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In the past, we have had great state party chairs like Jerry Brown and Bill Press. Now we have Art Tores, an opponent of privacy rights. This guy backed a proposition that provides for the removal and cataloging of DNA taken from arrestees - even if they are not later charged. His hand-picked resolutions committee endorsed Prop 69, the one in question, and when it went to the E-board and it was clear the members were going to get over the 2/3 to turn around the resolution committee recommendation, a quorum call was made. There were 3 members over the minimal required to survive the quorum call. The recommendation was over-turned by a super-majority and Art Torres was very unhappy. He had also just lost out on Prop 66, the reform of three strikes. Torres's resolutions committee's recommendation on that was overturned and the E-board voted to endorse 66, which meant that only violent felonies qualified for three strikes if it passed the electorate. The E-board reps come from the ADs and County committees and so Torres couldn't control them. Unfortunately, Torres positions and not those of the E-board wound up winning in the general election.
In 2003, he kept resolutions calling for a paper trail and for opposition to proposed FCC changes from reaching the floor at the convention. Torres said that he was a close friend of Michael Powell and that Powell would never do anything wrong. The FCC changes were made before the June E-board meeting.
Torres moves between northern and southern California each four years because the rules call for the chairman to be from a different half of the state each time.
If Torres had been behind Shelley, Shelley would not have resigned. Torres, as party chair, has the power to get the party to stand behind a candidate. But Torres has reportedly someone else in mind for Shelley's job in 2006 and it is hard to defeat an incumbent in a primary. Other individuals Torres is backing have worse scandals than Shelley. If you look at the basis of the allegations against Shelley, they are nonsense, like two HAVA people going to a political rally is misappropriation of funds. If our party leader will not stand behind the most important elected official in the state, who is losing his job to Diebold, then perhaps it is our state chairman who needs replaced.
Certainly, there is someone else in California or willing to move to California who is interested in becoming state party chair. If you know of any possibilities, encourage them.
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