Orange County Greens' fun with Cruz Bustamante

Orange County Greens have fun with Cruz Bustamante

Duane Roberts

Early yesterday morning , Cruz Bustamante , the Democratic Candidate for Lieutenant Governor , showed up at a monthly breakfast sponsored by a coalition of some of of Orange County's leading labor, latino , and community organizations. It just so happened to be the fact that the table for the Orange County Green Party was positioned directly in front of where Bustamante delivered his little song and dance routine about himself and his candidacy.
Shortly after he finished delivering his presentation , he began to take questions from the audience.

Because the Green Party table was right in front of Bustamante , we began to pepper him left and right with a series of "unfriendly " questions on various issues ranging from his support of the "execution of minors" to California's 3-strikes law to the rapidly expanding prison system in this state.
When the Greens began to dominate the all the questions being asked of Bustamante , the Chairwoman of the Orange County Democratic Party angerly raised her shrill voice requesting that questioners from other tables be allowed to speak. After someone from another table asked Bustamante a question, I rose from my seat and decided that it was my turn to have some fun with the "Republicrat".

Because we were in a fairly large union hall , I had to speak rather loud so that the 100 or so people who were present at this breakfast could hear me.
I asked Bustamante the following question:

When is the California Democratic Party going to seriously consider enacting electoral reforms like proportional representation which not only would open up the political system to parties other than the Democrats and Republicans , but would also lead to the election of more women and persons of color to public office ? After a brief pause to catch my breath, I intentionally followed with another question:

Do the Greens need to do here in California what the Greens have been doing in New Mexico to persuade the Democrats that it is in their best interests to abolish the antiquated winner-take-all system and replace it with something more democratic and representative for the people ? Bustamante didn't answer any of these questions and promptly went on to the next person (to the dismay of some persons in our group).

What's hilarious about the whole thing is that the Chairwoman and Vice-Chairwoman of the Orange County Democratic Party were sitting at a table behind the Greens and it was evident to me that they were clearly uncomfortable with us being critical of Bustamante---so uncomfortable that the Chairwoman was compelled to get off her seat and tell Bustamante that he was welcomed at this breakfast.
But what is more important is the context by which I asked the question at this meeting : It was an implicit "threat" to the leaders in the Local and State Democratic Party that the California Greens just might start "spoiling" elections here if we don't get certain electoral reforms--like proportional representation.

Understand that earlier this year , I filed papers to run as a Green in the 46th Congressional District and "threatened" to mount a campaign against Loretta Sanchez with the "expressed purpose of siphoning away the votes she needed to get re-elected in November." When the Congresswoman realized she wouldn't be able to survive if a Green was in the race , she met with us twice to talk about my pending candidacy , finally agreeing to cosponsor H.R. 3068, The Voter's Choice Act, which was written and sponsored by progressive Democrat Cynthia McKinney of Georgia. This action panicked leaders within the Orange County Democratic Party--persons incidently who happened to be present when I asked Bustamante the above question.

I think my question made some Democrats somewhat nervous because the Vice-Chairwoman of the Orange County Democratic Party came over to talk with me about Loretta Sanchez's position on privatization of Social Security (Loretta has flipflopped on this issue several times).
The Democrats here locally are becoming aware of the fact that the Greens here are growing in influence and power. We have the capability of costing them a seat in the U.S Congress and the State Assembly if we run candidates in the near future because the margin of votes it takes for either a Republican or Democrat to win is only a two or three thousand votes , if not less.

Do you suppose Democrats here locally might start seriously thinking about Proportional Representation if we "threaten" to knock out every Democrat that is elected to public office in Orange County ?

Go We Go ! Duane J. Roberts, North Orange County Greens
djr63@hotmail.com

return

presented by North Orange County Greens.org
Santa Ana, Anaheim, Costa Mesa & Garden Grove CA U.S.

Greens WebRing
EDIT LISTING