Emeryville Democrats Urged to Vote for 18th District 'ADEM' Delegates

Four Emeryville Residents in Two Slates of Candidates Seek Local 'ADEM' Positions

Democratic Party members in Emeryville, which make up 59% of the voters, are being asked to vote for party delegates for the 18th Assembly District to help set the direction of the Democratic Party in the future, a race that includes four Emeryville residents.  The agenda delegates, referred to by the acronym ADEMs (Assembly District Election Meetings), are divided into two slates, a conservative and a progressive and the four Emeryville residents running are split into both slates.  

The progressive slate, called the ‘People’s Slate’, is comprised of 11 members including Emeryville residents Kalimah Priforce (a City Council member and existing 18th District Delegate) and Sarah Perez, while the conservative slate, called the ‘Housing and Climate Progressive Democratic Slate’ is comprised of 12 members including Emeryville residents Sam Gould (who recently lost a City Council bid) and Regina Chagolla (a School Board member).  

The conservative slate, despite its name with the word ‘progressive’ in it, is noted for its corporate backers, notably the Real Estate Investment Trust lobbying group YIMBY California.  They put stripping local housing policy to make way for more corporate landlords at the top of their to do list.  Also notable is the fact that zero men of color are represented; very unusual for an East Bay election slate.

The progressive slate lacks corporate underwriting and concerns itself with traditional Bay Area progressive ideas like anti-gentrification, tenant protections, climate justice and a labor-led clean energy economy.  

The Tattler reached out to the four Emeryville candidates for comment but only Kalimah Priforce and Sarah Perez responded.  

Mr Priforce said, “For far too long, 'we the people' have been confronted with a false choice - a vote between fascism on one side and corruption on the other.  The Democratic Party needs to change by winning back the people's trust.  As an elected delegate representing Emeryville to the California Democratic Party as part of Assembly District 18, I'm once again a member of the People's Slate because of our diversity and working class progressive values that place people over profit.”  

Ms Perez stated, “Unlike others whose work is based on self-interest, my commitment for social change is personal and therefore dedicated to people who need help.  I stand in solidarity with the People's Slate. Please vote for all of us because this fight is for you.”

Democrats are urged to vote online by January 31st at ademelections.com 

UPDATE: A mistake in this story regarding the acronym ADEMS has been corrected.  Thank you to the reader for catching our mistake.

The People's Slate
Featuring Emeryville residents Kalimah Priforce and Sarah Perez

The Housing and Climate Slate
Lot's of White men!
Featuring residents Sam Gould and Regina Chagolla

Undemocratically Minded School Board Member Seeks Position in Local Democratic Party

Emery School Board Member Chagolla Running For Delegate to Democratic Party Committee

Accountability and Transparency Should be First & Foremost

Chagolla Doesn't Deliver on Either

Opinion

By March 5th, Democratic Party members in Emeryville, Oakland and Alameda have a chance to weigh in on Emeryville resident / Emery School Board member Regina Chagolla's bid to be an assembly district 18 voting member of the local Democratic party known as the Democratic Central Committee.   One of a slate of eight candidates for the Central Committee, Ms Chagolla has been endorsed by Assemblywoman Mia Bonta and Emeryville Mayor Courtney Welch.  

But despite the high level endorsements, believers in good government would be wise to not vote for Ms Chagolla. 

Emery School Board member Regina Chagolla
Anti-Democratic
Not accountable to parents with
children enrolled at Emery, she has
a patrician's view of democracy.

The Democratic Central Committee delegates represent their specific district serving the people and their State Assembly member.  As such, the Central Committee (DCC) delegates help promote the Democratic Party agenda, endorse candidates for statewide, legislative and congressional office, and vote to endorse resolutions and ballot measures among other things.  The last election in 2023, saw Council member Kalimah Priforce elected to the District 18 DCC delegation over objections from Assemblywoman Bonta who had selected a slate of candidates that included Ms Welch.  

Ms Bonta, recognized by many East Bay progressives as a 'corporate Democrat' owing to her campaign donor list of gazillionaires and mega-corporations, had the misfortune of having her entire slate, save one, defeated by the voters last time.  Now Ms Chagolla has joined a new slate of DCC Bonta candidates for another bite at the apple.  

Looking at Regina Chagolla’s impressive resume, one might be tempted to vote for her, regardless of her being part of the corporatist United Voices For Democracy slate as they call themselves.  Besides sitting on the Emery School Board, Ms Chagolla has been a 3rd grade teacher at Berkeley Unified School District for the last six years and she’s lived in Emeryville for 10 years.  But Democratic voters should be advised, Ms Chagolla’s tenure on the Emery School Board has been marked by a wholesale failure to govern from even the most basic of democratic norms.

Ms Chagolla is not available to the public.  Following in the footsteps of Council member John Bauters, School Board member Chagolla has adopted a hyper-partisan philosophy on governing to such an extent, certain members of the Emeryville public, the press and even parents with children enrolled at Emery, are not afforded the courtesy of having a single question answered.  Ms Chagolla will not entertain constituent’s questions at School Board meetings nor will she set up times for answering questions off campus, not in person, via email, text or not via the phone.  This is an extremely undemocratic vision of governance from a public servant who calls herself a Democrat.  

While running for re-election to the Emery School Board in 2022, Board member Chagolla joined with her two colleagues also seeking re-election, telling voters about what a great job they had done for the children at Emery.  "Keep Emery on track” is what they said, presumably because they were doing such a fantastic job.  What Ms Chagolla and her slate mates didn’t tell voters is that, academically, Emery slid to last place among all school districts in Alameda County on her watch.  This kind of incompetence and lack of transparency should not be rewarded with a Democrat’s vote.

You know a politician is pulling a scam when they transform themselves from lovers of democracy and accountability before they’re elected into haters as soon as they are elected.  Such is the case with Regina Chagolla.  Before she was elected to the Emery School Board, she told the community she loved the Emeryville Tattler.  In 2015, then an Emery teacher, she even wrote a letter to the editor praising how informative and democratic the Tattler is.  In her letter, Ms Chagolla thanked the Tattler, “for informing the public about the big discussions that are being made in this small city” and for informing her specifically as a teacher about what is going on at the school district.  She said the Tattler inspired her enough to start her attending School Board meetings. 

Assemblywoman Mia Bonta's Delegate Slate
The 'United Voices for Democracy' Slate
The corporate business community and their
sycophants wants you to vote for these people.

That was then.  Now as an elected official in power and under the critical eye of the Emeryville Tattler, now Board member Chagolla wants nothing to do whatsoever with the Tattler, the same news site that inspired her as a mere teacher.  Now the disdain for accountability from Board member Chagolla is so pervasive, she steadfastly refuses to answer our questions and she even joined with her Board colleagues running for re-election to freeze out the the public from accountability by refusing the Tattler’s election questionnaire (given to all Emeryville candidates for public office).  As elected officials in Emeryville, Ms Chagolla and her Board colleagues boycotted public accountability for the first time in the Tattler’s 14 year history.  Her reason?  She does not believe the public has a right to know about her governing philosophy.  She still wants their votes however.  

For these reasons, Democrats, even the corporate ones, should not use their votes to reward a person who cavalierly subverts the Party’s values with such aplomb.  We don’t know what kinds of political calculations Assembly member Mia Bonta has made endorsing Regina Chagolla as delegate for the Democratic Central Committee but we don’t think it’s in the interest of the people of the 18th District.

Kalimah Priforce Wins Democratic Party Delegate Race for Emeryville

 Mayor's Losing Fight Against Councilman Priforce 

Priforce Victory Called 'Huge Upset'

Money & Power Backed Council Member Courtney Welch Loses

Council member Kalimah Priforce
Big winner in Friday's delegate race and rising 
regional political star representing Emeryville.

Emeryville City Councilman Kalimah Priforce was part of a slate of 12 progressive candidates, all of whom won a landslide victory in a contentious Democratic delegate race to the California 18th Assembly District, announced by the party Friday. Council member Priforce handily defeated Councilwoman Courtney Welch who ran as part of a corporate backed slate of candidates, but that slate of 14 candidates were all defeated excepting for one.  The rank and file Democratic Party delegate election represents a defeat for the corporate backed 18th Assembly District representative, Mia Bonta, who leveraged her power to try to get her slate of candidates elected.  The election results, what many are calling a ‘huge upset’, were unexpected owing to the power and money representing Ms Bonta’s slate.  The newly elected delegates will serve under a now weakened Assemblywoman Bonta.

Mayor John Bauters
He endorsed the loser,
Councilwoman Courtney Welch.

The election of Mr Priforce as Democratic delegate means Emeryville’s interests will serve an oversized role in the delegation with our little town representing one of the 14 in a district that encompasses all of Alameda and most of Oakland.  Had Ms Welch also been elected, Emeryville’s power in the California Democratic Party would have been hugely increased.  However, Emeryville’s Mayor John Bauters used his position to lead a drive to steer votes away from Council member Priforce being elected in favor of Ms Welch.  As such, the regional election for the 18th District, conducted over the last couple of months, has come to be seen by East Bay politicos as part of a proxy battle for who is to control Emeryville City Hall, Mr Bauters or Mr Priforce.

The loss for Ms Welch is a blow for Mayor Bauters who has used his position to push against Council member Priforce in the Council chambers and in the delegate race securing the endorsement of Ms Welch by Council colleagues Ally Medina, and David Mourra.  Despite his Council colleagues working against him and with the delegate race won, Mr Priforce is now seen as a rising political star in regional politics, and a challenge to Mr Bauters. The two councilmen can be seen as representing two different visions for Emeryville with Mr Bauters’ side represented by a deference to housing developers versus a deference to a more democratic policy vision shown by Mr Priforce.  

Assemblywoman Mia Bonta
Her slate of corporate backed
candidates, including Courtney Welch
 lost.

The ‘battle for the 18th ‘ delegate race was represented by the two opposing slates, Mr Priforce’s grassroots progressive “People’s Slate” and the Mia Bonta corporate backed and ironically named “Progressive Unity and Labor Slate” that Ms Welch ran with.  The People’s Slate for the 18th District was endorsed by Our Revolution, a national grassroots political organization started by Senator Bernie Sanders and a critic of Councilwoman Courtney Welch, whom they called a “corporate backed Democrat”.

During the campaign, Councilman Priforce signed a pledge to not take donations from corporations including from corporate real estate organizations such as YIMBY, an action that the YIMBY backed Councilwoman Courtney Welch mocked on the campaign trail.

Speaking to the Tattler, Allyssa Victory, the top vote getter in the Democratic delegate race and an Oakland mayor challenger in the election last November said,  “The People’s Slate was truly independent and all 12 candidates were successfully elected due to a strong grassroots campaign that included a people-centered platform, direct outreach, voter registration, and education to overcome the many hurdles in the election process. All members of the Slate, whether re-elected or elected for the first time, ran to change the status quo by addressing the crises in our democracy and increasing accountability to the people we are elected to represent."

Council member Priforce came in 6th place in the delegate race with 286 votes while Council member Welch came in 16th place with 192 votes.

Councilwoman Courtney Welch
She has the support of corporations but she
does not have the support the of the people.

The People's Slate
Swept the Corporate Backed Slate
Non corporate and victorious.  All signed pledges not to take corporate money.
Every candidate won their race.