How Wealth Tax Backers Won Over California Democrats

Proponents of the wealth tax worked for months behind the scenes before Rep. Maxine Waters walked into a California Democratic Party executive board meeting over the weekend and hoisted in the air one of the deciding votes that helped the party endorse the measure.

Waters’ appearance came weeks after proponents traveled to Washington D.C. to meet with California’s congressional delegation — at which point only Rep. Ro Khanna from the delegation had endorsed the measure.

“The fact that she was at the meeting, the fact that she participated, you know, that says a lot to people,” SEIU-UHW head Dave Regan told Playbook. “When folks like Congresswoman Waters join in, that's especially helpful, and we're grateful for it.”

Waters’ show of support capped months of organizing ahead of the vote. Backers courted executive board members through mail, gift baskets, emails and mass text messages, then expanded their efforts to party delegates, some of whom served as proxy voters for board members unable to attend the gathering in San Diego, SEIU-UHW Chief of Staff Suzanne Jimenez told Playbook.

Wealth tax backers made a compelling argument, said one member of the party’s executive board who was in attendance supporting the measure: Party members should not “feed into the argument that Democrats are too chickenshit to do anything.”

For SEIU-UHW, party support bolsters their case that the wealth tax resonates with a Democratic base clamoring for economic populism — and helps break an anti-wealth-tax blockade comprising many of California’s most influential Democratic power players. It was a setback for a “no” side essentially playing defense, hoping to deny SEIU-UHW that shot of credibility.

Wealth tax foes representing Planned Parenthood, the California Teachers Association and the California State Building and Construction Trades Council worked party members, with the organizations’ political leaders making the closing arguments during a key resolutions committee meeting on Saturday. But they ultimately fell short, as supporters of the measure came armed with internal polling showing that Democratic voters were broadly supportive of both taxing the wealthy and argued that breaking with them would make the state party appear out of touch.

While Regan was not at the gathering in person, Jimenez took meetings on the ground in San Diego, SEIU-UHW political director Gustavo Medina met with board members they’d deemed persuadable, and deputy campaign manager Shelbi Augustus worked on grassroots campaigning. Reps from supportive labor groups warned attendees that no alternative to the one-time, 5 percent tax on billionaires’ wealth could be devised in time to offset federal health care funding cuts before hospitals are forced to close. And late Saturday, after a testy committee meeting and before a razor-thin floor vote, proponents held a reception — to create one last opportunity to win over board members.

Democratic activists were caught in the middle.

“This was one of those moments where the house of labor was divided,” said Navkaran Gurm, vice chair of the party’s resolutions committee, “so it made the Democratic Party a battleground for that fight.”

A first floor vote barely failed on Sunday, but then Waters walked in to cheers, according to two attendees. On a re-vote, she turned to a room full of around 200 board members and proxy voters with her card in hand. The motion cleared the 60 percent margin it needed by less than two percentage points.

The Prop 40 campaign will now go back to county Democratic parties and ask again for them to endorse the wealth tax, and try to tap into their local organizing networks, Jimenez told Playbook. The endorsement gives the campaign support from the state party’s infrastructure, a potentially important boost as it faces a steep fundraising disadvantage against the opposition.

A statewide party endorsement isn’t everything. Party activists tend to be on the progressive end of the Democratic spectrum, which means their positions don’t necessarily predict election results — as when the California Democratic Party backed failed rent control initiatives or then-state Sen. Kevin de León’s unsuccessful challenge to Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

But SEIU-UHW’s win still gives the a union a significant jolt as it seeks to broaden its coalition — including by appealing to progressives and Californians in Congress — and surmount a wall of opposition from Democratic allies.

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