March 8, 2010
The Honorable John Burton, Chair
California Democratic Party
Dear John,
The Wellstone Democratic Club is a very active, grassroots
political group that works in the Berkeley-Oakland area.
We are concerned about the deepening fiscal crisis affecting
our State and have become very involved in efforts to
do something about it.
We are very concerned by the way you, as Chairperson of
our State Party, have chosen to push the "Budget Only’Äù initiative and ignore the California Democracy Act (CDA)
that addresses both budget and revenue. We do not believe
these two initiatives are in conflict and we feel strongly
that whether the CDA wins or loses, it promotes a public
discussion of our State's revenue crisis that cannot be
postponed.
You well know that without the ability to raise revenue
the Legislature will be handicapped from dealing with the
tremendous problems facing California. It is also
true that California's present taxing process is anti-democratic
and calculated to lead to gridlock. The Lakoff initiative
is designed to rectify that. We are aware of the
polls indicating that the Lakoff initiative has little
chance of passing. However we believe that the fight
to convince the voters that taxes are necessary to a just
and prosperous society has to start somewhere, and we are
convinced that the time must be now.
Over your career, you have been a friend of the grassroots
of the Party. We can't tell you in strong enough terms
how important it is to the activist base of this Party
for the leadership to support the CDA. Thousands of people
are working on this initiative - and hundreds of delegates
to various State Party meetings worked to put the CDP on
record supporting it.
’Ä¢ Resolution Number BRG09.08: Majority
Vote
"THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the California Democratic Party supports
a change to only require a simple majority (like the U.S. Congress and 80%
of states) for revenue bills, thus restoring majority rule and representative
democracy to California’Äôs government.’Äù
Adopted by the Executive Board Of the California Democratic
Party At its Executive Board Meeting Crowne Plaza Hotel,
Burlingame July 19, 2009
’Ä¢ Resolution Number SAC09.37: In
Support of a Majority Vote State Budget
"THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the California Democratic Party reconfirms
its support for a simple majority vote of the legislature to send a state budget
to the Governor; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the California Democratic
Party takes action to help this measure get the approval
of the voters as soon as possible.’Äù
Adopted by the Democratic State Central Committee of California
AKA "California Democratic Party’Äù At its Annual
State Convention Sacramento Convention Center April 26,
2009
These resolutions represent a covenant between
the Party and its grass roots base. They cannot be disregarded
without serious consequences to the morale of our party.
John, only you can fix this. We call on you to endorse
the CDA as strongly as you have come out in support
of the Budget Only initiative. We need to keep this Party
united and energized. That's in all our interests.
Yours in Solidarity,
Coordinating Committee of the Wellstone Democratic Renewal
Club
