ER - HCDCC not democratic

HCDCC not democratic
Op-Ed by Stephen Lewis, 4/22/2006
The Eureka Reporter

In last Friday’s Eureka Reporter was the misleading story of how “Democrats overwhelmingly vote to endorse Gallegos.”

It was misleading because it reports how Humboldt County Democratic Central Committee members “overwhelmingly” endorsed Paul Gallegos.

Humboldt Democrats are a bit larger in number than the 20 or so HCDCC members, so their endorsement only speaks for them, not the rank and file of the majority of Democrats in Humboldt County.

The endorsement shouldn’t surprise anyone as it is no secret that today’s HCDCC is solidly “Progressive” with no real distinction from Humboldt Greens in political philosophy and campaigns.

If you are a Democrat, your local Democratic Party representatives now only represent you if you agree with the Progressives’ anti-corporate, anti-PALCO, anti-Evergreen Pulp, anti-Arkley, anti-industrial development, anti-growth of any kind for Humboldt County that doesn’t look like Arcata.

Of course, you must also be solidly pro-Gallegos, the Progressives’ man in the District Attorney’s Office working hard for the Progressive political machine that got him elected, saved him from recall, and wants to return him to office again in spite of his dismal record doing their bidding, e.g., their failed lawsuit against PALCO, and special prosecutor Tim Stoen’s failed attempt to remove Debi August from office for her outspoken opposition to the PALCO lawsuit.

Both lawsuits have cost Humboldt County residents hundreds of thousands of dollars that our county government can’t afford.
Gallegos is key to the Progressives political machine’s success. HCDCC voted to endorse Gallegos since Gallegos’ former campaign manager, Richard Salzman, set up the original Progressives political machine, the Alliance for Ethical Business, which morphed to become Local Solutions.

Conveniently, Local Solutions not only shares the same building as the Humboldt County Democratic Central Committee but the same person, Patrick Riggs, is in charge of both groups. Riggs has rigged the HCDCC now so that any Democrat who opposes the Local Solutions political agenda doesn’t get recognized by his HCDCC.
“They are not active party Democrats,” says HCDCC subcommittee chairperson, Greg Conners.

In other words, if you don’t tow the HCDCC’s Progressives’ political line, you’re not really an active Democrat, which was news to me when Riggs used this same undemocratic reasoning and the power of his office to effectively deny me any input into HCDCC policies.

He seems to have done the same to Worth Dikeman and Jill Geist, both fellow Democrats, both good, solid Democratic candidates for office, yet both virtually ignored by HCDCC because these Democrats are seen as opposing the HCDCC “Progressive” political agenda and the HCDCC candidate choice for the District Attorney’s Office.

This then is “democracy” in action for Humboldt County Democratic Central Committee members who seem to have either an extremely poor understanding of what democratic principles are all about or an overriding political agenda that is quite willing to abrogate democratic principles when such principles get in the way of the real cause: Progressive destruction of our corporate-based economy.

High on the list of Progressives’ anti-corporate political actions is Measure T, which claims to protect democracy but actually does just the opposite, effectively disenfranchising Humboldt residents who happen to own or work for one of the many corporations that supply most of our goods and services and provide the majority of jobs in Humboldt County.

If Measure T should pass and become a law, it will be overturned as being unconstitutional and, once again, Humboldt County residents will end up paying the bill for another ill-conceived political attack on corporate industry in Humboldt County.

But remember, that’s OK to Progressives who want to use your tax money to buy their next anti-corporate political step: obtaining national publicity for Measure T by taking it to the Supreme Court if necessary.

What should be scary to the majority of Democrats in Humboldt County is that the Progressive political machine is now powerful enough to not only control our Democratic Party political policies through the current HCDCC, but it can also obtain political endorsements for their candidate for district attorney from major Democrats in office like Bill Lockyer, despite Paul Gallegos supporting the very un-Constitutional Measure T.

I hope that my fellow Democrats understand that what really matters for the District Attorney’s Office are two things: 1) dedication to upholding the Constitutional laws of the land, and 2) establishing a solid relationship of trust and teamwork with Humboldt County law enforcement which the district attorney heads as team captain.

(Stephen Lewis is Rio Dell resident.)

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