Democrats deny split on county party board

They say they differed on colleagues’ plans

Three former members of the

Clark County Democratic Party’s executive board say personal reasons, not an ideological struggle with the group’s progressive majority, drove their decisions to resign in recent weeks.

Former Chair Donna West, former 3rd Vice Chair Matt Kimball and former Treasurer Kara Freeman saidininterviewstuesdaythatthey disagreed with the picture painted by several remaining board members, new Chair Gabrielle d’ayr and 2nd Vice Chair Judith Whitmer, in a recent Review-journal report.

West said she left to immerse herself in campaign field work — not just for Nevada Democrats and presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden, but also U.S. Senate campaigns across the country.

“I realized that I could spend the next 125 days working on the administrative work of running the party, or I could go back to the field where I’m most effective,” said West.

Platform changes

She pushed back on d’ayr and Whitmer’s version of what happened during a contentious adoption of the county’s official platform.

D’ayr and Whitmer have said publicly for months that West, without consulting rank-and-file county party members or the executive board, removed several pro-palestine planks from the platform due to pressures from “an elected official.”

This official may have been former Rep. Shelley Berkley, who told the Review-journal on Tuesday she called West and told her she was “disheartened” to see Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement language in the first version of the party platform.

“Setting aside the fact that I’m proudly Jewish, proudly pro-israel — it didn’t make sense politically,” Berkley said. “The position of the national party and its presumptive nominee has been support for Israel and a two-state solution negotiated by the parties. I don’t think it’s a good idea for a county party to oppose our nominee’s position.”

She continued: “All of our Congressional members are also in favor of the national position. Why would you put our elected officials, some of whom are up for re-election, in a position of opposing their local party?”

West said Tuesday she did not personally remove the planks, nor did she or the board as a whole have any authority to do so.

While she did receive a number of calls protesting the BDS planks, she forwarded them along to Steven Horner, chair of the party’s platform committee. This committee, West said, had autonomy from party leadership, and it voted 6-0 with one absence to make the change.

No ideological grudge

West said she held no ideological grudge against the self-identified progressives on the board, adding that she fights for many of the same things as d’ayr, Whitmer and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT. She said the board remains in good, experienced hands with d’ayr and Whitmer in charge and wished them well.

Freeman, the group’s former treasurer, said a spring health scare caused her to have to look at reducing stress levels.

She agreed with West, saying d’ayr and Whitmer have mischaracterized the platform fallout. However, she claims the rift during this time did play a role in the resignations.

“The issues causing the resignations were not progressives vs. establishment, as portrayed by Ms. d’ayr,” Freeman said. “Rather, it was how the group and their attitude, led by Ms. d’ayr, handled the situation.”

Contact Rory Appleton at rappleton@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0276. Follow @Rorydoesphonics on Twitter.