UPDATE: Whose Democratic Party Is It?

What’s worse than not getting invited to the party? Getting invited to the party and then being told you can’t come inside. San Jose City Councilmember Rose Herrera found herself in this uncomfortable position Monday night when she was locked out of the Santa Clara County Democratic Central Committee endorsement hearing. Sources tell Fly that Herrera received an email invite from the DCC to attend and be interviewed. This struck Herrera and her campaign cohorts as odd, considering the DCC, a division of the South Bay Labor Council, hasn’t had much love for Herrera since the District 8 councilmember jumped aboard Mayor Chuck Reed‘s fantastic pension-reform voyage. Labor attacks against Herrera during the primary, funded in part by the DCC and its officials, resulted in the councilmember just missing out on enough votes to avoid a November runoff against Jimmy Nguyen. But as a lifelong Democrat, Herrera decided to turn the other cheek and show her face at the hearing. She was scheduled to give a pitch on why she’s not just a Democrat in name only at 8:30pm, according to Herrera’s new campaign manager, 23-year-old Jordan Tenedora, but then someone came out and expressed their shock at seeing the councilmember. “We were invited, so we showed up, and apparently there was a mix-up,” says Tenedora. “And we weren’t the only ones.” Apparently, Peter Arellano, the good doctor from Gilroy who is running for mayor of that city against political gorilla Don Gage, also received an erroneous come-hither. But a source within the DCC tells Fly that Herrera wasn’t scheduled to be interviewed and simply showed up trying to crash the party.

UPDATE: Fly has confirmed with Democratic political operative Jeffrey A Cardenas that Rose Herrera did receive an email invitation to be interviewed at the Santa Clara County Democratic Central Committee endorsement hearing. Below is that email, with email addresses and phone numbers redacted.

From: ———————— On Behalf Of Jeffrey Cardenas
Sent: Saturday, August 18, 2012 11:36 PM
To: —————————
Subject: Santa Clara County Democratic Party endorsement interview

Hello, 

I hope this email finds you well. I am contacting you to schedule an interview with the Santa Clara County Democratic Party endorsement committee for this Monday, August 20th at 8:30 pm. The location of this interview will be the cafeteria of the County building located at 70 W. Hedding St, San Jose, CA.

I hope you are able to join us. Please let me know if you have any questions for concerns.

Thank you,


Jeffrey A Cardenas

The Fly is the valley’s longest running political column, written by Metro Silicon Valley staff, to provide a behind-the-scenes look at local politics. Fly accepts anonymous tips.

5 Comments

  1. Let’s see the email that Rose says she got and compare it to the email that the DCC is supposed to have sent.  We should be anle to clear this up pretty quick…

    • Assemblyman Hernandez needs a better defense attorney.

      Why does his attorney need to say that Hernandez was on his way to get a hotel room with his girlfriend?

  2. I don’t understand why they have to be mean-spirited.  They can be nice and still run their business like Daley’s Machine.  They don’t have to act like frat boys – or thugs.

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