California Democrats Throw One of Their Own Under the Bus: Patty Lopez

The marginalized media loves to lie about Republicans. One of their favorite stories focuses on the never-ending internecine fights among Republicans, conservatives, Tea Party activists, etc.

The truth is that Democrats are just as keen on eating their own, especially in California.

The Prop 14 Top Two debacle has weakened the political party structure as a whole, and now

Without party support, this Democratic assemblywoman is out on a limb — but isn't giving up on reelection

On a recent sunny Saturday, with the calendar creeping closer to election day, Democratic California Assembly candidate Al Muratsuchi got a boost from a powerful friend. Outside Muratsuchi’s South Bay campaign headquarters, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Paramount) shook hands, posed for photos with volunteers and praised his former colleague as a “person who understands this community” while campaign volunteers munched on tacos in the shade.

Al Muratsuchi does not understand this community, if he thinks that forcing the state more into our lives, hiking up taxes, and dishonoring the very ethnic communities he cares about is "understanding,"

Meanwhile, halfway across Los Angeles County, a Democratic incumbent facing one of the toughest reelection fights of any Southern California office holder was practically on her own. Patty Lopez, who is up against former Assemblyman Raul Bocanegra in her San Fernando Valley district, strolled through the inaugural Armenian Cultural Festival in Tujunga with a half-dozen volunteers, handing out campaign fliers from a reusable shopping bag slung over her shoulder.

Let's face it. Patty Lopez was not part of the "in-crowd" of the California Democratic Party. She voted against the party line and respected the needs of her constituents.

Isn't that what elected officials are supposed to do? She deserves a lot of credit for not supporting SB 1146, which would have eviscerated First Amendment religious liberties in our state. She voted against gun-control measures which would have made more citizens sitting ducks for crime.

She also opposed Brown's Crazy Train, which is a big no-no among Democrats. She was more a woman of the people, and it is very sad to see her out of office.

Rendon crisscrossed Southern California, going from Orange County to coastal Los Angeles before swinging east to San Bernardino County, stumping for five targeted Democratic candidates that weekend. Lopez, who failed to get the California Democratic Party’s endorsement this year, was not one of them.

Is anyone really surprised, though? After all, Sacramento insiders were telling me that she was toast this year, since the Democratic Party machine--actually, Big Labor--was gunning for her from the very beginning.

I’ve been blocked from my party, but my district knows who is Patty Lopez,” she said during a brief break from handing out fliers a friend had helped her translate into Armenian. 

Maybe Ms. Lopez needs to acknowledge that the Democratic Party is leaving the very people whom they claim to care about. They really are not the party of the demos, but have become the party of the demon ...

“Sometimes I feel disappointed, but that’s not stopping me from doing what I need to do.”

Lopez, an immigrant from Mexico, shocked many when she defeated fellow Democrat Bocanegra by 466 votes two years ago after running an amateur campaign funded in part by selling tamales and pozole.

Republicans could learn from Patty Lopez. 

They should also acknowledge that candidates tend to win as outsiders when the voter turnout is very low. The 2014 voter turnout was so low, that Democrats in safe districts all across the state were barely competitive. Lucille Roybal-Allard of Commerce/Huntington Park won by only 58%!

In Sacramento, she has bucked her party on issues like high-speed rail and seems to take pride in the fact that she hasn’t made many friends there. Detractors in her district called on her to resign when she first took office and say she’s been an ineffective leader who hasn’t been willing to work with others in Sacramento. Lopez’s supporters, including other Democrats in the Legislature, have complained that other members have ostracized her.

Yes they have ostracized her. The only diversity which Democrats in Sacramento respect is the diversity of skin color, which really is not distinct or even relevant at this point.

Lopez’s appearance at the festival was one of five events she would attend that day, and her only campaign stop, with just three weeks to go until election day.

“Until the last day, I’m going to do my job. That’s my responsibility,” Lopez said when asked why she wasn’t spending more time campaigning.

Once again, the Los Angeles Times pushes a narrative that she is destined to be a loser.

This is wrong.

Walking from one booth to another, Lopez introduced herself to a Tupperware vendor, volunteers raising money for a Christmas play and the family of a local school board candidate. She sat down to speak with a group from the Church of Scientology and walked away with a thick volume from their table. She ended each interaction with a familiar refrain: “I’m looking forward to your support of Patty.”

Sadly, she would not get the support that she needed.

“I’m married, I have two kids, I’m a grandma,” she told one woman as Bocanegra, her opponent, interrupted to shake hands with the woman and her family. Lopez put on a smile and laughed politely as he left.

Wow, Bocanegra is a jerk! So was Al Muratsuchi.

Patty Lopez

Bocanegra spent the morning at a community clean-up day, then stopped by his campaign headquarters to deliver lawn signs and walk precincts before going to the festival himself.

“We are taking nothing for granted,” Bocanegra said, standing at a booth marked with his campaign banners and lawn signs. “The people of this community  just want to see things get done. And that’s what my campaign is all about.”

Yes, things will get done, that benefit a select group of interests that pull all the levers of power in Sacramento. Nothing will get done that helps working men and women who want to thrive--not just survive--in this state.

In the June primary, with six Democrats on the ballot, Bocanegra received 44.4% of the vote, and Lopez came in a distant second at 27.2%. The only legislative incumbent to win a lower share of votes in the top-two primary era was Betsy Butler, who got just 25.8% in the 2012 primary. She went on to lose her seat in a 50.5%-49.5% defeat that November.

For the record, Butler deserved to lose, since she abstained on SB 1350, which would have made it easier to get rid of pervert teachers who molest their students. She caved to Big Labor, the perverted California Teachers Association, and put the interests of her donors ahead of the best interests of students. I called her out on that immoral cowardice at a primary gathering at Harbor College two years ago.

How was Lopez faring in her fight to hold her seat?

Meanwhile, Lopez says she’s had to personally appeal to members of her own caucus not to actively campaign against her. “I asked them, ‘Please don’t get in the middle,’” she said.

She has raised an anemic $126,000 compared with the more than $1 million Bocanegra has raked in from business groups, oil companies and labor unions. Rendon, whose reelection committee has contributed the maximum amount allowed to Lopez’s campaign, has called the situation “complicated” and “awkward.” Democratic Party rules restrict leaders from spending party resources on a candidate that has failed to win its endorsement.

What kind of political party has members who have to beg their colleagues NOT to campaign against them? WHAT?!

Of course, Speaker Anthony Rendon, who has no backbone, played the game that he had no choice or say in the matter ..

“Our hands are tied,” Rendon said in an interview after the Muratsuchi event. Rendon said that while he hasn’t appeared at campaign events with Lopez, he’s attended some of her fundraisers in Sacramento.

Sure he was. He can attend them, but did he donate any money? Did he join her at any events?

Darry Sragow, a veteran Democratic strategist who used to run Assembly campaigns for state party leaders, says Rendon is in a very difficult position.

“As speaker, you’re leading a lot of people and a lot of interests and attempting to get them all to row in the same direction,” Sragow said. “As a leader, he’s got to hear what his members have to say and reflect that in what he does.”

So his members agree that the vote of the people is no important, too? Surprise, surprise.

Lopez says she is a “woman of faith” and believes “100%” that voters will reelect her on Nov. 8.

Later, Richard Wall, a Los Angeles police officer, pulled her aside.

We need more people of faith to speak out and take back California. This state is turning into a secular, statist wasteland. UGH!

“I just want you to know what a great job you’ve been doing. Just hang in there, it’s almost done,” he said, words meant to encourage her in the home stretch of the campaign.

Lopez, however, seemed to take it differently.

“It is,” she replied. “After this, I’m looking forward to just being in the community. That’s what I love to do.”

May her tribe increase--and may they all become Republicans!