State and County Dems won’t be able to call for Dababneh resignation for a while

According to spokespeople for the California Democratic Party and the Los Angeles County Democratic Party, there are certain procedures that must be followed before these groups can go on record, if they choose to, calling for the resignation of incumbent California State Assemblymember Matt Dababneh (D-45^th Assembly District), who has recently been accused of sexual misconduct by Sacramento-based lobbyist Pamela Lopez and former district staffer of Congressmember Brad Sherman (D-30^th Congressional District) Jessica Yas Barker, who says that when she and Dababneh were both working in Congressmember Sherman’s office, Dababneh acted “outside the ‘rules of common decency or professionalism’,” according to the Washington Post.

According to John Vigna, Communications Director of the California Democratic Party, “those kinds of formal positions (e.g. candidate endorsements or officially calling for a resignation) have to be vetted through the appropriate committees, which won’t meet again until our convention.” According to the state party’s website, that convention will take place February 23-25, 2018, in San Diego, California.

A similar, if shorter, delay, will also be inevitable at the county level.  Danny Leserman, Director of Communications for the Los Angeles County Democratic Party, told Etopia News today that the call for Dababneh’s resignation adopted by the Democratic Party of the San Fernando Valley will be considered by the party at the county level as a resolution at their next meeting, on January 9, 2018, at the UTLA (United Teachers of Los Angeles) building in Koreatown.

Meanwhile, Assemblymember Dababneh says he won’t resign.

Added Vigna, “I’m certain there will be a lot of discussion, but [I] obviously can’t forecast what positions the delegates or party officers might take one way or the other.”