Working Families Party moves to gain clout in state
To much of the rest of the country, California is the most progressive state in the union. To the Working Families Party, it isn't as progressive as it could be — and that's why the national organization has launched a California branch and announced former San Francisco Supervisor Jane Kim as its executive director Thursday.
The party, which was founded 23 years ago in New York and has expanded in recent years to a dozen other states, isn't aiming to run its own candidates in California next to Democrats and Republicans — for now.
Instead, this year it is planning to introduce itself to voters by focusing on a handful of legislative races, even if that means taking on more moderate Democrats in the hope of pulling the larger party further to the left — particularly on health care, criminal justice reform and wealth inequality.
With roughly half of the Legislature due to be termed out in the next two years, party organizers want to take advantage of this transitory moment to change state politics. Democrats control all statewide offices and hold a supermajority in the Legislature.
It has already started endorsing office-seekers, including Jennifer Esteen in Alameda County's 20th Assembly District.
It also plans to support San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin as he fights the recall campaign against him.
“A party isn't a ballot line,” said Kim, who was the California political director for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' 2020 presidential campaign. “It's a political home for people that share a common ideology, platform and commitment to making change through elections.”
Kim thinks a lot of workingclass Californians don't feel totally at home in the Democratic Party. Organizers believe there is a market for their voice in a state where Sanders soundly defeated Joe Biden in the 2020 primary.
“A party isn’t a ballot line. It’s a political home for people that share a common ideology, platform and commitment to making change through elections.” Jane Kim
Too often, Kim said, California Democrats listen more to wealthy donors and powerful corporate interests than they do the multiracial working-class voters who form the backbone of the party.
That is one reason, she said, why California does not have a single-payer health care system or a tax on the super wealthy, like the kind that Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren proposed during her presidential campaign. Legislation on both was written but didn’t even get a hearing in the Legislature last year. (On Tuesday, however, the Assembly Health Committee supported single-payer legislation written by Assembly Member Ash Kalra, D-San Jose.)
Kim and Christina Livingston, a state officer in the Working Families Party, declined to name a “corporate” Democrat legislator whom the organization would be targeting this year. Instead, they pointed to the kind of progressive whom the party has endorsed, Assembly Member Alex Lee, D-San Jose, who backs a single-payer health plan.
The party, through its seven regional chapters in California, will endorse and support candidates in local elections with the goal of building a bench of likeminded candidates. Organizers are building the party by tapping into the membership of more than 40 progressive community, labor and grassroots organizations who are affiliating with them. Among them are Courage California, AFSCME 3299, CHIRLA Action Fund and SEIU 1021.
Instead, for now, the Working Families Party is hoping to appeal to voters frustrated with Democrats. The Working Families Party expects to have a seven-figure budget for the year, which is modest in a state where it costs millions to air TV advertising for a week in one of California’s major media markets.
But competing monetarily isn’t the only challenge organizers face, said Thad Kousser, a professor of political science at UC San Diego.
For starters, California’s toptwo primary system — where the top two finishers, regardless of their party affiliation, advance to the general election — makes it hard for a third-party candidate to compete.
And if a Working Families Party-blessed candidate were to make it into the general election, it would likely be at the expense of a Democrat. If that were to lead to a Republican winning the general election, some Democrats would try to taint the Working Families Party as “spoilers.”
“In order for a third party to show strength, you have to weaken a (major) party by costing it elections,” Kousser said. The Democratic Party won’t move to the left unless it feels a threat. “That’s the dilemma a party like this faces,” he said.
Still, Kousser said, given Sanders’ success in California, “there is a thirst for this type of governance. Democrats in California are largely Berniecrats.”
Kim and other Working Party leaders emphasize that they have no intention of being spoilers.
“There is enough room for the Democratic Party and a Working Families movement,” Kim said. “I really believe that new progressive energy and activating young voters ultimately benefits the multiracial, working-class movement here in California.”