The progressive slate of AD43 swept their election on Sunday, 1/13

The first weekend of ADEM elections occurred last week. If you need a re-cap of what the hell ADEMs are, check out this article.

Out of a total of eighty assembly districts organized in California, there were (and are, because another round of elections occurs the last weekend of January) at least three progressives running for a delegate spot.

Fifty of those eighty had/have full slates of fourteen progressive people running for delegate positions. (There are fourteen available delegate positions, per district)

Thirty-seven held their elections this past weekend. Of the thirty-seven, twenty-four claimed a majority of the delegate seats, with thirteen sweeping all fourteen spots.

On a specific note, the progressive movement for ADEMS (found at adems.vote) supported one candidate in district 56, María Socorro Guzmán, who is a monolingual Spanish speaking woman. She won her seat.

These folks have done an incredible job keeping track of who is running this year, how much each District has won by, and has tallied voter turnout in the elections of 2015, 2017 and 2019.

It is startling to see the numbers shift between 2015 to 2017. The total number of voters who came out for ADEM elections in 2015 was 12,878. In 2017, after the “Berniecrat” was birthed, voter turnout for ADEM elections was 33,280. That is a difference of 20,402 people.

The final weekend of January will reveal how much voting fluctuated between the flurry of 2017 and now. Results thus far have are a spectrum, between districts. Some districts dropped in voter turn out by 37%, while others increased by 135%. In assembly district seventeen, 2,033 people showed up and voted. (In 2015, this same district had a voter turn out of 664.)

One ADEM delegate noted that, as new energy has entered the California Democratic Party, there has been an ease in hostility between veteran delegates (who were likely aligned as Clinton voters) and younger delegates (who worked for a Sanders Presidency). With time, and perhaps because of an egomaniac, lunatic, fascist President, tensions seem to have calmed on the whole. Folks are aligning on issues of local needs, as much as state-wide and federal ideology.

Not that everything is cotton candy; there is still plenty of ill will and even corruption. One woman, Maria Estrada, who ran against California Speaker of the State Assembly, Anthony Rendon, in the November mid-term election, had her name missing from the candidates for E-board on her district’s voting ballots. Another woman in Los Angeles was harassed and intimidated by a sitting Assemblyman’s staff.

These issues exist because, even within the state California Democratic Party, there is division of values. We have sitting politicans who take money from the private prison industry, from fossil fuel companies, from defense contractors, from pharmaceutical companies. Some politician’s careers are built on the dollars of industries that are killing Californians. Once the money is taken, the industry then has the ear and legislative sway over the politician. Any values once held by the human who is now the politician, are compromised. The most vulnerable constituents the elected should be representing, are forgotten.

This is why it is crucial we have progressive people volunteering their energies to work within the party system. As a delegate, they are now in a position to be directly accountable to residents throughout California. They hold integrity to be vocal against corruption, while working offensively to develop resolutions containing the actions of their progressive values: Medicare-for-all, a living wage, prison reform and abolition, housing as a human right, 100% renewable energy and investing in our public infrastructure and schools.

There is a final weekend of voting January 26 and 27. Even if you missed your election, you can look up an area close to you and volunteer your time to help during the day. All slates endorsed by KNOCK. Adem.vote

***Special thanks to Amarnath Ravva, Alfred Twu, Margarita Lacabe and Samuel Sukaton for their reportings and tallies.