DL Exclusive: How Ray Seigfried’s Campaign Sought To Disenfranchise Caucus Voters…

…In fact, even threatened possible legal action if the County Democratic Party wouldn’t consider the grievance filed by one of Ray’s supporters.  The grievance claimed that County rules should have prevented the seating of certain committee members in RD 7 in time for Monday’s caucus.  The so-called ‘aggrieved party’ was not the candidate, but one of his supporters.  The grievance was filed for the expressed purpose of denying voting privileges to people who he and Ray suspected might support Ray’s opponent.  Although Ray was not the complainant, he was well aware of the grievance and did nothing to discourage the complainant from continuing to pursue it.  It was part of his strategy for winning an insiders’ contest.

In fact, the Friday before the Caucus, the complainant demanded a response from us (uh, it was the County handling the complaint) in order to forestall possible legal action.  Translation:  If Ray loses a close election, we may well sue.  Yes, the majority, but not all, of our recently-installed members are either Black or Latina.  Meaning, they reflect the composition of our diverse district.  And they have serious qualifications.

Here is our official response that we sent to the County.  I have blanked out the name of the complainant because he’s already let us know he’s the litigious sort:

We have received the formal grievance filed by         regarding the installation of new members to the 7th Representative District Democratic Committee.

We consider his grievance to be both anti-democratic and anti-Democratic in seeking to prevent duly-qualified and duly-elected members of our committee from participating in the upcoming elections for the open seats in Senate District 1 and Senate District 5.

In fact, we find this grievance to be more in line with Republican efforts to disenfranchise voters.  In other words, “Don’t allow the electorate to decide, let us decide who the electorate is.” Here are the facts:

• We had scheduled consideration of new members on our monthly October agenda.  However, due to a lengthy side-track into procedure, which        contributed to extensively, we had to postpone that vote.
• In concert with the County Committee, we scheduled and held a subsequent October meeting solely for the purpose of electing new members.  This was so we could meet the submission of a roster of members by the county-required date of October 31.
•         opposed voting on Sol Robles, who had been a member in good standing, but who had to step off the committee for just a few months because of a class she was taking.  He argued in favor of supporting the nomination of someone who hadn’t lifted a finger to be involved with the committee in four years (that someone being Ray Seigfried).  We felt we had no choice but to table them both, which we did.
•              did not attend the meeting, but tried to get another committee member to carry his proxy, which was determined to be against Party rul
• We then faced a November 9 deadline from the County to submit a list of committee members who would be eligible to vote on the nominees for the Special Election, which we scheduled for November 7
• once again did not attend that meeting.
• At that meeting, we voted on six applicants for membership, and approved five of them, including Sol Robles. (Everybody but Ray Seigfried, who hadn’t been seen by us in four years.) Those who were at the meeting listened to presentations from those applicants, and got to ask questions. Nobody expressed opposition to those who were added. 

The new members reflect the racial, ethnic and political diversity of our district, and are extremely-qualified individuals in their own right.  Our goal, since 2021, has been to increase our visibility in the community, increase our direct commitment to the community, and to recruit members who wish to make a difference in our district.  Largely thanks to our chair, Asia Smith, we continue to build on that goal.

Not only do we consider               grievance without merit, we believe that rolling back the progress we’ve made before the Special Elections would disenfranchise committee members in good standing, and would also diminish the voice that the 7th RD and its members and residents would have in the selection process.

We remain steadfast in our dedication to democratic principles, inclusiveness, and the communities we represent.

Asia Smith, Chair, 7th RD Democratic Committee

Steve Tanzer, Vice-Chair

Maria Mejia, Treasurer

Kyle Tucker, Secretary

I did not shake Ray’s hand on Monday.  Nor will I.  The very idea that someone seeking office as a Democrat would go along with trying to silence minority voices in order to win a closed caucus sickens me.

I honestly hope that people of good will in the Party feel as strongly about this as I do.