Eric Bauman, a gruff and tireless political operative who led two of California’s strongest Democratic organizations earlier than resigning amid misconduct allegations, died Monday.
His household stated in a press release that Bauman died at UCLA West Valley Medical Middle after an extended sickness. He was 66.
Born within the Bronx to an Military physician and a registered nurse, Bauman went to navy college and moved to Hollywood simply earlier than he turned 18. He turned a nurse and met his husband, additionally a nurse, in a hospital cafeteria throughout an in a single day shift within the early Nineteen Eighties.
Motivated partially by the AIDS disaster, Bauman turned lively within the Stonewall Democratic Membership Los Angeles, a progressive political group, and was elected president of the group in 1994.
Bauman grew L.A. County Democratic Celebration right into a political drive as chairman from 2000 to 2017 and expanded the variety of Democrats profitable elections at each degree of presidency, from water boards to the U.S. Home of Representatives.
“I turned the L.A. Democratic Party from a $50,000-a-year organization into a $1.5 million-a-year organization,” he informed a reporter in 2011.
“People come up to me on the street all the time and think I’m Joe Pesci,” he informed the Instances in 2017. “I try to work with that.”
Bauman ran for state Democratic Celebration chair in 2017. After a bruising election that uncovered the fractures between the progressive and institution wings of the get together, Bauman was elected by a mere 62 votes.
He was the primary brazenly homosexual and first Jewish particular person to chair the get together.
“I don’t wear a button that says, ‘Look at me, I’m gay,’” Bauman stated in a 2009 interview with the UCLA Movie and Tv Archive. However, he stated, “I never fail to recognize my partner from any podium. It is in my bio. It is a part of who I am.”
The excessive level of his tenure was the 2018 midterm elections, when California Democrats flipped seven seats within the U.S. Home of Representatives and gained again a veto-proof supermajority within the state Legislature.
Bauman stated he needed to overturn California’s voter-approved “jungle primary” system, which permits the highest two vote-getters to advance to the overall election, no matter get together. Bauman argued that Democrats ought to choose their very own nominees, somewhat than spending tens of millions of {dollars} preventing within the primaries.
In late 2018, The Instances reported that Bauman had made crude sexual feedback and had engaged in undesirable touching or bodily intimidation in skilled settings, citing 10 get together workers members and political activists.
Bauman resigned, saying he deliberate to hunt therapy for well being points and alcohol use. The state Democratic Celebration fired prime staffers within the wake of the allegations and finally paid greater than $380,000 to settle a sexual misconduct lawsuit introduced by three of his accusers. A celebration spokeswoman didn’t reply to requests for a press release on Bauman’s loss of life Tuesday.
After his resignation, Bauman disappeared from public life for a number of years. Extra just lately, he started internet hosting a radio present referred to as “The UnCommon Sense Democrat” on the Inland Empire’s KCAA-AM 1050.
Within the mid-2000s, when Republicans nonetheless represented many outlying areas of Los Angeles County, Bauman arrange a “red zone program” on the L.A. County Democratic Celebration that funneled cash and volunteers to Democrats operating for seats in GOP strongholds.
The investments had been a bet, however they constructed relationships and higher candidates — and generally, an extended shot candidate really gained, stated former state lawmaker Miguel Santiago, who first bought concerned with the get together within the early 2000s.
“He was really hungry for Democratic wins,” Santiago stated. “There was no seat that that guy left on the table, whether it was a community college seat, a school board race, a water board race.”
Bauman additionally labored to strengthen ties with organized labor, now the California Democratic Celebration’s strongest ally, and construct voter registration and turnout.
State Assemblymember Mark Gonzalez, who chaired the county get together after Bauman, stated he spent numerous hours as a younger volunteer getting into details about newly registered voters into the get together database.
The information got here from a sales space that the Democratic Celebration arrange exterior citizenship ceremonies the place newly eligible voters might register to vote as Democrats, he stated. Bauman despatched a signed card to every particular person, congratulating them and welcoming them to the get together.
“That touched people, and it showed them that they matter,” Gonzalez stated.
Bauman additionally labored for Gov. Grey Davis and insurance coverage commissioner John Garamendi and as a guide to a number of Meeting audio system, together with Anthony Rendon of Los Angeles and Toni Atkins of San Diego.
He’s survived by his husband and companion of 42 years, Michael Andraychak, and his father and sister, Richard and Roya Bauman.
