SACRAMENTO — After a wild week of political news out of Washington — even by 2017 standards — California Democrats hold the largest-yet convening of “The Resistance” this weekend, promising late-night parties, rousing rhetoric and political stars.

“We’re a huge success story despite the national problem,” said Bob Mulholland, a longtime adviser to the California Democrats, who said he expects the convention will be a celebration of the state party’s strength and dominance. “The fact that the voters have put Democrats in charge of everything — that’s a gold medal at the Olympics.”

But the annual convention also is sure to showcase divisions and drama from within — from the self-promotion of candidates for governor, declared and rumored, to an unusually contentious election for the state party chairmanship.

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Letters: Model partnership | HSR’s role | Thwarting vote fraud | More ‘ruining’ California’s position at the vanguard of the anti-Trump resistance has painted over pent-up family discord over the state party’s leadership and direction. The hard-fought race between Eric Bauman and Kimberly Ellis to replace longtime Chairman John Burton has revealed tensions reminiscent of the bruising Hillary-versus-Bernie battles of 2016, with “Berniecrat” activists aiming to shake up what they see as a party establishment beholden to special interests.

Ellis, a political organizer from Richmond, says she and her main rival, Eric Bauman, have radically different visions for the future of the California Democratic Party. Her vision, she says, is to send more organizers to red, purple and rural parts of the state if it hopes to retake Congress and maintain its supermajorities in both houses of the Legislature.

“Now is not the time to kick back, rest on our laurels, pat ourselves on the back and say, `Our work is done,'” she said in an interview Thursday.

Politicians, activists and party loyalists across the deep-blue state say what happens in California is of vital importance to the party nationally. It’s no surprise that the weekend’s speakers include Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez and U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Burbank, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, which is now investigating the Trump administration. California is a key part of the Democrats’ national strategy, with seven House Republicans now representing districts that went for Hillary Clinton in November.

Bauman, a longtime party insider and political consultant from Los Angeles, said he is proud of what the party has accomplished in California. And he said he brings the experience and connections to push it forward.

“I can’t run against the thing that I’m part of — it would be totally disingenuous — so I don’t even try,” he said. “I hope that at the end of the day my message of experience and stability and yet consideration of the future gets me across the line.”

Ellis is the outgoing director of Emerge California, part of a national organization working to get more women into elected office. Although she — like Bauman — was a Hillary Clinton surrogate, she has since enjoyed a groundswell of support from California’s supporters of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders who feel the Democrats have lost their way.

“The fact that Donald Trump does a miserable job, is that going to help Democrats in 2018 and 2020? No,” said Joey Aszterbaum, a delegate from Southern California and a self-described Berniecrat. “‘We’re not Donald Trump’ is not a strong enough message. It doesn’t sell. If you say we’re going to get your kids into college, we’re going to invest in health care — that excites people.”

Bauman has come under fire for work his small consulting firm, VictoryLand Partners, did for the pharmaceutical industry against Proposition 61. The unsuccessful statewide measure on November’s ballot, which was championed by Sanders, would have capped the amount the state pays for prescription drugs. Bauman said his husband and a second business partner worked on that campaign — until last May, when they dropped it — and that he stayed silent about the measure.

A trauma nurse by training, Bauman said his critics have ignored his activism during the HIV/AIDS epidemic and his longstanding support for one of Sanders’ favorite causes: universal health care. He has the endorsements of Sens. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, and Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, co-authors of a proposal to bring a single-payer system to California. But in an interesting twist, the California Nurses Association, a sponsor of the legislation, is backing Ellis.

Bauman said the campaign has gotten so ugly that he was forced to dispel a vicious personal attack this month, a “whisper campaign” that he had molested teenage boys. “I want to say plainly: We Democrats cannot, must not accept or tolerate the spreading of despicable lies like this,” Bauman wrote in an email to Democrats.

Ellis has condemned the rumormongering. She said she wants to find those responsible, censure them and expel them from the party — and even report the matter to the police.

“Eric and I are not enemies,” she said. “We are actually friends. When I read his email I was not just shocked — I was gutted on a human level.”

Bauman has the backing of most California lawmakers and constitutional officeholders — all 10 of whom are Democrats. But in what some see as a sign of shifting political winds, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a leading candidate for governor who endorsed Bauman early on, this week announced his support of Ellis — too. He did so without withdrawing his support from Bauman.

Such “internecine warfare” in the Democratic Party goes back many decades, to the Vietnam War and beyond, said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a veteran political analyst at the University of Southern California who will be observing the goings on at the convention. But, she said, leadership changes in the California Democratic Party are unlikely to bring about a radical transformation in its main purpose.

“The main function of a state party — either of them — is to raise money,” she said, “and to provide a faucet by which big donors and special interests who cannot give large contributions to candidates directly can throw a whole lot of money into the party coffers.”

Mulholland, who will miss the convention because of an overseas trip, said he expects common concern over national politics — not party infighting — to be the main story out of the convention.

“There will be some elbowing,” he said, “but no one will need a Band-Aid.”