California Democratic congressional candidate Brett Wagner said a group of two dozen party officials asked him to get out of the race so someone else could run against the incumbent, extreme right-wing Republican representative Elton Gallegly. Wagner suggested that the Democratic leaders want him out because he is gay. Wait a minute... what about his amazing record of public service? What the hell are the Dems doing here? Would they rather have a right-wing extremist in office? Come on now...

Brett is a national security policy expert (and former Clinton nuclear disarmament operative). He teaches at the Naval War College. If he's elected he'll be one of the more progressive congressmen in the state.

In a statement from Brett Wagner:

You've read the headlines in our local newspapers and the national media, such as "California candidate told to get out of race because he's gay" (Associated Press). In fact, our campaign has been in the national spotlight for the past several weeks, including an article in the upcoming issue of The Advocate.

Well, now it's time for me to share "the rest of the story"--

By now just about everyone knows, from May through September, I received a series of insulting, threatening, and sometimes virulently homophobic emails from a small group of self-appointed local Democratic "kingmakers" who have been trying to force me to stop running for Congress in order to clear the way for a "born-again" candidate who compares homosexuality to a disease.

What many people still don't know, however, is that last August - shortly after receiving a particularly threatening email that included an arbitrary deadline for me to begin complying with this group's wishes - I was the victim of an unprovoked attack, in broad daylight, walking through the parking lot of a major Democratic fundraising event in Santa Barbara.

I was struck in the forehead, resulting in a nasty head wound and a loss of memory. Several people saw me immediately afterwards walking covered in blood and noticeably dazed. As you might imagine, I suspect there may be a link between this incident and the threats I had been receiving.

Our campaign filed a formal request with the California Democratic Party for an official investigation, and I'm very pleased to report that the investigation has now begun. Our campaign has promised to cooperate fully with this investigation. I am confident that our state party will get to the bottom of all this, and restore a sense of justice, tolerance and fairness in our local party.

"Why is all this happening now," you might ask, "when our party should be redoubling our efforts to pull together?" While the timing does seem odd, the motivations are clear:

During my first bid for U.S. Congress as the 2004 Democratic Nominee, our campaign built the largest field operation for a legislative race our area has seen in quite a while (more than 800 active volunteers, more than 40,000 phone calls, virtually every precinct walked...) all inspired by a candidate who touched people's hearts by challenging them to "unleash the dreams that are in your hearts, and unleash the love that's in your hearts that can make those dreams come true - it's time to dream again America, it's time to dream again."

Unfortunately, not everyone in our party believes in the power of the "American Dream". That small group of "kingmakers" from the darker corners of our local party apparently thinks that if they can force me out of this race, they can simply steal our field operation and hand it over to the candidate of their choosing.

Well, you know what? I'm not going to let anyone force me out of this race. I will never walk away from our thousands of loyal supporters who gave their time and money to build something from the bottom up. The balance of power is beginning to shift in our area, and we have a real opportunity to build a winning campaign for future elections.

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 12, 2005 at 6:06 PM. Want to discuss? Leave a comment below.