City of Sacramento Vice Mayor Steven Hansen, Councilman Eric Guerra, and Sacramento City Unified School District Trustee Darrel Woo are out as members of the Sacramento County Democratic Party's Central Committee. The trio were given the boot during a Thursday night meeting for backing Republican Anne Marie Schubert over Democrat Noah Phillips in the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office campaign.
Committee Chairman Terry Schanz says to endorse a Republican, even if the endorsement is for a nonpartisan race-- the district attorney's office is nonpartisan in Sacramento County-- is a violation of the committee bylaws. "As an officer of the Democratic Party we do not endorse for office," he insisted." He claimed that since April he and other Democrats have tried to get Hansen, Guerra, and Woo to simply rescind their endorsement of Schubert. "They refused to do so."
Hansen calls the action petty. "It's definitely a double standard in the way they treated the of us versus anybody else who had taken the same position," said Hansen. Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg is a Democrat, for example, and he endorsed Schubert. So did several members of the City Council and Sacramento County Supervisors Patrick Kennedy, Phil Serna, and Don Nottoli.
Councilman Eric Guerra said the vote to expel him was an embarrassment to the local Democratic Party leadership. "The same leadership that refused to denounce a candidate that was using government emails to condone sexist and racist language," he noted.
Both Hansen and Guerra said they believe the leadership of the Democratic Party in Sacramento County has "gone astray," but neither believes that will hurt the party in the upcoming election.
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