‘What the hell is going on?’: Democratic leaders clash over congressional endorsement

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For a Democratic Party convention with the theme, “Together, we win,” there was a lot of infighting, culminating in a Sunday morning shouting match between two Democratic heavyweights. 

State party Chair Rusty Hicks and Sen. Mike McGuire, the former Senate president, got in a heated exchange that some onlookers described as unnecessarily petty, intensely personal and highly unprofessional. 

Delegates from the region voted Saturday by a 74% margin to endorse McGuire in his bid for the 1st Congressional District over Democratic primary opponent Audrey Denney, sending that decision to the convention floor for a pro forma Sunday approval. 

But at 8 a.m., Hicks made an eleventh-hour move to block McGuire’s endorsement by approving a review sought by Denney. 

“What the hell is going on here?” demanded McGuire, the favorite to win the heavily redrawn district after voters adopted maps favoring Democrats by passing Proposition 50 last November. 

While Denney’s move was legal under the party’s bylaws, the challenge irked McGuire and his campaign, who saw it as an unnecessary holdup given the widespread support he’d already received the night before.

What sent them over the edge Sunday was that Hicks essentially put his thumb on the scale to guarantee the review committee considered Denney’s challenge, regardless of whether her team had submitted the necessary signed petitions. Denney’s campaign manager said the campaign submitted the required 20 signatures on Saturday evening, received notice that night that it was approved and did not know Hicks would also get involved.

“This hearing is an embarrassment. We’re supposed to be Democrats — people who believe in the sanctity of elections, voter integrity, and that every vote counts,” McGuire declared during a five-minute speech. “Instead, this morning, because of two people trying to put their finger on the scale, the headline coming out of this hearing is all about party bosses trying to overturn votes behind closed doors in the dead of night.”

McGuire’s supporters contend that Hicks has a personal vendetta against their candidate dating to 2023, when Hicks launched a surprise bid for a vacant Assembly seat. Hicks, who refused to give up his position as state party chair to seek office, was heavily criticized for attempting to brute force his way into the state Legislature.

Instead of endorsing Hicks, McGuire as the Senate leader backed his opponent, Chris Rogers, a decision McGuire’s supporters say has made him a target for retribution from leadership.

Chris Snyder, a delegate and executive board member of the Sonoma County Democrats who supports McGuire, said “there’s some animosity toward him over that race,” though he acknowledged he couldn’t prove personal politics motivated Hicks to guarantee Denney a review.

Even a delegate who had consistently supported Denney throughout the process declared that she couldn’t bring herself to support removing McGuire from the consent calendar after 74% of the delegates supported him. 

“That vote changed it for me,” said Janet Jonte, chair of the Glenn County Democrats. “There’s a cost also to continuing to run maybe a bitter campaign the next few months.”

Ultimately, Hicks voted along with everyone else to deny the challenge, paving the way for McGuire’s endorsement.

Hicks would not say why he took steps to guarantee Denney’s challenge would be heard. 

“The committee was convened to consider the issues that were brought forward and ultimately decided to leave the senator on the consent calendar,” Hicks told CalMatters.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.