With the withdrawal of his last remaining major opponent, former Senate leader John Burton is the overwhelming favorite to become the next chairman of the California Democratic Party.
Burton, a San Francisco Democrat and long-time political fixture, entered the race late last year. His entrance has nudged out the two other main contenders, Alex Rooker, a vice-chair of the party who withdrew today, and Eric Bauman, who is the chair of the Los Angeles Democratic Party.
Rooker has opted to run for re-election as a vice-chair and Bauman is running for the second vice-chair slot.
Rooker said in an e-mail to her supporters Friday that from "watching the Burton campaign closely ... the consistency of his message and the sincerity he displays have convinced me that he has come to share our goals and understands the needs that we face as an organization."
Watching the Burton candidacy closely also means Rooker saw the former Senate president pro tem racking up endorsements from all the big Democratic interests -- SEIU, consumer attorneys, the labor federation and unions representing nurses, teachers and firefighters.
Top Democratic officials -- from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Barbara Boxer to San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Senate leader Darrell Steinberg -- had also thrown their support Burton's way.
If elected, Burton would take over the state Democratic Party in April. He would replace former Sen. Art Torres, who has been at the helm of the state party since 1996. Torres has been nominated by a trio of statewide Democrats to be the next vice-chairman of California's stem-cell agency.
Burton, 76, is one of the more colorful characters in California politics. Quick-witted and sharp-tongued, he's a former member of the state Assembly, state Senate and Congress.
"Politics is what I enjoy and what I do well," Burton said in a December interview with Capitol Alert.
*CORRECTION: The original version of this post incorrectly said Burton was 68, not 76.
"The next election for governor, where we need a Democrat, is very important," Burton said of his priorities for 2010, the next election cycle. "We have to pick up more members in the Senate and in the Assembly to break the Republican blockade. And we have to be ready - there's congressional seats we came very close to this time, some of which weren't even on anybody's radar. We have to start focusing on them, find out where we can be successful and do the voter registration, do the outreach, create local party strength in various places."
Among the Democratic party faithful, there have been two, competing visions for how to run the party. One, championed by former presidential candidate and outgoing national party chair Howard Dean, is the so-called 50-state strategy -- building up the party everywhere.
The other, championed by President-elect Barack Obama's incoming chief of staff Rahm Emanuel when he ran Democrats' congressional efforts in 2006, is to focus the vast majority of resources on targeted races.
Burton said he favored a split approach.
"The party's role is to do that. It's to build a party," Burton said, referring to Dean's approach. "But the other role is to elect people, because if you build a party (and) you don't elect anybody it doesn't matter."
"We have made great inroads into some of the red counties," Burton said of the Democrats. "I think we have an excellent chance of turning some of those red counties, if not blue, to purple."
Photo: Former Senate Pro Tem, John Burton on Dec. 4, 2007. Credit: Brian Baer/Sacramento Bee
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