Sacramento Democratic Party leader: Mayor Kevin Johnson should ‘step aside’
The head of Sacramento’s Democratic Party called for Mayor Kevin Johnson to “step aside” on Tuesday after a 1996 video of a teenage girl accusing the mayor of sexual abuse surfaced and ESPN delayed the national release of a documentary highlighting the city’s effort to keep the Kings.
Kerri Asbury, chairwoman of the Democratic Party of Sacramento County, told The Sacramento Bee she thinks Johnson should resign so that “the focus returns to the city’s needs and not more reports of impropriety.”
Mayor Kevin Johnson talks about Measure L during a meeting with members of the The Bee’s editorial board on Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014 in Sacramento, Calif. Randy Pench rpench@sacbee.com
Asbury said the party’s executive board has not taken a formal position on Johnson’s future and likely won’t until at least its Nov. 12 meeting. However, after speaking to other members of the party’s leadership, she said, “If I were putting down money on which way the committee would go, I would bet on a call for resignation.”
“At a minimum, I think he needs to not seek re-election,” Asbury said. “I feel the integrity of the mayor’s office has been broken.”
For his part, Johnson told reporters Monday night that the video of the teenager and ESPN’s decision would play no role in whether he seeks an unprecedented third term next year. He said he would make a decision “pretty soon here.”
“It’s unfortunate that stories like this continue to come forward,” the mayor said outside the Crest Theatre, where the ESPN documentary was shown at a premiere sponsored by the Kings. “When I ran for mayor (in 2008), I knew these were all going to be a part of fair play. Politics is a game that throws out dirty things along the way and you’ve got to take hits on the chin.”
The local Democratic Party has never endorsed Johnson, a Democrat, and was instrumental in the successful campaign to defeat his strong mayor ballot measure last November. The feud dates back to 2003, when Johnson’s nonprofit St. Hope organization was awarded control of Sacramento High School and began operating the campus as a charter school employing non-union teachers.
Steve Maviglio, the mayor’s political spokesman, fired back at the Democratic Party, saying, “most Sacramento Democrats believe that their party’s organization should be spending its time electing Democratic candidates instead of attacking them.”
“Perhaps they should spend their time paying attention to campaign laws and avoiding fines from the FPPC (Fair Political Practices Commission) and trying to become Sacramento Democratic Party leader: Mayor Kevin Johnson should ‘step aside’ | The Sacramento Bee: