BARBARA BECNEL 820 23rd Street Richmond, CA 94804 ______________________________________
July 18, 2006 Art Torres, Chairman California Democratic Party 1401 21st Street, Suite 200 Sacramento, CA 95814 Dear Chairman Torres: I am a 56-year-old black American female and, until now, a lifelong Democrat. I recently ran as a Democratic candidate for Governor of the State of California. I was the only woman Democrat running for Governor. As far as I can determine, I was the first black woman gubernatorial candidate who ever ran in this state on the Democratic ticket. Yet, on Saturday, April 22, 2006, the West LA Democratic Club sponsored a Democratic Candidates Forum and I was not invited to participate. The only two Democratic candidates for Governor advertised as attending this event were Phil Angelides and Steve Westly. I was invited via email by the Progressive Democrats of America to speak on Saturday, April 29, 2006, at the California State Democratic Convention in Sacramento. I accepted the invitation. However, two days before I was scheduled to speak I received a call from a Democratic Party representative uninviting me to speak. I was told that instead of speaking, I would be limited to standing at an informational table at the convention for a 30-minute slot! This was an unbelievable suggestion, which I, of course, declined. I also called you, Mr. Torres, to complain about these matters and, to date, you have not returned my call. So today I am writing to ask you a question as well as to inform you of a decision that I have made. First the question: Based on the treatment that I have just described, why should I, a woman of color, continue to be a Democrat? In 1964, the Democratic Party allowed racial bias to trump fairness when Fannie Lou Hamerblack American female, former sharecropper and member of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Partychallenged the Democratic Party. She had traveled to the National Democratic Convention in Atlantic City that year expecting to have her duly elected 68-person delegation seated. The Dixiecrats, the Southern segregationist wing of the Democratic Party, pressed to permit only two people from that 68-member black delegation to be seated at the national convention. Ms. Hamer refused such a compromise. Instead, she and all of her unseated delegates protested outside the convention hall, sitting for hours in the rain. Now, 42 years later, I stand in the shadow cast by the courage of Fannie Lou Hamer as I fight the 21st century version of those Dixiecrats: California Democratic leadership that is allowing race and class bias to dishonor the Democratic Party. At your April 22nd Democratic Forum, for example, only white male multimillionaires running for Governor were recognized and fêted by Democrats; all other legitimate gubernatorial candidates were excluded. The Party in 2006 has transformed itself from Dixiecrats to Richiecratsmoney counts, equality of treatment does not. This is shameful. The message to us everyday folks from todays Democratic Party is that the votes of black, brown, poor and middle class people matter to Democratic Party leadership only because the Party needs those votes. But the actual peoplethe ordinary, non-millionaire members of the electoratedo not really matter. On July 22, 1964, when Fannie Lou Hamer spoke at the Democratic National Convention she recounted her battle to register to vote and then to seat her 68 Democratic delegates. She ended her presentation by stating that it was her delegations desire to become first-class citizens, and she questioned the promise of America if her delegates were not seated. It is now 2006 and I know I am a first-class citizen. So I question not America but the Democratic Party: Does this Party know that I am a first-class citizen and deserve to be treated as such? The evidence would indicate otherwise. As a consequence, I have made a decision. After 30 years as a registered Democrat, I will no longer be a member of this political party. I will no longer support a Party that doesnt fundamentally support me and the issues that are important to people like me: ending the death penalty, three-strikes and the participation of Californias National Guard in the Iraqi war, for example. Today I am joining the Green Party and will tell my story of discrimination and bias to every person of color with whom I come in contact, encouraging them to leave this out-of-step Democratic Party and become a Green. A disappointed citizen, Barbara Becnel Former Democratic Candidate for Governor of California cc: Howard Dean, Chairman Democratic National Committee 430 South Capitol Street, SE Washington, DC 20003 ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Yahoo! Groups gets a make over. 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