.

Lots of people in the community thinks the HCDCC is a kind of Kumbaya type lefty organization, and nothing could be further from the truth. The only thing we can marginally agree about is that we are all Democrats. What flavor of Democrats is all over the map.  

Eureka City councilperson and HCDCC President Linda Atkins resigned her position due to personal reasons and Vice Chair Milt Boyd expressed his undesire to serve the board as President. Then the craziness ensued. Estelle Fennell, County Supervisor from District 2 and HCDCC member, nominated former labor leader Jim Smith of AFSME. Linda Atkins nominated longtime HCDCC executive member Bob Service and was seconded by member Heidi Benzonelli. What a pleasant surprise! Two great candidates when hope were for anyone to step forward. Both then gave speeches. Bob wants to expand the HCDCC media presence and be active at a state level. Jim expressed his concerns of the financial well being of the HCDCC and wanted to focus on fund raising to help out Democratic candidates. Vote was done by secret ballott. Guess what? The vote was tied! Phillis Seawright made a motion to table another vote until next months meeting. Others argued that there needed to be another vote immediately. After much discussion that vote was tied! So a second vote was taken and the motion passes to kick the can to next month.

I will also note that Julie Timmons is going to organize a separate Democrat of the Year (DOTY)dinner in protest of the proposed Ingomar Club venue.

Treasurer Phillis Seawright officially resigned her position. This is the most unthankful and difficult position a person could have on the HCDCC. She has been threatening this for sometime and had requested for years to have help. She closed her notebook in gesture to being done. Then a check was handed to her for deposit and she said, "I guess I can do this another month."

See ya next month!

5 comments:

Charlie Bean said...

You mean just anyone is welcome there? LOL

Julie Timmons said...

Yes, Charlie, our meetings are open to the public. But you knew that..
And Richard, thanks for mentioning the other dinner, which I would not characterize as a protest so much as an alternative for those of us who don't feel that the Ingomar Club deserves our money or our patronage.
Was Hezekiel the fellow who stated he had just become a Democrat? Sounds like an interesting Assembly election.

democratic Jon said...

Good reporting. Thanks Ricard. I would add to Bob's comments that he emphasized the importance of improved outreach to Hispanic and Native Americans. Looking around Headquarters that night, I tend to agree!

Greetings from Ferndale.

democratic Jon said...

Richard. I combined Robin P.'s data and the election data from the past 4 elections (2010 and 2012) onto one handy-dandy chart like someone requested during the last CEC meeting. It is interesting to compare trends like how many more people vote in the General and how influencial third candidates can be (ie you can tell that Xandra all but surely lost the election for Ron) Also, Eureka needs to have a primary for their Councilmembers. Surprisingly the non-presidential 2010 totals were not that much lower than the 2012 totals as far as number of voters. Also fun to see how powerful Rex's war chest was if he used it all $42 per vote compared to Mark's $13.

Thought you might like it - enjoy.
Oh yeah, don't mind my not-so subtle editorial comments with the red/blue colors.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/162925851/Selected-Humboldt-County-CA-Board-of-Supervisor-and-Eureka-City-Council-Elections-June-and-November-2010-and-2012#logout

samoasoftball said...

$42 a vote! Whew. That is something to look at!