It has been a fairly tame campaign for City Council by Davis standards – part of that is that much of the focus and anger has been directed toward Measure Q (although I would argue by historic standards, even that has been tame).
Two weeks ago however Will Arnold published a piece with a few “parting shots” as he prepares to exit the City Council stage.
He wrote, “it is the personal attacks, the vitriol, and the pervasive negativity that have crept into our political discourse that I will miss the least.”
He later noted, “In 2024, Measure Q serves as the latest platform for this vitriol. It echoes patterns we’ve seen before.”
But the punch line – buried in the middle of the piece was this: “Two years ago, it was a deeply troubling, race-baiting campaign against my colleague Gloria Partida, the first Latina to serve on the Davis City Council…”
Strangely it has been a slow reaction to the piece – perhaps because the most pointed criticism was buried in the middle of the piece (or as we would say in the news world – Councilmember Arnold buried the lede.
Several have asked what the Councilmember was referring to. The only thing I could think of were the allegations of Gloria Partida’s criminal wrongdoing.
That was confirmed by Councilmember Arnold itself.
As the Enterprise put it in October 2022: “Some residents, including several Morrill supporters, have taken to social media and local blogs contending Partida was convicted of a felony more than 20 years ago and failed to disclose it when filing for office.”
It was a low blow. It was inappropriate in my view to even raise it at the time. It was a family matter that unfortunately boiled into the courts but it was more than two decades old, it had been expunged, moreover Councilmember Partida had served for years in the community on behalf of people of color and the LGBTQ community through the Davis Phoenix Coalition. She had also already served a term in office.
You want to criticize her for supporting DISC in 2020 and 2022, that’s fair game. You want to criticize her for things she did or didn’t do while in office, again fair game.
Bringing up 20-year-old allegations that have been adjudicated seemed below the belt.
And in fact, I think much of her district agreed. Partida ended up winning the race easily by over 20 points and I believe this episode which happened about three weeks out from the election, if anything backfired.
The question I think a lot of people will ask is whether this unfortunate and ugly incident amounts to race-baiting.
The case for it – Gloria Partida was the first Latina to get elected to the Davis City Council. The old trope is that “Black and Brown people are criminals,” this accusation taps into that trope and therefore is race baiting.
That’s an arguable point and I can see where that is coming from, particularly given Councilmember Will Arnold’s background and family.
On the other hand, I think a lot of people will push back and argue, hey this was a disgraceful attack, it was unnecessary, it backfired, but race was probably not on the minds of those who thought they hit pay dirt with this mud that they found.
I can see that argument as well. I think to a lot of people of color however there is a bit of “whitesplaining” there. It seems to be that people of color often end up on that side of the stick and we need to be really careful about the accusations we level.
In this case, the accusations were irresponsible. The attackers failed to fully vet their allegations and get the full picture which at worst was far more nuanced than the charges suggested.
As I said, I think most people would agree that the accusation was unnecessary and ugly and it would have been better had they steered clear of them. But I think the race-baiting accusation is arguable at best and probably he could have made the same point without going there.
Will Arnold concludes with respect to Measure Q: “Reasonable people can—and should—disagree on Measure Q.” He adds, “What is unreasonable, however, is to once again take our community down the dark path of overblown rhetoric, accusation, and conspiracy theory. It is beneath us, and it is a sad reflection of our times that this tactic has overtaken our discourse.”
At the end of the day, I really don’t think the No on Q campaign really has gone that dark this time. There are allegations and counter-allegations, but by recent standards, I think this has been a pretty clean campaign.
The voters will have the final say in two weeks.
Will’s original op ed’s was a critique for use of hyperbolic rhetoric in quest of winning election.
Would not Will’s Op Ed’ labeling the Campaign again Gloria as “Racist” be another example of this hyberbolic rhetoric.
And isn’t hyperbole in the eye of the receiver not just the sender? (“arguably” is word David uses)
I note hyperbolic rhetoric- EG weaponizing terms like Racism, Conspiracy and Antisemitism in political conflict has become more common- especially on the national scene when their is no 1:1 accountability for personal attacks.
As Will Arnold op-ed point out rhetoric went south im Davis in 2016- which corrolated with appearance of Trump on the scene.
However, unlike national politics, we in our smaller town have a chance to control this by 1:1 personal accountabiliy…enforce by buildng more trust between actors in the community, But trust is built no not by cutting folks out of process so not accountability but including them. I suggest actions like commission reform (downsizing) are counter productive if you want tone down the rhetoric.
NET: If people are not invited in where they can use their inside voice, expect them to use their outside voice.
see
Will’s commentary: https://davisvanguard.org/2024/10/guest-commentary-a-note-of-gratitude-and-reflection/
My piece on healing Davis: https://davisvanguard.org/2024/10/guest-commentary-vote-to-heal-a-divided-davis/
Partida’s decades old conduct has nothing to do with her present inability to represent the interests of her community. She has completely failed to ensure the City provides basic services. How long was Slide Hill Park unusable? A full year! She didn’t lift a finger that entire time or even respond to citizens’ questions and complaints. That’s why I and many others think she’s terrible. I voted for her in 2022 in part because I thought it was a low blow to attack her for an expunged conviction especially since it was the type of crime only poor people are charged with. But she has been a total disappointment and I regret my vote.