Mediaboss Marketing

Click photo to enlarge

Mayor Steve Glazer talks with a shopper at the Orinda Farmer's Market in Orinda, Calif., on Saturday, April 4, 2015. Glazer is a candidate in the May 19 special election for the 7th State Senate District. He was at the farmer's market as mayor and to interact with potential voters. (Dan Honda/Bay Area News Group)

They support Democratic touchstone issues such as environmentalism, gun control, gay marriage and abortion rights. But they're often seen as party pariahs for espousing ideas like rolling back public workers' pensions, banning transit strikes and making it easier to fire bad teachers.

They're a new breed of Democrat politician, and they're shaking up the state's political landscape as business interests, independents and sometimes even moderate Republicans pour money into nasty Democrat vs. Democrat battles made possible by California's new "top-two" primary. And with the state Republican Party still searching for a path back from decades of decline, some political analysts say it's only the beginning of a long battle for the soul of the California Democrat Party.

Mayor Steve Glazer walks and greets shoppers at the Orinda Farmer's Market in Orinda, Calif., on Saturday, April 4, 2015. Glazer is a candidate in the May 19, special election for the 7th State Senate District. He was at the farmer's market as mayor and to interact with potential voters. (Dan Honda/Bay Area News Group) ( Dan Honda )

"Until recently you had to toe the line for whatever the public employee unions wanted you to do," said former San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, one of the first Democratic politicians to poke Big Labor in the eye by fighting for pension reform. "The union leadership's job is to look out for the interests of union members. Elected officials' jobs should be to look out for the interests of residents and taxpayers. Those are very different jobs at times."

The Golden State certainly doesn't have a monopoly on ideological purity battles. Across the nation, establishment Republicans still engage in bitter feuds with tea party conservatives, while centrist Democrats such as Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel face off with more liberal challengers.

In California, intraparty disagreements are no longer confined to the more conservative "blue dog" Democrats in rural parts of the state. In 2012, old-line labor liberals contended with new-wave moderates in Assembly races in Marin County and Los Angeles. In 2014, the phenomenon recurred in a Los Angeles state Senate race, the South Bay's Ro Khanna-Mike Honda congressional race, and the contest for superintendent of public instruction.

And now it's playing out again in a special election for an East Bay state Senate seat, as Orinda Democrat Steve Glazer's calls for banning transit strikes and tightening teacher tenure rules have raised the ire of labor.

"Workers' issues are historically what the Democratic Party is about," said California Labor Federation spokesman Steve Smith. So if you're not OK with protecting pensions and organizing rights, "you're not a real Democrat."

Continue reading here:
Will the 'real Democrat' please stand up?