Democrats overwhelmingly vote to endorse Gallegos
The Eureka Reporter
by Rebecca S. Bender, 4/14/2006
After initially divided testimony from registered Democrats on whether the Humboldt County Democratic Central Committee should endorse District Attorney Paul Gallegos in his bid for re-election, Central Committee members overwhelmingly voted in the affirmative.
The discussion continued well into Wednesday night, but the results were clearly conclusive: 20 members voted to endorse, while one voted against and one abstained.
Greg Conners, chairperson of the Central Committee’s subcommittee on campaign services, which brought the recommendation forward, said that the strength of the vote spoke favorably to Gallegos’ record.
“Paul Gallegos is to be admired,” he said. “This is his third campaign in four years, and I think it speaks highly to his abilities ... to have such a strong record.”
Many of the attendees who spoke at the beginning of the meeting — registered Democrats but not Central Committee members — urged the committee to refrain from making an endorsement, blaming the issue for creating schisms within the party.
“The concept of division is something that the right wing would like to believe is the case here, and that certainly hasn’t been shown to be true,” Central Democratic Committee Chairperson Patrick Riggs said.
Conners observed that many of those speakers support Gallegos’ opponent, Worth Dikeman.
“They are not active party Democrats,” Conners said, “at least to my knowledge.”
As some of the speakers had come directly to the Central Committee meeting from Dikeman’s campaign headquarters’ grand opening, he added, the early public comment was not necessarily representative of the Democratic party’s opinions.
The headline in yesterday’s paper — “Local Democrats Still Divided” — was almost a “Dewey Defeats Truman” type of headline, Conners joked.
“When you have a 20 to 1 vote, obviously you don’t have a lot of people speaking against,” Riggs said.
He called the evening’s discussion “very civil” and praised the members of the Central Committee for being very thoughtful and thorough in considering their decision.
“That’s what we really strive for: a positive atmosphere where people can civilly discuss their ideas,” he said. “We’re trying to be a strong voice to as many people as we can.”
Copyright (C) 2005, The Eureka Reporter. All rights reserved.
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