In Gavin Newsom’s Fair Oaks backyard, proud Democrats are few and far between
At Bannister Park on a cool September morning, about a dozen women trekked past the creek and up the small incline toward the parking lot, rounding out a group walk.
They were all largely of the same demographic — mostly white, mostly over the age of 40. But they had one resounding commonality: not a single one of them wanted to talk about the Democratic party.
“I’m apolitical,” one woman said.
“It’s the lesser of two evils,” said another.
“Good luck to you,” said a third.
Bannister Park is a wide open green space between Fair Oaks Boulevard and Sacramento Waldorf School that leads walkers, joggers, and bikers alike down the San Juan Rapids trail to the American River. It’s also a stone’s throw from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Fair Oaks estate, purchased for $3.7 million in 2018, a sprawling 12,000 square-foot home overlooking 8 acres in the unincorporated community where he and wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom are raising their four children.
Aside from being the governor’s home, Fair Oaks represents an important part of politics in liberal Sacramento County. Voters here are split pretty evenly between Democratic and Republican. It isn’t as far away from the blue city center as conservative communities such as Roseville and Rocklin to the north and El Dorado Hills to the east, but its electorate has cemented itself as decidedly purple.
In one precinct, a neighborhood between Madison and Sunset avenues, residents were evenly split in the last two presidential elections. Joe Biden and Donald Trump both received 616 votes in 2020; Trump and Hillary Clinton were tied at 270 in 2016.
“This is probably the most balanced neighborhood in the state,” said Andrew Sullivan, a 41-year-old Fair Oaks resident and registered independent.
“I think people are just moderate here.”
Moderate, maybe. But if the walking women — and a dozen others that the Sacramento Bee spoke to — were any indication, they’re also unenthusiastic.
Disillusionment in an election season
Zima Creason is running her second bid for a seat on the board of the San Juan Unified School District. At a campaign event in late September, she held court with a dozen or so Democratic women about why she chose to run again. Over wine, cheese and crackers at a supporter’s home in nearby Arden Park, they voiced their concerns about the current state of the Democratic party.
Laurie Wagner, a retired Special Education teacher, said the failure to curb rampant homelessness has left her completely disillusioned with both parties and their leaders. In particular, she holds Newsom and Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg accountable.
Being a Democrat “used to mean a lot.” But now? “It feels like too many people need services, and we can’t find a way to serve them.”
“Look at San Francisco,” she said, referencing the homelessness crisis in Newsom’s hometown.
“I won’t vote for him if he runs for president.”
Janet Lial, a retired social worker and Sacramento native like Wagner, believes the Democratic party used to stand for what she called Christian values: helping the down and out, communal responses to communal problems, and inclusivity where race, gender, sexual orientation are concerned.
But after a career in social work, she too sees the party failing at the Herculean task of providing services to all who need them.
“We’re resource rich, but there’s very little we can actually do,” she said.
Democrats like 28-year-old Emmalynn Mathis are confronted with a party split between an older, pragmatic liberal establishment, headed by Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden, and younger, more progressive standard bearers like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Katie Porter.
Mathis is a former member of the Sacramento Young Democrats who’s helping with Creason’s campaign. Like a lot of Democrats in Fair Oaks, the word “jaded” came up more than once.
She got involved in politics after the election of Donald Trump, especially ahead of the 2018 midterms. But she says that energy has since fizzled.
“We were saving our asses then.” Now? “It just feels disjointed.”
Mathis says she feels like most politicians run for office just to run, not because they care about the values of their party — a view she shares with 65% of Americans, according to a Pew Research poll published earlier this year.
Despite the general air of disappointment, the women (no men were in attendance) were still organizing late on a Tuesday night. They may well be jaded, but not enough to stop.
‘There ought to be more’ proud Democrats
The dearth of partisan passion extends to those on the ballot. Democratic candidates in the region are running on pointedly Democratic platforms, but have been coy about their party affiliation.
Ken Cooley, the former mayor of Rancho Cordova up for reelection in the State Assembly, has campaign posters proclaiming him an “Independent, Thoughtful Leader.” But not a Democrat.
Dr. Kermit Jones, running for a House seat against Kevin Kiley in CA-03, calls himself first and foremost a “veteran.”
Paula Villescaz, a fellow board member of the San Juan Unified School District, is running for State Senate against Republican Roger Niello. Like Jones and Cooley, she does not identify with a political party in campaign materials.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing, according to American River Democrats board member David Sanders.
“I see that as part of the Democrats’ genuine inclusive philosophy,” said Sanders, a 69-year-old lifelong Democrat and HR professional, who moved to Fair Oaks just over two years ago. By not portraying themselves as exclusive to one voter base, Democratic candidates are opening doors for people across the political spectrum.
Sanders has been involved in Democratic politics since he was 15, and said that he’s proud to be a member of the party —a party that stands for, among other things, a “fierce commitment to democracy.”
“There ought to be more (proud Democrats),” he said.
“Democrats should be much more comfortable identifying themselves as Democrats or progressives. Those are positive words, we shouldn’t be defensive about that.”
Heidi Witter, a teacher at San Juan Unified School District who’s taught in Fair Oaks since 1996, said the Democratic party stands for “open-mindedness, inclusion, and seeing both sides in something.”
Her favorite metaphor: Being a Democrat means getting a big box of tissues for the whole classroom, instead of just one box for your desk. Other peoples’ success, she said, benefits everyone.
“I’m proud of the way that I view things.”
Retired teacher Ed Marin is a lifelong Democrat who’s lived in Fair Oaks for 17 years, and is one of the only people of color in his neighborhood. He considers himself proud to be a member of that party. It’s “the party that looks after the middle class,” he said.
“The Democratic party has, I believe, ideas that have benefited a greater majority of the population.”
A response to extremism
Some Fair Oaks Democrats are more disillusioned than others. This could be exacerbated by the midterm slump, as turnout is historically lighter than in presidential years .
But just about everyone — from 28-year-old Mathis to retired school teachers in their 60s and 70s —had concerns about democracy’s vulnerability to rising hostility and how the Democrats have responded.
With democracy at risk, Sanders said, Democrats should be prouder of being “on the right side of history.”
There’s “absolutely a fundamental threat to democracy,” according to Sanders, who pointed to the January 6th insurrection and Trump’s role in rallying its extremist participants — but also to the Republican party’s pursuit of measures to suppress the vote.
“I watch the news, and I see what our former president is trying to get away with, and it’s so harmful,” said Witter, the teacher in Fair Oaks.
Wagner, the retired special education teacher, said that the Democratic party simply hasn’t adequately responded to the “poison” of what Trump did to the country.
“I used to respect politicians on all sides,” she said.
Marin also hopes that voters sway back to the center and away from extreme candidates – some of whom, like Herschel Walker in Georgia and Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania – he called “nuts.”
When it really comes down to it, Sanders said, the Democratic party, led by Newsom in California, is going to keep democracy alive – and a vote cast begrudgingly is still a vote cast in the right direction.
“If you’re a party that wants to win by reducing voting altogether, what kind of democracy do you want?” he said.
“And the Democrats are clear on that … We can disagree about (a lot of things), but we can’t disagree about democracy.”
This story was originally published October 9, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
