Skelton sees Dem vs. Dem

One of the themes at CalWatchDog.com the past several years has been that, with Republicans still moribund in California, Democrats will turn on one another.

One story from last October was, “Democrats divided on big issues in CA.”

George Skelton, the Los Angeles Times columnist and 50-year veteran journalist, just reported on the same thing in “All-powerful Democrats find new adversaries: each other“:

It’s the unintended consequence of one-party domination in California. Democrats have conquered Republicans. So they’re turning on each other in the struggle for political power.

He also accented something I have written about as long ago as 2012: That Latinos are wondering why their representation among 10 statewide offices — governor, attorney general, U.S. Senator, etc. — is so slim, even though all posts are held by Democrats. Just one Latino, Secretary of State Alex Padilla. And before last November’s election, their were none.

Skelton:

Latinos are demanding the political power that reflects their community’s population explosion — indeed, plurality — in California.

Nearly 90% of California’s population growth from 2000 to 2011 was Latino, according to the UC Davis Center for Regional Change. Latinos currently account for nearly 40% of the state’s population, roughly on par with whites and nearly six times greater than blacks.

So Latinos are 40 percent of the population — and an even higher percentage of the Democratic Party — but hold just one in 10 statewide offices.

That may change a little if, as CalWatchDog.com has been reporting, retiring Sen. Barbara Boxer’s seat is taken in 2016 by Rep. Loretta Sanchez or former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villariagosa.

But one thing for sure won’t change: fissures among Democrats. Politics is about strife. And if Republicans are too weak to cause much, then inevitably it’s Dem vs. Dem.