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Monday, April 5, 2010

Sacramento Press / One organization aims to represent all Democrats in Sacramento. Who are they?

Sacramento Press / One organization aims to represent all Democrats in Sacramento. Who are they?

One organization aims to represent all Democrats in Sacramento. Who are they?



Democrats will carry some momentum into the 2010 elections, thanks in part to the party’s central committee, the Democratic Party of Sacramento County.

The number of registered Democrats in Sacramento County has increased by 23,000 since 2008, while Republican registration has dropped by 3,000.

“It was going up before 2008, too,” said Devin Lavelle, communications chair for the Democratic Party of Sacramento County. “It’s been pretty clear over the past decade that the Democratic Party lines up with most Californians’ values.”

Lavelle’s group serves as a central committee for the party as well as an umbrella organization for other affiliated clubs in the area, including the Young Democrats and the Green Democratic Club.

The organization registers voters, endorses candidates – which will be done April 8 for the next election – and regularly weighs in on policy issues, sometimes to the dismay of Democrats in office.

Members of the group have been harsh critics of Mayor Kevin Johnson’s strong mayor initiative. They wrote in a February press release that the government should be focusing on improving the city, “not jockeying for power.”

Lavelle called the initiative “a badly written law with a ton of holes. Even if everybody loved it, it would still end