Photo courtesy of Dan Chmielewski
TheLiberalOC.com‘s Dan Chmielewski published an update late Monday on the Greg Diamond saga. Diamond is – or rather, was – North OC Vice Chairman of the Democratic Party of Orange County. Reader know Diamond better as the Brea resident who is a fixture during public comments at Anaheim City Council meetings, and is the lawyer for Cynthia Ward’s non-profit political outfit CATER.
The DPOC voted 35-15 Monday night to boot him from that post, basically on the grounds that he wasn’t doing his job. There’s more to it: the building trades started the cal for his head due to his opposition to policies that would lead to jobs for building trades members; this metastasized into the Orange County Labor Federation calling on the DPOC to can Diamond or lose union support for its 2014 election efforts.
From Dan’s post:
The Democratic Party of Orange County (DPOC) last night ousted Greg Diamond, a candidate for District Attorney and a blogger at Orange Juice, from his North County Vice Chair’s leadership role on a vote of 35-15 (final vote tally). Diamond was removed on several grounds. Among them taking public – activist — stands inappropriate for a Party officer, failing to drive voter registration and GOTV efforts in North Orange County, and disruptive behavior that adversely affected others in the Party.
References to OC labor unions withholding support from the DPOC or its endorsed candidates was not part of the case against Diamond, but was likely a factor in the votes by many Central Committee members. Activists generally don’t make good party officers and, with the vote, the Party has returned Diamond to his activist role.
Diamond first attempted to use parliamentary procedure to have the item of his removal stricken from the agenda and when that failed, there was quiet lobbying of members to seek votes.
TheLiberalOC learned from several committee members Diamond had contacted them over the weekend to see if they’d attend Monday’s meeting and how they’d vote. Diamond met with Party leaders for four hours on Sunday to review the case against him. A third party offered to have Diamond resign his leadership post if Diamond could instead retain a seat on the executive committee. The bylaws do not allow that option, so the offer could not be accepted.
In writings on the OrangeJuice blog and other OC political forums, Diamond has often made references that he wants The Democratic Party to be a party that polices its own. And that’s exactly what Diamond got at Monday’s Party meeting. A text message from one committee member suggested with Diamond’s removal that “the Party lanced a boil last night.”
You can read the rest of Dan’s post here, and the Voice of OC coverage here.
Interesting to see connection between this blog and liberaloc.com as it must be some defacto political marriage.
Seriously, Allen? Can you pull the tin foil hat on any tighter?
By your logic, every time you link to the Voice of OC story, you are aligning yourself with its primary funder, the OCEA. Somehow, I doubt you’d apply to yourself the half-baked standard your applying to me.
Seriously, Matt! Get over yourself.
“Tin foil hat”?….please!
Voice of OC gives reporting of both sides even if it irritate some like you.
Remember now OC Register will be picking up some stories from Voice of OC suggest to me that the Voice of OC has a reputation of good reporting of articles of interest for the readers.
Seriously, I’m merely applying to you, your own silly logic that the act of linking to a blog post means endorsement of that blog’s political philosophy.
No de facto political marriage. Matt is backing Lucille Kring for Mayor and I’m backing Lorri Galloway for Mayor. I think we probably agree that Tom Tait isn’t the right person for the job and is a demonstrably weak leader. Tait’s merry band of supporters think he can do no wrong. Diamond is part of that crowd. Diamond made a big deal that he hasn’t come out in support of Tait for Mayor and wants both Galloway and Tait on the dais next year, but he also hasn’t endorsed Galloway for mayor either.
Tait is not the right person for the job! Shame on Diamond for supporting a republican if he is the vice chair of the Dem party! Hello!! It is that simple!