Sacramento County Democratic Group Punishes Three Dems Who Endorsed DA Anne-Marie Schubert

Three prominent Sacramento Democrats endorsed a Republican in the June primary and have been removed from the local Democratic Party’s central committee.

Sacramento City Council members Steve Hansen and Eric Guerra and Sacramento City Unified School District school board member Darrel Woo all endorsed Anne-Marie Schubert for district attorney in the June primary. She was a Republican at the time.

The three Democrats were expelled Thursday night from the Democratic Party of Sacramento County's Central Committee.

Terry Schanz is chairperson of the party and says its bylaws demand support only for Democratic candidates.

"That's just not an acceptable position from the Democratic Party that members of our central committee would be — not just complicit — but an active participant in seeking to elect Republicans to public office," Schanz said.

Hansen says there was no active campaigning. He says the three endorsed Schubert over Noah Phillips because they felt she was best for the job.

"They picked the three of us: an openly gay man, a latino man, and an API [Asian Pacific Islander] man to be the fall people for their failed leadership,” Hansen said. “In the end, we have to work with people even when we don't agree with them all the time and that's not something that our local Democrat Party seems to want to do."

Schanz says two-thirds of the attendees voted to expel the three politicians.

Guerra says he was told it was a “voice vote" and claims Schanz refused to count the number of attendees to ensure the required number was present.

After the election, Schubert changed her registration from Republican to No Party Preference.

At last count, Schubert had received 63 percent of the vote in the DA race, and her challenger Noah Phillips has conceded.

The district attorney is a non-partisan position.

In 2012, Schanz and Hansen both ran for the vacant District 4 city council seat, which Hansen won.