Pardon me, folks. I hardly ever write too many diaries, and this’ll only be my second(?) one on special races, but this development in California’s 34th district has me very concerned. It seems that Arturo Carmona has a huge problem with women. Summary here:

www.latinorebels.com/…

A couple of very pertinent quotes on Medium from Masha Mendieta, a dedicated Bernie supporter who was victimized by Carmona, and decided she had to speak out:

It’s all true. Everything I’ve seen posted so far, is true. Those of us who worked with Arturo personally behind closed doors, we all know it to be true. But we are all terrified of retribution, of ruining our careers, of tarnishing our reputations. Afterall, it’s politics. That’s what they tell us to fear, so we don’t speak out. But why should the victims be scared? What would Bernie do? He would say the offender is the one who should be scared of his reputation. Not us. This is how men like Arturo Carmona get in power and stay there. And the thought of him representing me in congress makes me sick. I realized after that call, that they don’t own me or my voice, they’re not my bosses anymore, they have no power over me. I’m done being silenced. Especially not when I see them taking advantage of my fellow Berners.

Just one example:

What did we report about Arturo? For starters, a sexual harassment complaint by a staffer against a Latino surrogate that he covered up in Nevada. I witnessed the aftermath of that incident and accompanied the staffer to report it. We were jokingly told she might have enjoyed it if the man were younger. You can imagine how hard we didn’t laugh. Arturo and his deputy went out drinking that night, didn’t pay it another thought, and the next morning assigned two young female interns to the same surrogate we just reported. We objected vehemently and they reassigned them amidst great sighing.

Oh, and it gets worse, too:

What else did I witness? We all knew Arturo would book flights back home to California using the campaign travel agency despite it being against policy. We all know that the immigration policy he keeps touting as his pièce de résistance was actually the work of Erika Andiola and Cesar Vargas. In fact, we all wrote the policy memos. I can’t think of one he did himself while I was there. We all saw how he would demean the female staff, treat us like his personal assistants fetching things for him and doing his errands, while he never asked male staff with the same titles to do any of that. I remember being told by a Latino staffer that the first question Arturo asked when he hired me was: “Is she cute?” When I looked horrified, he clarified: “He asks that about all the women he hires!”

And here’s another example:

Perhaps this last example is most emblematic of the way Arturo treated his staff, especially the women. On my first or second day working with Arturo at headquarters in Burlington, Vermont, I was invited by another male staffer to a dinner gathering of senior staff. Arturo verbally objected to my attendance, but the other man insisted so I went. Early in the evening, someone cheerfully asked me, “so who are you? What do you do for us now on the campaign?” Before I could respond, Arturo loudly interjected: “She’s nobody.” Then he casually turned away to continue his conversation. The other staffers — all male incidentally — looked horrified. But no one said a thing.

Erika Andiola has also spoken out, as well: www.latinorebels.com/…

I have the responsibility to speak out because we HAVE to change the culture of sexism in this movement. I am so done. Here are some facts I do want to share with you all about CD-34 race. It took for Masha to speak out to get courage from many of us. 1. I was on this calls and yes, the stories Masha Mendieta tells are true. 2. There was a HUGE culture of sexism, at least in the Outreach Department (which was in fact headed by Arturo). 3. It would take so many stories to tell this, and honestly, I am so tired of trying explain how terrible and disempowering it felt to work in a world of men who didn’t respect me and my work or other women. It takes a lot of stories for people to believe in what we say because it could be for “political reasons”. Trust me, they are not. Arturo is great on immigration and Latin American policy, and if it wasn’t for my experience in the camp, I would have 100% been behind him. 4.Don’t go that far. Just look at the FEC reports and learn who was making the most $ in Latino Outreach. Every single man in the department made more than ALL the women. Most of the women were hired as interns. Just ask around. What happend to the “women of color make less than 60 cents to the dollar of a male” is wrong? Who knows. 5. In full disclosure, I do work in the Political Department for OR, which was asked to endorse over and over again. I am also really good friends with Wendy Carrillo and can tell you that I do want an amazing woman of color in power, but can prove to ANYONE we took this endorsement through the whole process and was ultimately decided by the board not do engage. Neither we OR Bernie have endorsed. It’s not easy to speak out about this, but man! It sucks and it’s tiring to fight in a world where it has been normalized to support “progressive man” who might not take $ from corporations, or are not racist, etc… but if they constantly take credit for the damn hard work we do as women, feel entitled to positions for being white dudes, don’t respect your work… (can go on). Than it’s ok by a lot of people in the movement because we gotta “win”. Not gonna work that way. Should not work that way.

And here’s the original link to Mrs. Andiola’s statement, if you’re interested: www.facebook.com/…

Also, other Bernie staffers & supporters have also come forward in support of Mrs. Mendieta, too, as per the L.A. Times:

www.latimes.com/…

To be honest with you, it would be undoubtedly be tragic not just for CA Democrats, but for all of us, if Arturo Carmona somehow became Xavier Becerra’s successor. His actions go completely against so much what we fought for in 2016; we didn’t just fight against Donald Trump, and against sexism & misogyny, etc. We fought for the preservation of women’s rights, and to further advance equality by giving women more of a voice, etc.-not for self-proclaimed progressive heroes like Mr. Carmona to talk a good game only to end up screwing over his fellow Democrats-his fellow Bernie supporters-out of crass selfishness. And it not only would it make us look bad, it would be a slap in the face-even if not intended-to women everywhere.

I may not be from California, but I honestly simply could not stand by and not say something; we need all the good Democrats-like Jon Ossoff from GA’s 6th-we can get into office, and Carmona is not one of ‘em.

His behavior cannot and should not be tolerated; please, whenever you have the time, spread this to anyone you know in California’s 34th District who’s planning on voting on Tuesday.